Are You Ready for Retirement?

Do you have a retirement date in mind? If so, are you really and truly prepared, financially speaking, to retire at that time? If you’re not sure, then you need to be sure before you actually go through with retiring.  Fortunately, though, determining whether or not you’re “retirement ready” isn’t all that hard.

To start off with, try these simple steps to determine whether or not you have enough savings and income to cover you in in retirement:     

·         Look at your total annual contributions to retirement savings

·         Multiply that amount by the number of years you have left until you plan to retire

·         Then, add your current retirement savings to your total

·         Divide this amount by the number of years you plan to be retired

·         Finally, add that number to all sources of income you know for certain you will have in retirement

After you have followed these steps, you can look at the figure you’ve come up with and compare it to your current yearly expenses. If you’ll have enough to cover those in addition to additional expenses you may encounter in retirement, then you should be ready for retirement at your expected date. If not, then it’s time to start saving more and investing more if you’re going to reach your goal, or you may want to rethink and potentially postpone your retirement date.

What happens, though, if you do this calculation and find that you’re nowhere near “retirement ready?” Well, in that case, it’s probably time to see an investment adviser and start seriously planning for your future. If you’re careful with your money and follow your financial professional’s advice, it’s often possible to get “caught up” in terms of retirement savings.

You may not always be able to retire as soon as you want, but with the right help and some effort and planning on your part, you can reach retirement sooner rather than later.