Planning for your retirement is a bit like going to the dentist. No one wants to do it, but it’s something that needs to be done. To that end, WE have a retirement calculator to help you track how much you need to put away each year, how much you’re going to get out of it and how soon you can retire. Whether you have a little saved, a lot saved, a short or a long time to save, you need to plan for retirement and retirement calculators can help you get there.
The Benefits of Planning for Retirement
Retirement planning is like any other kind of planning; It’s hard to get where you’re going if you don’t know where it is you’re trying to get to. The sooner you start to plan for retirement, the less a chunk of your income you’re going to have to put away every year. Conversely, the longer you wait to plan — and save — for your retirement, the more it’s going to eat into your regular income.
There are further benefits to planning for your retirement:
- You have to actively consider what your costs will be during retirement, rather than just discovering them after it’s too late to do much.
- You gain an understanding of what the tax benefits (and detriments) of different retirement plans are, allowing you to select the best one for you.
- If you’re married — and especially if you have kids — it’s not just about you. Retirement planning is also estate planning. No one likes to think about retirement planning and no one likes to think about estate planning, but both are a must.
Finally, much like going to the dentist, retirement planning is a lot scarier to think about than it is to actually do. In fact, retirement planning isn’t just about money; It’s also about thinking about the things you’re going to do during your retirement. Sure, there’s going to be some hard discussion about your finances — but that’s not going to be nearly as painful to actually do as you’re making it out to be. We promise.
But a great place to get started with retirement planning is just sitting down with a simple retirement calculator like we have and getting a sense of the lay of the land.
How Calculators Help You Plan for Retirement
Calculators are great for the person who wants to get started planning for retirement. They give you a quick, easy-to-understand means of seeing what you have saved, what your goal is and how much you’re going to need to save to get you there.
As with any other product or service, knowing your way around the lay of the land and what you’re looking to buy makes the entire process go a lot easier. In this case, using a simple calculator might not give you all the answers you’re looking for; It will, however, begin introducing you to the answers, as well as helping you to understand what kinds of questions you need to ask.
How the FutureAdvisor Retirement Calculator Works
At FutureAdvisor, our retirement calculator is simple:
- Enter your current age and how much you currently have saved for retirement.
- Click the “Find Out” button to go to the second page.
- The second page is really where the meat of the calculator is located. Here you can adjust based on your portfolio’s return, how much you plan to put in every year and how much you want to earn per year in your retirement.
- You can also click to learn more about how the numbers were calculated, or sign up for a free personalized investment plan.
Check it out today to start getting a sense of where you’re at in terms of your retirement goals and what the next steps are.
The post Using A Retirement Calculator To Meet Your Savings Goals appeared first on FutureAdvisor Blog.