Retirement

Retirement:
I received a mail two days ago from my friend, four years younger to me, informing me as to how miserable he has been after retirement. From his mail, I realized he has not managed his "retirement" properly. His problems appeared to be both financial and emotional.

There is lot of planning involved for managing retirement. It has two aspects-financial and non-financial..Everyone, be it in Government or in private sector, knows about the date of retirement. Normally, this is not remembered ten years before retirement, but is never forgotten,say five years before retirement.Assuming that by the time one retires all responsibilities are taken care off, one must determine the monthly income required for expenses after retirement. The investments should take care of this and also make a provision for inflation. Normally prices double every ten years. With advanced medicines being available, one must assume that that he/she would live for at least fifteen years after retirement.If my monthly expenses are say Rs 6000/, then I should provide for a monthly income of Rs 12,000/ after factoring inflation,through my investments. If this is done, the financial aspect-,post-retirement-is taken care of.There should also be a
provision for contingency expenses like hospitalization etc.
It is better to ensure that the investments are in tax-free instruments of Mutual Funds- in debt schemes- where erosion of capital is very minimal.
During mid-seventies, a Bank Manager, at the time of retirement, was getting only around Rs 2 lakhs as retirement benefits. I know of many senior managers finding this insufficient post retirement.Some of them were lucky that they were blessed with very good children. The children took good care of them. The others were not so lucky. When I was working as Manager of UCO Bank, Mylapore, a retired Senior Manager, had come to me and asked for an overdraft of Rs 3,000/. When I declined, he told me that I had powers to give overdraft up to Rs 5,000/. I told him that as I was not sure of when he would re-pay this money, I could not give him the overdraft. He left looking miserable. When he was about to leave bank premises, I called him again into my room. I informed him that I could give Rs 1,500/ from my savings for a period of one month. He agreed and took the money. He also blessed me. I had heard of how this man lived in great style when he was working
in Nagapattinam. After three months, when he did not return, I made inquiries. I was told that he had died a month ago.When I went to offer my condolences to his son, I did not inform him of my loan to his father. I believed I had discharged one previous "janma karma". I am giving this example just to show that how miserable life becomes without proper financial planning for retirement.I have never found it easy to ask for money from others.In fact, I have never ever done this. Just imagine how small a person becomes when he asks for financial help from others.

They are some people who do not require planning at all on both fronts.. I remember my paternal uncle,known as "Meerut Kittu". At the age of 95, he has been getting pension for nearly 40 years. He once told me that his pension is five times more than his last drawn salary. Pension takes care of his financial planning and his emotional adjustment/planning is taken care of by his deaf ears.

Yet, quite a few do not get sufficient retirement benefits or no benefits at all. Those people are left with no alternative but to depend on children for financial support. Many children are very responsible. They will be glad to be of help to their parents. I used to derive immense satisfaction whenever I was sending the monthly remittances to my parents in my early years of employment.

Emotional adjustment to retirement is also very dfficult. There is an importance attached to the power associated with the position. When a person retires, the importance will vanish in no time. Before retirement, I used to receive 15/20 telephone calls every-day asking for instructions/opinions etc. Within a week of my early retirement, these phone calls stopped. I felt miserable for a while.. This adjustment process takes time. I know of some my friends who retired at the highest levels in Banks, and Central Government,Many of them had not conditioned themselves for a life after retirement. When they lost their importance, they lost themselves. In those times, yoga and meditation would help.Lord Chaitanya advised people to live life like "a blade of grass"-with absolute humility. If one has led such a life,-- position or no position-- he will lead a normal life without being affected by retirement.Even in films, no one is a hero for ever.

Developing a hobby before retirement is very important. My hobby has been reading books since I was young. This helps me.

Post retirement, I have personally felt very happy whenever I have no expectations. When there is no expectation, there is no misunderstanding and because of this, there is more internal peace.