You might be tired of hearing it, but you know it’s true: You need to start saving for retirement now. If you start saving for retirement today instead of delaying it for a few years, you could add thousands of dollars to your retirement savings.
But perhaps you’re already setting money aside for your golden years. The only problem is you don’t know if how much you’re saving is actually enough to last you throughout retirement. If that’s the case, here are nine red flags that indicate you need to ramp up your savings efforts. Read more
4% Rule? How To Draw Down Your Retirement Savings
Saving for retirement is challenging, no doubt. But if you want to know what’s really tricky, consider spending that money in retirement. Retirees in the past often relied on a simple rule for retirement income: Draw down 4 percent of your savings every year and you will be all set. But the retirement landscape has changed.
For one thing, people are living longer, and their money has to last all that time. One in four people who are 65 years old today will live to age 90, and one in 10 will live to 95.
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6 Habits of Successful Retirees
Creating good, healthy habits in retirement creates a fruitful, rich and rewarding retirement.
Habits can be measured in many ways, what we eat, how often we exercise, saving money for retirement every month. However, not all habits will bring you down a path toward financial stability. Listed below are 6 habits of successful retirees that can help you with retirement:
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4 Ways To Jump-Start Your Savings
Struggling to catch up? Here’s how to get your nest egg back on track
Saving for retirement is a lot like dieting. We all know what we should be doing, but actually doing it is hard. It’s much easier to make excuses.
We’re busy. We have responsibilities—to children, to older parents—that compete with our ability to set aside money for our later years. What’s more, wages have stagnated in recent years while the cost of living has continued to climb.
The numbers bear out the challenge: More than half of workers report they have less than $25,000 in total household savings and investments, excluding their home and any pension plans, according to the 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey by the Employee Benefit Research Institute. To be sure, not all of those surveyed had access to retirement plans, and some had incomes low enough to make saving difficult.
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Tax-Advantaged Retirement Plan Options
When it comes to your retirement, you shouldn’t settle. Your retirement is your responsibility, and if your company’s plan is insufficient or nonexistent, you’ve got to find a way to make up for it.
Fortunately, you can solve the problem by turning to the other tax-advantaged investment options: individual retirement accounts (IRAs), SEP-IRAs or Keoghs (for the self-employed) or, in some situations, variable annuities. Here’s a breakdown of how each option works:
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Married Couples & Social Security
Married couples have the most flexibility when it comes to claiming Social Security benefits. Knowing when and how to collect benefits can increase a couple’s lifetime retirement income by $100,000 or more.
Pitfalls of Postponing Retirement
Thinking about working beyond normal retirement age? Think twice.
Concerned you have not saved enough for retirement? Working longer and postponing retirement may solve several concerns – employed people continue to earn income and have a longer time frame to build their nest egg; also, during the time they are working, they are not drawing down funds from that nest egg as they would if they were retired. The third advantage comes if they decide to delay collecting Social Security benefits. An individual who waits until age 70, for example, collects an extra 32% in benefits compared with someone claiming Social Security at their normal retirement age of 66. On paper, it looks like a good idea. The problem is that for many people, life doesn’t work out according to plan.
Retirement Planning for 20 to 35 Year Olds
If you are in your 20’s, chances are you are most likely not thinking about retirement or financial stability. While it may be very difficult to shift focus on future financial planning, the sooner you begin to take small steps in this direction, the more secure and stable your future will be. Get a good start with these very easy and smart planning tips.
Retirement Planning for 35 to 50 Year Olds
Financially speaking your 30’s and 40’s can be key years to setting up a solid financial and retirement plan. Although it may still seem early to be thinking about retirement, your future, financial health will begin to take shape now. This shouldn’t scare you but encourage and excite you as you look toward the future. Consider financial planning as a road map to financial freedom.
Retirement Planning for 50 to 65 Year Olds
By the time you reach your 50s or 60s its a good time to realistically evaluate your current circumstances. Be honest with your responses so that you can make the required financial and lifestyle adjustments as you prepare for retirement. Take a look at your asset portfolio, review your estate plan, which should include a Will, a durable Power of Attorney and a Living Will just in case you are unable to make these decisions. Legal documents like financial planning, need to be updated as changes occur in your life and it’s always recommended to consult an attorney.