When it comes to personal finance, for senior citizens, taking the right approach becomes even more important. Let us take a look at these three very important aspects of personal finance for senior citizens in detail.

Invest Systematically

The first and most important aspect of personal finance is investing. Senior citizens must invest so that they can beat inflation.

Inflation reduces the value of your money, and so, if the return on your corpus doesn’t beat inflation, you will end up exhausting your corpus soon.

However, investing should not be random. After retirement, you should invest in low-risk assets so that you do not suffer losses. There are many such schemes on offer from the government, banks, and mutual funds that provide attractive avenues for investment.

Some of the attractive options available in the market are the Post Office Monthly Income Scheme (MIS), Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana (PMVVY), Public Provident Fund (PPF), Senior Citizens’ Savings Scheme (SCSS), bank fixed deposits, and debt funds by mutual fund companies, among others. If you want to take a little risk, you can also invest in hybrid funds or a very small amount in equity funds.

Manage Risks

You should keep sufficient financial cushions all the time to meet financial emergencies. Senior citizens are most prone to health risks. As such, you need to give special attention to it. You should take health insurance to meet your hospitalization expenses. You should also consider the cashless option, history of claim processing, and an easy claim process as the basic criteria for health insurance.

At the same time, make sure to actively take part in exercise or walking. Also, spend time with friends and family, and keep yourself in a good mood.

Plan Your Expenses

To plan your expenses, divide them into two categories.

The first is your regular expenses and the other is emergency expenses.

For regular expenses, you can invest in monthly schemes. There are many schemes run by the government which provide monthly income at a good rate of interest. Even banks offer higher interest rates to senior citizens.

For emergency expenses, invest for the long term. These investments can be beyond three years. Long-term investment can be done in debt funds offered by mutual fund companies or even in bank fixed deposits. PPF is another wonderful option.

Final Word

In a nutshell, all expenses should be planned. Planning will help seniors better prepare for the future. One of the biggest problems stopping us from achieving financial freedom is unplanned expenses.

One needs extreme financial discipline to avoid financial mistakes after retirement. Right investment will ensure that you don’t fall short of money, and planning your expenses will ensure that you don’t waste your retirement corpus, while appropriate risk management will always keep you safe if you come across serious financial challenges even after taking all the precautions.

So, taking right approach to personal finance can make your retirement life easier and happier.

The author is an Independent Financial Journalist