Senior Citizen Savings Scheme - How it Takes Care of your Finances

When it comes to retirement planning, the best thing to do is start early. Your investment will have a great impact on your life when you need it most. This is the time when your salary stops being credited to your bank account. So, the best way to plan your finances is to start early. A proper planning will help you save money for your future and for emergency situations. 

Reliable Retirement Plans – Secure Your Future

Check out some of the below-mentioned retirement plans, which will help you garner the right funds when the time is ripe. 

•ELSS funds: The equity-linked mutual funds is what everyone is investing in for higher returns and ELSS scheme is really lucrative as it has the lowest lock-in period, only 3 years. It is a good option for you to try as it helps beat inflation and ensures good returns, as they invest in stock markets. Another key feature of ELSS funds is they only become tax-free after you hold them for more than a year.

•Public Provident Fund (PPF): This is a very popular tax-saving investment. There are more advantages to this scheme as it offers guaranteed returns, it becomes tax-free as it matures and it shields your capital too. The only disadvantage is its long lock-in period, it is 15 years.

•National Pension System (NPS): This is an equity-based scheme and the maximum exposure to equity is 50%. The disadvantage of the NPS is that you can withdraw the money only after you retire retirement and it is fully taxable. Also, you have to use a mammoth portion of your corpus, read 40% to buy the annuity after your retirement. 

•Tax-saving fixed deposits:  These works for most retired persons as it has a lock-in period of five years and offers great returns besides offering capital protection.

Besides the retirement planning schemes, discussed above there are also Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme. This investment is suitable for seniors who are either equal to or are over the age of 60. Voluntary retirees can also invest in it as they reach the age of 55. You can open a joint account with your wife. The uppermost limit is Rs. 15, 00,000 and it does not matter how many accounts you have. The current rate of interest is 8.5%. The interest is paid quarterly. 

 So amongst a plethora of retirement plans, which one should you choose? Whatever you choose you to have to realize that you need diversification and your future should be secure and the Senior Citizen’s Savings Scheme offers just that.

Know Before You Go: Travel Tips For Seniors

To most of us, retirement means staying at home and not being brave or adventurous enough to travel to different places. But times are indeed changing and with improved medical care and more facilities for the seniors making traveling easy, senior citizens are breaking the stereotypes and attempting to explore the world!

 While traveling is indeed a great way for the seniors to enjoy their retired life. Proper planning is indeed essential to ensure that things move smoothly. Here are the five travel tips for seniors to make the most of their travel time. 

1. Research more about travel destination and other nitty-gritty: Planning out ahead is almost half the job done. The list of things to research for includes information about the hotel, the area, the mode of travel, the places to visit, the weather, altitude and so on. Planning ahead ensures you get the best of the trip and avoid mishaps or other troubles. Also, if you need any particular travel specifications such as a wheelchair, product allergies, food allergies or specific medical facilities, do remember to share it with the management where you would stay.

2. Keep Proper Documentation handy: If you are traveling to far off places, it is imperative to keep all the important files of medical reports and prescriptions, besides of course the passports, visas and other identification documents handy. Remember it is always better to opt for travel insurance, to protect yourself from any mishap or emergency.

3. Pack all Medications: Replenish your stock of the medicines for the entire vacation. Pack extra medicines, if you decide to stay extra. Get a thorough medical check-up done before you embark on your traveling journey to ensure that you are fit and fine to take up the travel.

4. Pack light: When you are traveling it is better that you stick to essentials and not go overboard in packing extra. Keep the medicines in your handbag so that you can get easy access during the journey. Pack well keeping in mind the current weather of the place you will be visiting.

5. Stay safe: Remember to keep family members in the loop if you have planned for a solo trip. Keep the emergency numbers handy. It is always better that you tie up with travel groups. Don’t pack up too many expensive items like watches, gold and so on.  Have more than one accesses to money.

6. Eat light: Do not go overboard on food, try to eat light. Avoid eating food like junk or sweets and stick to your regular eating plan as much as you can. This will help avoid any stomach upsets or infection or allergies. Also, keep clean bottled water handy to stay hydrated.

7. Have fun: Lastly stop worrying too much, just try and have a good time. Bond with other fellow travelers and make beautiful memories, and try not to overtire yourself. So, ensure your itinerary is light and fun.

