I want to retire now

I have heard these words a lot lately but getting ready for retirement is not something that  just happens.  Some of us will wait until the last minute to start planning our retirement and we will be unprepared for the changes that retirement brings with it.   No plan makes it more difficult to avoid some of the retirement pitfalls.

When I hear those words, I usually ask “What are you going to do when you finally retire?”.  Sometimes the answer leads to a discussion about what retirement is and how does a person avoid the pitfalls of boredom and depression.

Everyone who is enjoying retirement today and living a leisurely life are where they are because they planned for it. The first question that comes to mind is “when the right time to start planning for retirement?”. The answer is that if you need to ask the question, it’s the right time for you.

Planning for retirement can’t start too soon. Building a comfortable nest egg takes a lifetime of work and with the current state of our economy, a bit of luck. If you could start saving money for retirement right out of high school, that would be just that much more time you have to build up a really comfortable retirement nest egg that will last the rest of your life.

Humans are prone to procrastinate.  And, unfortunately, most of us start thinking about retirement late in our adult life.  But sometimes a big life event such as getting married or having a baby will jump-start the planning process.

A word of advice here, if you have been thinking about making a retirement plan, stop thinking about it and take action. Waiting just makes it harder to achieve your retirement goals. If you make the subject something for you and your spouse to look at, you both will be glad you got stopped thinking about it and got moving on a plan.

For some of us, the trouble with making a retirement plan is not knowing where to start. Many people join their employers 401K plan, dump some money into it and count on Social Security to be there for retirement. That’s the retirement plan. It is a plan, but it might not be enough later on.

All of us know that our security in our golden years is too important to not take more seriously than that. Set aside some time each week for you and your spouse to sit down and talk about how to create a retirement fund and how to build a retirement plan that you can grow into and one that will work. The plan must be flexible and the temptation to take part of it for other purposes must be avoided. The first step is the hardest and always begins with you.

You are reading this article so the planning has already started. If you don’t know where to start, there is lots of material available to get ideas from. There is a lot of information available on the internet, from insurance companies, banks and the government. There are a lot of good books on retirement planning from Amazon that can help with the planning process. I suggest getting information from a few good sources and implement ideas that you like and that apply to your situation.

Most states have a retirement section on their official website. There are some great books on retirement planning. Take the time to find and read them. Do the research. You will start out with no ideas and end up an expert in retirement planning.

Keep plenty of notes during the research and learning phases so you have a road map of ideas to build into a plan for building a retirement fund. After you have a simple plan in place or some concrete ideas, it may be time to talk to a financial advisor. If you trust your bank or insurance company, see what they can do for you. Some banks offer free financial planning. Talk to a trusted friend or someone in your community who may be able to steer you toward building a retirement fund properly structured to protect your retirement savings from taxes and provide safety to be there for you when you need it when you are old and grey.

Now it is time to kick the plan up to the next level. Once you have a plan and perhaps are seeing it start to take off, you should start learning about investments. There are a lot of places you can put your retirement funds that will give you a nice yield that can make that fund grow more quickly. You can divert money to real estate, the stock market, mutual funds or other well known investments. Diversify where you put your money so no one financial reversal can whip out your retirement fund.

Above all stay on top of your retirement fund and your retirement plan. Review it with your significant other frequently to see if your retirement goals are still the same and your investments and plans for building your retirement fund line up with your plan. By making retirement planning as big a part of your thinking as planning your family or your career, you will give it serious attention over the years. The result will be a strong financial plan that will give you good resources to enjoy a happy and worry free retirement life.