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Retirement income: Systematic withdrawals now win over dividends

An investor's instinct to live off 'income' and not 'touch capital' is a common bias. Understanding it can lead to better, more tax-efficient withdrawal strategies

Retirement Plan, Retirement, Pension
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In his preference for the dividend option, Austin was expressing an old investor instinct. Behavioural economists Hersh Shefrin and Meir Statman described this in their classic 1984 paper on why investors prefer cash dividends. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Harsh Roongta

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I was talking to our client Austin about deploying his retirement corpus. One of our key recommendations was to invest ₹5 crore in the growth option of a balanced fund and systematically withdraw an inflation-adjusted ₹2.5 lakh a month (₹30 lakh in the first year) over the next three decades. Austin understood the risks of using an equity-oriented balanced fund and was comfortable with the withdrawal plan. But he was clear that he preferred the dividend option. His worry was that withdrawing through a systematic withdrawal plan (SWP) in the growth option might, during weaker market phases, eat
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