How Much Money Should You Have in Your Retirement Accounts?

How much do you need to retire

Saving for retirement can seem so frustrating and out of your hands. There are so many things you can do to make sure you are involved with your own retirement. You can even invest your retirement how you want with a self-directed account. Self-directed accounts can be IRA or 401Ks. What is great about a self-directed account is that you can invest in things like real estate and gold. There is plenty of other things you can use your IRA to invest in with a self-directed account. If you are worried about invest in the stock market then a self-directed account is a great option. Once you have a self-directed account then what? Start investing!! Even when investing with a self-directed account it is important to remember about your end goal of securing a great retirement.
We have extensively gone over retirement and how to prepare for that ever-so-exciting, yet potentially stressful time. The more you are prepared for retirement the less stressful it will be. Why is it stressful? It is stressful because if you haven’t prepared well enough then you may be wondering if you have enough money in your retirement accounts. This is what most of us worry about. With a self-directed account it isn’t always about how much money is in your accounts but what are your assets worth?  Either way knowing you have enough to get through your retirement without running dry is important. Today we will be discussing how much money you will need when you actually do retire.
As knowing a perfect figure can be quite tricky and each situation can rule different outcomes it is wise to sit down with a financial planner to make sure you are on the correct track for your situation. A few of the factors that need to be considered when looking at your situation are:

When You Retire

When you retire can have a huge impact on your retirement income. Just speaking of when you will start collecting social security between 62 to 70 can be dramatic. Say you earned $50,000 a year and turned 62 in 2013. You could collect roughly $1,011 a month as a single. If you waited until 66 you would be able to collect roughly $1,420 a month (in today’s dollars). If you started collecting at 70 you would collect roughly $1,972 a month (as before it is in today’s dollars).

Where you Retire

$300,000 can go a lot farther in places like Daytona Beach, Florida, Pocatello, Idaho, and Greenville, S.C. than it can in San Francisco, California, or New York, New York. Make sure you know the cost of living where you are retiring. You may find that you need to adjust your savings plan depending.

What You Plan To Do While Retired

This is an obvious but often overlooked aspect of retirement. If you plan to continue the same lifestyle that you typically had before retirement you should be ok. If you plan to travel and do things that you never did while working you may need to boost your retirement savings plan.

How Long You’ll Live

This is another huge thing to be aware of when retiring. Of course, we never know what is going to happen but you should plan for the long haul. There are different ways you can judge how long you will live. There are expectancy calculators and the IRS has a table to guestimate how long you will live. Using those guestimates you’ll be able to know how long you’re going to need money which will be a great insight to figuring out how much you’ll actually need.
With so many variables that go into figuring out how much you actually need is it even possible to have any idea what I should be saving now? Yes, it is very possible to have a good idea of what you need. There are plenty of calculators that help you with your retirement. There is also a general rule of thumb that can give you a good starting point.
  • Age 35: Have saved as much as your current salary.
  • Age 45: Have three times your salary saved.
  • Age 55: Save at least five times your salary.
  • Age 67: When it’s time to retire, a great goal is to have saved at least eight times your ending salary.
This is a great starting point and if followed can give you a very solid basses for your retirement. It still doesn’t beat out getting as detailed as possible though. Look at every aspect of your life and figure out exactly how much you spend and do your best to figure out future spending. Again, the more detailed the plan the better. If you follow that detailed plan you are much more likely to be able to go through retirement lasting on your own money. you need to be very wise to dig as deep as you can and to get as detailed as possible.

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