Smart tip: Protecting the past for better future

We are not as smart as we think we are. Want proof? Watch the recent episode of Satyamev Jayate on "elder abuse, senior citizens and their life?" We all know that a lot of seniors suffer due to a variety of reasons and all these reasons somewhere deep down, directly or indirectly are connected with money or rather the lack of money.

I am going to dare a prediction. People who are in their mid 40's or early 50's and will become seniors soon, are going to suffer much more and people now in mid 30's will suffer much more. It is hard to imagine. I present 6 reasons to support my prediction.

Busy racing

Money is need and to that extent being busy is fine. But we are way too busy trying to outsmart anyone and race-out everyone around us. This calls for a lot of time commitment. Obviously we have no time for anyone else, children specifically. History will thus amplify and repeat itself. We had no time for parents and our children will have even lesser time for us. We are moving across cities and our children will move across countries. It is already happening. Our parents took care of us and so we try to care for them. We perhaps spend quality time with children only on holidays; we will reap only what we sowed.

Employer Dependency

Many believe that their companies will take care of their needs when they retire. Such support is unlikely to be adequate. However, ponder over the rationality of the support formula for companies promising defined benefits; for example, if your last earned salary is going to be Rs 12 lakh pa, at a 6 per cent pension annuity rate, your company will need to fork out a corpus of Rs 2 crore just for you. Multiply that with number of employees. Do the math. Is there provision for such an outlay?

... contd.

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