3 Points to Keep in Mind When Planning Retirement

Posted on April 30th, 2008 by amandak in Retirement

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credit: Adam_d_

A recent post at CNN Money had a lot of useful information for Americans who are either approaching retirement or who are younger and working and should be thinking more about how to fund their retirement. The three key points they made were:

Look at the allocation of your money. They warn against being too conservative with the allocation of your funds to stocks, bonds and other choices. Apparently a large number of people are switching their portfolios out of stocks because it feels safer to them, but they run the risk of running out of money during their retirement years.
Keep your eye on the long term. This partly ties in with how you allocate your money; remember that there will always be small dips in the market but in the long term these trends will even out. Think ahead and calculate how much money you will need for your retirement. Some experts estimate that the amount you’ll need (at a minimum) is ten times your final salary.
Watch the fees. Don’t ignore the statements that look just like a confusing list of numbers. Know what fees are funds are charging and don’t get overcharged. Their expert recommends paying a maximum of 1.5% per year in 401(k) fees, for example.