Life is like a convolution of waters, the creeks merge into a river, the rivers split into tributaries, but the ultimate destination for all is one, eventually they all merge into the sea. Similarly, all the roads in life ultimately converge towards Retirement.

Retirement is the grand finale of every competition. And almost everyone has some retirement fantasies at the back of their minds. We all have given a thought at some point of time about how our retirement life is going to be. Whether you ask a 50 year old or a 30 year old, both of them will have their retirement fantasies in mind. The 50 year old may have a more realistic response to the question, since his retirement is almost a decade away, he can predict the total resources he will have considering the investments he has made for his Retirement, he can see his goals that are coming in between, and he knows how much he can stretch to contribute to the corpus. The 30 year old's retirement dream may be much more extravagant. He may want to live in a beach villa in Goa, he may want to ride a BMW, he may want to go for foreign trips, he wants spend the last years of his life in utmost luxury.

And you know, the 30 year old can do all of this after his retirement. Because he has 30 most productive years of his life in hand. He has all the time in the world, to work his socks off, save and invest more and more, and live all his whims.

So, the sooner you have the answer to the question, greater are the chances that you will live an affluent post retirement life, you will be able to provide to yourself a better quality of life, just by thinking and acting in time.

If you can visualize and plan for your post retirement life at an early age, you are better of because:

• You have the time & power to take decisions and mould your life the way you want to.
• You have the time to prioritize your goals. You can carve out from your other goals to contribute the maximum to your Retirement goal.
• You have the capacity to work more, earn more, and save and invest more. They say, it's easy to shoot the target, when you have the target. When you can see the mirage of your dream retirement, you will run as fast as you can, to bridge the longest laps.
• Your investments will get the maximum time to illustrate their true potential. If invested in the right asset class, the compounding effect can multiply your principal manifold.

Write the Sketch
Take out your diary, and write all what you want to do in your golden years. Write down every figment of your imagination, no matter how flamboyant or unreal it seems. Whether you want to go for a world tour with your spouse, or you want to go back to where you came from, and settle down with your school friends in your hometown. Whether you want to reside around the serene beaches of the Andamans or you want to pursue your passion of nurturing plants and send fresh organic fruits for your grandkids from the backyard of your house. Whatever whims you have, ink them, you have the ability & most importantly time to personify a lot of those whims that may seem unreal today.

Fill the Colours
Once you have your retirement sketch ready, it's time to get into action. Quantify your wishes in monetary terms, the money you would need to go for the world tour, or to buy a beach villa in the Andamans, the money you would need to survive, to meet your everyday expenses, and to maintain your lifestyle. Let's say, today the cost of doing a 2 year long world tour is Rs 1 Crore for a couple, assuming you will retire after 30 years and assuming an average rate of inflation of 5%, the cost of this world tour will be Rs 4.32 Crore, when you retire. To live your dream, you need to start an SIP of just Rs 14,000 a month in an Equity Mutual Fund, assuming a moderate rate of return of 12%, you will have Rs 4.32 Crore for the World Tour when you retire. The point is, you can actualize your fantasy, something which looks unrealistic today, by investing just Rs 14,000 a month.

You can accomplish all your dreams, it's just that you need to think ahead and plan to live your big dreams. Share the agenda of your dreams with your financial advisor and he will guide you through your journey towards those dreams, he will prepare a step by step plan for you to work towards, save and invest for each of your dreams.

To conclude, dream big, stay focused and believe in yourself, you have the power to win the whole world.