Investment Options For Senior Citizens

Investment Options For Senior Citizens

- Anil Chopra

In India, senior citizen is defined as a person who has attained the age of 60 years. By this definition, there are more than 10 crore senior citizens in India as of now. Senior citizen may include a 61-year-old retired railway employee earning pension or even an 80 year old practicing advocate earning six figure income every month. Thus, within the vast universe of senior citizens, needs, goals, risk taking appetite, time horizon and tax bracket may differ from person to person and hence different investment options will have to be evaluated to select the appropriate scheme.

  Generally speaking, while choosing a suitable investment option, following factors have to be kept in mind, namely, risk factors, time horizon, liquidity requirement and tax implications etc. We share below some of the popular investment options being frequently used by senior citizens for meeting their specific requirements.

1. Senior Citizens Savings Scheme This is the first choice of lakhs of senior citizens who are looking for higher assured returns as compared to Bank deposits and who are in either zero tax bracket or 10% tax bracket. This is a sovereign, risk-free fixed interest option for a period of 5 years and currently the interest rate being offered is 8.30% pa. Interest is paid quarterly. This scheme is exclusively for senior citizens, however, there is an upper cap on investment amount which is currently Rs.15 lakhs per senior citizen.