Wealth Services

Retirement Planning

Many investors feel once they have reached retirement and have money in the bank that their worries are over. Many wait until retirement time to decide if these amounts are adequate to see them through the remainder of their life. Retirement planning should begin early to allow for one of the largest risks - outliving your income.

The biggest pitfalls to sound retirement planning are generally considered to be:

Starting too late (PROCRASTINATION)
Failing to save sufficient amounts
Improper investment choices

First you must ask yourself what your needs are at retirement and at what age you plan to retire. Once you have decided, then you can ask yourself how you are going to get there and if you can get there from where you are. Sadly, many planning candidates -- upon consideration of the amount of savings necessary to provide their retirement goal -- discover that "they can't get there from here." If the savings and/or investment return goal is beyond your reasonable capabilities, several options exist:

You may need to reevaluate your income needs in retirement, and make an appropriate reduction.
You may need to adjust your current standards of living downward in order to free up additional dollars, which can then be committed to saving.
You may need to adjust your time horizon to reflect a later date of retirement than originally planned.
You may reassess and reallocate your current retirement investments in order to increase the return you receive.

This whole process must be updated and verified periodically as you proceed toward retirement in order to make sure that there have been no material changes in your planning assumptions.

Call or visit any branch of the Crossroads Credit Union for a personal retirement plan suited specifically for your personal goals and objectives.