Retirement planning vs living now – what’s the right balance?
Everyone knows you need to plan for retirement. Just “hoping” for a comfortable retirement can be very risky. In the meantime, there are bills to pay, food to be eaten, and fun to be had. So what’s the balance?
Not getting the balance right could mean working a lot longer than you expected, or not having the retirement that you want because you don’t have enough income.
Our advice to anyone looking to retire within the next 10 years is to keep one eye on now, and one eye on the future.
How much of your eye needs to be on the future will depend on things like:
- How soon you plan to retire.
- Your current level of retirement savings.
- What sort of lifestyle you want to lead in retirement.
- Whether or not leaving an inheritance is important to you.
Two simple steps that can make a big difference to your retirement:
- Start putting a percentage of your income into something that will grow over time. And by “something” we mean investments not beanstalks.
The actual percentage depends upon your specific circumstances (including the points above), but even being able to save 10%-20% will help. And if you arrange for it to be automatically debited from your bank account you’re less likely to miss it (what you don’t see you don’t spend).
- Know (not just guess) how you are tracking financially towards your ideal retirement. Do some modelling around how much money you’ll need to retire, how much you’re likely to spend in retirement, how much you want/need to supplement any government pensions etc.
If you don’t know how to do this, we can help. Check out our FREE ‘Retirement Accelerator’ Strategy Session and if it sounds valuable, just book a time
