What Is Retirement Planning?
Retirement planning involves determining retirement income goals and what's needed to achieve those goals. Retirement planning includes identifying income sources, sizing up expenses, implementing a savings program, and managing assets and risk. Future cash flows are estimated to gauge whether the retirement income goal is possible.
You can start at any time, but it works best if you factor it into your financial planning as early as possible. That’s the best way to ensure a safe, secure—and fun—retirement.
There are many different types of retirement plans, some are provided by your employer and some are self-funded plans that can maximize your income in retirement. Here are some of the most common:
- Defined Benefit Plans
- Defined Contribution
- Traditional 401(k)
- Roth 401(k)
- 403(b) plans
- Simple IRA
- SEP IRA
- 457 Plans
- Roth IRA’s
- Solo 401(k)
- Thrift Savings Plans
One common error people make is thinking that they can rely on social security and savings to take care of their retirement needs.