Saturday, May 23, 2015

How much reliable EPF/PPF for Retirement Funding???

I have come across lot of investors who lives in an fool's paradise as far as there retirement planning is concerned. They purely rely on EPF or PPF assuming that they would have a happy and comfortable retirement.

I did the same for one of my investor Mr.Nikhilesh, who is just 28 years of age and works with a IT company. He assumes a salary growth rate of 10% every year. On the basis of it, his EPF corpus works out as follows :

Nikhilesh is married and blessed with a daughter. Let's find out what would be his retirement expenses and his corpus requirement his present monthly expense is Rs.18000.00. We have not considered any of his intermediate goals considering that it will be taken care by his savings or some extra ordinary jump in the salary during his most productive phase.



So his EPF corpus at the time of retirement would be Rs.3.15 Crore and whereas his required corpus to maintain similar lifestyle would be Rs.5.22 Crore. So there would be a gap of Rs.2.07 Crore. Remember we have not considered any medical expense and emergencies.

To accumulate the above amount he would be required to contribute additional Rs.1.50 Lacs per annum (@8.7% for 30 Years). 

The PPF investors are worst as in above case Nikhilesh would be investing 24% of his basic salary (12% own contribution and 12% employer's contribution) whereas in PPF maximu limit you can invest is Rs.1.50 Lacs which will work out to be 2.10 Crore that too if entire limit is exhausted from day 1 of Rs.1.50 lacs. So his shortfall would be Rs.3.12 Crore.

I know Salary, EPF corpus, Expenses  and Salary growth rate would vary from individual to individual, but purpose is to demonstrate and make investor aware that only EPF or PPF corpus will not suffice their retirement needs.So plan your retirement much before you hit it to make it the best period of your life.

It is always advisable to calculate the retirement corpus required either yourself or may be through a professional financial planner and try achieving that instead of playing blind. If

2 comments: