Three Tips to Help Navigate Retirement Planning Today
Planning for retirement is a journey. The sooner you start, the better. This gives you plenty of time to create a financial plan based on your goals and objectives then begin working towards them. Of course, at its fundamental, retirement planning is identifying at what point in your life you can quit work and begin a new season of life and how much money you need to do that. As we state often, there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to retirement planning. How your plan begins early in life is probably not how it’s going to end because life happens.
When you do sit down to plan for retirement, what kinds of things should you be thinking about? Here are three elements we think are important:
Your retirement plan is unique to you.
Retirement planning is always a popular topic here at Oakwood Financial Group. It’s different for everyone, though. In fact, you may have a completely different retirement plan than someone in the same demographic and space as you. Retirement plans can include things like employer match 401(k), Simple IRA, Solo 401(k), stocks, bonds, real estate, the list goes on. If you’re not sure how to reach your goals, financial advisors can be a help. And remember, you can start investing at any age. Every penny saved will be appreciated later.
Don’t focus on the topline number.
We’re going to take some blame here. Our industry tends to focus on the topline number. That is, how much should you save in order to accumulate fill in the blank? We’re not saying that’s not important, but it’s only part of the algorithm when we think about retirement planning here at Oakwood Financial Group. It’s also important to understand what the spread is between what your portfolio can produce for you from an income standpoint and what your overhead is. If your income production is equal to, or a little below, what your overhead is from an expense standpoint, you’re going to feel poor every day. The goal is to increase that spread as you move through your working life. We would argue that it may be more important than focusing on the accumulation of a certain number. It’s a new idea for many people but something to keep in mind.
Build-in slush.
We’re not talking about the cold, wet snow you see in winter. In our vernacular, it’s the ability for your plan to be flexible. Life doesn’t run in straight lines for very long. There are always waves, and sometimes you’re at the peak, and others, you’re in the trough. Of course, a lot of the time, you’re in the middle. Be sure your plan is flexible enough to move through those times of peaks, troughs, and in between.
If you have questions about retirement planning, call us at (412) 928-8801 or visit us at www.oakwoodfinancialgroup.com. If you wish to schedule an introductory meeting, we would be happy to meet with you at no cost or obligation to you.
These Blogs are provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice. Any opinions or forecasts contained herein reflect the subjective judgments and assumptions of the authors only and do not necessarily reflect the views of SagePoint Financial.
