Archive of posts from July 2019
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My Early Investment Journey
While I am sitting comfortably today, writing about my journey to early retirement, the initial days of my investment years were not without their share of issues. Let me explain in a bit more detail. When I first started out, I had planned to do a SIP of a certain amount every month and planned on increasing it every year. The increase in SIP I planned at that time was to match up with the inflation rate. The thought process was that if I was just average at work then my salary increments will match up with the inflation for the previous year. At the time of planning my early retirement in 2011, the inflation stood at around 8%, and consequently my projections were to increase SIP by 8% every year.
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My Talk On Early Retirement
I gave a talk on Financial Planning for Early Retirement a few weeks ago at my previous work place. It was well received with more than 100 attendees. I was actually not planning to give a talk. I casually wanted to visit the old office and visit some folks over lunch. But they wanted a talk, so I had to quickly make some slides. Fortunately, most of what I wanted to say was already available on my blog. Made some slides based on my experience and blog and gave a talk on June 14, 2019. I enjoyed giving the talk and hope my colleagues enjoyed it as much. There was a sharp spike in the number of visitors to my blog and LinkedIn page a day or two after the talk.
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How Much Should I Invest?
While having a conversation with one of my friends, it occurred to me that the current calculators are not sufficient to figure out how much to invest per month while increasing the SIP every year to meet your retirement goal. Lets say, you have an age in mind at which point you want to retire. And you want to know how much you should invest every month of every year until you reach your goal. Throw in a twist, which is that you want to increase your investment every year by some fixed percent. There is no calculator on this blog that will tell you how much you should invest every month. Naturally I thought there should be one, and here is that calculator. Hope it helps you reach your goal. Here are some instructions on how to use it.
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Tax Deductions
As I am doing taxes for the recently concluded financial year, I am realizing how much of tax saving one would be forgoing once you retire :). Without income there is no more section 80C deductions, no more savings from interest paid towards home loan via section 24, no exemptions for HRA under section 80GG. These things only hit you once you retire. Of course I went into retirement knowing that, so nothing to worry, but you don't realize these until you do your taxes. During your earning phase, every paycheck is a reminder for saving taxes and claiming as much deductions as possible.
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