Retirement planning is planning your life, not the end of it!
When doing your retirement planning remember that after you retire you may still have around 40% of your pre-retirement life to live! So if you don't want to live a degraded lifestyle it's important that you manage it well so you can enjoy it.
This time of life offers much more time and freedom to do things that you have always wanted to do. Many good things are not wildly expensive. Though money may be an issue, it is not in the only issue.
So, take the time to think about this time of your life and start the process of preparing for when you officially stop working.
Fortunately, it is never too late to start the retirement planning process and the important thing is, if you haven't started already, that you start without further delay. As painful as the process may be initially, we need to face up to the facts of our current reality.
The first step is to find out what your current savings or investments will provide you with when you retire. If the answer is zero that's okay – it will make the process more challenging but it is not the end of the world. Next, see what you can start putting aside from now on and calculate what these contributions will provide you with when you stop working.
You may need to adjust your lifestyle to allocate more money to retirement investments and even if these contributions seem way too little it is a start. Financial calculators are useful tools to use to assess these numbers as part of retirement planning process.
The next step in preparing your retirement plan is to have your best guess as to what you will need to live on when you stop working.
Do a realistic monthly budget taking into account any factors that will change when you stop working. For example, the fact that you currently spend quite a bit getting to and from work now doesn't mean that you will carry on spending that amount when you retire.
Once you have an idea of what you will need to live on, you can compare this to your estimated investment income and see what kind of shortfall you are dealing with.
At least now you know what the situation is and you can start your planning with this in mind. Even if the gap between income and expenses looks overwhelming large don't lose hope – there are things that you can do! Bridging the gap will probably need a combination of a few things.
- First, re-visit your budget and see if you haven't allowed for excessive expenses. If you have, adjust the budget to more realistic amounts.
- Secondly, remember that there are many part-time work opportunities for senior citizens. Over 96% of retired people need to supplement their income so you will not be alone!
The important thing in planning a retirement is that you start investigating these opportunities now. So when the time comes you will already have set something up.
There are also so many options for home based business these days so as long as you start doing your homework without further delay you can prepare yourself for a great retirement.
Retirement Plan: Your road map to retirement success.
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