Retirement can feel like a far-off concept, but it’s closer than you think. Soon enough, you’ll want to think about ending your employment permanently and living off your savings. Looking at your finances now, do you think you’re on the right track to a comfortable retirement?
If you’re well on your way to building a sizable nest egg and you’re confident in your job security, then all you have to do is stay on that path. The more that you add to your savings, the better off you’ll feel when you no longer have an income to depend on.
Ideally, experts advise that the average worker should aspire to put a million dollars into their retirement savings plan — this is because they want them to withdraw only 3% or 4% of the entire portfolio per year. The withdrawal gives a retiree $30,000 or $40,000 to live on. While a million dollars sounds like an incredible luxury, the portfolio will be divided into smaller increments so that you can live comfortably for 25 to 33 years without a salary.
If you don’t feel prepared for your retirement at all, you’re not alone. A survey from GoBankingRates revealed that 14% of Americans have nothing saved for retirement and that 42% of them have $10,000 or less put away for the important life goal, with millennials faring worse than other generations. A popular reason for such low savings is that workers said they didn’t earn enough money to put away.
If you have an empty retirement fund, you don’t need to panic. Now is the perfect time to start up your savings plan and to get your finances on the right track. Read the following tips to see how you can be prepared for this essential milestone, even on a stringent budget.
A Little Goes A Long Way:
A lot of people want to put off saving for retirement until they get a job with a better salary or when they finish off another financial goal. Instead of waiting for the right moment, just get started. You can always add more to the fund when you get a raise or when you get out of debt.
People who are living paycheck to paycheck should see if they can squeeze out a small amount of money every week and put it into their retirement savings fund. A payment of $15 a week will give you $60 a month, which will be $7200 in only ten years without calculating any returns on investment. For the price of one take-out lunch, you could make significant progress with your savings.
Pick the Right Account:
It seems like you should open up a separate savings account, but a general savings account won’t help your money grow. There are designated retirement accounts that offer investments to build up the fund over time and that discourage you from withdrawing money for everyday purchases.
If your employer doesn’t give you the opportunity to open a 401K, think about an individual retirement account, otherwise known as an IRA. There are also specific types of IRAs that can benefit people who are self-employed or who own small businesses.
Don’t Dip into the Account:
One of the main reasons why you put your retirement fund in a special account is that you make it difficult to withdraw any money from it. If you take money out of this fund before you retire, you’ll face fees and tax penalties. You’ll also lose the power of compounding interest on your savings in the long-term by removing cash from this fund.
As a result, even if it’s an emergency expense, you should stick to the principle of never dipping into your retirement fund.
If you have no other means to get an urgent payment taken care of, you can go to the website MoneyKey for assistance. People can use the website to apply for personal installment loans to get through short-term financial problems that they want to tackle right away. The online application is much faster than any process at a traditional bank. People can have their application approved as quickly as a business day later.
If you have a car repair that needs to happen or a bill that needs to get paid off, visit MoneyKey online for more information about installment loans and fight the temptation to go after your hard-earned retirement savings. It’s an account that you should aspire to add to — not to take from.
Don’t panic about the state of your retirement savings, even if there is hardly anything in your account. The only thing that you can do is push forward and put as much as you can manage inside of it. Remember that something as small as $20 a month will add up over decades.
