Preparing for Retirement

Retirement is the start of second innings of life. One should play this innings with care and must prepare himself for this innings during his work life itself.

Life after retirement should be a life of joy, and one should have freedom and enough time to enjoy life. But, all this depends on the financial soundness, health and other family situations. If one does not have enough money and is bogged by ailments, then retired life will be miserable. Certainly retirement is the start of second innings of life.

When should one start preparation?

To have a peaceful retired life, one should prepare for it during his working years itself. During the working years, he should maintain good life style and also plan to save from the day he starts to work. Then it should be possible to keep enough money for the retired life.

How to save?

There are enough schemes to plan savings which will be the source for a retired life. Savings plans like Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) 401k investment plans, Social Security are some of the plans from which one can choose an appropriate savings plan scheme.

Individual Retirement Accounts is a scheme suitable for working professionals. These are Tax free retirement plan. But, there are limitations to the contribution which are made the account.

Apart from the above, there are other ways of making saving for retired life. They are taking up insurance, withdrawing from Social Security Benefits, tax planning etc. The worker may choose any of the above methods convenient to him so that he can start saving for his retired life.

Good life style:

Saving for a happy retired life and investing the savings wisely are half the story. There is another more important issue which has to be taken care of and that is the 'health'. Because, without health, any amount of saving will be of no consequence. In fact it may be said that health is one of the best investment one can think of. It is therefore necessary that one should plan his life style. A good life style one practices during his youth will pay during the retired life.

Finance is not the be all and end all of life. The real issue is how active lifestyle one has maintained after retirement. Just think of a person who has saved enough but is sick all through and a regular visitor to a doctor. That cannot be called as happy life.

Therefore it is necessary that one should have a Good life style, so that he maintains good health and this is the first part. The second part is the savings.