If your golden years are on the horizon, congrats! Financial planning is a key part of creating a lifestyle that you’ll love after you retire. Here, Roy Gagaza shares a few tips you can implement now to maximize your retirement.
Know Your Needs
What you want for your retirement will play a large role in determining how to prepare for your financial future. If you live in a home that’s paid off and don’t plan on moving, your retirement needs will likely be fairly lower than someone who just bought a home or has a vision of moving to an upscale community.
Take your time to think about what will make sense for you as you enter retirement. Consider whether it’s important to you to be close to family, live in a certain climate, or be able to contribute to charitable organizations.
Understand Where You’re Starting
If you aren’t sure whether you’re prepared to create the retirement that you want, it can be tempting to put off checking your retirement accounts. Knowing where you’re starting, however, can help you paint a clear picture of what you need to do in order to move forward with a positive financial future.
If you’re not sure about your retirement account status, reach out to a financial professional to get a proficient opinion on how you can best move forward. Knowledge is power when it comes to managing your retirement account, and knowing the amount that you have put away can only help you take positive financial steps forward.
Don’t Touch Your Retirement Savings
It can be tempting to dip into your retirement savings to get out of debt or to go on a great vacation, but it’s almost never a good idea. Your retirement will continue to grow as long as you leave it alone, and cashing in early is likely to incur heavy penalties. Again, if you need an influx of cash and aren’t sure whether it makes sense to dip into your retirement, talk with a Financial Professional.
Max Out Your Contributions
If you work for a corporation or organization that offers a retirement plan, it’s likely that your employer is willing to match your contributions up to a certain percentage of your income. If you’re not sure whether you’re maximizing your contribution, make an appointment with your human resources representative to discuss how you can up the amount that’s automatically going toward your retirement each month and contribute to a Roth 401K if offered in order to receive tax free income in the future, recommends Roy Y. Gagaza.
