Planning
For Retirement
Retirement is certainly considered to be the most important financial goal. This makes planning for retirement a must, and the earlier you start the easier it gets. However, starting your retirement planning late is certainly better than never, and a financial advisor or wealth manager can certainly assist in getting you where you need to be.
Financial planning for retirement starts by looking at your retirement needs and setting a realistic goal. It’s recommended that you save around 10% of your income each year for retirement. Retirees generally need at least 80% of their previous income to maintain their lifestyle during their retirement years. However, if you have visions of frequent travel, golf, or any other expensive hobbies this figure can actually double. Work with a financial advisor to help you determine what this magic number is for you and the best way to draw upon the assets to maximize your retirement income.
If you are fortunate enough to start saving and planning for retirement in your 20’s or early 30’s, you have the most important financial planning weapon on your side, and that is time. Time allows your money to compound and grow. With the help of a good financial planner and the proper allocation, by the time you are in your 60’s you should have plenty of assets to stop working. However, not everyone has that luxury.
Two-thirds of workers age 55 and older have less than $100,000 in their retirement accounts which is inadequate unless they are in a rare financial situation. If you are behind, you might need to look at reducing your spending, or make sure you are maximizing your possible retirement accounts such as a 401(k), Traditional IRA, or Roth IRA to name a few. If that still isn’t enough, you might need to downsize residences, borrow the equity in your home, keep working, or delay taking your social security payments so that your monthly check will be larger once you to start to collect.
Even if you have plenty of assets, retirement takes planning. Other common questions include: What is the appropriate way to take distributions? How can I minimize the tax burden? What affect will inflation or the increasing cost of healthcare of have on my nest egg? How do I properly manage risk in my portfolio? What is the best type of account for my retirement needs? Is insurance a good idea? The list goes on and on.
At Clay Northam Wealth Management we work with our clients to design a complete retirement plan to address their retirement goals. This includes the accumulation of sufficient funds to meet their needs, as well as the distribution of those hard earned assets to ensure they are not outlived. Servicing all of Southern California, we have two convenient offices located in the Los Angeles and Orange County. Please to not hesitate to contact our offices to see how we can be of value to you.