At What Age Should You Start Planning Retirement?
By Barry Zimmer on June 2nd, 2016 in Retirement Planning
Planning retirement is the single most important thing that you can do to ensure you are able to achieve financial security. When you start early, it is much easier to save up enough money for a comfortable retirement. You also need to understand your options for making smart investments, for taking advantage of tax breaks, and for ensuring that your retirement assets are protected.
If you are ready to get the advice you need when it comes to planning retirement, you need an experienced attorney who can advise you of your options and who can help you to set goals.
A Sharonville retirement planning lawyer at Zimmer Law Firm can provide you with insight into different kinds of tax-advantaged retirement accounts and can help you to set smart financial goals. Whatever your age, our legal team can help you to make sure you make the right money moves to have the best chance for a financially secure future. The younger you are, the easier it will be and the less you need to put aside each year to build a substantial nest egg that will see you through your golden years.
When to Start Planning Retirement
According to Investopedia, a survey conducted by the Government Accountability Office in 2015 found that Americans aged 55 to 64 had put aside, on average, $104,000 total in savings for their retirement. If these seniors purchased a lifetime annuity to provide guaranteed income with their retirement savings, they would only be able to generate around $310 per month in income from this $104,000.
The Social Security Administration also reports the average person receiving retirement benefits from the SSA gets a monthly benefit of just $1,299.74.
These facts should convince anyone and everyone to begin retirement planning as early as possible. Living on less than $2,000 during your retirement years would mean you would have a hard time affording basics of life such as prescription drug costs, Medicare premiums, food, transportation, and housing. You deserve to have a comfortable retirement, not one where you struggle to make your bills and have little money left over at the end of the month.
The good news is, by investing in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), you can get the government’s help in saving for your retirement. You can invest with pre-tax funds if you use a traditional IRA as your investment account and you can invest with post-tax funds but enjoy tax-free growth if you opt for a Roth IRA.
Whether you use an IRA or any other type of retirement account, the sooner you start with the planning process, the easier it is to build up a nest egg large enough to provide you with a comfortable retirement. When you invest in an IRA, there are annual contribution limits. If you wait and do not invest money over the course of a year, you forever lose out on the chance to invest your maximum contribution during that year-long period. This means you miss out on big tax breaks for each year you do not save.
Starting to save when you are younger also means you can benefit the most from compound interest. The money you invest can grow and these gains can, in turn, be invested to help your nest egg grow even further. You will have to save far less from your paychecks each month if you begin planning retirement and investing for it when you are young than if you wait for middle age and need to invest a lot to catch up.
How a Sharonville Elder Law Attorney Can Help With Planning Retirement
Since you are responsible for your own financial security during retirement, you need to ensure you have made smart and informed choices about how much to put aside, what investments to make, and what kinds of accounts to use.
You need to start young, and you need to update your plans over time. As you enter into your retirement years, you also need to make sure that you continue to make informed choices about how much money to withdraw to comply with legal requirements and live a comfortable life without spending your money too fast.
At all phases of planning retirement, Zimmer Law Firm is here to help you. Our Sharonville elder law attorneys understand the options available to you and can provide you with comprehensive legal advice on the tools necessary to have a secure retirement. To learn more, you can join us for a free seminar on retirement planning options. You can also give us a call at 513.721.1513 so we can provide you with personalized advice and solutions appropriate for your age and for your financial situation.