For most people, retirement is in decades into the future, they always think they have more time to prepare and then boom, retirement shows up without proper planning so they become frustrated and broke at their old age.
It is important to know that a lot of people are living longer these days so their post retirement years can even extend up to 90 years. Inflation rate is always increasing and what you can buy cheaper today could and will be expensive at the time of your retirement. Most countries do not have government sponsored social security in place post retirement so you need to take your retirement planning seriously and into your own hands.
You critically need to analyse your situation now and ask yourself if you can live the same lifestyle post retirement. It will be very difficult for someone to tell you the end figure you need for retirement as it is very subjective to many things such as your current circumstances, number of dependents, your state of health, assets you have already accumulated.
If any estimates at all, it will be based on your current income and expenditure.
What age are you likely to retire? How much money will you need to live on when you are old and no longer working? What is the expected rate of inflation over the long term? What is your living expenditure likely to be? Likely health cost? What are your post retirement income likely to be? How much money do you need to have a comfortable retirement? Work the figures backwards to arrive at the income you will need to live on and start investing for the future. When you invest early, your money will accumulate and grow faster through compound interest.
Do you contribute to any pension funds? Or does your company have one in place for their employees? If they do, can you top-up or add more to it to grow the fund faster? Can you start a private pension fund on the side? Are you eligible for a state pension and do you know how much is payable at pension time?
Eliminate all your debt now, avoid further debt and start building wealth. Saving more of your income and invest more through the stock market and other investment products.
Invest in real estate as they are good in storing value, sometimes even valuable than investing in gold. It can be a single-family dwelling, multi-family which can be a townhouse, it can also be apartments, hotels, commercial properties, offices, mansions, warehouses, castles, industrial or even a shopping mall.
Real estates have natural appreciations in the sense that people need places to live as the population increases. Businesses need physical locations to trade. Everywhere in the world, properties appreciate in value at least 3% year on year and it is always known that most properties doubles in value every 10 years. Real estates maintain and increase its value and demand is always high. You can generate passive income from rentals which will give you cashflow for life. Other people will rent and pay for your investment.
Bonds will give you fixed income, Mutual Funds will accumulate to increase your wealth, Collective Investment Schemes are key to building wealth, Fixed Deposit securities are great for future budgeting as the income is guaranteed. In the UK consider investing in ‘Investment ISAs’ (Individual Savings Accounts) from major banks and financial institutions or other trading platforms like Hargreaves Lansdowne, A J Bell, Fidelity, Vanguard, E-Trade etc.
In pensions, people are going to get a nasty surprise. Don’t be caught out. Start planning and investing now. The future is now so start building a solid foundation from now.
