The ideal way to plan for retirement is to invest early. Longer the tenure, higher the compounding benefits. A monthly C of Rs 20,000 for 30 years at a growth rate of 12 per cent can build a corpus of Rs 7 crore. A delay of five years, the corpus reduces to Rs 3.76 crore (46 per cent less) with just a reduction of Rs 12 lakh in total investment.