How long will your savings support you after work stops? A recent survey offers a useful prompt to ask that question. In Axis Max Life’s India Retirement Index Study 6.0, only 29% of urban respondents said they were confident their retirement corpus would last beyond ten years. Confidence is not a forecast of how long anyone’s money will actually last, but the finding points to a practical gap: many people have not tested their retirement income against their spending.
Start with the monthly gap
Estimate what your household would spend each month in retirement, then subtract dependable income such as a pension or rent. The difference must come from savings and investments.
For example, if your monthly spending is ₹50,000 and reliable income is ₹20,000, the gap is ₹30,000 a month, or ₹3.6 lakh in the first year. A ₹1 crore portfolio would face an initial withdrawal of 3.6% of its value. That percentage is a starting measure, not a safe-withdrawal guarantee: taxes, market returns, inflation and the timing of withdrawals all matter.
Look further than ten years
At an illustrative 6% annual rise in expenses, ₹50,000 of monthly spending becomes about ₹90,000 after ten years. If the ₹20,000 income stays fixed, the monthly gap then approaches ₹70,000. This is an illustration, not an inflation prediction. Healthcare and major repairs can also make spending uneven.
A retirement plan should therefore test several lengths of retirement, including a longer life than expected. It should also consider poor investment returns early on, when withdrawals can do the most damage to a portfolio.
A simple annual review
- Separate essential bills from optional spending and allow for irregular costs, including medical expenses.
- List pensions and other dependable income after any relevant tax and expenses. Do not count uncertain returns as guaranteed income.
- Compare the annual gap with the investible corpus, then test what happens if expenses rise faster, returns are lower, or retirement lasts longer.
- Review the numbers at least once a year and after major life changes. Adjust saving, retirement timing or spending while you still have choices.
The survey also found that 61% of respondents said they knew the corpus needed to sustain their current lifestyle. Knowing a target is helpful; testing the cash flow behind it is more useful. The study surveyed 4,134 working adults aged 25–65 in socio-economic classes A and B across 40 cities in July–August 2026, so it should not be read as a measure of every Indian household.
Source: Axis Max Life, India Retirement Index Study 6.0 (page last updated 16 September 2026). Examples are illustrative and this article is general education, not personal financial advice.