Follow the above traveltips for senior citizens to make your journey interesting, fun and safe! Bon, voyage!

How to Save Tax for Senior Citizens?

Once you retire from your job, you’re earning stops unless you plan to work as a freelancer or a consultant. The insecurity that comes with retiring from a job can easily be dealt with providing you make some smart financial investments. The idea is to remain independent even after retirement and not depend on your children or your relatives. Well, you can not only make both ends meet but also earn a fair amount to add to your savings with some of the following ideas. 

You have painstakingly earned money over the years and it certainly has to be invested right and make  to stand you in good stead during your retirement years, read, and generate a fair bit of income. Get your earnings on point with a little bit of planning and managing your existing finances efficiently. This will certainly provide you with a secure future. You have to segregate your requirements and plan out exactly how much you need for your daily uses and how much you can set aside for saving and spending in a few indulgences. Your requirements may range from regular medical check-ups, for those impromptu vacation plans, daily shopping and so on. With a smart bit of investment, you can enjoy your after-retirement years to the hilt. Travel to exotic places you always dreamed of but never had the time for, enjoy a fairly luxurious life to make your retirement years worth living. Retirement Income Ideas

Fool-proof Financial Planning for Senior Citizens in India

The following financial plan for seniorcitizens will help you save money and additionally you will get to earn some extra income as well by saving taxes.

1. Financial annuity options: Selecting an insurance policy that offers you quick income should get the maximum priority as it caters to a number of your requirements. You can get an impressive 5-6% of such annuity plans. You can also get good tax deductions with the help of these annuity schemes. You can choose a plan which of course caters to your needs and also offers a pension for whole life. This scheme offers you a good pension in your lifetime and goes to your spouse after your death and finally after the death of your spouse goes to the immediate heirs.  

2. The Senior Citizens’ Savings Schemes (SCSS) caters perfectly to your needs:  This scheme is designed for senior citizens so obviously you should go for it once you retire. The requirements are, you need to be at least 60 years old and more to go for such a scheme. Your money will progressively increase especially when you invest in this scheme for a long time. Try the Post office or the Bank to apply for these schemes.

3. National Savings Certificate (NSC) to your rescue: A government-backed savings certificate, this is a perfect investment option to invest your funds in. This earns fixed interest and gets compounded in the future. You can also enjoy high tax deductions thanks to the Section 80 C of the Income Tax Act. This is certainly one of the greatest investment options and you need to start on this certificate as soon as you can.

The above-mentioned financial planning for senior citizens can help meet up with your requirements and provide satisfying results. You have spent years working hard and saving every penny now it is time to invest right and reap the benefits of years of hard work. You deserve to sit back and spend your sunset years without worrying too much about financial matters. So, now you know what a little bit of smart investing can do for your future!

The Best Health Systems to Take Care of Seniors- Sixtyplus

The healthcare industry for seniors is in a constant state of change. Thankfully, the healthcare systems are showing a steep rise in the graph.  So what are the improvements do we see and what are can we expect from the present health care system for the seniors.  

 The Senior Citizen Health Problems

The elderly are living longer but the health problems, instead of being downsized are increasing by leaps and bounds.  The elderly are suffering from health issues such as heart disease, obesity, diabetes, hypertension, Alzheimer disease, cancer and so on. The elderly are combating these health problems and they require our immediate focus so that they have the right arsenal to fight the diseases. 

Policies like The National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) which has been adopted by the Government of India in 1999.  The Section 20 of the program is specifically suited for the “The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007.” This helps take care of Senior Citizen. It also provides a number of facilities for the elderly. 

The program caters to the needs of the elderly, programs such as curative, preventive, program and rehabilitative services for the elderly in a number of Government health facilities. This also helps provide the elderly with a safe and a comfortable haven, who are suffering from a lot of health issues which are a part and parcel of old age. The preventive services in the program include solutions to the geriatric medical problems such as rehabilitative services, day care services, and home-based care according to the needs of the elderly.  

If you are someone who has an elderly person in the family or in the neighborhood, you can extend your help to someone who needs it most. Here are some health tips for olderadults.

 

·         Home delivery of essential goods – While home deliveries have made things easy for us, we are more conversant with things such as apps but the older generation probably isn’t. Teach them how they can get things delivered at their homes at the click of a button. 

