Indrani wanted to check her financial position before making a few important financial decisions which will impact her life in the long run.

As she is expecting her employer to cut the workforce by 20-30 per cent in the immediate future, she wanted to check where does she stand financially to support her future expenses. Aged 49 and single, she lives in Hyderabad. She is staying in her own apartment.

She is weighing early retirement and moving back to her hometown, or whether she should stay on in Hyderabad continuing her employment.

Her assets and investments are as listed:

She built these assets and investments over the past 25+ years meticulously planning her savings, opting for housing loan, closing the loan with her year-end bonus systematically.

Hyderabad has given her professional identity; she loves her stay here with all financial growth, but she has her an emotional bond with her native place.

She was planning for early retirement but not yet ready for it. She wants to take a decision at her own pace. She spends ₹65,000 per month and saves the remaining ₹1,00,000 from her post tax salary.

She understands equity market movements and is willing to put money for the long term; however, she is not clear about her goals and how much she needs.

So, she has opted for a balanced approach to her investments.

recommendations

1. She likes to have close to 4 years of expenses in safe avenues; she considers this as her emergency fund. She was advised to continue with her fixed deposits. Though it is taxable, she is happy holding fixed deposits as she is the only one to handle the money in case of any emergency including medical needs. It was recommended to have laddered fixed deposits with auto renewal facility to help her manage the fixed deposits.

2. Interest from fixed deposits may be redirected to every year PPF contribution. This will help her not to increase the fixed deposits but smoothen the safety requirement and tax efficiency in the overall plan.

3. Fixed deposits and PPF together will be ₹76,00,000 when she turns 58. This will be a reasonable corpus for a medical fund.

4. With no contribution to EPF and MF Equity portfolio, with an expected return of 9.5 per cent to 10.7 per cent CAGR in the next nine years, she will be able to get a corpus of ₹3.12-3.40 crore.

5. This corpus will help to manage her expenses of ₹65,000 per month at an expected inflation of 6 per cent per annum from her retirement age 58 till her expected life expectancy of 90.

6. Now, she is expecting 18-24 months of her income as compensation if there is layoff from her employer. Approximately she will receive ₹30-40 lakh, post-tax if she is laid off.

7. It would be ideal for her to continue working till she turns 55 or 58 as her technical skills are in demand despite less opportunities.

8. Her needs do not demand her to aggressively invest as her financial position is not in disarray. She needs to earn for her living expenses and can focus skill upgradation. A part of the compensation package may be invested towards early retirement, to help her make the choice at her will.

9. Additional earned income till her age of 55-58 will help her accumulate wealth for a comfortable lifestyle and time to explore her desires before moving to her hometown.

The author is the Principal Officer at Ploutus Asset Services LLP, a SEBI registered investment advisory firm. https://ploutus.in

Published on May 2, 2026