Strapped for cash? Dip into your EPF corpus only as the last resort

Sell off investments that you possess in a manner that your asset allocation is maintained

The financial hardship unleashed by the Covid-19 crisis — job losses, severe salary cuts, high medical expenses, etc — have led many subscribers of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) to withdraw money from their accounts. According to media reports, 80 lakh subscribers of the EPFO have withdrawn Rs 30,000 crore between April and the third week of July — an amount higher than the outgo usually seen over similar periods. 

On March 28, the Labour Ministry had issued a notification that allowed people to withdraw money from their EPF account to deal with the Covid crisis. Given EPF’s significance