Is Your Retirement Planning Built on “3 Key Plans”?
Have you put off planning for your retirement because you find it daunting and intimidating? Are you familiar with the “3 Key Plans” you need to have in place to build a solid retirement plan?
Visualize yourself on a “three-legged stool”, each leg is a different plan that is vital to your retirement planning. All three legs have one thing in common – all of them need to support you! Each leg must be strong, balanced, and able to support you during your retirement.
So what are the three plans?
1) Social Security Plan
2) Retirement Asset Plan
3) Personal Savings Plan
Putting your social security plan together is the first leg in building your retirement plan. Locate your and your spouse’s Annual Social Security Statement. It lists your annual earnings for Social Security and Medicare, and it provides you with your estimated benefit amounts. Read the Social Security Retirement Benefits for a clear understanding of all the benefits available. Are you having a problem locating your form? You can find your full retirement age on the Social Security Retirement Planner page.
Retirement asset planning is the second leg of planning. Where do your savings come from? Your pension, IRAs, annuities, and/or 401k’s. Remember, the IRS is going to be taking some of your hard earned cash, as the IRS collects tax when you take your retirement assets as income. You need to be proactive and have a plan in place for your retirement assets. It’s important to review this with your tax planner. Understanding the rules of retirement planning are extremely important, it can prevent trouble later on in retirement when it is more difficult to correct it.
The third and final leg is the creation of a solid personal saving plan, which comes down to cash flow! When you stick to your plan, you can control your cash flow. In turn, you’ll have peace of mind during retirement. Here are three savings plans you should have in place:
1) Emergency Savings for illness or disasters.
2) Short Term Savings for normal expenses.
3) Long Term Savings for retirement.
Consider the following when creating your cash flow budget: where you want to retire to (state), when you want to retire (your age and life expectancy), and how much in savings you hope to have by the age you retire.
Need help managing your 3 legged-stool? Concerned about your retirement assets? Download our FREE eBook: 3 Tips to Help Your Sit Pretty in Retirement.
Have questions? Contact us at Makara & Associates, LCC. You can contact us online or call our Naples office (239) 384-9688 or our Fort Myers office. Our Ft. Myers accountants and Naples accountants will be more than happy to answer all your questions about retirement planning.
-Mark
This information is based on facts, assumptions and representations as stated and authorities that are subject to change. We will not update this information for subsequent legislative or administrative changes of future judicial interpretations.
LEGAL NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: The information within this blog is for informational and educational purposes only and is not tax advice and should not be used as such. The facts of each individual situation can have significantly different outcomes when applying tax law. The hiring of a CPA is an important decision not to be based solely on advertisements.
