Retirement

Retirement is one of the most important events in your life. A successful retirement takes careful planning on your part. When should you start to plan for retirement? You should start planning for retirement the day you start your first job, this is to insure that you will have the income you need when you want to retire. . Start putting money away in an IRA or if you work for a government agency put as much away that you are allowed. Let's put it like this, you didn't have any money to begin with, putting the maximum away before you get your first pay check you still have more than what you started with. If your company offers to match 5-10% of your pay, these are pre-taxed dollars, you are not only saving money, your company is matching your funds and you don't have to pay taxes on it until you retire. Good plan all the way around.

Now if you are established in your job and retirement is looming right around the bend there are several things that your should do.

If you are planning to retire within the next 5 years, attend a pre retirement counseling seminar, most major companies and government agencies offer these seminars for free. If your company or agency does not offer one check with your local Community Colleges or public libraries, also check in the classified ads within your community these seminars are essential for your retirement plans, if you have to pay for to attend it is worth the $75.00 cost.

If you work for a government agency, assure that you will meet the requirements set forth by your agency, in regards to your age, years of employment these factors will be used when computing your annuity.

Get an estimate of what your retirement annuity will be, take into consideration that you may elect to have a survivor benefit to cover your spouse or eligible children.

Find out if your health benefits carry over into your annuity benefits. If not start checking now for alternate health insurance

Check to see if your company withholds federal or state taxes from your annuity check, if not you will be responsible for assuring that these taxes are withheld.

Do you have a life insurance policy that your company pays for? Check with your personnel office to see if that will continue after you retire, if not find out now how you can continue this insurance coverage.

Check your beneficiary or beneficiaries as the case may be, assure that the names and addresses are current and that they reflect your current wishes.

Find out if you will be eligible for a Social Security benefit. Call the Social Security Administration on (800) 772-1213 to ask for SSA-7004- PC, Request for Earnings and Benefit Statement, to get a record of your earnings under Social Security and, if you will be eligible, an estimate of the payment you may receive.

Plan on paying down your debt as much as possible, get rid of credit cards payments, if you have to refinance your home to do so the interest charges on a mortgage are tax deductible whereas the interest on credit cards is not. Start working on planning a budget that will reflect at least a 20% to 40% drop in you take home pay. Live off of that budget at least for a year before your planned retirement. If you can survive off of that amount of money you will be able to retire comfortably.

One year before your retirement, this is the point at which you need to take some of the more detailed necessary actions. Confirm that nothing has changed that would affect your planning. You may want to attend another pre-retirement seminar, if available, encourage your spouse to attend with you.

Request an updated retirement estimate. Since you are now very close to your planned retirement date, this estimate should be very close to your actual annuity amount. Make another appointment with your Human Resource Office and go over your documents to assure that everything is in order, your life and health insurance coverage are up to date, information is correct. If you health insurance does not follow you into retirement check to see how long the grace period is before you lose your insurance in order to obtain alternate insurance.

Review your survivor benefit options, the types of benefits that may be elected, the eligibility requirements for survivor benefits, their cost, and the necessity for your spouse to consent if you want to provide less than full benefits for him or her.

Retire and enjoy writing on Associated Content.....