stock market

How Much for Retirement?

Long before you retire you should do the math to figure out how much you need for retirement.  The number is larger than you probably think, yet not impossible as long as you have the goal in mind.  It’s those with no goal that never reach it.  Knowing allows you to create a plan, ignoring the truth will leave you praying that social security still exists by the time you retire.

First of all I would figure out how much money you would like to have per year.  Since you’re still dreaming at this point feel free to choose whatever you think you can stretch too.  If you’re conservative pick 80% of what you make now.  Then you need to adjust for inflation by doubling that amount for every 20 years away you are from retirement.  Now that you have your yearly pay you divide that by 0.05 to determine how big your retirement nest egg needs to be.  Take a deep breath, I know that’s a big number.

Now you may need a spreadsheet or online calculator to help with the next part, but you’ll want to find the payment required with a 8 to 12% interest rate to total the amount of your nest egg over the number of months you have until retirement.  You now have a game plan for your savings goal.  You just now need to figure out how you can save that much money per month.  If you want to make that nest egg larger or do it with less money per month you can learn stock market tips and study stock market 101 fundamentals to increase your earnings per year.  Many people are able to increase their yearly returns to 15%, 20%, or more through investing for their selves instead of leaving their money to financial advisors.

Tags: ,

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 Financial Independence, Saving & Building Wealth Comments Off