\u201cPicture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.\u201d (\u201cThere\u2019s still more to the story, my friend.\u201d)<\/p>\n
That famous dialogue by Shah Rukh Khan from Om Shanti Om kept playing in my mind as I scrolled through yet another viral headline claiming that Indians may need Rs 40 crore to retire comfortably by 60.<\/p>\n
Rs 40 crore.<\/p>\n
Just reading that number felt exhausting.<\/p>\n
Of late, financial conversations in India have become dominated by this one headline-grabbing figure, popularised by Dezerv co-founder Sandeep Jethwani. <\/a>The logic behind it sounds convincing enough, i.e., urban inflation is rising, people are living longer, and the returns we expect from investments often look very different after inflation quietly eats into them.<\/p>\n But honestly, I found myself confused even slightly intimidated.<\/p>\n Do we really need Rs 40 crore to retire?<\/p>\n And more importantly, what happens if someone doesn\u2019t have it?<\/p>\n Because for most middle-class Indians, retirement was never imagined as a multi-crore mathematical puzzle. It was simpler. You worked hard, bought a home, educated your children, built some savings, and hoped life after 60 would be peaceful.<\/p>\n But somewhere between SIP calculators, inflation charts<\/a>, and viral finance podcasts, retirement started sounding less like \u201csukoon\u201d (peace of mind) and more like survival.<\/p>\n That\u2019s when I realised I needed to step away from viral numbers and hear from real people instead, i.e., people from different professions, income groups, cities, and lifestyles\u2014to understand what retirement actually means beyond scary numbers and social media panic.<\/p>\n And what I discovered was comforting.<\/p>\n There is no single retirement number.<\/p>\n There is only your retirement number.<\/p>\n \u201cCHAADAR DEKH KAR PAON PHAILANA\u201d (LIVE WITHIN YOUR MEANS)<\/p>\n The most grounded perspective came from Manvendra Pratap Singh, Assistant Professor at the School of Management, NIT Rourkela.<\/p>\n Unlike the flashy Rs 40 crore headline, his retirement goal sounded practical<\/a>, thoughtful, and deeply Indian.<\/p>\n His target retirement corpus by age 65 is around Rs 18 crore. That includes everything, i.e., children\u2019s higher education, healthcare, lifestyle needs, and leisure.<\/p>\n But what stayed with me wasn\u2019t the number. It was one Hindi line he said while explaining his philosophy:<\/p>\n \u201cMain \u2018chaadar dekhkar paon phailana\u2019 mein vishwas rakhta hu.\u201d (I believe in spending according to what I can afford.)<\/p>\n In a world obsessed with aggressive wealth targets, that sentence felt oddly reassuring.<\/p>\n Photo: Manvendra Pratap Singh and family\n<\/p>\n He told me he allocates nearly 75% of his planned corpus towards essentials like healthcare and living expenses, while the remaining 25% is reserved for travel and leisure.<\/p>\n And honestly, his retirement vision sounded beautiful.<\/p>\n \u201cRetirement is not just slowing down,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about enjoying a second innings with like-minded people, travelling, and making the most of that phase.\u201d<\/p>\n I smiled when he joked that being married into a Bengali family naturally means \u201cgood food and travel are a way of life.\u201d<\/p>\n That sounded less like retirement planning and more like life planning.<\/p>\n THE MAN PLANNING TO RETIRE AT 52<\/p>\n Then I spoke to Kumar Ayashkanta, Global Treasurer at EY GDS. Unlike many others, he doesn\u2019t even plan to work till 60.<\/p>\n His target? Retirement at 52 with a corpus of Rs 12 crore.<\/p>\n What fascinated me was how methodically he had calculated it.<\/p>\n Photo: Kumar Ayashkanta\n<\/p>\n At present, his family spends nearly Rs 2.5 lakh a month. Factoring in 5% inflation, he estimates that this could rise to Rs 4.5 lakh monthly in the next 12 years.<\/p>\n \u201cTo sustain that lifestyle till age 90,\u201d he explained, \u201cI would need roughly Rs 12 crore.\u201d<\/p>\n But he quickly added something important: \u201cThere is no universal figure for an ideal retirement corpus.\u201d<\/p>\n That line stayed with me because it cut through all the noise.<\/p>\n He also made another interesting observation, i.e., someone with Rs 1 crore may live peacefully, while another person with Rs 50 crore may still feel financially insecure because of lifestyle inflation.<\/p>\n And that, perhaps, is the biggest truth of retirement planning.<\/p>\n \u201cTHERE IS NO TARGET\u201d<\/p>\n A Bengaluru-based woman working in senior management at a global financial services firm, who preferred to remain unnamed, had a completely different perspective.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no target,\u201d she told.<\/p>\n Instead of obsessing over one giant number, she simply saves 30% of her salary consistently while increasing investments every year.<\/p>\n Her EPF (Employees Provident Fund) and NPS (National Pension Scheme)<\/a> contributions run separately in the background.<\/p>\n What I found interesting was her calm confidence.<\/p>\n