Very few people think about Retirement Planning before they retire. They wait until it is getting close to the time that they actually will be retiring. When you are young just starting out retirement is not even in the equation. There are far too many other things to think about such as how you will spend your first pay check. The car you will buy and the clothes that you will purchase. The same thing applies when you are raising a family and have all sorts of expenses to deal with including the kids education, the mortgage to pay for, bills associated with the house and so on. Retirement is a long ways away and there is lots of time to save for that later on.
No wonder people wake up one morning and realize that they will have to keep working for many more years than what they had planned because they did not save for retirement. What a shock to the emotions when you realize that you do not like your job, you want to retire and you may even be down sized, yet you do not have sufficient savings to get you through your retirement years. This can be a serious time in your life, stressful if you still have lots of bills to pay and loans to discharge, not to mention getting the kids through school.
Start Retirement Planning Before You Retire
The best advice I ever received from a mentor was that I should set aside 10% of everything I earned for retirement. Invest it conservatively and do not touch the money until it is time to retire. He told me this when I was in my early 20’s and if I had followed his advice from that day I would be able to retire when I was 50 well before most people start thinking about retiring.
As it turns out I was able to retire from my career job at 49 and went on to try some things that I was always thinking about. I did not apply retirement planning before you retire advice, I just applied the 10% rule and it worked for my family and I. This approach gave me the freedom to continue working, to retire fully or to retire and try a different career. This freedom and reduction in stress is really wonderful. Start now and save for retirement if you have not already done so.
Retirement Planning Before You Retire When you are 50
If you are just starting to plan for retirement and you are around the age of 50, you really do not have that much time left, before you will be forced to retire either for health reasons, work force adjustment or down sizing. Pay off your bills, save everything you can and have a financial adviser assess your situation regarding how much income you will actually have when you retire. It is never too late unless you are being walked out the door in a down sizing situation.
This approach will help you decide how many more years you need to work, how much you need to save and how much you can spend while in retirement.