new delhi when a usbased financial portal recently suggested that one should have saved twice his annual salary by the age of 35 it got mocked on social mediai think what you meant to say was by 35 you should have debt twice your annual salaryive done the math and i can retire about 10 years after i die if nothing else happenswhen did my mom start writing articlesthe sarcastic responses to the article evoked much mirth but missed the key point if the figure seems unattainable the problem could lie more with ones savings and spending patterns rather than the target itself we reached out to financial planners to understand how much indians need to save at various ages to ensure a comfortable retirementfirst a caveat the exercise to determine final retirement corpus and the ideal savings at various lifestageswill have to be tailormade for each individual taking various expenses dependents needs goals and other requirements into account even postretirement goals will varysome may decide to lead a frugal life while others will have international travel plans for instance so while thumb rules can be seen as guide posts they cannot be treated as gospel says certified financial planner gaurav mashruwalait will also vary as per the individuals financial discipline for instance a 25year old who allocates 5 of her income towards retirement since her first job and continues to do so will not have to hike her savings as a percentage of income for retirement significantly later says financial planner suresh sadagopan founder ladder7 financial advisories this is because a decent corpus would have been built over time with the power of compounding kicking in but another person who has not made much effort to save for retirement will need to start saving aggressively in the forties he addsthe young and restlessthe pleasure twitterati derived out of ridiculing the retirement savings piece seems to reinforce the unflattering perception about millennialsthose born after the year 1980 and broadly youngstersas a generation bred on a diet of consumerism with little appetite for savings given that many in this generation maintain an expensive lifestyle dotted with gadgets eating out rent education loan emis and sundry living expenses retirement planning is generally not high on their agenda even for the prudent ones retirement understandably seems years away and imminent goals like buying a house or a car or saving for a lavish wedding are likely to command a larger share of savings in the initial working yearsso realistically speaking how much should the younger lot allocate towards their retirement goals you should start with saving a particular portion of your salary rather than targeting a figure of say double your salary at a particular age says sadagopan a good ballpark figure for a 25year old individual is 5 they should look to save at least 5 of their income specifically for retirement the period for which your savings stay invested is more important than the actual amount saved the key is to