Millions of people each day wonder if they have enough money to comfortably retire. You have worked practically your whole life; therefore, it is time to relax to do the things that you have always dreamed of.
In order to be able to retire, you need to calculate your retirement savings and make sure that you will continue to have adequate insurance coverage.
Financial freedom for retirement is possible, but it requires planning. The best way to start planning is to save and invest.
Invest in a 401 (k) or Roth IRA, and save more money that you feel that you will need. These investments also have tax advantages. Stocks are a good investment for long-term growth. Many employers have a retirement plan, so it is wise to invest some money in that. It is never too late to start saving, but the sooner, the better.
There are riskier investments with great return, like stocks or even Spread Betting (if it’s legal in your country of residence). In countries like UK, Australia there are various spread betting platforms available for your aggressive investment needs in pre-retirement life.
There are many online calculators in which can assist you with planning for retirement. All you do is enter your age, salary and savings, and the calculator will tell you the age in which you can retire but, no calculator can tell you the accurate amount you need to save before retirement as you’ll never know what you are going to need during retirement.
You can not predict your health, relationship and economic condition including inflation.
Before you retire, you should plan your budget and write down all of your expenses. Some costs, such as clothes for work or gas money to and from work, should be lower. However, you will probably also spend more on hobbies and travelling. It is wise to attempt to live on your retirement income for a few months before actually retiring to see if you can do it.
Keep in mind that the older you get the more medical attention that you will need. Therefore, you need to make sure that you have adequate insurance coverage. Because you will not be working, you cannot receive coverage from your employer; therefore, you need to look online and see what is available.
You can get online cheap insurance quotes to see how much you need to pay for coverage. Online cheap insurance quotes can help you find the best deals, so you are not paying too much.
Before you retire, you need to try to pay off as much of your debt as you can. It would help if you did not have to worry about a mortgage or car payment. Pay off your credit card balances and any other loans that you might have. It is important not to touch your retirement until it is time to retire.
There are many career decisions that could impact your desire to retire. You may be tired of your job and are just running on fumes. With today’s economy, many companies are downsizing, so you might find yourself laid off. In that case, you might want to start contemplating retirement.
If you do not want to be forced to return to work, retirement planning is crucial. Therefore, after you have calculated all of your expenses, including insurance, and have determined that you can comfortably live off your retirement, then you can say that it is time to retire.
You should put equal emphasis on non financial and emotional aspects of post retirement life which include loss of workplace identity. When you retire you miss the social life among colleagues and co workers. A successful retirement requires planning, time and preparation.
Working a few years more allows continued building portfolio while at the same time putting off drawing down from savings.
Having enough money to retire may be important, but planning what you will do after working most of your life is more important! Without a plan, I would probably do nothing. I need to have some structure to survive.
I would rather go without a plan for couple of months. To see how it’s like to live without a set pattern.
Inflation and the tendancy to invest in less agressive investments in retirement will require larger nest eggs, in my opinion. If you or your spouse make it to 60, the chances are one or both living into your 90s.
People use and suggest different formula for calculating how much needed for retirement. I haven’t used all but, I do feel none of them takes care of extreme condition like prolonged illness or after death expenses. I do agree that you need more than what suggested by these calculators.
I want to retire from my current job in 5 years or less and work part time primarily online. I want to keep saving as much as I can and lead a simple life. -Sydney
Personal choice, you want to live simple and fulfilling life. I want to have a life with people around with me leading them. I want to have power, a right power to do good to the society. till I get opportunity to lead people at work i shall continue. If I get a chance to start something on my own…I will stop working for someone else.
You’re right. It comes down to how well you have prepared and planned for retirement by considering all potential unexpected costs after retirement. You can do this by looking into risk management planning as well for your retirement. That’s why it is important to be the ultimate smart planner now and start saving money as much as possible before too late. I think the sooner you start planning for retirement, the sooner you will be able to retire later.
can’t argue much. To the point tips USM!
I think ones definition of retirement is also important to think about – I plan to continue doing the things I love in retirement and many of those things do bring in a trickle of income.
I believe definition of retirement is an act of stopping money earning work. If you think leaving break from day job and using time to write and earn money, that’s not retirement dear..
I respectfully disagree. I think retirement can be anything you make of it. If your hobby happens to be something that can generate an income, consider yourself lucky. For me, retirement means not *having* to work anymore. If I choose to pursue a hobby or even go to an office (preferably one where I only work for myself), I wouldn’t say I’ve broken the retirement rule.
Then again, I’m not there yet, so what do I know. 🙂
I Appreciate your comment and sentiment. The dictionary.com definition of retirement is “removal or withdrawal from service, office, or business”.
Even if it’s your hobby and you enjoy what you are doing, still you are WORKING
It’s true you don’t know what health problems you may have in the future. I had cancer & came back from it just fine. It did leave me a bit weaker than before and that continues for me 8 years later. My husband got laid off during my cancer treatments and did not go back to a job. He was 61 and took early retirement. We’ve been living on about 60% of our pre-retirement income and it’s been fine. We get to do a bit of travel and pursue our hobbies. We help out our kids and see friends. We haven’t had to touch our 401K yet, but we lost about 50% of it in the market downturn. We hope to leave it alone as long as possible.
Only few people have courage to survive in your situation. Very well done Maggie I adore you. That’s wonderful news that you haven’t touched 401(k) and still have income 60% of pre retirement income. Do not touch 401k yet, let it recover the lost value unless you absolutely need that money. Do you work?
Deciding when to retire if you’re single is a fairly simple matter. But if you’re married, you must consider how much each spouse has contributed to Social Security, your relative ages, and the health of each partner.
Experts say that lower earning spouse should claim benefits early or on schedule, and the higher earning spouse should claim benefits as late as possible, and no sooner than full retirement age.
For many of us, remaining in the workplace past age 67 is a choice we will make because we simply enjoy what we do for a living. We will view maintaining a productive role in our companies and the daily interactions with our co-workers as a benefit that’s hard to resist.
Believe it or not, I mentioned in the past. I like leading people and I love being surrounded by people. I am not looking for early retirement.
When I initially commented I clicked the -Notify me when new feedback are added- checkbox and now every time a comment is added I get 4 emails with the identical comment. Is there any manner you can take away me from that service? Thanks!
Nope, you’re trapped! 🙂