Introduction
Retirement planning is a long-term and tedious process. It needs meticulous planning and discipline to achieve the retirement corpus. Most people defer retirement planning thinking their retirement is far away. However, you may not have enough time left to accumulate a sizeable retirement corpus. The following are some salient tips for successful retirement planning:
Calculate the Retirement Income
The first step in retirement planning is to assess how much you need to save for it. You should calculate your current monthly expenses and adjust them for inflation in your retirement age. If you plan to retire at 60 years and expect a life expectancy of 80 years, then your retirement savings should last for 20 years. Once you have worked out the retirement corpus needed, you should invest regularly towards achieving it. It is also important to decide on an annual withdrawal rate to ensure your savings last till your life expectancy. In our example, the savings should last for at least 20 years, meaning you can withdraw 5% from the corpus annually.
Start Investing
Now that you know your retirement corpus, it is time to act. You should decide the return on investments you want and the number of years you have to build the corpus. This will help you identify appropriate investment instruments for building the corpus. You can also consult a financial advisor if you need more help and clarity on it. It is better to decide on the investment modes based on your risk-taking abilities. If you are a risk-averse investor, then do not risk your capital by investing it in volatile investments. You must be a disciplined investor and not be fazed by market volatility. You must remain invested for the course to achieve your desired retirement corpus.
A very important aspect of retirement planning is to start investing early. The earlier you start investing, the more time you will have to achieve your retirement corpus. This means you will have to invest lesser to reach your corpus amount.
Reduce Your Debt
It is important to reduce or completely pay off your debt before retirement. You should take stock of your outstanding debt and plan to pay off the costliest one first. Outstanding debt can escalate quickly and eat into your retirement corpus, which is not desirable. You do not want a sizeable chunk of your retirement corpus into servicing debt. You can also consider meeting your expenses from cash to avoid new credit card debt.
Improve Your Financial Condition
You should improve your financial condition as much as possible before retirement. Upgrade your skills to increase your earnings. You may also consider working overtime to get more money to invest in retirement planning. You can also use the additional income to repay debt. Another approach to have more disposable income is to reduce non-essential expenses. Cutting on such expenditure can allow you the flexibility to put the savings for retirement planning. If you have debt, then search for options to refinance it with lenders willing to charge a lower rate. If you wish to learn more about Accounting and Finances visit our site at accounting services near me!
