First Person: Getting Real About Retirement

If you're reading this, you're probably interested in getting some real, down to earth advice about retirement, not advice from a financial advisor who may have ulterior motives or some famous television personality living off their huge book residuals and their million dollar income. Such real advice isn't always easy to hear or fun to follow, but it can be reasonable and helpful.

The problem with retirement advice in any form, however, is that everyone's situation is different. From income amounts, income streams, saving habits, education, and location, to living situation, savings, expenses, length of time until retirement, health, and similar considerations, there are all sorts of variables that can affect how a person plans and prepares for retirement.

However, here are a few things that I would tell just about anybody I met, at any age or any stage of life, regarding ways to save and plan for their retirement.

Cutting Expenses is Simple, Investing Isn't

If investing were easy, most people would be rich... but it's not. Squeezing extra money from your coffers to give to someone else to invest for a retirement future that could still be decades away can take significant effort. Not only this, but deciding how, where or with whom to invest that extra money -- should you be able to set some aside -- can be equally difficult. What isn't that difficult though, is finding ways to cut costs, making your money go further, which in essence is what you would be doing through investing.

I hate risk. Therefore, I would rather look for ways to cut the amount of money I spend so that I don't have to take as many chances investing. This isn't to say that if I knew of a great place to invest I wouldn't take a chance, but in my opinion, it's much easier for me to cut my cable bill -- in essence saving an extra hundred bucks a month -- than to find a way to save and then invest money so that my returns are earning me an extra hundred dollars a month.

Getting Organized

Clutter can be a retirement planning killer, and getting organized is probably one of the best, and maybe simplest ways to effectively get your retirement plans in order.

The more organized you are, the easier it is to look back upon, learn from, understand, and stay focused upon your finances and financial situation.

I tend to keep most of my financial documents separated into file boxes. This way I have one for taxes, one for house related material, one for insurance, one for investment accounts, etc. Whenever I need to look something up, I know exactly where it will be and I don't have to waste time digging through desks, searching in closets, and rummaging through drawers.

Taking It Slow

Even if you don't have much time until retirement, jumping the gun and plowing straight into retirement numbers that could currently be inconceivable to you, can be frustrating and may even push you to put off saving even longer. Suddenly realizing that you might need a million dollars to retire when you only have $2000 in the bank could leave you with a "Why even bother? I'll just deal with it later," type of attitude. Looking at the big picture right away is like trying to run before you've learned to walk, and it can be overwhelming, intimidating, and frankly, defeating.

If you're a quick starter that's great; start socking away the cash. However, the main thing is that you start. Rome wasn't built in a day, and unless you hit the lottery or fall into an inheritance, you're not likely to hit the million dollar mark right away. But by putting a little away at a time your nest egg can start to grow quickly, and before you know it, you're well on your way to your goals.

Goals

Speaking of goals, setting goals for your retirement and finances can be a key part of getting real about retirement. I've been setting retirement goals since right after college. While at the time they were small goals, I built upon these goals each time I reached them, forcing myself to work harder and push myself further to attain them. For as competitive as many of us are in our work or when playing sports, it's amazing how little many of us compete against ourselves and our financial goals when we put them out there.

If most of us had a $10,000 bonus dangled in front of us at a job for meeting a particular goal, I'd bet the majority of us would push darn hard to achieve it. If we look at our retirement in the same way -- really our retirement savings is a big bonus at the end of our working lives -- we'd probably work equally hard to achieve our retirement goals.

More From This Contributor:
Passive Income Opportunities to Pad My Retirement
I am the General of My Retirement War Plan
Making the Most of Your Money in Retirement

Disclaimer: The author is not a licensed financial or retirement professional. The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal or financial advice. For financial advice, readers should consult a licensed financial advisor. Any action taken by the reader due to the information provided in this article is solely at the reader's discretion.