Are You Retirement-Ready? How to Check Where You Stand

Knowing your target corpus is one thing; knowing whether you are actually on track to reach it is another. Retirement readiness is that reality check. This guide gives you simple ways to gauge where you stand at any age, and what to do if you are behind. It is part of our broader guide, How to plan for retirement in India: building your corpus.

What does retirement-ready mean?

Being retirement-ready means your accumulated savings and expected income sources are sufficient, or on a clear path, to cover your inflation-adjusted expenses for your full retirement.

It is not a single moment but a trajectory. Someone at 35 is "ready" if they are on pace; someone at 60 is ready if the corpus is actually there. The point of checking is to catch a shortfall while you still have time to fix it.

Simple age-based milestones

A widely cited rule of thumb expresses readiness as a multiple of your annual income saved by certain ages. These are general guideposts, not guarantees, but they help you sense whether you are roughly on track:

If you are well below these, it is a signal to increase contributions; if you are above, you may have flexibility. Treat them as a compass, not a verdict, your real target depends on your expenses and lifespan.

How to do a quick readiness check

A simple self-check in four steps:

1. Estimate your annual expenses at retirement (today's expenses, inflated forward).
2. Multiply by 28-30 to get your rough target corpus.
3. Add up what you have earmarked for retirement today (EPF, NPS, mutual funds, other).
4. Project that forward to retirement using a reasonable growth assumption, and compare to the target.

If the projected figure falls short, the gap tells you how much more to invest monthly. A retirement readiness tool does this math for you in seconds.

What if you are behind?

Being behind is common and fixable. A few levers, in rough order of impact:

• Increase your monthly investment, even a step-up of 10% a year compounds meaningfully.
• Extend your working years slightly, each extra year both adds to the corpus and shortens the drawdown period.
• Review your asset mix so long-term money is positioned for growth rather than sitting idle.
• Cut lifestyle inflation, redirecting future raises into investments rather than spending.

The earlier you spot the gap, the gentler the fix.

Income sources beyond your corpus

Your corpus does not have to do all the work alone. Other potential retirement income includes EPF and gratuity, NPS, rental income, and annuities. Each reduces the lump sum your investments must generate. Mapping these alongside your corpus gives a fuller, often more reassuring, picture of readiness.

This is general educational content on assessing retirement readiness, not personalised advice. Your real position depends on your own circumstances, or guidance from a SEBI-registered investment adviser.

Try it yourself: Get a quick read with our Retirement Readiness Assessment, see where you stand and what closing the gap would take.

READ NEXT: Back to the pillar, How to plan for retirement in India: building your corpus

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