Retirement Plan Basics: How Much Money Do I Need To Retire?
Something many people are asking, how much money do I need to retire? Yep especially with the way it looks for social security, by the time young people are ready for retirement that well will most likely have run dry so you had better make sure that you have enough retirement investments to get you by before it’s too late.
You can also buy software that will help you find out just how you’re doing with your investments and tell you whether you can retire by the age you want. For many it would be great to retire long before age 60, but for many of us it may not be a realistic option.
It will not only depend on how much money you have saved for your retirement investments currently, but also what kind of lifestyle you live. If you’re one who is always buying those new gadgets the day they come out, you may have to save up more money to retire, or cut back on those purchases when you do retire.
Make sure that you pay off card debt as well before you invest a single dollar in the stock market or mutual funds. Banks issue credit cards to you for a reason, and that is because they make money on you having an outstanding balance and paying for interest. Unless you have an incredibly low rate on your credit card you likely wont make as much return as you would just by paying the balances down. If you have a lot of debt you can also try to negotiate credit card debt with the credit card issuer to see if you can cut down your balances faster, which will definitely save you from compounding interest in the long run.
Now with these averages that have been listed, these are just suggestions of how much money you need to retire. If you don’t have these amounts don’t worry, especially if you’re several years away from even thinking of retirement.
For those people who are currently between the ages of 35 and 44 a good estimate of the amount you should have saved is approximately $22,470, while people between ages 45 and 54 should aim for around $44,000 in the bank. When you reach the age of 55, you should have closer to $69,000 set aside already.
Again these are just estimates and averages, and usually these numbers will change as inflation takes hold, so you may want to continue looking at the numbers as you get closer to retirement age. Consider the options of investing in a guaranteed income annuity to help so that you will have money coming in when you retire.
If you want to you can always hire a financial planner who may assist you with setting up other retirement investments to help out. But that is going to cost money to do, so look at other ways that you may be able to find some retirement investments on your own.
Don’t worry if you don’t have those amounts as of yet, but work towards saving more money up. Look into many retirement investment options that are available to you before you think you can’t retire by the age that you want.
