Retirement Planning

Retirement planning is something you should consider before you retire, that sounds easy enough. But a recent study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) sites that 68 percent of workers age 25-34 have less than $25,000 set aside for retirement, as do 50 percent of workers age 35-44, and 30 percent of workers 44-55 and over. The 2007 Retirement Confidence Survey sites that, overall, almost half of all American workers have retirement savings and investments that total less than $25,000. The majority of workers who have not put money aside for retirement have very little in savings at all and seven out of ten of these workers admit their assets total less than $10,000.

Are you prepared for retirement planning? Contact an experienced CPA to create a strategy for your retirement planning today.

While planning for your retirement makes good financial sense, it turns out most of us living day to day find it hard to set aside the kind of money needed for a pleasant, work free retirement. The truth of the matter is that your golden years will be among you before you realize it and planning then becomes scrambling or doing without. We are so fixed and incased in the present that we forget or put-off planning for our future thinking we will always have time to catch up. But the reality is that the future has a way of creeping up on you and planning for it will make the difference between having enough for a comfortable life and struggling to stay financially independent. In a recent study, workers at American Express were surveyed and those who currently had help in financial planning were more realistic about the amount they needed to save for retirement and had more money saved, than those workers without financial planning help.

The survey found that workers that had retirement planning advice were less likely to feel they had to work after retirement:

• 22 percent of workers that did not have financial planning advice expect to work after retirement.
• 9 percent of workers that did have financial planning advice expect to work after retirement.

The EBRI study found that overall:

• 40 percent of people surveyed admitted they do not have a retirement savings account.
• 34 percent of people surveyed admitted they have no retirement savings at all.
• 25 percent of people surveyed admitted they have no savings what so ever.

Retirement planning can be the life blood for you and your family after you retire. Something else you might want to consider is setting up a Spousal IRA. If you are currently employed and have a non-employed spouse or your spouse has modest to no income, you may be able to set up and contribute to a Spousal IRA for your spouse. That will give both of you peace-of-mind and give you and your spouse more security and options for retirement.

Are you prepared for retirement planning? Contact an experienced CPA to create a strategy for your retirement planning today.