Another Year Older, Another Year Closer to Retirement

This post is brought to you by Genworth and Brandfluential.  All opinions and worries in this post are my own.

With less than a week left until my next birthday, I’m starting to realize just how old and unprepared for the future I am.  I’ve always known that you should start retirement planning early, but there have been so many obstacles that I haven’t done nearly as good a job as I should have.  Plus, there always seemed to be time.  Suddenly, I feel like I’m out of time.

Retirement should and could be that time in your life when you are finally able to do the things you’ve always wanted to do but never had time for.  That’s how I’ve always thought about it anyway.  If my husband and I don’t get it together soon, that is definitely not what retirement will be like for us.  Although we have taken some steps to prepare, we’ve been inconsistent–due partly to lack of funds and partly to confusion about the whole process.  I’m worried that however much we have saved by the time we hit retirement age won’t be enough to last us for all of our retirement years.

What to do when you realize that your retirement plan is a jumbled, almost non-existent mess like mine?  Well, first, you need an actual plan.  Genworth has a great resource to help us get started.

 
I highly suggest downloading and reading through the Let’s Talk PDF.  This will really help give you the direction you need to start developing your strategy.  It made me realize that my husband and I have never sat down and discussed our retirement goals.  When do we plan to retire?  What do we plan to do exactly?  We don’t even know if we have the same expectations.  It’s important for you and your spouse to make these decisions so you can determine what your retirements needs will be.  Their Match Your Dreams to Dollars worksheet will help you calculate whether or not your expected retirement income will cover how you plan to live.  And, of course, it’s always a good idea to consult a professional in these situations, so they’ve come up with a list of questions you might want to discuss with an advisor.

For more tips, check out this article on 5 Ways to Avoid Outliving Your Retirement Savings.  The earlier you sit down and do this, the sooner you can develop the best plan for you and the better off you’ll be once retirement finally happens.  As much as we’d all love to stay young forever and not have to bother with these things, this impending birthday is a reminder that it just doesn’t work that way.  Off I go to plan!