Archive for November, 2009

Look at your Employee Retirement Income Before Planning your Retirement

Friday, November 20th, 2009

In order to fully be able to enjoy your retirement after many years of long days and hard work, you need to make sure that you start planning carefully.  A good retirement plan includes not only some type of savings plan, but a combination of all the savings plans that you can use to build up a solid amount of money to support yourself and your dreams with once you retire.  You should aim to make sure that you include a budget for unforeseen circumstances since you never know what the future my hold as well as inflation because that is one problem that usually affects every generation of retirees.

One great place to begin when planning for your retirement is to figure out how much you will receive in employee retirement income once you leave your job.  Since this is the one place that you can depend on money that will be there to support you, knowing the balance of your employee retirement income will help you plan properly for your future.  Typically, your employee retirement income is probably going to come from one of the two following sources, your 401k option of a company pension.

If you choose to take a 401k option as your employee retirement income, the way it works is that you decide to contribute a small amount of your paycheck to a investment fund which your employer pledges to match.  Of course, there are limits as to how high your employer will match you, but most will at least match you from between 5-10%.  Most of the time the money that you place into a 401k is invested in an area where it is sure to grow, such as safe places on the stock market, mutual funds, or bonds so you can watch both interest and careful investments grow over time.

The other source of employee retirement income that you may be able to secure for yourself is if your company offers a pension plan.  Generally, you may receive a pension benefit if you opt into it and work for the qualifying amount of years.  The amount that you get paid generally depends on long you work for the company and what your last five years of wages were.  However, this may change so if you want to know how much employee retirement income you can depend on from your company your best option is to ask someone in human resources.

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Live in an Active Retirement Community to Live Longer

Wednesday, November 4th, 2009

ust because you are retired does not mean that your life has ended and that you now only can sit in front of the TV day in and day out.  Studies consistently show that you are the age you act, as the older the act the older you will feel.  Therefore, if you want to feel younger for a longer period of time then you will want to make sure that you maintain an active lifestyle as you grow older even if you are retired.  One way that you can help yourself stay moving is if you join an active retirement community in your later years.

An active retirement community is pretty much the same as any other community, but if you want to be on the move constantly in your older years then it will be the best retirement community for you.  At an active retirement community you will have the chance to learn new things offered in classes at the communities recreation hall and participate in activities and sports that you may enjoy such as swimming, basketball, crafts, bingo, or sewing.  Some even have job opportunities for you that you can take part time if you want to keep moving day in and day out, just at a slower rate.

Aside from classes at the recreational hall, most active retirement community options will offer you other ways to stay active in the community as well.  Some of the communities will allow you to participate in volunteer activities and charity work as well.  Therefore, if you like volunteering the best retirement community for you may be one that provides programs and opportunities for you to participate in.  You may also be able to get involved in civic activities through your active retirement community if you are politically inclined, so you may want to check that out as well.

If none of these seem to fit into your plans, then you may want to choose an active retirement community that is open and willing to accommodate your needs.  For example, if you have a special interest or knowledge base, the best retirement community for you may be one in which you can start your own group or activity.  You may even be able to teach classes to interested residents at your active retirement community in order to keep busy.  Of course, with the Internet you can now teach out of your home as well, which is a great way to work a little from your home even while retired.

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