Gone are the days when women were compelled to sit back at home and do household chores. Today, women have been crossing various milestones in their lives and are achieving unimaginable things. As a female hustler, you might strive hard every single day to prove your mettle. Amidst your dedication towards your career, you might tend to overlook the most crucial stage of your life: retirement.
Retirement can typically be the beginning of the golden years of your life. After retirement, you might aim to live a high-quality life. For that, you should start your retirement planning at a young age. A well-thought retirement plan can help you to lead a stress-free retirement period when the flow of your professional income ceases. If you haven’t begun your retirement planning yet, let’s go through the top five ways that highlight how to retire early:
- Start planning early
In India, the usual retirement age can be between 55-60 years. However, you might aspire to retire early between the age of 45-60 years to live a high-quality life and meet your goals. Although retirement might seem far away right now, you should start your retirement planning at a young age. As an aspiring retiree, you should save your money and opt for the right investment tools when you are young. Maintaining a balance between savings and investments at a young age can help you build a substantial corpus in the future.
- Diversify your financial portfolio
Diversifying your portfolio can help you to secure your invested capital from market volatility. You can diversify your portfolio by switching from one fund to another. For instance, you can avail the switching feature of a Unit Linked Insurance Plan (ULIP), and move from equity funds to debt funds to safeguard your money from market fluctuations. That way, you can continue receiving profits while you are protecting your money at the same time.
- Pay your debts
Since you might be focused on chasing your goals at a young age, you might end up taking loans to get financial support to meet your dreams. For instance, you might take a student loan for higher studies, business loans to start a new venture, or travel loan to explore new cities. If you have any pending liabilities, you should pay it off before you reach your retirement age. That way, you can avoid financial burden in the future when the flow of your professional income stops after retirement.
- Draft a budget
A budget can help you to keep a tab on your expenses as well as maintain a disciplined spending habit. With the help of a budget, you can track all your expenses, such as groceries, utility bills, commute, and so forth. Moreover, it can control the spending habit on unnecessary things such as eating out, shopping, going to clubs, etc.
- Build an emergency fund
Women can live longer than men. Since your life expectancy rate can be high, you should be prepared financially to deal with an unannounced circumstance that can arrive at any given step in your life. There can be any contingency such as loss of income, critical illness, or physical illness that can dig a hole in your pocket if you haven’t take required steps to control the situation. To ensure you are financially ready to tackle any uncertainty throughout your life, you should build an emergency fund in such a way that can manage at least 3-6 months effectively.
To sum up, retirement planning should be a part of your plan after you start working. Since financial independence can be your primary objective as a woman, retirement planning can help you to live life on your conditions when the flow of your regular income stops. The right retirement plan can allow you to stay stress-free about your finances in the future. Now that you know how to retire early, what are you waiting for?
