Retiring early at 45 or 50 may sound ideal, but financial expert Gurmeet Chadha, CIO at Complete Circle, warns that most people underestimate the financial risks. “With life expectancy increasing, u will have to depend on your portfolio for 30 years plus n keep catching up with inflation,” he cautioned in a post on X.
For those in their 30s and 40s, the numbers are even more concerning. “Ur working life is 10-15 years & retirement life cud be 30-35 yrs,” Chadha pointed out, highlighting the imbalance. With such a long retirement period, ensuring financial security requires a strategic approach.
His solution? A well-balanced investment portfolio. “Having equities in a balanced manner is a must for survival,” Chadha stated. He urged investors to stay focused on the long-term, saying, “Ignore short-term noise. Build for long term.”
In a separate post, financial expert Akshat Shrivastava illustrated how inflation steadily erodes money’s value over time. Under a 7% inflation rate, the value of money declines significantly over time. In just 10 years, ₹1 crore would have the purchasing power of only ₹50 lakh today. By 15 years, that amount would shrink further to ₹36 lakh, and in 20 years, it would drop to just ₹25 lakh.
This steady erosion means that relying solely on savings without growth-oriented investments could leave retirees struggling to keep up with rising costs.
This steady decline means that simply saving a large sum is not enough—investments must grow at a pace that outstrips inflation. Shrivastava explained why inflation exists in the first place, citing modern monetary theorists who argue that if people save too much and stop working, economic growth would stall. “If there is no ‘inflation,’ people will save enough money. And then they will relax. And not work at all. This would be a nightmare for Shri Narayana Murthy,” he noted.
To prevent this, governments consistently print more money, reducing its buying power over time. “The rate of money printing (on an average) since 2018 has been around 8% in the world,” Shrivastava pointed out. For those eyeing early retirement, these insights underscore a critical truth: passive savings won’t be enough. To maintain financial stability for decades, investments must be structured to beat inflation—making equities an essential part of any long-term plan.