Imagine being 50 and having the freedom to walk away from work for good. For many urban Indians, retiring early is the dream, but their savings are telling them to wait a little longer.
For seven in 10 urban Indians, retiring before the traditional age of 58-60 is an attractive prospect, provided they have enough money to support themselves, according to the Axis Max Life Bharosa Talks India Retirement Index Study (IRIS 6.0), conducted with Kantar.
For half of , the ambition is even bigger. They want to achieve Financial Independence and Retire Early, or FIRE, before turning 50.
But there is a catch. The average urban Indian has accumulated only 28% of the retirement corpus they say they need.
That is the gap between wanting financial freedom and being able to afford it.
The study suggests retirement planning is starting much earlier than the traditional idea of waiting until the later stages of a career.
The question is no longer simply, “How long do I need to work?” For many, it is becoming, “How much do I need to save before I can stop?”
One in two urban Indians said retirement planning should begin with their first salary. On average, respondents said they should start saving for retirement at 31.
For Gen Z, that age falls to 29.
And younger Indians are already putting some money towards that goal. Around 62% of Gen Z respondents said they have started investing for retirement, compared with 70% of Millennials and 75% of Gen X+.
The numbers suggest that retirement is increasingly being treated as something to plan for from the beginning of a career rather than something to worry about in the final working years.
This is where optimism runs into reality.
Urban Indians have accumulated only 28% of their target retirement corpus on average, the IRIS 6.0 study found.
That matters even more for someone planning to retire at 45 or 50.
Stopping work early means the retirement corpus has to fund a longer period without a salary. It also has to account for rising living costs, healthcare and other expenses that can continue for decades.
Interestingly, 61% of respondents said they know how much money they would need to maintain their current lifestyle in retirement.
Knowing the number, however, does not mean having the money.
Only 11% believe their retirement corpus will last for their entire lifetime. And 39% think their savings could run out within five years.
The strongest signal comes from people who are already closer to retirement.
Among Gen X+ respondents aged 45 and above, 91% said they regret not starting their retirement investments earlier.
At the same time, 82% said they feel they may need to continue working because they need a steady income.
That creates a striking contrast.
Many younger Indians want to stop working earlier. Many older respondents say they wish they had started investing sooner and may have to keep working because their income is still needed.
The appeal of FIRE is easy to understand.
Earn, save and invest enough money so that a salary is no longer necessary. Once that point is reached, working becomes a choice rather than a financial requirement.
But retiring at 50 rather than 60 changes the calculation significantly.
There are fewer working years to build the corpus and more retirement years for that money to support. The earlier the retirement, the greater the financial cushion generally needs to be.
That makes the study’s 28% average corpus figure particularly significant.
The desire for early retirement is already strong. The financial preparation is still catching up.
As Sumit Madan, MD and CEO of Axis Max Life Insurance, said, retirement planning is ultimately about having the financial freedom to decide what comes next.
The IRIS 6.0 findings show that many Indians want that freedom earlier. The harder question is whether their savings will allow them to take it.