Add $50,000, $100,000 or even $500,000 to Your Retirement Savings

Your personal savings are one of the four building blocks of a financially secure retirement along with your company’s retirement plan, your IRA and Social Security.  The amounts you will receive from those last three sources are somewhat out of your control.  Social Security benefits are based on your wages, your IRA contributions are limited and your employer’s retirement plan may limit what you can contribute.  You have complete control over your other retirement savings.

Determining exactly how much you need to save for retirement can be complicated.  To do the perfect calculation, you need to know your level of expenses during retirement, your future tax rates, the future returns on your assets and ultimately how long you are going to live.  With all these uncertainties, the thought of doing the calculation can be daunting. 

Even without an exact calculation, it is probably safe to assume that you want to accumulate more funds so you can enjoy the type of retirement lifestyle you want.  Here is one simple idea that may give you some motivation to do something you know you should be doing – saving more. 

Saving Early and Often is up to You
The keys to accumulating a larger retirement nest-egg are to start early, save often and earn competitive returns on your funds.  Here is a chart showing how much you need to save every month to accumulate different amounts.

(Assumes an earnings rate of 5%.)

This is a hypothetical example and is not representative of any specific security.  Actual results will vary.