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Why Retirement Planning Is Not Just About Your Finances

Money is not the only investment you need when you retire. Priya Ramani speaks to a financial planner and his model client.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>(Photo: Aaron Burden on Unsplash)</p><p></p></div>
(Photo: Aaron Burden on Unsplash)

In his early 40s Sanjay Bhagwat set himself a target: He would retire at 60 and do something he really enjoyed. 

By then, he had switched from engineering to IT and was doing well in his career. But Bhagwat was always drawn to his farming roots in the Konkan. His early years were spent there and, even after his immediate family moved to Pune, he was often back at his grandparents home during the holidays where he happily harvested cashews, picked mangoes and packed things away before the annual rains.

Why Retirement Planning Is Not Just About Your Finances

In 2000, with the memory of that childhood still fresh in his mind, he and his wife Anuya, a Kathak dancer turned teacher, decided they would become farmers after they retired.

In 2003, they found a piece of land on the slope of a hill behind Torna Fort in Pune district. For three years after they purchased the land, the couple didn’t do anything with it. Instead, they would make day trips to their property with a tiffin, visit the village they were now part of, eat the lunch they had carried, talk to the villagers and return.

They began building relationships.

<div class="paragraphs"><p>Bhagwat with his wife. (Photo: Priya Ramani)</p></div>

Bhagwat with his wife. (Photo: Priya Ramani)

Bhagwat soon became the go-to person for a variety of technical queries the villagers had such as, ‘Which submersible pump should I install?’ He trained two or three young men in the village to do basic plumbing and electrical work. “They began having confidence in me,” he says. “I became one of them.”

It was only three years after he bought the land that he built a house, a windmill and a small generator using old Fiat engines. The couple began to spend weekends there. Their friends visited too. Anuya would teach local women, while Bhagwat developed low-cost solar lighting for 500-600 village homes. Their ties deepened.

Thirteen years after they bought the land, Bhagwat, 60, by now the CEO of a software firm, retired as planned. After some intensive training in Mysore, he became a sericulture farmer. He also grew bamboo and mangoes.

I heard about Bhagwat through Sandeep Kulkarni, who has, for 15 years, through his boutique wealth management firm in Pune, proffered retirement planning advice to hundreds of people. His insights on retirement planning in a Twitter thread appealed to me and so I called him to talk some more. Kulkarni told me how Bhagwat played the long game and took the village along.

Here are some of the things Kulkarni tells those who come to him for advice:

Reconsider Buying That Weekend Home

Not many people spend years getting to know the neighbours like Bhagwat did. Kulkarni says many of those who buy farmhouses in their 40s, go there frequently at the start and then begin to feel the burden of managing the extra home: “You don’t find caretakers, it becomes a headache, and a lot of time such properties are not easy to sell unless you get consent from the villagers.” Building a pretty home in a remote location can lose its appeal as you grow older. “A getaway is charming if you can visit it frequently, but once you cross a certain age, it's not possible and often your children won't allow you to live there for lack of healthcare facilities,” says Kulkarni.

Friendship Is A Long Game

"If you think you’ll finally get time to make friends after you retire, think again. It’s not easy to build a social circle later in life. Start now,” says Kulkarni, who emphasises that retirement planning must be multi-dimensional and not just about your finances. “Nowadays everyone plans for the financial aspect of retirement but how many plan for the non-financial aspect?” 

So, build a supportive social circle, even if your job doesn’t allow you to stay put in one city. Ensure you have some hobbies beyond vague post-retirement plans of exotic travel or becoming a day trader. Build a professional network for part-time work after you retire and look after your health if you want to travel when you retire. Invest in friendships, not just retirement plans, says Kulkarni. Start by making weekend programmes with friends, join a tennis or bridge club, learn swimming, participate in your housing society, stay in touch with school and college friends. “One of the big problems after retirement is boredom,” says Kulkarni. “After a lifetime of working 12-hour days, you don’t know what to do with your time.”

Don’t Depend On Children, Grandchildren

“If you lose your spouse of many years, you may suddenly have to cope with finding yourself all alone,” says Kulkarni. Loneliness can hit hard and it’s important you have ways to occupy yourself. Children go abroad and have their own lives, grandchildren grow up and may no longer want to spend time with you.

Decide Where You Will Live

Many people haven’t spent any time thinking where they will live after retirement. One of Kulkarni’s clients worked in Canada and Brazil before coming back to run a business in Pune where he bought an apartment. He was south Indian and most of his close friends lived in Chennai and Bangalore. Then Covid hit and younger family members urged him to moved to Canada to stay near them. So, he sold his place in Pune, bought a home abroad but, a few years later, he no longer wants to live there. He’s planning to sell his property though its value has fallen, and move to Bangalore. So, think long and hard about where you will spend your golden years. 

As for Bhagwat and Anuya, they ran the farm for eight years before selling it. “I’m a believer that retirement planning is long-term. And anything long-term has so many variables that your plan can never be absolutely accurate. Things change,” says Bhagwat. “So, keep on moving towards your ultimate goal with small duration plans.” His children had their own lives, they didn’t want to take over the farm, and as the couple grew older, they found they needed a new plan.

This time, they bought an apartment in Wai, two hours south of their joint family base in Pune. They live between the two houses. Bhagwat, now 69, has a workshop there, and he can spend hours tinkering. He recently built his neighbour a three-tier plant stand and fixed someone’s door. School and college-going children from the neighbourhood keep dropping in to ask for help with their projects. “I told myself I would never do anything in computers and electronics after I retired. That I wouldn’t be a consultant doing the same job I spent my working life doing,” he says. “Now I want to do all the things I like.”

Priya Ramani is a Bengaluru-based journalist and is on the editorial board of Article-14.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views of BQ Prime or its editorial team.