Budgets,
like diets, are short lived for most of us. You do a proper job of planning by
looking over the past and determining where you need to make changes to meet
your goals. And, you live by your plan for a few days, maybe even a few weeks.
But, then all the detail of keeping track of what comes and goes gets to be
more than you are willing to put up with.
If
you can plan a budget and live with it, more power to you. This should put you
with the 5% of people who can retire without financial assistance from family
or the government.
For
those of us who can't live with the detail of tracking budget numbers, here is
a simple way to make sure you don't retire totally broke. Take a fixed
percentage of every dollar that comes into the household and set it aside for
retirement investing. Say, for example, that you decide to save 10% of your
$100,000 income. Here are some rough numbers for those aged 35 who would like
to retire in 30 years. $10,000 invested each year will accumulate to $697,000
in 30 years at a 5% annual return. The earlier you start, the greater the
retirement benefits. If you started at age 25, the accumulated value at age 65
would be over $1,268,000.
You
may think it is impossible to save 10% of your current income. Let's assume
that you lose your current job. The next job you find pays 10% less than your
current job. The chances are that you will figure out where to cut the spending
to make it work. So, why not discipline yourself and your family in order to
make your current income provide both a current living and an investment in
your retirement.
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