Rs 5 crore, Rs 12 crore, Rs 40 crore? What retirement means for Indians today
Published by India Today
Abhishek Kumar's role: Quoted
Abhishek Kumar said the viral ₹40 crore figure rests on narrow assumptions, a high-spending metro lifestyle unchanged for 30 years, and put a realistic corpus for most salaried Indians at ₹5–15 crore. He warned that such large targets make people put off starting.
What Abhishek Kumar said
Is a ₹40 crore retirement corpus the right target?
I don't think ₹40 crore is a wrong figure; the trouble is that it answers the wrong question. The number works only under quite narrow assumptions: a metro lifestyle with high spending and large monthly bills, kept exactly the same for 30 years after retirement. It is one outcome of those particular inputs, not a target that applies to everyone.
How large a retirement corpus might a typical salaried Indian need?
For most salaried Indians, I would put a realistic retirement corpus somewhere in the range of ₹5 crore to ₹15 crore. That is well below the viral figure, because that figure assumes a high-spending metro lifestyle carried on unchanged through three decades of retirement, which is not how most salaried households live.
Why can very large viral retirement targets do harm?
In my view, the real harm in these viral targets is how they affect behaviour. A figure that large makes the goal look out of reach, and people who believe it is impossible tend to postpone starting at all. So the headline number, rather than helping someone plan, can end up delaying the very first step of saving for retirement.
In our words, from what he said in the piece. General information, not personal advice.
More of Abhishek's views on retirement
Prompted by a viral claim that Indians may need ₹40 crore to retire, the writer spoke to people across professions about what retirement means to them. The piece covers their expected corpus figures and plans for health and leisure, and suggests thinking about retirement beyond a single headline number.
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Rs 5 crore, Rs 12 crore, Rs 40 crore? What retirement means for Indians today