I’ve been producing this financial letter since October 1998 and, to my astonishment, I’ve never dealt with retirement projection.
- What does the future have in store for me?
- When can I stop working?
- Will I have to downsize my home when I retire?
- What happens if my partner dies or if I die before s/he does?
- Can I provide financial support to my children without jeopardizing my financial future?
- When will I have accrued enough investments?
- How can I make sure I don’t run out of money when I retire?
- When can I reduce my workload?
I’ve been asked these kinds of questions for the past 22+ years. After all, what’s the point of working hard and saving for a cosy retirement if you can’t enjoy it when the times comes? It’s all a question of balance – both enjoying the pleasures of everyday life and making sure you put enough away for a relaxing retirement.
Clearly, retirement analysis can answer many of the questions above – perhaps not fully, but with enough depth to enable you to shape an informed opinion. Obviously, results may vary enormously from one person to another due to differences in their standard of living, income, number of children, and so on.
Unless your financial situation and needs are such that you’ll never deplete your nest egg, retirement projection is an essential tool for informed retirement-planning. It’ll help you achieve balance between living your life to the full and saving for your retirement years.
Many retirees wish they’d started saving at a younger age. Clearly, starting to save when you’re very young delivers huge accrued benefits.
Taking advantage of compound returns over long periods is a sure-fire way to retire comfortably. If, unfortunately, you’re among those who started saving late, please know that there are solutions designed to offset, to some extent, your late start.
