Most working Indians have a vague comfort about retirement: "I have my EPF, I'll be fine." It's an understandable feeling. But it rests on a calculation that very few people have actually done.
Let's do it. The average EPF corpus for someone who has worked steadily from age 24 to 60 — contributing 12% of a salary that grew modestly — might accumulate to ₹80 lakh to ₹1.2 crore. That sounds like a lot. Then consider what happens when you actually start drawing on it.
Inflation is the silent destroyer of retirement savings. What costs ₹50,000 a month today will cost over ₹1.6 lakh a month in 20 years at 6% annual inflation. Your EPF corpus, if it's not growing faster than inflation after you retire, will run out — potentially while you're still alive and healthy in your 70s.
A pension plan or retirement annuity solves this problem structurally. The Kotak Retirement Plan, started at 35 with a modest monthly premium, can generate a guaranteed monthly income from age 60 — one that doesn't run out, doesn't depend on markets, and continues to your spouse after you're gone.
The earlier you start, the smaller the premium needed to hit a meaningful pension amount. Starting at 45 or 50 isn't pointless — but it requires a much larger monthly commitment. The cost of waiting is real.