To retire rich, don't leave too much to your kids

The retirement plan of Indians, like struggling middle-class people everywhere, now leans on spending on the education of their teenagers

Like self-improvement books, the purpose of pension adequacy surveys is to make us feel lousy about ourselves. 

Lousy and scared: We haven’t saved enough because we’re myopic and lack self-control. We don’t have a retirement plan, and it’s getting late. That next avocado toast may deny our future selves a pair of reading glasses. 

And the nagging chases us right into our graves. At the back of our minds, there's always the guilt that we should be leaving something — actually, a lot — to our children. Yet, after you throw in the bequest motive, the avocado toast is truly