When you start with your first job in your 20s, chances are retirement will be the last thing on your list and for some, it might not even be on the list. Most people consider retirement planning as an exercise that should start in their 40s. But let me tell you it is never too early to start preparing yourself for a future of financial independence. In fact the more you delay this, the more difficult it gets for you to live your dream retirement life. The best time to start planning for retirement is the day you get your first paycheck.

Planning for retirement at the start of your career has a whole lot of benefits that would make your life easy. It includes planning for your life goals, building a good habit of savings, and keeping a check on your expenses.

Here are some benefits for you to start working on this as soon as today:

1. Life Planning - In the course of planning your retirement you will have to plan for your other important life events too like marriage, buying a house, child education, etc. It will help you live your life with a planned approach.

2. Keep a check on your expenses - There are countless apps available to help you track your spending and income. Seeing exactly how much money you have coming in and out of your wallet will help you make smarter financial decisions.

3. Accumulating savings - One of the most important benefits is that you get the habit of savings right from your first salary. You will invest a certain portion in mutual funds, NPS, etc. towards your retirement goal. Your goal should be to live on only 80% of your income. The additional 20% should be put away into some form of savings or investments.

4. Power of Compounding - It's far easier to grow money over 40 years compared to 10 because you get returns on every next rupee you make each day. It leads to the exponential growth of wealth over a period of time. For example, if you invest Rs 10 lakh today in mutual funds and assume an average return of 10%, its value in 10 years would be approx Rs 26 lakh whereas in 40 years it would be Rs 4.5 crore.

Corpus required for Retirement

Monthly investment requires to build corpus