If you are nearing your late twenties or your early thirties and you haven't invested at all, and you are worried about retirement in decades to come, it's time to consult with a 401k advisor. If your employer has a match program, you don't want to miss out on that additional money any longer either.
You need to gather all your financial information, including salary, debt, current expenses, and more. The expert will use this information to find out how you can start putting money away, and how you can make a path to get to retirement. Consider the following before you get there.
How Long You Want to Work
How many years you want to work into the future will have a huge impact on how long you have to continue working. You want to give the financial expert a timeline of when you think you want to retire, to see how this affects how much you have to save, or how realistic your plans or hopes are. Try to determine future expenses and how practical it is to retire at what age.
What Will Be Your Retirement Budget
The life you want to live when you are retired also impacts the budget and what expenses you have. If you want to pay your house off and live in or use your house and investment to purchase a house in warmer weather, these are things you will all discuss. If you don't have a home yet, you can talk about this financial goal as well.
You will have to take into consideration the increase in cost of living, the area where you want to live, and what your expenses will be. From there you will figure out an estimate of how much you need to have in your account to walk away from your job.
What It Takes to Start Saving
It can be difficult to save for retirement if you are living paycheck to paycheck. With the advisor you can look at ways to consolidate debt, cut living costs, and to generate extra income to hit your savings goals and needs. You will have to sit down and really figure out where you want to sacrifice and how you can budget.
If you know that you want to retire and you worry that you aren't saving, it's time to get a professional consult with a 401k advisor and a retirement planner. This gives you the opportunity to see the potential of your financial future and retirement hopes.
