2. Not investing in equities: Many people are risk averse and shy away from investing in equity. They think that they will lose all their money when the markets tank. Others pull out money from SIPs when the markets perform badly. Not investing in equity will have disastrous consequences in the long run. Investing in equity can help you build a much larger corpus in retirement compared to investing in fixed return investments like fixed deposits. A simple example will explain the point. Let us assume that returns from equities are 12 per cent per annum and return from fixed deposits are 8 per cent per annum. If you are saving Rs 10,000 every month for 25 years the corpus that is built is Rs 59,29,472 in case you invest in fixed deposits and Rs 99,91,479 if you invest in equities. Your investments will have to be have to be made according to a proper asset allocation, but exposure to equities is a must, more so during the early years of your work life.