Age Needn't Make You Wary Of Investments

You need to be aware of your investment options and how you can break down your goal into smaller, achievable steps.

- Balwant Jain

As interest rates decline and costs of living rise over the past 15 years, senior citizens are hard hit for good investment options. Fixed deposits rates have come down to 6.5-7% levels. As such, aged investors are only left with avenues that fetch better returns than bank fixed deposits, while not eroding their capital. Let us examine two such schemes — the Senior Citizen Saving Scheme (SCSS), launched in 2004 and the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojna, launched by the Life Insurance Corporation of India in May 2017.

Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS)

Who can invest?

All individuals aged over 60 can open an SCSS account in a post office or with a bank, which is authorised to open a public provident fund (PPF) accounts. The SCSS account can be held individually or jointly with your spouse (As the amount deposited under this scheme is calculated only with reference to the first or sole holder, your spouse need not have completed 60 years for being a joint holder). One can also borrow money to invest in the scheme. However, non-resident Indians (NRIs) or person of Indian origin (PIO), cannot invest in this scheme.

As being above 60 years of age is a basic criterion, one cannot open SCSS in the name of a Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). There are age relaxations in some cases, though. Investors who have taken voluntary retirement can open an account if they are aged above 55. Similarly, age restrictions are not applicable to retired defence personnel as well. However, for availing the relaxation of age limit you need to open the account within one month from the date of receipt of your retirement money (with proof of its disbursal with a certificate from the employer with details of your retirement period and related benefits). Moreover, you can invest your retirement corpus only. If you have exhausted it for any other purpose, then you cannot benefit from the age relaxation.