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This article will give readers information about what to do to make sure that they are getting the maximum out of their retirement funds by giving them examples of things that they should be doing every five years.
So, you are saving up for retirement? That’s great!! You’ve already taken the hardest step- it’s hard to save up money because it’s so fun to spend it! Any money that you are saving for retirement is going to really help in the long run. However, how can you make sure that you are maximizing your retirement funds?
Every five years or so, there are a number of things that you can do to make sure that you are on the right track. For example, meeting with a financial planner every few years and taking a look at your financial portfolio would be a very good idea. Looking at your investments such as your liquid savings, your 401K, your IRA, your stocks, etc. with a professional financial planner can really help you. They can give you advice about how your investments are doing, and if you should sell any of your stocks, or if you should change the mutual funds that you have been investing in. They are trained to do this kind of thing, and you are paying them. Make sure they give you adequate time and give you reasons behind their advice. Beware of any financial advisors who want you to sell everything. Some financial planners will want you to do this only so that they can get a commission on the stocks that you sell. If this occurs, get a second opinion.
Another thing to do every five years or so is to challenge yourself to save more. If you’ve been putting 6% of your income into your 401k every year, you should consider trying to move that number up significantly, if possible. You probably have will have gotten raises in that time, and the amount that you can contribute annually will also probably have gone up. Try to go up at least 1 or 2 percent, if possible, every few years. Don’t just put 6% in, and then never raise that number. Your salary increases, and therefore, so should your contributions.
On that same note, you should also check and see if any of your other investments can be contributed to more. For example, usually every year or so, you can contribute more to an IRA. If 5 years ago you were putting $2500 every year into your IRA and now you can afford to put in $3500 and the government allows this, definitely go for it! You don’t always want to put the absolute minimum in.
 Most of this is probably common sense. Get financial advice, keep all documents about your finances in a safe place, keep contributing, and if possible, as your income goes up, put more money into your various investments. Even though this seems like common sense, a lot of people ignore their retirement investments because they falsely believe that they will be okay as long as they put SOMETHING into their retirement funds. This is not always true. In fact, most people do not save enough to keep their current lifestyle by any means.
The main point is to keep on top of your retirement funds. Make sure that you know all of the newest amounts that you can contribute and make sure that you don’t spend too much of your income. If you can save more, squeeze out the money so that you can contribute so that you can ideally contribute the maximum. Most of the time, companies will contribute up to a certain amount of money for the amount that you put in. Don’t ignore this free money! If you can at least contribute the maximum that your company matches, by all means, do so!
Written by - Ariane Seifert |
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