Planning for the longest vacation of your life (aka retirement) can be extremely daunting, and if you don’t do it right, you could end up running out of money when you need it the most.
I’ve said it many times before, but we just don’t get educated enough about personal finances.
When it comes to retirement, specifically, there are three things that you need to take into account when you’re planning, or they can demolish your savings before you know it.
Inflation – I’ve talked about this before, but prices are going up, and up…. and up. The average inflation rate in the U.S. has been just over 3% per year. That doesn’t sound awful, but that means prices are doubling every 20 years.
If you take into account that your retirement could be more than 30 years, this becomes important. If you’re basing your retirement plan on what you’re spending now, you’re going to have a rough time of it.
In plain numbers, if you’re paying $5000 for expenses now, inflation might bump that up to $10,000 or more in 20 years. Scary, huh?
Taxation – Taxes are probably going to rise, and soon. The national debt is rising, and we’re getting older as a population. This means more strain on our budget, so how are we going to pay for that? Yep, taxes.
Your Social Security will likely get taxed in the future, so factor this into your plan. It is possible to dramatically reduce your tax burden. You just need to know how to do it.
Health Care – Life happens, especially as we get older. Many of us will require some kind of healthcare in our lifetime, and our odds of that only get higher as we get older.
Sudden injury and illness are some of the single most significant threats to your retirement. It’s not unheard of for custodial healthcare to cost over 100K per year. The real kicker is that the inflation of healthcare happens at double the rate of everything else!
I don’t say this to make you stressed out or worried. In fact, if you’re already covered and have a plan for retirement that takes all of the above into account, I’ll be the first one to celebrate for you and cheer you on.
If you don’t, then we should have a chat. All you have to do is call 513-563-PLAN (7526) or book a call with me online. Sometimes all it takes is 15 minutes with a pro to get on the right path to your dream retirement.
Regards,
Nikki Earley, CFP®