The oldest man on earth, Yisrael Kristal, died recently at the age of 113 in Israel. The first thing that came to my mind when I read this news was how would I manage my finances if I lived till 100 years or more. It would be a challenge. World Bank data indicates that life expectancy has increased from 52 years in 1960 to 72 years in 2015. However, despite these statistics on improving life expectancy, there is not enough effort around creating adequate wealth and cash flows to allow us to enjoy this longer life span.
To solve the wealth challenge, it is important for us to change the way we save. Firstly, financial savings in India are mostly invested in traditional, assured returns products. The drawback here is that, these investments may not help create wealth in the required proportion on account of falling interest rates. Secondly, savings in India are not bucketed according to goals but follow a single funnel approach where goals are met by drawing down from a single pool of investments as and when needed. Hence, retirement, being the last goal, is often left with the residual investment corpus as we draw down from the central pool for earlier goals.