subject: When's The Best Time To Start Planning For Retirement? [print this page] You're looking over your budget, realizing you haven't started saving for retirement yet really, and wondering when's the best time to start planning for retirement? The real answer to this is yesterday. No, really, it's never to early to start planning for your retirement savings and you should start putting away what you can now.
It may seem that you don't really have the income right now to save, but the truth is that people can say that throughout their whole lives. You can never really have too much money, right? So there's always a reason now to store any away. If you keep putting it off who knows when you'll ever really start doing it, so now is the time. Even if you only save a very small amount, say one percent of your income, that's still something.
If you decide to invest in a 401k, IRA, or other type of retirement vehicle you'll be earning returns each year on your investments. Because of this, the longer your money sits in the account, the more money you'll have when you return. This means that the earlier you stash a little money in there, the more money it should become by the time you reach retirement age. For this reason saving earlier is a great thing.
There are a lot of options for you to choose from and build a plan for how you'll save enough.
You can use a 401k plan through your employer--these are very easy to set up. They will take a small percentage of your income, you designate how much, and invest it in a plan that you choose--this will include stocks, bonds, etc. Many employers also offer contribution matches up to a certain point that you'll want to look into.
A similar option is an IRA, independent retirement account. The main difference between a 401k and an IRA is that you set this up on your own, at a bank or other financial institution of your choosing, and you pick each investment on your own instead of being limited by the options your employer offers.
You can of course also go out on your own and choose your own investments outside of these types of accounts, but there are benefits to having your money organized in these accounts.
No matter what you decide to do, what your plan is, the best time to start planning for retirement is right now.
by: Jennifer Quilter
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