Page 23 - Seniorstoday July 2022 Issue

expenditure or 20 times the annual income,
should suffice. Assume an investment
split of 60 to 70% in safe and fixed income
instruments and 30 to 40% in equity
and MFs, this corpus can enable one to
withdraw 4 to 5% annually from it to take
care of living expenses.
Q – Wealth or Health?
A – Invest in your health so that you can
enjoy your wealth.
Q – I am 70 years of age; my corpus is
limited and cannot sustain me. All I have
additionally is one house. What should I
do?
A – Living reasonably is more important,
as is a roof over your head. Given the
situation of limited corpus, you could
either think of selling the house to raise
capital and live in a rented home or do a
reverse mortgage of your house and raise
the capital to sustain yourself. At the end of
the day or our life, if I may, you cannot take
your home with you. Make it a productive
asset in such a situation!
Q – Should I accumulate some
contingency fund? If yes, how much
should it be?
A – An emergency corpus of between 6 to 9
months of our expenditure should be kept
aside as an emergency fund to take care of
unforeseen circumstances. These should be
readily encashable or withdrawable.
Q – Should one invest in houses and real
estate?
A – I would say that one house is a need
and the second house is a luxury and a
burden, which you can do without.
Q – Cash or investments? Which is
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #37 | JULY 2022
better?
A – Clearly, cash is king and will keep your
life flowing.
Q – Investment advisors always say
“have a long-term outlook while taking
investment decisions”. Is it practical at
my age of 70?
A – You said it, it will not make sense in
the later sunset lives. Steady income, while
preserving the corpus is more important at
this stage. You have no long term left when
you are 70.
Q – Should I borrow and buy a home?
A – As I said, one roof is a mental comfort.
There is no harm in borrowing for one
home ,when you are earning. But make sure
that your EMI is not more than 20 to 25%
of your take home income or 40 to 50% of
your total expenditure.
As Chanakya was holding forth with the
audience, in comes the peripatepic Narad
Muni and exclaims to the assembly, “Find
purpose, the means will follow; trust the
Preserver in the Triumvirate, there is no
need to worry.”. At this grandiloquence,
Chanakya could not hold back a sardonic
smile and says to the audience that he will
confer with the Creator and the Destroyer
in the Triumvirate and then reconvene the
satsang and disappears. In any case he has
to visit the other time zones and share his
lasting wisdom on artha.
Aakhir, jeevan ka arth hi artha hai!
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