The scientists and doctors are doing their job. They're extending life expectancy far beyond what we've learnt to adapt to. If you're an Indian aged 60 now, you can expect to live till 75. If you're 40 now, you'd be 60 by 2022-and still have some 20 years to live after that. Yes, they're doing their job alright. Pfizer is even running an ad campaign depicting the mellow joys of aged existence.

The point is: are you doing yours?

Those joys are just one prospective picture, amongst many gloomier alternatives. The retired are stoic about it, but the fact is, it's quite a heavy blow to suddenly find your earning-capacity, something taken so long for granted, vanish suddenly. Almost as if you're not needed anymore (...well?).

It's not a nice time to face unfaced realities. For those who've whistled through their careers, with a 'take-it-as-it-comes' fatalism, the very feeling of helplessness and dependency can be acutely depressing.

Looking to the state for succour is not an option in India. And the pace of change is not easing the anxiety. Children, busy with their own lives, aren't the devoted sort any more. The cost of medical treatment, dirt cheap so far, could reach global levels in a decade. Job security is declining, and with the job market displaying a distinct youth-preference, the typical career-span is getting crunched, with some people being laid off long before they've greyed. On top of all that, there's inflation risk. The rupee's ability to act as a 'store of value' remains suspect so long as public finances are going awry. Governments, you see, don't win crowds over by caring for the few who subsist on savings. And 20 years is a lo'oong time (remember the price of petrol in 1982?).

If it's any comfort, everyone will be old some day-an incentive for collective attention to be focused on the subject. As things stand, you're on your own. So the time to start is now. No matter how young you are, get going-plan your retirement. "The earlier you start," says Nikhil Mehta, CEO, Basic Financial Services, a Mumbai-based retail financial advisory firm, "the less amount you need to save." The cost of postponing retirement plans can be high. Take a simple case. If you start saving Rs 10,000 annually from the age of 25 to 34, you'd get Rs 19 lakh at 60, assuming a compounded interest of 10 per cent per annum. If you save the same money from 35 to 59, you get only Rs 11 odd lakh. "The longer your money is allowed to grow at a compounded rate, the more dramatic will the difference be eventually," says Nikhil Khattau, CEO, Sun F&C Mutual Fund.

But even that may not be good enough, if inflation runs in the 3-10 per cent range. Planning doesn't mean stashing money into a fixed deposit, by and by. It means making hard estimates of requirements, back-calculating from that, and then using all the financial tools available to hit the target.

If maintaining your peak-income lifestyle is the goal, then there's just one sure way to do it: create a portfolio of 'assets' that will periodically give you rising-with-inflation 'returns'-over and above the assets' own market value (which ought to be rising too, though these should never need liquidation, ideally, except to make a major capital purchase).

A car, for example, is not an asset because it doesn't give returns. Nor is a house you live in, though its value at least appreciates. Treat these as basic must-haves. You could use the money you'd otherwise pay as rent to pay off a home loan. It is also advisable to have around 2-6 months' salary kept aside as 'liquid assets' (cash, FDs or money market mutual funds) that can be used for contingency expenses.

Next comes your actual asset portfolio. The best is one that's linked intrinsically to the pattern of economic progress, and is able to adapt itself to the times. In real terms, this means owning equity in wealth-generating firms of the future, and reasonably risk-free debt. The actual investment mix depends on your risk-appetite. If you're younger, you'd want shares in software companies, perhaps, and high-return private sector debentures.

As you age, you'd want to shift towards the safer side, opting for PPF, government bonds, and postal deposits. Equity will remain valuable because, as Mehta says, it is the best way to beat inflation.

Mutual funds are designed to cater to a wide variety of such financial needs. You get equity schemes, debt-equity balanced schemes, debt schemes and even Index-linked and sector-specific options. Insurance is the other instrument you can't ignore, says Saugata Gupta, head of marketing, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, which offers four retirement plans to choose from, each designed to meet varied needs. "LIC's Jeevan Akshay and Jeevan Dhara are particularly popular insurance plans with the pension factor built in," says Mehta.

LIC's Jeevan Suraksha is popular because it offers '100-per cent tax deduction under Section 80c'. And tax-saving matters. In tax-deferred instruments, you pay a lump tax on maturity, and on FDs, you pay on interest income every year. But you can get an endowment insurance scheme that escapes tax at both ends.

What you don't escape, is ageing. Make the most of the time you have till you get there.