I am 38. I work in a media company and my wife works for a private firm. I have two children studying in classes 4 and 5. I live with my parents in their home on the outskirts of Chennai. They are financially dependent on me. How much do I need to save? Should I switch careers?
Palani Baskhar
For the middle-income group, it is always a challenge to meet aspirations. The surplus will shrink as children start to grow, making it difficult to meet investing goals. To meet all your goals, you must invest ₹37,700 a month against savings and surplus of ₹17,000. Since your salary is growing at 5 per cent, increasing your savings every year will be a challenge. As a result, the incremental savings on EPF will also be low. This will push up the shortfall in retirement corpus.
Changing jobs after a certain age will also become difficult. So, I suggest you switch careers earlier to meet the shortfall. Since your parents are financially dependent, you need to build an emergency fund. The current health insurance of ₹1 lakh each is low. As they grow old, any medical support will further reduce your surplus. So, it is better to take risk now to earn better.
The writer is a SEBI registered investment advisor and founder, myassetsconsolidation.com
Send your queries to blinefp@gmail.com
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.