Everyone has a different financial goal, some trying to fulfill the dream of buying a new home, or funding a child's education or saving up for that perfect European trip. While every person’s wealth creation goals are different, one common goal is retirement. Unlike buying a home, funding education, or upgrading lifestyles, retirement has no loan option, no EMI workaround, and no second chance. It demands discipline, patience, and long-term thinking.
The latest episode of Simple Hai! was all about that. Kurian Jose, CEO of Tata Pension Fund spoke to Vivek Law, editor-in-chief of Simple Hai!, sharing that India’s NPS subscriber base crossed 9 crore subscribers by October 2025, with combined AUM, including Atal Pension Yojana, surpassing ₹16 lakh crore. The subscriber mix spans government employees, corporate workers, self-employed individuals, and even participants from the informal economy such as gig workers and farmers.
Yet, in a country of over 140 crore people, 9 crore subscribers are not enough, especially when India is staring at a future where nearly 30% of its population could be senior citizens by 2050. The math is clear: personal retirement planning is no longer optional.
Mutual Funds VS NPS: Which To Pick?
One of the most common debates in personal finance is Mutual Funds vs NPS. According to Jose, this framing itself is flawed. According to Jose, Mutual Funds are excellent vehicles for short and medium-term goals like buying a house, children’s education, or wealth creation with liquidity. But retirement is a different goal altogether. It requires a system that protects money not just from market volatility, but also from human behaviour.
That is the primary use case of NPS. NPS is not designed to be flexible. It is designed to be effective. Its structure forces long-term discipline, ensuring that money meant for retirement stays invested until age 60, when it is actually needed. In Jose’s words, while you can take loans for consumption and assets, “no one gives you a loan for retirement.” So, the answer to mutual funds vs NPS as Jose puts it, ‘you need both it isn’t about either or.’
Lock-in: A Feature, Not a Flaw
For young earners, the biggest resistance to NPS is its lock-in period. A 25-year-old finds it difficult to commit money for a goal that is three decades away. Jose acknowledges this behavioural reality, but argues that this is exactly why NPS works.
NPS creates what he calls a “positive disincentive”. Contributions are often deducted directly from salary, meaning the money is invested before it reaches your spending account. This removes temptation, impulsive withdrawals, and the tendency to pause investments during volatile markets. In an era dominated by instant gratification, NPS enforces delayed gratification, and could just be its biggest strength.
The Cost Advantage
NPS fund management charges are as low as 9 basis points (0.09%). Even after accounting for transaction and distribution costs, the total expense typically remains between 15–20 basis points. Over a 25–30 year investment horizon, this cost difference can translate into a 20–30% higher retirement corpus, purely due to the power of compounding.
Ironically, this ultra-low cost structure is also why fewer people were encouraged to choose NPS. Jose and Law together highlighted that financial distributors had little incentive to push a product that paid commissions as low as 1 basis point, especially when higher-margin products like insurance or PMS were available.
To address this, regulators have introduced a Multi-Scheme Framework (MSF) allowing total costs to go up to 30 basis points, with up to 21 basis points passed on to distributors, still low-cost for investors, but sustainable for advisors.
NPS Is Evolving With India
Today NPS is very different from what it was when launched in 2004 as a mandatory pension scheme for government employees.
Key regulatory changes have made it far more inclusive and flexible:
• Investors can now opt for up to 100% equity exposure
• Proposed shorter vesting periods (15 years) under MSF reduce the psychological distance to retirement
• NPS Vatsalya allows parents to start retirement accounts for children from birth
• Special initiatives have expanded coverage to gig workers, platform workers, and farmers
Patience Over Shortcuts
Addressing trends like FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early), Jose offers a grounded perspective. While early retirement may work for a small minority, for most people, with rising life expectancy nearing 90, it is unrealistic without extraordinary income or inheritance.
The bigger challenge, he believes, is impatience. SIPs have brought millions into equity markets, but emotional reactions during downturns continue to derail long-term plans. For retirement, short-term noise is irrelevant. What matters is consistency, cost efficiency, and time.
The Bottom Line
NPS is not exciting. It is not flexible. And it does not promise quick wins. What it does offer is discipline, low cost, tax efficiency, and long-term certainty, all essential ingredients for retirement planning in a country where institutional safety nets are limited. With over 9 crore subscribers, NPS has proven its relevance. But as Jose’s insights make clear, India needs many more participants to truly secure its retirement future.
Start early. Stay invested. Let compounding do the heavy lifting. Sometimes, retirement planning really is Simple Hai!
