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Online Tools to Help Retirement Needs

By Ashley Thiesen Caldwell | August 2, 2009

If you’re looking to retire, there’s no doubt you’ve sat down to crunch the numbers. How can you afford what you’ve spent decades dreaming up as your golden retirement years? Will the day you finally step away from the daily grind be all that you’ve hoped for? Dreaming is one thing, but preparing for that stage in our lives is going to take more effort than planning for our annual vacation.

Studies show that Americans are living longer, so they’re spending more time in retirement. The Census Bureau reports that half of all men reaching the age of 65 can expect to live until 82, and half of women reaching 65 can live to be 86 and older. No one wants to consider the possibility of running out of money ten years or more into retirement.

Retirement planning can be complicated, but the American Saving Education Council created an easy ballpark estimate guide to help you figure out how much money you’ll need to do so comfortably.

Print out the non-interactive PDF to share with family and friends. The print version makes some assumptions on rates of return (3%) and wage increases growing with inflation, but you can obtain a rough first estimate.

For a more accurate picture of what you’ll need to retire, click on the interactive version. Some of the entries may be difficult to determine, such as, “ Enter expected age of death.” Or, “Input the rate of return you assume you will earn on your investments BEFORE you retire.” For help with these answers, go to these calculators – from life expectancy to stock returns to a helpful checkbook balancer, there are calculators on this list for most of life’s financial situations.

Read the original article by Janet Bernstel
here.

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Topics: F.A.Q's, Investing, Retirement Tips & Things to Think About, Second Home Buying | No Comments »

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