How to Plan your Retirement Funds?

The best way to plan your retirement fund nest egg is to layout an investment roadmap early in your career life. Mapping out each phase of your life the important investment portfolio you should have. Financial advisor recommends a multistage retirement path which needs a multistage approach to investing. In the first stage, you could be begin with some income from part-time work or side income after retiring from your main career. That steady secondary cash flow means you’ll need less income from your portfolio, allowing you to invest aggressively for growth. Even if you retire at 60, you could still have 20 to 30 years ahead of you. Most financial advisor agrees that you need to be a long-term investor.Once you have entered the second stage of retirement, in which you retire from work completely, you will need more portfolio income. But financial advisor suggest that you need not invest in bond too aggressively. Bear in mind that we are coming off a 20 year bull market in bonds in which investors were rewarded with both income and capital appreciation that came from falling yields. As interest rates fall, older and higher yielding bonds became more valuable. Now that long term government bonds yield less than 5 percent, so there is not much to gain.Seriously speaking, financial advisor recommends that retiree really need a strategy that is a bit more sophisticated particularly if they want their money to last through the third or sunset stage of retirement. This is more evident with raising health care and living costs.As such, financial advisor recommends that you invest in the following portfolio:1.Midcap stocks 10%2.Small cap stocks 10%3.International stocks 10%4.Short-term fixed income 30%5.Large cap stocks 40%Your retirement nest eggs should continue to grow with the stocks market while the bonds cover living expenses. In order to achieve success in retirement finds investing; one thing everyone should do is not to procrastinate in your aggressive retirement funds investment planning. Some people view retirement as some event that is too distant and don’t save enough. But once they hit retirement age, suddenly they realize they don’t know anything and too late. You need to know how to plan on living, and you need to plan on living longer!That comes to another important financial planning knowledge; how to manage longevity risk.What is longevity risk? Simply state longevity risk is the possibility that you’ll run out of money before you die. Most people start retirement without realize that their portfolio isn’t big enough. So what’s the solution? Save more when you’re working. As you approach retirement, you’ll need to reconcile your budget with your portfolio. For example, if you expect your annual expenses to be around $50K, then according to scientific financial calculation you may need at least $1.25 million in order to satisfy your expenses. Also depending on many factors, such as marker performance, life expectancy, you may not able to withdraw a large sum out of your investment. If you want your portfolio to last a life time, financial mathematics show that you may not withdraw more than 4.5% per annum; assuming your portfolio carries at least 60% in stocks.Financial advisor recommends retiree to invests in both short-term and long-term growth. One of the recommended investment strategies is to invest five year or more of living expenses in high quality bonds, some which will mature every year. For example, you may buy $50K worth of 1 year bond, $50K worth of 2 year bonds and so on. This strategy ensures that retirees will have income every year, plus access to the principle as each bond or group of bonds matures. You may then sell some stocks to repurchase another year worth of bonds set to mature in another 5 years. However, what happen if your portfolio suffers a bad year or two? In this case, you should hold off selling stocks; and if you have gains in any year, then you may invest in more years ahead. The rest of your portfolio can then be growth-oriented invested entirely in stocks.Another way of investment is to buy an immediate annuity with big enough payout to cover costs from health care insurance, taxes and living expenses.However you may want to wait until your second or third stage of your retirement before you purchase an annuity, because the payout is larger for an older buyer.

Six Retirement Planning Myths Busted

It’s never too early and never too late. Here are a few retirement myths to start busting right now! Retirement planning myth articles might not be at the top of your weekend reading list but this one will take you less than three minutes to read and it could save you a lot of financial pain later.

Six Retirement Planning Myths

Myth #1. When I retire I won’t need as much to live on.

Hogwash! How do you know what the cost of living is going to be? Sure the kids are off on their own and the house might be paid off but medical bills and cost of living are unpredictable. You should be able to live on less but why would you want to?

Myth #2. I’m a young pup and retirement is far, far away!

Get real dude, time flies when you’re having fun and burning mun. Of course it’s much easier to save a measly $29 a week at 34 than it is to save a whopping $240 at 54! That’s about what it’s going to take to have $200k in the old nest egg at 65. So there you have it. You can do it the hard we or the easy way. You decide oh youthful one!

Myth #3. My adorable children will take care of me.

Whoa! Haven’t you been watching TV? Your kids are more likely to move back in with you than they are to take care of you! Think back a bit… didn’t you preach to your kids about personal responsibility and good old independence? Keep your kids in your life but keep them out of your retirement planning.

Myth #4. I’m counting on social security to save my bacon!

Yeah, that will be the day when pigs fly. Uncle Sam hasn’t figured out if there will even be any social security in another decade or two. If you want to hold onto a weak retirement strategy then just count on Uncle Sam to be there with that retirement check when you need it. You are better off counting on your own discipline and resourcefulness. You can start drawing social security at 62 but depending on your age, you might be better off to consider that as a bonus than a sure thing.

Myth #5. I don’t have enough money to save or invest for retirement.

That might be true but then… maybe not. Take a hard look at where your money is going. Have you maximized your contributions to your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plans? Have you considered leveraging your home equity or other under-performing assets into safe and secure investments? Have you scrutinized your spending habits? Do you really need that satellite dish and 500 channels of mind numbing video? Do you really need the newest and shiniest shoes and chicest Chevy’s? Even if you can only save a small amount each week, start now. Be consistent and automatic with savings and investing. You might never feel like it’s enough but that is no reason to not to start.

Myth #6. I can’t afford a financial planner.

Many financial planners are compensated by the companies they represent and therefore charge nothing to you unless you do business with them. Others charge for their time on an hourly or fee-based schedule. Find someone you trust and get references. Take your time, go slow and do a little homework. Retirement planning is all about the future but it needs to start today.