IRJMSH Vol 12 Issue 8 [Year 2021] ISSN 2277 – 9809 (0nline) 2348–9359 (Print) International Research Journal of Management Sociology & Humanities ( IRJMSH ) Page 169 www.irjmsh.com Retirement Planning and Investment Awareness of Government College Teachers: A Study Dr. Dinesh S. Kanwar, Associate Professor of English, Government College, Arki, District Solan, H.P. (INDIA) Email: kanwardineshsingh@gmail.com, hyphenjournal@gmail.com Dr. Rajeev Kumar, Assistant Professor of Commerce, Government College, Chaura Maidan, Shimla, H.P. (INDIA) Email: drrajeevsharma13@gmail.com Abstract Retirement planning aims at establishing an income goal and gathering information about its potential sources at retirement. In a financial context, it refers to the process of making monetary provision for retirement. Retirement planning is an essential part of an individual’s financial planning. Thus the awareness about retirement planning is a must for every individual. As teachers are considered to be an important asset to a nation, their wellbeing as well as quality of life should be safeguarded. By taking this as the background, the present study makes an attempt to analyze the level of awareness among government college teachers about retirement planning and various investment avenues, and their preferences and considerations for investing money. This paper aims at evaluating the relevance of demographic and psychological factors that influence the investment behaviour with a focus on retirement financial planning and different investment avenues with special reference to Shimla district of Himachal Pradesh. The study is based on primary as well as secondary data. The data has been collected through a structured questionnaire given to 100 teachers in different government colleges in Shimla district. The research infers that majority of the teachers are saving money, resorting to the traditional investment avenues, believing the same to be safer, considering unpredictable contingencies in the future. These main avenues of investment are general provident fund (GPF), mutual fund, bank deposits, followed by gold, public provident fund (PPF) and the main purpose of investment is education of children, buying property, risk coverage and security after retirement. Key Words: Retirement, Planning, Investment avenues, Investment awareness, College teachers 1. INTRODUCTION In today’s world, earning money is more difficult a task for everyone than spending money. Therefore, it goes without saying that everyone needs to work hard for earning money. India is one of fastest growing economies in the world. Proper funds are needed for economic development of the country. So the economic growth of a country is very much dependent on the savings of individuals. So the savings are not only beneficial to individuals, but also for the economy as a whole. Nowadays, people tend to save money rather than to spend. Individuals engage themselves in various economic activities to earn and spend money―to meet their respective daily needs like buying groceries, clothes, etc. and paying school fees, medical bills etc. Generally, people keep a small portion of earned money to meet the future needs, because the future is uncertain in nature. The future needs include higher education and marriage of their wards, security after retirement, medical/ hospital expenses, and buying a house etc. Thus some people have the habit of saving a part of their earnings, to deposit money in banks or in buying shares, mutual funds, property, and gold. By involving themselves in aforementioned savings, they are able to generate some extra earning for them. Savings refers to the sum of money, which is kept aside from the income for future use. This is done when a person tries to cut the unwanted expenditure and saves more and more money; later on, he or she invests the same further to meet future expenses and unexpected contingencies or emergencies, to raise the standard of living, and to