It’s Never Too Late for Retirement Planning

Life happens, years go by, and then all of a sudden you realize retirement is a lot closer than it seemed just a year or two ago.

Everyone knows that they should be saving for retirement. Yet somehow, as unexpected expenses crop up and we slip up on our monthly budgeting, we can find ourselves falling behind.

The good news is that it’s never too late to start saving – and to possibly even catch up to your retirement savings goal. Regardless of whether you’ve never added to a retirement investment account, or you simply haven’t spared enough yet, you have a few choices to help get you back in good shape.

If you haven’t saved very much – or anything at all – up until now, it may feel like the small amount you’ll be able to set aside for retirement isn’t enough. However, it’s important to keep in mind that every little bit counts. If you currently have a workplace retirement plan, start contributing a portion of your income each month to that account.

You may feel as though you have plenty of money to get by with what you need for now, but creating a budget will help you to eliminate unnecessary costs and save more.

Sometimes people are overwhelmed by the idea of saving for retirement because they don’t know how much they’ll need. You can eliminate this feeling by creating a budget for you to follow during retirement, and use that budget to estimate a saving goal. To do this, you can take your current expenses, consider any additional travel or other activities you’ve planned on doing during retirement, and estimate your annual cost of living including all of these factors. Once you reach this number, you’ll be able to set a savings goal.

A good first step in putting together a retirement savings plan is to know when you plan to retire. If you haven’t saved enough to retire, you might consider holding off on putting in your notice until you hit full retirement age.

Sometimes saving isn’t the answer – generating more income is. Many retirees are no longer looking to stop work completely during their retirement. Instead, they look to design an encore career, work part-time, or grow a side hustle business to help generate retirement income.

This is the perfect time to explore your passions and find ways to monetize them. For example, if you’ve always enjoyed writing, you can consider freelancing part-time for a local news outlet, or starting and monetizing your own blog.

Planning for retirement can be stressful, but researching online and finding the best retirement option is not very tedious. You can view some of our retirement solutions here