Helping you save for the retirement you want

Good morning Dinks.  One financial goal that we may all have in common, regardless of our financial situation, our employment and our personal income is saving for retirement.  I hope that someday in the future we all want to retire and therefore we are all currently saving for retirement.

When we will retire, our age at retirement and how much money we need during retirement varies between people, but the one goal that we all have in common is to eventually retire someday.  Some of us will retire in our 40s, some in our 50s and some of us will retire in our 60s, we know that we have to save for retirement but do you know how much money you will need in retirement?

MSN recently published a guide to help you easily calculate your retirement.  If you don’t have a financial planner, or even if you do, I definitely suggest checking out this article to determine if you are on track towards your retirement.

Determine how long you need to live off your retirement savings

One of the major factors when calculating our retirement is our life expectancy.  Of course we can never determine the exact age when we will pass on but check out this calculator to give you a rough idea.  When I was 13 years old my mother went to visit a psychic and she told my mom that I would work with words, live a long life with a man, and die at age 84.  So far she has been right on 2 out of 3, so who knows maybe someone does know when our time on earth will be up.

Calculate how much you can afford to save for retirement

Saving for retirement is a combination of how much money we can afford to save each month and the amount of money that we plan to need during retirement.  Some of us save a fixed amount of money because that is how much we have determined to need to fund our retirement and some of us save only what we can afford on a monthly basis. I always say that a little bit of savings is better than no savings at all, so set up your automatic transfers and start saving for retirement.

Live happily ever after

How much money you need to save for retirement depends on the lifestyle that you want to have in your later years.  Some people think of retirement as the period of time in their lives that they don’t have to work, some people consider their retirement to be the time of their lives that they can do all of the things that they never had the chance to do while working, and some people take retirement as the opportunity to relocate to a place where they don’t have to worry about finding work.

Retirement is a great way to take advantage of living in a foreign country.  If you have always wanted to travel but never had the flexibility to do so then retirement is your chance.

What are your plans for retirement?

Photo by musiclvr

Kristina Tahnyak

Tahnya is a Certified Financial Planner and former Investment Advisor turned marketing and communications professional She holds a degree from Concordia University, is debt free and currently works in the field of digital marketing.