Most people don’t delay retirement planning because they are lazy.
They delay it because it feels overwhelming.
That was exactly where Aman (36) was.
He had a good salary, some savings, EPF contributions, a couple of SIPs, and a rough belief that “I should have at least ₹10 crore before I retire.” But when asked why ₹10 crore, he had no answer. It was just a number picked up from random videos and social media posts.
Then he sat down with the In-Hand Retirement Planner for 45 minutes — and his entire approach changed.
Not because the tool gave him a magic answer.
Because it helped him connect 3 things clearly:

1. His future monthly expenses
2. His investment split
3. His retirement sustainability (how long money lasts after retirement)

Here’s what happened.

Step 1: He stopped guessing and entered real numbers

Aman first entered:

• Current age: 36
• Target retirement age: 58
• Existing monthly investments across EPF, NPS, equity, debt, FD, PPF
• Current assets and liabilities
• Inflation and return assumptions

Within seconds, the planner showed:

• Expected retirement corpus
• Estimated monthly pension
• Year-by-year growth chart

This was already better than his spreadsheet.
But the real shift came next.

Step 2: He used “today’s value” and got a reality check

Aman’s first result looked great in nominal terms.
His projected monthly pension looked “big enough.”
Then he switched to Today’s Value.
The number dropped sharply.
That one toggle changed his mindset immediately:
future rupees are not today’s rupees.
He realized he had been planning with nominal numbers while thinking in today’s lifestyle costs — the most common retirement mistake.

Step 3: He did what-if planning instead of one-time calculation

Aman ran multiple scenarios:

• Retire at 58 vs 60
• Increase equity SIP by ₹5,000/month
• Increase NPS contribution
• Reduce FD and move that amount into a growth bucket
• Increase annual step-up by 2%

Each change instantly updated the charts and pension outcomes.
This is where he finally felt in control.
Not because one scenario was perfect — but because he could see trade-offs clearly.

Step 4: One-click asset distribution removed decision fatigue

Like many users, Aman’s biggest confusion was not “Should I invest?”
It was “How do I split across EPF/NPS/equity/debt/FD/PPF?”
He used the one-click asset distribution strategy and started from a balanced base.
Then he made small tweaks, instead of building allocation from scratch.
Result: less overthinking, faster decision-making, and a portfolio split he could actually stick to.

Step 5: FIRE year became concrete, not motivational content

Aman used the one-click FIRE calculation and entered his expected annual expenses.
The tool showed estimated timelines across:

• Lean FIRE
• Regular FIRE
• Fat FIRE
• Coast FIRE
• Barista FIRE

For the first time, FIRE became a timeline — not an Instagram concept.
He could clearly see:

• what was achievable,
• what needed higher savings,
• and what required expense control.

Step 6: He checked if the corpus actually survives retirement

This was the most important part.
Most calculators stop at “you’ll have ₹X at retirement.”
But retirement is not a finish line. It’s a 25–35 year phase.
Aman used the post-retirement sustainability graphs and Monte Carlo view to answer:

• Will this corpus survive inflation?
• Under stress scenarios, where does it break?
• What withdrawal behavior is safer?

He discovered one of his earlier scenarios looked great at retirement age but depleted too early under realistic assumptions.
That insight alone saved him from a false sense of security.

What changed in his actual plan

By the end of one session, Aman moved from “random target corpus” to a practical retirement system:

• Switched from static target to expense-led planning
• Increased monthly investment with clear purpose
• Shifted allocation toward long-term growth, with balance
• Added annual step-up discipline
• Kept a realistic retirement age based on sustainability, not emotion
• Saved multiple scenarios and exported a report to discuss with family

He didn’t “solve retirement in a day.”
But he did something better: he replaced confusion with a repeatable planning process.

The lesson most people miss

Retirement planning is not about finding one perfect number.
It is about managing 3 moving parts over time:

• expenses,
• investment allocation,
• and withdrawal sustainability.

If you only calculate corpus, you’re planning half the journey.
The second half — post-retirement survival — is where most plans fail.

If you want to do this in one sitting

Open the planner and do these 5 actions in order:

1. Enter real investments + assets/liabilities
2. Check pension in Today’s Value
3. Run 3 what-if scenarios
4. Use one-click allocation as a baseline
5. Check FIRE timeline + sustainability chart before finalizing

That’s enough to go from “I think I need ₹X crore” to “I know what to do next month.”

Try it here: https://www.in-hand.in/retirement-planner/