Welcome back to Part Four of our “Back to Basics” series .. we hope you’ve enjoyed the First Three which started with all about “The Emergency Fund” in Part 1 … with Part 2 being “Protection Planning” and Part 3 discussing All about Debt Planning or “The Good the Bad and the Ugly of Debt” and now we happily bring you Part 4 Retirement Planning!
As a reminder this is a high level Financial Planning Education like overview starting with the basics of and we will continue into advanced topics in order of Planning Importance.
Retirement Planning
The most important parts of retirement planning are very easy and as follows:
- Start Early
- Save as much as you can especially when you are young as compounding is your friend, do not worry about the amount, just save!
- Don’t overthink your investment options, just allocate as available and save save save…
Starting out with a healthy savings percentage of our earnings at an early age will lead to eventual maxing out of your retirement plans, forcing you happily into other savings vehicles thereby balancing your eventual portfolio with pre-tax retirement savings and after tax buckets of investments.
Continued high percentage earnings savings will also ultimately create the habits of not living on all that you are earning. This is especially important as we get closer to retirement and create just darn good habits.
There will likely be times in our lives when we may not be able to save as much on a percentage of our earnings as we would like, but constant top of mind savings habits will garner success in the long term, don’t let life’s curve balls distract your long term savings effort, you can do it!
Early savings should be very aggressive as the corpus of your savings are the actual savings component. All equity type of investments especially during the first 5-10 years are not out of the realm of possibilities, again your continued contributions dominate the investment during these early stages. As your retirement savings and for that matter other investments grow in size adjustments are necessary especially as we near retirement.
While there are talks of optimal retirement allocations, it’s not unusual to find inferior investment options in retirement accounts. Not to worry, don’t throw your employer or your plan under the bus … the most important item in your retirement savings program is the actual deferral of your hard earned work and the broad allocation! Be aggressive in the beginning and slowing down the allocation as it matures in size and our chapter nears retirement.
Weather 401, IRA, Sep- (Simplified Employee Pension), Roth.403b. 401A or any other retirement vehicle, the vehicle is not as important as participation!.
We will help you optimize from a tax standpoint which vehicle is best. and of course with the allocations as well!
Have a Great “Retirement Planning” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP
Founder of J.K. Financial, Inc.
A Dallas Texas based fee only
Financial Planning Total Wealth
Management firm.