Are you planning on retiring in the near future or want to get a head start on your plans for retirement? Self-Directed Retirement Planning for Pre-retirees requires a lot of forethought and detail checking, but if you start early enough, you can help ensure a comfortable retirement for yourself. Retiring securely means having enough funds to cover your major expenses for every year during your retirement, having the freedom to cross items off of your bucket list and feeling comfortable with your investments and other long-term finances. If you hope to plan your own upcoming retirement, make sure you follow these four essential tips.
1. Keep Track of Current Expenses To Estimate a Retirement Budget
Before you can quit your job and retire to a sunny beach somewhere, you’ll need to spend some time doing careful budgeting. Having an accurate retirement budget that lays out about what you’ll be spending per year can help you figure out what your savings should look like before you retire. Keep track of your current expenses to determine how much you’re able to save per month and how long it will take you to reach your desired savings amount.
2. Vary Your Retirement Savings Accounts and Plans
Rather than putting all of your eggs in one basket, it’s wise to put your retirement savings into a few different plans. This safeguards you from market fluctuations and can help keep you motivated to save more as well. Some common retirement plans that you may want to consider include:
- Roth IRA
- Traditional IRA
- 401(k)
- SEP IRA
- Pensions
3. Consider Making Some Prudent Investments
If you don’t have any money currently in investments, you may want to rethink your retirement strategy. Although you certainly don’t want to make risky investments that could cause you to lose a significant chunk of your savings, you could make a few prudent investments to help your retirement funds grow. This passive income can help you reach your savings goals quicker! For starters, you may want to look into getting a certificate of deposit or a money market account with a good return rate.
4. Create a To-Do List and Set a Retirement Goal Date
Lastly, it’s important to have a date in mind for your retirement. This date can act as a guidepost for your budgeting and can help you to stay excited, motivated and on track. Write down a to-do list that needs to get accomplished by your chosen goal date, figure out how many tasks you’ll need to knock out each year to make it in time and use the date as your motivation and inspiration to keep saving and making smart financial choices up until retirement.
Planning your own retirement can be a significant undertaking, but with enough careful forethought, it’s entirely possible. If you hope to self-direct your upcoming retirement, make sure to estimate a yearly budget, vary your retirement accounts and other savings plans, make some wise investments and do your best to stick to your goal date. By working through these four steps, you can help ensure stability, financial security, and peace of mind throughout all the years of your retirement.
