When You Should Meet With A Retirement Planner
With all the financial decisions investors have to make, the one decision that’s most often overlooked is when to meet with a retirement planner?
Meeting with a retirement planner sounds like something “other people” do. If you are not even close to retirement, it doesn’t seem like a retirement planner is someone you need to worry about. But that’s where investors make a mistake. The best time to meet with them is long before retirement.
When To Meet With A Retirement Planner:
When You Start Your First Job.
- The best time to start saving for retirement is when you start your first job.
- Yes, that’s right, your first job. Sound crazy? It’s not.
- The purpose of this exercise is to develop the discipline; not to save for 20 years of retirement living over night.
- You don’t have to save a large amount to make it count – it all adds up.
- Have the retirement planner run projections for you to determine how much you will need to invest to retire.
- Due to the magic of compounding, it will cost you less if you start investing early in your career.
- You will have to invest less if you start early, due to the magic of compounding growth.
- Have your retirement planner run you an interest illustration, it will show you the true magic of compounding.
As Soon As Possible – To Get Your Road Map.
- Your retirement planner can set up your financial road map for you.
- When you go on a long trip, you take a road map with you, right?
- Your journey to retirement is a long journey. It starts the day you begin working and ends the day you stop working.
- You need a financial plan to get you to retirement.
- You will need a certain amount of money to retire.
- You don’t know everything about investing and saving money.
- You will need to set financial goals.
- You will need to set up a financial direction to reach your goals.
- Your financial goals will determine which 401k funds and IRA investments are best for you.
- Use a retirement planner to set you up and get you started on the right track.
- If you just wing it – you may never invest enough to ever retire.
- You can use the financial road map as a reference.
- As your financial needs change, you can adjust it.
A Retirement Planners Advice:
401k investing
- If your employer offers a 401k plan, sign up immediately.
- If your employer offers to match your 401k contributions, contribute the maximum amount.
- An employer match means FREE MONEY.
- Most employers usually match your contributions dollar for dollar up to a certain capped amount. So for every dollar you invest into your 401k funds, your employer invests an additional dollar into your 401k account, up to a certain capped amount. That is a 100% rate of return on your contribution dollars, up to the capped amount.
IRA investments
- If your employer does not offer a 401k plan, you can invest for your retirement through an Individual Retirement Account.
- If you are serious about saving for your retirement, invest first, spend second.
- Put some money into your IRA investments first before spending your pay check on anything else.
- Your investment doesn’t have to be a lot, it all adds up.
When you get your first job you will not have a financial portfolio yet. However by starting the journey and maintaining the discipline to invest regularly, someday you should have a substantial portfolio.
Find a retirement planner to work with. If you do not have a retirement planner to work with, ask your 401k plan provider at your workplace. The 401k company may have a planner on staff or be able to refer you to one.
Start investing today – in the long run you will be glad you did.
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