Most people don’t like to think about retirement planning as it makes them nervous. Remember that retirement planning refers to learning about your financial options and choosing financial strategies that can help you to live a secure and comfortable life during your retirement.
A good retirement plan that is smartly executed can offer you enough funds to cover all your future living expenses. But you need to start preparing for your retirement early so that you can save enough money. You can use a simple retirement calculator to determine the amount of cash you have to save for your retirement. This post explains the key retirement tips for every age.
Under age 50
You need to know the direction you intend to talk before you decide to plan for your retirement. Therefore, you need to think about your expected lifestyle in the future and what you desire to do when you quit working. You cannot get advice for retirement too early or envision your retirement too soon. Even if you think that your goals may change in the long run, you have to start thinking about your retirement. When you know what you want to do, you can figure out the amount of money you need to do it. You can use a retirement calculator to determine the amount of money that you may need.
With people living longer and rising retirement costs, there is a good chance that you may need a lot of cash in retirement. Therefore, you need to save enough money during your working years. You can save about 15 percent of your gross pay or increase your retirement savings when you have a pay raise.
Keep in mind that there are also other tax-savvy options to save for retirement. You can decide to open a Roth IRA which allows you to have after-tax savings as well as tax-free withdrawals once you meet certain conditions. Besides, this can also assist you to hedge against future tax increases.
Another great option is to consider a traditional IRA which can assist you to broaden your retirement savings plan. It also gives you control over your investment options. An IRA can allow you to have access to investment options, such as real estate investments and municipal bonds.
You also need to grow your retirement investments by allocating your investments between several assets, such as bonds, stocks, and cash. Spreading your investments across many asset types and sectors can assist to soften the huge effects of market fluctuations.
Age between 50 and 64
This is the right time to start planning for your dream retirement. You need to contact your financial advisor to get specific information on how to plan for your retirement. Because you are close to retirement, you need to make sure that you start thinking tactically so that your goals and dreams become your retirement reality.
When you approach your retirement, you need to save as much as you can. Therefore, make sure that you max out contributions to your retirement account, including making any catch-up contribution to your IRA and 401 (k). During this age group, you can tuck away an additional 401 (k) catch-up cash to assist you to meet your retirement goals.
By now, there is also a chance that you may have at least 3 or more retirement accounts. Unfortunately, it can be a huge challenge to invest properly and manage several accounts. It may be a good idea to consolidate before you retire so that you can effectively and easily use your funds when needed. You need to work with your financial advisor to figure out the right plan of action for your several accounts and begin preparing for the right strategy on how you can benefit from them during retirement.
It’s also crucial to think about healthcare costs. Healthcare costs can be high during retirement, and Medicare usually covers a part of the costs. Also, you should also work with your financial advisor to determine how you cover all health-related expenses in retirement. It makes sense to fund a health savings account. Keep in mind that some employers usually offer them as a component of their health plans, though you can also decide to set one yourself, especially if you purchase individual health insurance.
You should also speak with your financial advisor about the money you may need during retirement so that you can figure out whether or not to begin planning for it now. You can also consider some strategies like getting an annuity that offers a steady income stream during your lifetime or even adjusting your investments.
Age 65+
You need to review your retirement goals, so you have to continue meeting your financial advisor to check your retirement goals as well as assess your position. In most cases, your financial advisor can assist you to make some adjustments to align with your retirement needs.
If you want to withdraw some money from your retirement savings account, you need to take out up to 4 percent per year. Quite often, unexpected expenses can affect your plans, so you need your financial advisor to help you to establish a spending plan.
Also, you should understand the various taxable and tax-deferred accounts so that you can figure out the taxes you owe. This also helps to ensure that your money can exist for as long as you do. It’s usually a good idea to use taxable savings before you decide to utilize tax-advantages retirement accounts.
A common mistake most retirees make is to shift a significant part of their assets to fixed-income investments and cash. You may consider investing conservatively as you get older, but because you have less time to recover from downturns in the markets; you cannot allow your investment portfolio to get so risk-averse that it is affected by inflation. Take note that retirement can often last at least 30 years, so make sure that your retirement savings last. Therefore, you should prepare for the long run. To be more prepared, you can secure long-term coverage that may pay for the services you might need or even set up an annuity so that you can protect your retirement income.
