ST. LOUIS — September 7th is National 401K. According to GoBankingRates.com, 42% of Americans will retire broke because they have only $10,000 or less of savings.
Experts have a list of 5 things people should be doing now to make sure they have enough cash in the bank for retirement.
- Budgeting
Experts recommend making a list of your monthly expenses and then budget for those items.
- Spending
Keep track of your credit card statements. Figure out where you’re spending your money. If it’s on dinners out, perhaps cut down on nights out and save that money.
- Saving
The sooner you begin saving, the better. Experts recommend putting aside 10% of your annual salary when you first start working. However, if you’re 30 and haven’t begin saving, you may need to put more money away. Figure out how much money you need to live on. If you make $50,000 a year and want to live off of $42,000 a year when you retire, you need a nest egg of about $2 million.
- Planning
Determine how much money you want to live off of every year and begin planning for that. Take into account planning for health problems, helping out your children, traveling and then develop a plan to have enough savings for those things.
- Sharing
Talking to your spouse about what you want out of retirement. Where do you want to live, do you want to travel, those are all questions you should discuss together. Also, talk to your kids about the importance of saving. Teaching them, at an early age, about saving will help them when they’re older.
