How this dentist is saving for his retirement and his son’s education

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Also read | Step-by-step: Setting up trusts for specially-abled children He began to seriously consider financial planning after the covid-19 outbreak, when many doctors with private practices suddenly found themselves without income due to clinic closures. “We never imagined doctors could face such a situation. I realised it was time to plan our finances systematically, so I approached Suresh Sadagopan and his team at Ladder7 Wealth Planners," Das recalls.

Das has allocated 55% of his investment portfolio to equities, 26% to debt, and 19% to real estate. His real estate investment is a private dental clinic, purchased in 2021, conveniently located near his home. Das has invested his entire equity allocation through equity mutual funds.

His debt portfolio is a mix of liquid and illiquid investments. The liquid portion is managed through arbitrage schemes, while the illiquid part is invested in the General Provident Fund (GPF). Of the 26% debt allocation, 22% is in GPF, and 4% is in arbitrage schemes.

Also read | How to choose your wealth manager GPF is a retirement savings scheme for government employees, where employees contribute 6% of their base salary monthly. It earns an annual interest rate of 7.1% and can be withdrawn upon retirement. It is effectively a provident fund, and enjoys all the tax benefits of a provident fund.

As a government employee, Das will receive a regular monthly pension on retirement, since the West Bengal government still follows the old pension scheme. Still, Das is targeting a wealth accumulation corpus of ₹8 crore by age 60. He also wants to save some money for his son’s higher education.