Mr. Paul Mante, one of the country’s foremost financial experts and also the Managing Director of EDC Investments Ltd has urged all employers to provide financial orientation to their employees from the first day on the job.

This, according to the expert, is to allow employees to appropriately plan for their retirement and protect themselves against unanticipated hardships.

“I recommend that companies who care about employees should add financial planning to orientation. So, from day one, when you [employers] are hiring people, orient them about retirement, because it makes it easy for the employee to have a great retirement.”
Mr. Paul Mante

Mr. Mante added that people typically start planning for retirement “when they are in their 50s.” However, starting to plan for retirement at a younger age, according to him, is the best approach because it requires less investment than starting later in life.

The Managing Director used examples to emphasize the necessity of investing at a young age rather than waiting until they are nearing retirement age to begin planning for retirement.

“We have 20 years from 40 to 60 to plan for a retirement of 25 years. If a person makes an investment with a seed of GH₵50,000, his monthly withdrawal will be ₵26,910. Now this person needs to commit GH₵1,495 every month. But assuming he started investing at age 30, his commitment would drop from ₵1,495 to ₵361 and still make a monthly withdrawal of GH₵69,798.”

Paul added that “if the person had started at 26 years, he would be making a monthly withdrawal of GH₵102,000 and be depositing GH₵99 a month.”

“The younger you are, the easier it becomes to plan for your retirement. It’s not rocket science. If you don’t do it this year but wait till 2033, you’re putting more pressure on yourself.”
Mr. Paul Mante

Children Serving As Retirement Plan Can Be Disappointing

Mr. Mante advised parents who plan to rely on their children for financial support after retirement to reconsider their plans because they may be disappointed.

Because of their own personal responsibilities, the Managing Director suggested that children (now adults) are not a trustworthy source of support during retirement.

“During old age, you may not have the energy to work and you cannot depend on your children. some [children] may genuinely want to help, they are not capable of helping because they are people who are in their 30s and are still struggling to find their feet.

“Gone are the days when people said my retirement plan is my children; I’m taking care of my children so they take care of me during old age. Things are changing very quickly and if your children are your retirement plan you may get disappointed.”
Mr. Paul Mante

Paul also urged workers to make lifestyle changes and maintain financial discipline from 2022 and beyond. Although keeping financially disciplined can be tough, the MD maintained that it is feasible to do so by creating and sticking to a budget.

“And the point about the discipline is that making money is hard and being poor and struggling with finances is hard but you have to choose your hard.”
Mr. Paul Mante