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Retirement Solutions
Retirement Planning is the most important part of the Financial planning. Stage of life where in you have losses or No Income but your expenses with be higher because of inflation and may be health issues. Retirement means end of earning period, unless someone chooses to work by choice or force. Post retirement one has to make the best use of their retirement corpus that would help to keep low tax liability and provide a regular stream of income to takecare of their monthly expenses.
Retirement planning should be done considering the regular income required with more or less with fixed income products and some or small part can be invested in Market-linked investment products like Mutual funds or equity depending upon the risk appetite.
Some of the best investment options to invest post retirement are as follows.

Senior Citizens' Saving Scheme(SCSS) : SCSS is only for senior citizens or some one who takes early retirement. Investment in SCSS can be done through post office or a bank. Early retirees can also invest in SCSS, within one month of receiving their retirement funds. The interest is payable quarterly and its taxable as per individual tax slabs. The upper investment limit is Rs 15 lakh. The investment tenure is 5years, which can be further extended by another 3 years. SCSS are also eligible for tax benefits under Section 80C.

Tax-free bonds : Tax-free bonds are issued by institutions such as Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd, Power Finance Corporation Ltd, National Highways Authority of India, Housing and Urban Development Corporation Ltd, Rural Electrification Corporation Ltd which carries highest safety ratings. You can trade these bonds on stock exchanges. Tax free bonds are suitable for long-term investment and Invest in them only if you will not require the funds for long term. The tenure of such bonds are 10, 15, 20 years. They have low liquidity and the interest is tax-free.

Post Office Monthly Income Scheme : These investment scheme is for 5 year and individual can invest Rs 4.5 lakh and upto Rs 9 lakh jointly. The interest rate keeps changing every quarter and is payable monthly. The interest earned is taxable as per tax slab.

Bank fixed deposits : Bank fixed deposits (FD) is the most reliable and popular investment option because of safety, fixed returns. The interest rates varies based on tenure of Fixed deposits. Senior citizens qualify for 0.25%-0.5% per annum. Investment in five-year tax saving bank FD qualifies for tax deduction under Section 80C but has lock-in period of five years. The interest earned is taxable and attracts tax as per individual tax slab.

AAA rated Company Fixed Deposits : Investors looking for an alternative to bank deposits can also look at investing in AAA-rated corporate fixed deposits offered by companies such as Bajaj Finance, PNB Housing Finance, HDFC Ltd, Mahindra & Mahindra and Shriram Transport Finance. The Company FD offers better returns than the Bank FD. Company deposits are available in tenures of 1, 3 and 5 years with an option to earn interest monthly, quarterly, half yearly, annually or on a cumulative basis.

Immediate annuities Plans :Immediate annuity schemes of life insurance companies are also decent option. The pension income through such plans are taxable as per individual tax slab. The interest rate depends on the various ipension option you opt at the time of investments. The pension amount is fixed and guaranteed and will remain same till the investor survives. it’s a rigid product and offers very low or no liquidity.

Equity Mutual funds: This option is equity linkedhence returns are not guaranteed and may differ depending on market performance. Mutual funds investments can be are volatile and carries risk. One should look at this option only if he or she can stay invested for more than 5-7 years. Depending on the risk appetite, one may allocate a certain percentage into equity mutual funds with proper guidance of certified financial planners across large-cap and balanced funds preferably.

Debt Mutual Funds : These fundscan also be a part of a retiree's portfolio if he falls under highest taxable bracket as Taxation of debt funds makes it a better choice over bank deposits. The interest on bank deposits is fully taxable as per the tax bracket, income from debt funds gets taxed at 20 per cent after indexation, if held for three years or more. Provides better liquidity and one can get the money in his or her account in just 1 working day.

Systematic Withdrawal Plan through mutual fund :- can also be used to generate regular income by withdrawing a fixed amount from a mutual fund scheme on monthly or quarterly basis. From taxation point of view, SWP works better than Dividend option because Dividends are subject to dividend distribution tax.

National Pension System (NPS) :- National Pension System is a government-sponsored pension scheme that allows employees and self-employed persons to invest to make retirement provision. NPS also qualifies for additional tax benefit of Rs 50,000 under Section 80CCD(1B). Investors can withdraw certain % of corpus tax free and he has to compulsory use the balance amount to buy an annuity or pension plan to make provision of regular income.