When will you start your Retirement Planning?

It is an interesting topic. Is not it? I know you disagree with me. We all in thirties-to-forties believe that it is too early to think about retirement. It is many years away. True but is it really that away? I have a friend who wants to retire at 55, pursue a hobby and he is already 38 now. Last week, we met over dinner and suddenly topic turned to retirement planning. He was reluctant due to same old reason. Come on! It is too early! This time, we spent a little more than nanoseconds on the topic and he was quick to realize that is fast approaching. Another common friend who is elder of both of us was as if thunderstruck. We asked him, “Hey buddy, what happened?” He felt that he is left with too little time to plan for his retirement.

That is the hard reality! We wake up when it is too late.

I have recently learnt that it has become extremely difficult to do retirement planning, primarily due to following reasons:

Mortality Rates are low – Should that not be good news? Yes, the life expectancy is increasing with time, thanks to advancement in medical technology and increased general awareness toward healthcare. But that means more money is required to plan for additional years. Let me make it simple. Imagine retiring at 60 and expect to live till 90 years of age. For that, you need money to live 30 years without a regular source of income. Is not that a long period to plan for?

Low current interest rates – When I first realized this one, it acted like a bummer. I wish I would not have been that stupid. But I am. I always felt that low interest rates are good.  For example, low interest rates mean low monthly mortgage installment. Is not it? But Low interest rates also mean that low income on your investments including the ones that belong to retirement segment. You need much more money to save to maintain a similar living standard after retirement.

Do you agree?

Your life is Your MESSAGE to the world, Make sure It's INSPIRING

I had just returned to my home after an eventful day at work, when my wife broke the news of Steve Job’s demise. My first reaction was that it can’t be true, but as soon as I realized that it might be, my heart felt as if it skipped a beat. I sat on the couch, picked iPad, and clicked Washington Post app to verify whether it is really true or another one form the rumor mill. Sad, it was true! The world had lost a visionary and an inspiration to millions of us.

Deeply saddened, I spent next few hours reading about Steve Jobs on my beloved iPad. I read about his early years, how he was adopted, his struggles around education, sleeping on the floor in friend’s room, returning coke bottles for food money, getting free meals at the local Krishna temple, and how he was fired from the company he created. Listening to his iPhone and iPad launch keynotes (2007 and 2010) was a mesmerizing experience that makes one realize that Steve Jobs and his team were far ahead in understanding what customers want and deliver. During iPad keynote address, Steve mentioned that there existed a gap between laptops and mobiles that iPad is smartly going to fill. A tsunami of criticism followed but Steve’s team has proved everybody wrong. Today, there are multiple options available in the market, but the only tablet computer customers want is Apple’s iPad.

I listened to Steve Jobs’s commencement address to graduating students at Stanford University (2005) in which he mused on life, love and death. He told stories from his own life, and gave a message that was full of inspirations: Few excerpts from his speech:

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

This speech is close to my heart and holds much more significance today. Innovations such as iMac, iPhone, iPad and others are truly phenomenal but the inspiring and heartfelt words he said to a new generation of youths were worth more than all of those. Despite being diagnosed for pancreatic cancer, he lived what he preached about and gave evidence that it is possible to do so. It was the human defiance in the face of known certainty of an imminent death and the way he challenged the status-quo and lived the time before the death arrived made him truly great. The message is clear: “Your life is Your MESSAGE to the world, Make sure It's INSPIRING”

It was 4AM when I went to sleep, still tears in my eyes!

Is there a Santa Claus?

I have recently moved to Virginia with my whole family. We along with my daughters (5 and 3 years old) are learning about the festivals out here. First we learnt about the Halloween and enjoyed it very well. We went to the Fashion mall in pentagon on the day of Halloween and my daughters liked the concept (obviously because they got candies). Christmas is around the corner now. We were expecting to do some shopping on the weekend but there was a surprise in store for us. It was all snow this weekend and at the time of writing there is at least 18 inches of snow outside our home. My kids loved it again, as they got a chance to play in snow and refresh their memories of Manali and Gulmarg in India.

My kids are eagerly waiting for Christmas now. They believe that the Santa Claus will bring many gifts (toys and chocolates) for them. It is an interesting feeling but at the same time, I thought to learn more about Christmas. I am not saying that I am not aware of Christmas but at the moment I am curious to know more about it. While reading, I stumbled upon a question asked by a little girl (eight year old) to the “The New York Sun” in 1897. She was curious to know whether Santa Claus really existed.

The query found its way into the hands of the veteran editor “Francis P. Church” who , amazed with the simplicity in which this question was asked” made a reply which later became one of the most memorable editorials of the newspaper history.

Here I am reproducing the question asked by the little girl and the response from the veteran editor [look at reference]. This is simply amazing

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?

"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus. It would be as dreary as if there were no VIRGINIAS. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, VIRGINIA, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives, and he lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay, ten times ten thousand years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.
Reference: http://beebo.org/smackerels/yes-virginia.html This was published in The New York Sun, 1897 "Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus,"