·         Make the house safe for the elderly – Some people may have a tough time going from one place to another. So how can you make things more comfortable for them? Get a handrail installed all around, so that that they can get easy access to all corners of the home. Make sure their homes have anti-skid floors, especially their bathrooms. Also, you can get more lights installed, so they can move around their homes with ease. 

• For emergency purposes – If you have an elderly at home, you need to ensure that they have access to things like GPS capability, which helps search for the elderly parent or relative at the time of emergencies such as an accident. You can have other facilities such as two-way phone communication and fall detection services helping the aging people live an independent life, that is they don’t have to depend on someone for their smallest needs and they won’t feel helpless at the time of emergencies. 
• Health insurance plans – Get the best health insurance plans for the senior citizens so that they have the money when they need it most. If they have the means it would give them the strength to combat the deadliest diseases.

Technology has indeed made life easier for us and also for the elderly. It is time they knew of the facilities available and how can they best use them.

Try these Retirement Funds to Avoid Tax Erosion

When it comes to financial planning after retirement starting early is the wisest thing to do. Where and how should you invest is going to impact your life in the most crucial phase. This is when you need your money to speak the most, the time when your salary ceases to be credited to your account. With varied investment plans fighting for your attention, planning ahead for your retirement portfolio not only helps you generate a monthly income but in some cases helps you meet up your long-nurtured financial goals.

Best Retirement Plans – How to Keep your Future Secure and Free from Financial Problems

Follow the below-mentioned tips and tricks to make your retirement plan work. 

·         Early Start is An Apt Start

What does starting early mean? It means starting the financial journey in the first or second month of the financial year. Informed and calculated investments equal good investments. Once you have ample time on your hands to make the necessary changes. Investments that fail to meet up with your expectations can be substituted with investments that match your financial goals and frankly this can be only possible once you start early. 

·         Making the Right Investments

The next thing to take note of is to explore and understand the tax-saving options. Any individual taxpayer can think of saving as much as Rs.1.5 lakh per annum according to the Income-tax Act, 1961 falling under the purview of section 80C. This involves a number of things such as paying off the home loan payment, insurance premium, and school tuition fees for two children and so on.

Check out the below-mentioned retirement plans. There is a host of retirementplans, but the most popular ones are the following:

•ELSS funds: The equity-linked mutual funds are what everyone is investing in for higher returns and ELSS scheme is particularly lucrative because it has the lowest lock-in period, only 3 years. These are the best options for you to try as it helps beat inflation and ensures long-term high returns, as they invest in stock markets. Another lucrative feature of ELSS funds is that they become tax-free after you hold them for more than a year.

•Public Provident Fund (PPF): One of the most popular tax-saving investment. There are more pros to this scheme than cons as it offers guaranteed returns, it becomes tax-free once it matures and it protects your capital too. The only con of the PPF is its long lock-in period, as long as 15 years.

•National Pension System (NPS): It is an equity-based scheme and the maximum exposure to equity can be 50%. The cons of the NPS are that you can withdraw the money only after retirement and another being it is fully taxable. You also have to use a major portion of your corpus, read 40% to buy annuity post your retirement. 

•Tax-saving fixed deposits:  These works for most retired persons as they have a reasonable lock-in period of five years and offer pretty impressive returns besides ensuring capital protection as well.

Besides the above-mentioned retirement planning schemes, there are also Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme, unit-linked insurance plans, and National Level Certificate. So amongst a host of retirement plans, which one should you choose? You will think that you are having way your fingers in too many varied pies, read investments but that is the best way to protect your retirement capital and guarantee a substantial income every month. In other words, diversification is the key.

 Diversify More

Keep your portfolio diversified by building one that includes a mixture of both equity as well as debt. In most cases, young people should invest 50-70% of their tax-saving investment portfolio in ELSS funds. Invest the rest of your money in PPF and FDs. 

Track your Funds

Evaluate your ELSS funds periodically since your performance is linked to the volatile stock markets trends. Ensure you check your ELSS funds quarterly. Funds which keep faring poorly can be replaced by another fund to ensure your portfolio funds stay secure.

Staying invested in ELSS funds is the order of the day now as they help in tax saving and also enables wealth generation. So, invest right and build the right retirement portfolio to help you tide over your retirement years with ease. As they say, life begins at 60, and if you have finances aided by the right retirement plans you will be able to explore the finer nuances of life even after retirement.