It's relatively easy to save for retirement when you're still young. Five thousand dollars set aside for a new baby grows to an amount that generates over a $100,000 a year in current-day dollars if the money earns 12 percent annually and inflation runs at 3 percent.
DISCLAIMER!!! We don't have any corroborating evidence to support this, but we have heard that small-company stocks would usually generate about 12 to 13 percent returns for long-term investments. Small-company stocks are, however, very risky over shorter periods of time.
Conversely, if you are the type of person who has only cottoned on to the fact that saving for retirement is imperative at a late stage in your working life, you may have a Herculean challenge in your hands. So if you have reached your sixth decade on Planet Earth, have yet to start saving and are wanting to earn $25,000 annual income from your retirement savings at age 65, then it might be necessary to contribute more than what you're making!
Okay, let us assume you're in your 50s (a lot of our readers are) or even older than that. With the kids' college expenses, or perhaps a divorce, you don't have any money saved for retirement. What is your recourse? What COULD be done? As such, your grip on your finances may be tenuous, but you don't need to let go of all hope. Here are three game plans and tactics that can make you a winner.
Say no to drugs...and retirement!
As they kept saying in the Reagan era -- just say no, to retirement, that is. After all, you save for retirement so the earnings from those savings can replace your salary and wages. If you don't stop working, you don't need retirement savings to produce investment income.
For a quick footnote on "not retiring", this is not to be misconstrued as staying in the same job. If you've been selling computers your whole life and you're sick of it, do something else. Make like those adults on the TV series "Community" and attend a CC to learn new skills -- teach there, better yet, and have the summer all to yourself. Teach at the local daycare, and if you have the daring-do-do for it, the Peace Corps is always an option. Get a job in a daycare center and help shape the future.
Give yourself breathing room
Though you will have less years of retirement to enjoy, it might be a good idea to stave off any plans for retirement and reschedule it a few years past 65. Rather than working to age 62 or 65, for example, working until age 67 or 69-a few more years of contributions and compound interest income-will make a surprising difference, and you'll boost substantially the money you receive from defined-benefit retirement plans. Oh, and another thing -- you can use those extra years as additional time to pay off your mortgage.
The paradigm shift - frugality before frivolity
Through this third, rather peculiar tactic, we are not really asking you to be parsimonious in your financial dealings -- just be a smidgen more practical and conservative.
DISCLAIMER!!! We don't have any corroborating evidence to support this, but we have heard that small-company stocks would usually generate about 12 to 13 percent returns for long-term investments. Small-company stocks are, however, very risky over shorter periods of time.
Conversely, if you are the type of person who has only cottoned on to the fact that saving for retirement is imperative at a late stage in your working life, you may have a Herculean challenge in your hands. So if you have reached your sixth decade on Planet Earth, have yet to start saving and are wanting to earn $25,000 annual income from your retirement savings at age 65, then it might be necessary to contribute more than what you're making!
Okay, let us assume you're in your 50s (a lot of our readers are) or even older than that. With the kids' college expenses, or perhaps a divorce, you don't have any money saved for retirement. What is your recourse? What COULD be done? As such, your grip on your finances may be tenuous, but you don't need to let go of all hope. Here are three game plans and tactics that can make you a winner.
Say no to drugs...and retirement!
As they kept saying in the Reagan era -- just say no, to retirement, that is. After all, you save for retirement so the earnings from those savings can replace your salary and wages. If you don't stop working, you don't need retirement savings to produce investment income.
For a quick footnote on "not retiring", this is not to be misconstrued as staying in the same job. If you've been selling computers your whole life and you're sick of it, do something else. Make like those adults on the TV series "Community" and attend a CC to learn new skills -- teach there, better yet, and have the summer all to yourself. Teach at the local daycare, and if you have the daring-do-do for it, the Peace Corps is always an option. Get a job in a daycare center and help shape the future.
Give yourself breathing room
Though you will have less years of retirement to enjoy, it might be a good idea to stave off any plans for retirement and reschedule it a few years past 65. Rather than working to age 62 or 65, for example, working until age 67 or 69-a few more years of contributions and compound interest income-will make a surprising difference, and you'll boost substantially the money you receive from defined-benefit retirement plans. Oh, and another thing -- you can use those extra years as additional time to pay off your mortgage.
The paradigm shift - frugality before frivolity
Through this third, rather peculiar tactic, we are not really asking you to be parsimonious in your financial dealings -- just be a smidgen more practical and conservative.
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During any trip, chartis travel insurance offers protection from common and unforseen events that could ruin your holiday.
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