If you talk to a top financial planner you will quickly find out that it is never too late to start thinking about retirement savings. Unfortunately many people think that if you don’t get started in your early 20s or 30s you have missed your opportunity completely.
The Strategies
The reality is that if you are starting later, in your forties or even fifties, you still have options. Generally you will want a lower risk investment to protect your initial investment and to bring in a steady interest amount. This will be a slower but more protected way to save and will still allow you to diversify and, depending on how much you have to invest, even try some higher risk, higher reward types of options.
Strategies that work effectively for late starters on their retirement planning include:
• Take full advantage of matching 401K or other types of retirement plans offered by your employer. By matching you can literally double your investments will can allow you to save significantly more than you may have thought.
• Take advantage of the option to apply “catch-up” contributions to your 401K plan or other eligible savings plan if you are over 50.
• Eliminate those unnecessary monthly expenses and budget, putting aside money specifically for retirement investment. This may be very different than what you have been doing in trying to just invest what was left over at the end of the month.
• Talk to your financial planner about the option to invest in stocks. While these are more volatile if you are leaving the investment in for 10 or more years you will see steady growth over time even with some drops in value often the time span.
• Consider extending your career by five or more years to help you to have an income to invest. This may be in full or part time work and it can provide a substantial investment amount over retiring at an earlier age.
Work with a financial planner that understands your goals and can help you with realistic, achievable retirement savings goals. Some financial planners specialize in these types of services and have great ideas for people with all levels of income earning potential.