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Preparing for Retirement Isn’t a Game
Last Updated: June 12, 2014
Have you ever played the game “Red Light, Green Light?” One player controls the traffic light while everyone else alternates between stops and starts depending on what color is showing. The last three to five years on the way to retirement can seem a little bit like that game.
You come to realize you’re down to your last handful of working years. The imagination phase of retirement is behind you and you’re likely filled with joy and excitement of your nearing retirement. You may not have the exact date, but at least the year is coming into focus.
However, at the same time, feelings of doubt and worry can start to creep in. Can you really just stop going to work and no longer have a paycheck waiting for you every other Friday? Will this nest egg really provide enough income for the rest of your life? What will things cost when you are 80? What will I do for health insurance once I’ve left my employer? Social Security? Medicare? The questions never end. It can be difficult to know if you thought of everything. After all, once you retire, you don’t want to have to “un-retire” and start working again. Much of this anxiety can be attributed to a lack of retirement confidence. This is also why some people plan to work “just one more year” for 5 years in a row.
According to EBRI’s 2014 Retirement Confidence Survey, only 18 percent of workers are very confident they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement. Feeding this lack of confidence is a lack of information on what it takes to retire. Households that spend time planning are more confident. The EBRI Survey also found that only 44 percent of workers have ever tried to calculate how much money they will need in retirement. Among those people, 25 percent are very confident, compared with 13 percent of those who have not. Finally, the survey shows that 29 percent of workers who have met with a financial adviser to plan for retirement are very confident about retirement, compared with 16 percent of those who have not.
While there may always be nervous jitters around this major life transition, it doesn’t have to be because of a lack of preparation. The Certified Financial Planner™ professionals at Pension Consultants are prepared to help you answer all of the questions you have about your upcoming retirement. In fact, you may want to calculate how much you need for your retirement situation multiple times during the last few years. If you have never done this calculation or if you just want to know you are putting all the variables in the right spot; give us a call at 800.234.9584. Your choice is your future!
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