Does Your 401k Need Help?
For most Americans who have not started planning for their retirement,individual 401k plans seem like a "good bet". One problem with this approach is the investor's reliance on employer matching for the plan. This might cause an employee to rely too much on the employer and not contribute enough to savings. Nothing will give you a wake up call like using a retirement calculator. You can find them on the internet from a variety of places. Retirement planning is hard, and it isn't something you just throw together without analyzing your needs and wants.
Even if a professional financial planner is helping you, the financial planning process is hard. There are a lot of variables. The age you want to retire at, when you start saving money, how much you save, and the interest rate you earn are just some of the many considerations you have to think about. One of the biggest concerns may be your health when entering retirement and how long you live after you retire.
Government inflation of the money supply also means you have to account for inflation. That can be hard to do. There are many retirement calculators on the internet to help you though. What most of the calculators will show you, however, is that Social Security - for the most part - will not cover very much of your retirement. You will have to save a lot more money to have even a semi-comfortable retirement.
Recent history shows us that the economy will continue to grow, and with an inflation rate of about three to five percent, your investments are both growing and losing value at the same time depending on both of those rates.
$50 a week used to be a "normal" wage. Even during mid-life that level of income had increased to $200 a week. Now, however, you would not even think of trying to live off of $200 a week, let along $50/week.
If you make $500 or $1,000 a week, you can expect a similar phenomenon when you retire. A retirement calculator will show that you should have a retirement nest egg of about $1 million dollars to retire comfortably in 20 or 30 years.
One of the calculators tested showed shocking results: an adult starting with $100,000 adding $4,000 year to that would retire with nearly $900,000 but would end up broke by the time they were 85 years old!
An essential part of managing your existing income is setting aside and investing funds for your retirement. Despite the difficulty of estimating your retirement income and expenditures, there is a wealth of assistance available on the internet to get you started, and professional advisors ready to help when needed.
Even if a professional financial planner is helping you, the financial planning process is hard. There are a lot of variables. The age you want to retire at, when you start saving money, how much you save, and the interest rate you earn are just some of the many considerations you have to think about. One of the biggest concerns may be your health when entering retirement and how long you live after you retire.
Government inflation of the money supply also means you have to account for inflation. That can be hard to do. There are many retirement calculators on the internet to help you though. What most of the calculators will show you, however, is that Social Security - for the most part - will not cover very much of your retirement. You will have to save a lot more money to have even a semi-comfortable retirement.
Recent history shows us that the economy will continue to grow, and with an inflation rate of about three to five percent, your investments are both growing and losing value at the same time depending on both of those rates.
$50 a week used to be a "normal" wage. Even during mid-life that level of income had increased to $200 a week. Now, however, you would not even think of trying to live off of $200 a week, let along $50/week.
If you make $500 or $1,000 a week, you can expect a similar phenomenon when you retire. A retirement calculator will show that you should have a retirement nest egg of about $1 million dollars to retire comfortably in 20 or 30 years.
One of the calculators tested showed shocking results: an adult starting with $100,000 adding $4,000 year to that would retire with nearly $900,000 but would end up broke by the time they were 85 years old!
An essential part of managing your existing income is setting aside and investing funds for your retirement. Despite the difficulty of estimating your retirement income and expenditures, there is a wealth of assistance available on the internet to get you started, and professional advisors ready to help when needed.
About the Author:
Author information: There is only so much information that can be covered in one article. If you would like more detailed information about any aspect of financial planning, please visit David's website.
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