It's pretty easy to be passive about retirement saving and just let it happen in the background of your life. However, it is important to take the time to make sure your savings goals remain on track and where you need them to be.
Chief Marketing Officer of Cyprus Credit Union, David Sant, said, "You should be sitting down once a year to conduct a 'retirement check-up' to ensure everything is running smoothly."
Here are his recommendations for performing the check-up:
Check Your Contributions
To start with your check-up, ask yourself these questions:
• What are you currently contributing to your retirement savings?
• How close are you to reaching the yearly maximum?
• Have you received a pay increase that will help you contribute more?
• Does your employer offer some type of match program for you to maximize your savings?
You should always be on the look out to increase what you are contributing.
Investing
Having a well balanced portfolio is the backbone of retirement planning. Depending on where you are in the retirement planning process, your investment strategy should change. For example, once you hit your 50s, you should re-examine your savings and start investing more conservatively. Remember, everyone`s situation is different so you should speak to a professional investment advisor to get a personalized plan.
Changing Methods
Perhaps an employer sponsored traditional 401(k) made sense when you first started saving, but maybe you`re ready to look into a Roth account or an IRA. While a traditional retirement account contains funds that are taken out pre-tax, a Roth account will be taken out post-tax which means you won't have to pay taxes on what you withdraw.
Life Changes
Life is full of changes and your retirement plan should change with it.
• Maybe you were single when you first set up your retirement fund and didn't account for a second person.
• Maybe you never designated a beneficiary for your account or the person you designated is no longer a part of your life.
• Perhaps you left an old job and never rolled the money over into your new account.
During your check-up, make sure all of your information is up to date and correct; if you've done that it makes the process much easier.
Find out more by visiting cypruscu.com.
