Guru Speak

Studies show that people spend an average of 25 or more years in retirement. In particular, most people will face a 10year period comprising the five years before and the five years following retire¬ment day. There is a new term for this decade. It is called the "The Retirement Zone".

When people reach the Retirement Zone, they will proba¬bly have some income from social security and possibly a pension from their former employer. However, many wonder whether this will be enough. Will they be able to continue to live the way they were accustomed to while they were still working? Will they be able to afford to continue to live in their current home where they may have lived for the past 40 years, or will they be forced to relocate?

These are some of the questions one should start to ask when preparing for the retirement years.

It's always better to start early with sav¬ings or investments. Studies support this suggestion.

Starting investing at a younger age allows you more years to accumulate wealth. There are so many choices these days for those wishing to save and invest, from simple bank deposits to insurance, mutual funds, bonds, stocks and so on. The key is just to make it a matter of habit to invest gradually from your monthly income. Retirement planning should begin as early as possible with some careful thought. The planning process can start any time. The secret is to start now, not tomorrow, no matter how many more years you have before retirement. The soon¬er you start, the more time you have to build your investment portfolio for your retirement income.

However, if you are now approaching the end of your working life and have just realised that you need to start saving for your retirement, there are ways you can make up for the years you spent without saving.

New prod¬ucts called annuities will soon be launched to serve the retirement planning needs of those in their last few years of work who cur¬rently have excess income. You can start investing a part of your income in these products which will be available from lifeinsur¬ance companies from early next year, and after you retire, you will receive a monthly income for the rest of your life.

In the past, people who worked in the private sector had more wor¬ries because private sector employers typically don't provide a pension to their employees. Now you don't have to worry if you work for the public or private sector because you too can create your own pension.

Your income in retirement will be a key factor determining how you spend the rest of your life, includ¬ing where you can live, what you can do and where you can go. You can fulfil your dreams by starting to plan for your retirement today.