How To Successfully Plan For Retirement
credit: muha…
Asking yourself if you’re on the route to having enough money to comfortably retire is not only responsible, but necessary. You know how much you have in your 401(k), IRA, and savings account, you know how much Social Security you’ll receive and what your pension will look like, but you need to look at several puzzle pieces determine whether you have enough to retire.
First, figuring out your monthly and yearly expenses is a big piece to the puzzle, so begin by taking detailed notes and records of your every expenditure. This includes every detail, no matter how trivial, so spend a few months collecting receipts and building a record of your monthly spending.
Second, pay attention to your investments and how you’re invested. If you have a 401(k), is your money mostly in cash and fixed-income securities, or are you diversified over several different stocks and bonds?
The third step should always be to seek help, whether from an online source like Fidelity’s Retirement Income Planner or from an human financial planner. If you have big questions or concerns, hiring a financial adviser is a great way to go for peace of mind.
Your last step, now that you have all relevant information, is to crunch the numbers and decide if you have enough money to maintain a comfortable lifestyle. After all, one man’s subsistance living is another’s luxury, and only you know what you want.
Tags: 401k | personal finance | Retirement | Roth IRA | savings
This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 3:45 am and is filed under Retirement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
