Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement from EBSA

One of the best retirement books to read is the Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement published by Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA) United States Department of Labor. It only consist of 6 pages but it’s worth reading. The Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement eBook can give you practical retirement tips and advice.

According to the publication, “Fewer than half of Americans have calculated
how much they need to save for retirement.” If you aren’t one of the few, read the guide and start saving for your retirement.

Title: Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement
Description: A publication that gives practical tips on how to build retirement savings.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor, Employee Benefits Security Administration
Released: 2010
Pages: 6

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement

1. Start Saving, Keep Saving, and Stick to Your Goals

The publication reminds us to save early. Saving early can give us more time to make our money grow. We should make saving for retirement a priority.

2. Know Your Retirement Needs
This simply means identifying our future needs. What are things you would like to have or you would like to do when you retire. Also, knowing your retirement needs can give you an idea how much money do you really need when you retire. Of course, if you have no enough retirement savings, you will never meet your needs.

3. Contribute to Your Employer’s Retirement Savings Plan
Contribute if your employer offers a retirement savings plan such as 401k plans. 401k plans can help you to save automatically.

4. Learn About Your Employer’s Pension Plan
If your employer has a traditional pension plan, check to see if you are covered by the plan and understand how it works.

5. Consider Basic Investment Principles
Put your savings in different types of investments. Saving money is not enough to accumulate wealth. If you want to succeed in building your retirement funds, invest. You can invest in stocks, mutual funds or bonds.

6. Don’t Touch Your Retirement Savings
If you will withdraw your retirement savings, here’s what you’ll get;

• you’ll lose principal and interest
• you may lose tax benefits or have to pay withdrawal penalties.

7. Ask Your Employer to Start a Plan
If the company you’re working with, suggest that it start retirement plans for its employees. There are many retirement savings plan available for employers to help their employees build retirement funds.

8. Put Money Into an Individual Retirement Account
You have 2 options when you open an Individual Retirement Account, a traditional IRA or a Roth IRA. I know you are familiar with this IRAs. There is a new type of Roth IRA, myRA. MyRA is a retirement account created by the United States Department of the Treasury to help you save for retirement if you don’t have access to a plan at work. Visit MyRA.gov for more information.

9. Find Out About Your Social Security Benefits
To estimate your benefit, use the retirement estimator on Social Security Administration’s website at www.socialsecurity.gov or call 1-800-772-1213

10. Ask Questions
Asking questions can help you learn how retirement planning works, how to start planning for retirement and can help you where to start. Start asking questions and get practical retirement advice.

Here are the useful websites;

• Employee Benefits Security Administration  | dol.gov/ebsa
• AARP | aarp.org
• American Savings Education Council | choosetosave.org/asec
• Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards | LetsMakeAPlan.org
• Consumer Federation of America | www.consumerfed.org
• The Actuarial Foundation | actuarialfoundation.org
• U.S. Department of the Treasury | irs.gov/retirement | myra.gov
• U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission | investor.gov

Source: http://www.dol.gov/ebsa/Publications/10_ways_to_prepare.html

For other useful and practical retirement guide, read Retirement Planning IQ topics on how much money you need to retire. Stay tuned to this blog to get free advice on retirement planning.