Financial planning for retirement is as important as saving for after retirement. If you are saving for after retirement and you haven’t got a plan it’s
easy to loose your way spending on things that are not important, so having a long term goal, and a long term view are essential to keep your balance enough.
A careful investment strategy is very essential to manage your retirement assets throughout your life. Financial planning for retirement has many aspects that should be consider. As it is a procedural thing, so a systematic action is required.
First, you should determine your income and make a complete list of all income sources to have effective financial planning for retirement. You should make an inventory of assets, which form the core of retirement funds like 401k/403b, Roth/Rollover IRA and personal savings etc.
The total income from all these sources is the retirement fund on which you have to manage until you live. In addition, financial planning for retirement is just managing of these funds in order to have steady income. After income, come the other benefits that you will be receiving at retirement. Remember the focus is to account all kinds of income so that better plan can be draft out.
Social security benefits should also be taken into account. With this facility, you can collect the benefits as early as 62 years but the amount decreases if you collect it before 65years. The collected amount depends on the earning of an individual over maximum number of years and the age at which he starts collecting the benefits.
Now you will be having details of your anticipated income from all the possible sources. The next step in financial planning for retirement is to plan your expenses and for this make a budget. Retirement budget will help you to ensure that the money you have will last for at least your lifetime. Normally an individual lives almost 1/3 of his life after his retirement.
You also need to take care of health care budget. Usually employers care of this part but you should also make allowances as the benefits are decreasing day by day. The cost of these plans may seem high but make sure that you never caught unprepared. After all financial planning for retirement should cover all spheres.
Another important factor to consider is the withdrawal strategy. You need to adjust your withdrawal as to not deplete the savings.Normally a 5% withdrawal of your savings will see you through.
Financial milestones are important so should be appreciated but there is lot to life than money. Enjoy today and plan for future. Good planning is half battle won. So if you want to live in peace after retirement, give due care to financial planning for retirement.