By Tamsil Shahezad Khan | Aug 18, 2026
Dehli - India’s salaried middle class risks severe financial hardship in retirement if they fail to start investing early, warned Swarup Mohanty, Vice Chairman and CEO of Mirae Asset Investment Managers, during a podcast with Finnovate.
“At 35, one should realise that one is going to live very long,” Mohanty said, stressing that active income for salaried professionals will eventually stop while healthcare costs keep rising. “If you do not realise that at 35 years of age, you have already done a lot of disservice to yourself.”
The cost of delaying investment is steep because of the loss of compounding returns, he said. Using a hypothetical target of Rs 10 crore, Mohanty explained that a person starting at 20 investing at 12% annual return might need to save around Rs 10,000–20,000 per month, whereas someone beginning at 40 could require roughly Rs 2 lakh per month to reach the same goal.
“That is the opportunity cost that has already left you,” he added, but noted that 35 is not too late to begin and urged individuals to start investing immediately.
Medical insurance essential
Mohanty’s second major caution concerned medical insurance. “Not having good medical insurance is another mistake because your health is very critical and healthcare will become expensive,” he said, urging people to secure adequate cover and to work with financial planners.
Retirement withdrawal challenges
Retirement strategist Milind Deogaonkar highlighted another challenge: many retirees who build substantial savings still worry about how much they can safely withdraw without exhausting their corpus. That uncertainty, he said, often leads retirees to cut back on travel, downgrade accommodation and delay health check-ups despite having funds.
Deogaonkar estimated that with general inflation at 6–7% and medical inflation at 12–14%, a prudent withdrawal rate for a traditional Indian retiree could be between 2.5% and 3.5%, depending on individual circumstances and asset allocation. Under a 3% withdrawal rule, a Rs 2 crore corpus would yield about Rs 60,000 per month, while Rs 3 crore would provide about Rs 90,000.
He also recommended maintaining a separate healthcare buffer of Rs 35 lakh–50 lakh for a retired couple in a metro relying on private hospitals, because a single major hospitalisation could otherwise deplete the retirement corpus.
Practical advice
Both experts urged early action: start investing as soon as possible, prioritise good health insurance and consult a certified financial planner. “Start investing as if there is no tomorrow because that is your dire need,” Mohanty said.
Mohanty emphasized that his remarks were intended to convey a reality, not to induce panic. “I’m not scaring you. I’m leaving behind a brutal truth,” he said, noting that the final decades of life can be financially difficult without adequate preparation.