5 Regular Income Schemes For Senior Citizens: When you reach the retirement age of 60, there are chances that your income sources deplete at that age, but your daily expenses remain. They may decrease, but you need some money every month to cover your daily expenses. Financial freedom also means that you have to be self-dependent at every stage of your life so that you don’t have to depend on others. There are many guaranteed and market-linked investment schemes where you can invest and get a return to get a regular income and run your daily expenses. Some of them are here-
Senior Citizen Savings Scheme (SCSS)
It is a post office scheme where you can invest one-time up to a maximum of Rs 30 lakh and get quarterly income in the form of interest. The guaranteed return scheme offers 8.2 per cent annual interest. Retired civilian employees over 60 years of age can apply for the scheme with a minimum investment of Rs 1,000. The scheme provides income for five years. The account can be extended for up to three years after maturity. Deposits in the scheme qualify for tax benefits under Section 80C of the Income Tax Act, 1961.
RBI Floating Rate Bonds
These RBI bonds offer an 8.05 per cent annual interest rate and have a lock-in period of 7 years. The interest rate is subject to change. The minimum deposit in the scheme is Rs 1,000, while there is no maximum limit. The interest on the bonds is payable semi-annually on January 1 and July 1 of every year. The interest earned is taxable, but bonds are exempt from wealth-tax under the Wealth Tax Act, 1957.
National Savings Monthly Income Account (MIS)
This is a post office scheme where one can have a single or a joint account. In a single account, one can make a one-time deposit of up to Rs 9 lakh, while in a joint account, they can deposit up to Rs 15 lakh. The scheme offers 7.4 per cent interest payable monthly. In a single account, one can get up to Rs 5,550 in monthly income, while in a joint account, the maximum monthly income is Rs 9,250.
Systematic Withdrawal Plans (SWP)
It is a way to systematically withdraw your money from a mutual fund. Here, you deposit a lump sum amount in a mutual fund scheme and withdraw a predetermined amount every month from that. You get compound growth on your deposit, so if your withdrawal rate is lower than your growth rate, you can withdraw your monthly income for decades from that.
Fixed Deposit (FD)
Banks, small banks, and post offices run fixed deposit schemes. There are special schemes and FDs starting from 1 year. Deposits in a 5-year FD also qualify for Section 80C tax benefits. One can make a lump sum deposit in an FD scheme and get interest annually. FD holders can also request that banks deposit interest in their accounts every month or quarter. This is a guaranteed return scheme where you get the principal amount back on maturity.
