Awareness about retirement planning rising in urban India: Report

Awareness about retirement planning has been rising in urban India with a growing number of people feeling the need to start planning for their post-work life early, a report said.

As many as 44 percent of Indians consider the right age to start planning for retirement to be before 35 years, as per the India Retirement Index Study (IRIS) released by Max Life Insurance.

Encouragingly, 63 percent of respondents have already begun investing for retirement, leading to reduced concerns about meeting both basic and luxury needs, as well as securing their children's futures, it said.

A notable 68 percent of urban Indian working women have begun investing for retirement, it said.

The study also highlights regional opportunities in retirement planning across India, with the east zone leading in overall preparedness, the west zone showing financial and health progress but needing emotional focus, and the north and south zones improving in health preparedness index, it said.

"Although urban India's retirement index has improved with positive gains in the financial and health indices, 1 in 3 Indians still feel underprepared. This year, we also focused on gig workers due to the rapid growth of India's gig economy, and found that they lag with a lower retirement readiness," Max Life MD & CEO Prashant Tripathy said.

This signals a huge opportunity area to bring the cohort at par with the national average through focused interventions, he said.

For the study, as many as 2,077 respondents aged between 25 and 65 were surveyed across 28 cities in India. Respondents comprise 29 percent men and 71 percent women.