If you are forty-years-old, and do not have an employer
sponsored retirement plan (401k, 401d), a state-sponsored retirement account,
significant personal savings or investments, or another guaranteed source for
funding your retirement, then TODAY you should begin making a plan to save for
your retirement, and stick to it beginning NOW! For years, many elderly women
have just barely made ends meet, while others have just been chronically POOR.
The fact that you have found your way to this website is an indication that you
don't want to be old and poor.
It isn't too late to save for retirement, but it is too late
to keep putting it off. Since life expectancy keeps increasing, many financial planners
suggest that you should have enough savings to support yourself for up to twenty years after you
retire. That means, if you currently require $20,000 to live comfortably, you should have at
least $400,000 in savings (not including another 5% a year increase to offset inflation) when you
retire. Does the thought of saving that much money scare you? Most of you can reach that goal if
you start TODAY. The way to start today is very simple.
Start by copying this sentence, and saying it aloud
every day of every year until you reach your goal:
Currently, one-in-three retirees is trying to survive with
income only from Social Security. The AARP Foundation and the International
Longevity Center-USA have developed a brochure, "Unjust Desserts: Financial
Realities of Older Women" that helps
to explain why depending solely on Social Security to fund your retirement is a bad idea.
If you work for a church or other non-profit organization,
you probably have moderate wages and health and retirement benefits. You may not
even be paying into the Social Security fund, which is a requirement to be
eligible for retirement benefits.
If you are ready to get serious about saving for your retirement, there are several almost painless
actions that you can take NOW. You can begin to build a savings account by having only twenty-five
dollars ($25) a month automatically withdrawn from your checking account and
placed in savings. If you don't have $25-per-month
to spare right now, then decide TODAY (and write it down) that whenever you get a raise, bonus, new job, or second job,
you will begin saving THAT VERY DAY.
If you are working for a company that offers a 401k or similar plan,
there are three BIG reasons to have the maximum amount allowed
withheld from your paycheck. First, the dollars that you designate for the plan
are "pre-tax" dollars. That means that you do not have to pay taxes on the
money going into the plan. Second, the money you do not receive will not be as hard to save as money you
get in your paycheck. Third, employers often match a percentage of the money you
save in the plan, and this
FREE MONEY allows your retirement account to grow more quickly.
No one at FRWC, Inc. is qualified to give you financial planning, or investing advice, but we can
simplify the concept for you. Many popular financial experts say that owning your own home is the
single most important thing you can do to secure your financial future. Coincidentally, survey's
suggest that most women hold a dream of owning their own home. If you are not a homeowner, but
earnestly desire to be one, then add the following sentence to the one you wrote earlier, and say it
out loud every day until it comes true:
"I intend to own my own home"
If you own, or are paying a mortgage on your own home, it may be time to investigate the stock
market. Begin by following the suggestion of many money pros who encourage you to build
a portfolio consisting of 60% stock index funds, and 40% bond index funds. Index funds mirror a
market benchmark (like the S&P 500), they are "no load," (they don't charge a big fee to buy into them),
they usually have very low annual expenses, and they often outperform (make more money than)
many of the costly managed funds. You can begin to build a retirement portfolio for as little
as fifty-dollars-per-month ($50) if you agree to an automatic withdrawal plan.
If you don't think you are smart enough to understand the stock market, please answer the
following question. Can you follow a recipe? If so, you can understand everything
you need to know about investing. Follow the link below to access free investment education.
