Apart from his house he has a liquid net worth or Rs. 67 lakhs. This has to pull him through 2 daughter’s education, their weddings and his old age. He has one house in the South – where his parents are staying – and his father is only 78..and hence, theoretically he can stay for say another 15 years or thereabouts. So the NW calculation has ignored both the houses.

Sadly he is unable to reduce his expenses – and he is more in a state of denial. He has sounded out a few people – his education qualification and experience are both impressive, but he is unable to find a job. Salary compromise he is happy to do, but he still does not have an interview lined up. His elder daughter is planning to do her MBA abroad – and this man has no heart to say he cannot fund it.

His return on his LIC policies is pretty poor – it makes sense for him to surrender them – he has a term insurance enough to cover the home loan – maybe he could take more SOON before the job is lost. If he pays of 30 lakhs of the home loan and if he pushes hard the interest rate could also be brought down asap. As a family they are unable to reduce their expenses – eating out, vacations, etc…are just the same – as if the job is still there. This of course has to stop….but a person of this age should know this. It is not the job of a financial planner to comment on the life style expenses of a client.

Many people have commented about children being in school when he is 53 years of age – his elder daughter is in college and second daughter is in class 12 – and sounds perfectly normal today.

He has no choice, but to dramatically cut down on his expenses…tell his children to get realistic about his education budget..and ask his wife to dramatically downsize the wedding of the children. Sadly, I do not think he can do it.

He has to sell the house and shift to a smaller rented house – and that will put some cash in his hands. Post indexation, there will be no Income tax to pay. I said ‘if you had not bought this house, you would have had more cash in investments’. His wife said ‘if we had not bought this house, we may have spent more’. Clearly when I say ‘do not buy a house, I mean that extra money should go into equities’. However if you are going to spend that money or keep it in bank fixed deposits, you might as well buy a house.

He will have to withdraw from his equity investment when it is good OR he will have to withdraw when he MUST – and that can be painful.

He has to find himself a job – but that is easier said than done. Very remote chances of a 53 year old being able to find a job in such a demanding market.

Well, frankly I have no clue what he will do…….but whatever he does, it will be a struggle…

 

  1. Me n my husband faced joblessness multiple times – though for short period.
    That’s why I concentrate on paying my housing loan as much as I can and then think of any other investment.

    Pls. give interview for any part of india – do not concentrate for location only where you are staying. This is what I had done for me.

    It will at least ensure you have interviews lined up and you know what kind of questionaires will be there. It’s difficult to crack interview in first go. Later on you can decide whetehr you want to join in any other location or not.
    Kids must know that they have to fund their own education for higher studies. If we know the profile of person – we could forward resume around. Contact is important – it’s not just skillset that sells in market.

  2. in his case..

    1. Court marriage of his kids is a must. I think no one should spend more than 2 lakh on a wedding, since its a very very stupid thing to do. You earn all your life and spend 50% of your available cash to please relatives and kids for 6 hours! totally not cool.
    2. Finding a job shouldnt be difficult, finding a relevant job might be difficult. My father in law has found jobs at the age of 17, 43, 58 and 68. As Sangita ma’am mentioned, it need not be in the current city.
    3. not sure about selling the house – but he can initiate the process as it would take atleast 6 months to sell it and things might improve.

    so basically – he shouldnt stress – he has worked hard all his life and now he needs to tell his elder daughter to start working and think about the MBA at a later date and at her own expense. This is a time to be strong and not fall into emotional traps.

    Hope i make sense 🙂

  3. Subra,

    You seem to like writing negative articles which instills fear in people.

    Common , cheer up. After all, life is not only about money, it is beyond that.

  4. Subra,

    You seem to like writing negative articles which instills fear in people.

    Come on , cheer up. After all, life is not only about money, it is beyond that.

  5. Tough situation to be in.
    Sadly most people dont realise it until its very late to survive without cutting off a limb.

    But from personal experience i think he should accept the situation and talk to his family, explain them that sacrifices will have to be made. Only way to get through this is to cut down on expenses of all kind. The family will understand and i am sure support it.

    I am sure.

  6. he should not wait and act quickly.
    1 reduce your expenses like eating out, buying new items,any random expenses.
    2 sell your house.
    3 Keep your portfolio intact and invest the money into debt funds after selling house.
    4 you have 3 more months to look for new job or think of an idea to start a startup (you can save tax for 3 years too and get funding too)
    5 if thinking of starting something of your own , move to tier 2/3 city ,this will reduce your expenses by 20-30 % due to low rent,daily expense,travelling cost,good health,good network,low experienced people in tier 2/3 city so less competition and many.
    6 believe in your experience you are a champ.

  7. In the future if he is independent (ie no job) then one of the most important things he needs to do is to frame his situation properly. The first question people ask you is “So what do you do?”

    He needs to have a future oriented reply for this tough question. No one wants to know about how many years of experience you have and what you accomplished! If he begins something on his own, power to him.

    What I usually say is “I write and translate, I also volunteer at an NGO. I used to work in pharmaceuticals.”

    Please tell him it takes some time for the dust to settle– upto a year– but things are clearer eventually. It works out okay.

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