Retirement planning in America is no simple task. Whether it’s navigating the ever-shifting tax code, factoring-in the rising cost of healthcare, or devising income strategies from various sources like Social Security and retirement investment accounts, investors have many decisions to make and potential strategies to pursue.
So, amidst the many complexities involved with retirement planning, it’s useful to take a step back and think about retirement planning in simpler terms. In other words, start with a basic framework first, and then grind down into the details from there. Here are 3 practical tips for setting a solid course for your retirement.
#1 Use Your Time Horizon to Inform Your Investment Allocation – we’ve written about this concept before, calling it a smarter way to structure your retirement goals. The basic premise is this: for your immediate needs, you should invest more conservatively, most likely favoring cash; for your intermediate-term needs or “wants,” you could consider more equity/bond exposure; and for your longer-term and legacy needs, you could consider a higher exposure to equities for long-term growth. It makes common sense – allocate your portfolio according to when you’ll need the money: #2 Use this Simple Table to See if You’re on the Right Track – the table below is not a one-size-fits-all answer to whether or not you’re on track to meet your retirement goals. But it is a good proxy for determining if you’re in the ballpark. Using the table is simple. Just take your total household income, and match it with your age to find the multiplier that corresponds with you. Multiply that factor by your household income, and it will tell you how much you should roughly have saved for retirement. Are you on track? #3 Enlist the Help of a Financial Advisor – this practical tip may seem like an obvious one, but many investors shoulder the task of creating a retirement plan in addition to handling the tasks of everyday life, like working and taking care of a family. A financial advisor can serve as a sounding board to give you advice for structuring your plan, and in the cases where you find someone you trust, can manage the entire plan for you. A good financial advisor will check-in with you regularly to help ensure that you’re on track to meet your goals.
Find an Advisor You Can Trust at WrapManager
Learn about how our Wealth Managers work with clients to structure retirement plans, and how we communicate with our clients regularly to provide ‘status reports’ on whether they are on track and what potential adjustments need to be made. By calling us today, you can learn about how experienced our Wealth Managers are in retirement planning, and you can have one of them create a proposal for you with ideas for how to make changes and improvements to your current plan. Call today at 1-800-541-7774 or send an email to wealth@wrapmanager.com to get started.
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