How to Start Planning for Retirement in Your 20s, 30s, and 40s

Retirement is one of those items on our to-do list that seems to get pushed to the back-burner with thoughts of always doing it later when it is actually something that should be started at an early age.

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Richard W. Rausser, who is the Senior Vice President of Client Services at Pentegra Retirement Services to discuss all aspects of the importance of preparing for retirement.

Richard shared a Pentegra /Harris survey that was released stating that more than half of people with retirement savings have no plan for how they will access and stretch their money once they retire. And to add to that, 1 in 5 people not giving this any thought at all. The survey also reveals that the average age Americans plan to retire is 66 with 1 in 5 people not planning to retire at all. Another finding shows that Americans who plan to retire think they will need $3,200 per month to live on when they retire.

Traditional retirement used to mean stopping work and taking a pension that replaced a sizeable portion of the salary, which would last through your lifetime. But with pensions on the decline, retirement today may mean working longer or part-time, and delaying Social Security. And it likely means investing differently.

History has taught us to just save, save, save, but that is just one piece of the whole pie of retirement. There also needs to be more education on:

*What to do with savings once you retire?
*At what age to retire?
*How much money is needed to live on each month?
*What is your distribution plan?
*How do you make sure you don’t run out of money and outlive your savings?

Retirement may not be right around the corner for some, but a necessary item to get educated early on. Also, save as much as you can early, but know it is never too late to begin.

View the entire interview here.

For more information and to assist you with retirement plan solutions, visit www.pentegra.com.