How Much Retirement Money Do You Need

The First Step When Calculating How Much Youll Need Is Estimating Your Future Expenses In Retirement

There are many rules of thumb out there when it comes to retirement. You may have heard that you should be saving 10-15 per cent of your pre-tax income, or that youll need around 70 per cent of your income when you stop working.

In our example, Joe Supersaver ends up with an amount equal to almost all of his pre-retirement earnings by saving 18 per cent of his earnings.

Joe the Supersaver is going to be fine, Engen said. Thats true especially given that he will no longer have to set aside over $7,000 a year for retirement, which will significantly boost his disposable income. Instead of maximizing his RRSP contribution, post-retirement Joe Supersaver will likely have room to save up for routine big-ticket expenses like a new car or roof, and, maybe, a few vacations.

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Ordinary Joe, on the other hand, will likely be on pretty thin ice. Not having to save for retirement will free up a little over $300 a month in his cash flow compared to when he was working. Thats not much of a cushion to deal with unexpected costs, Engen said.

The 70 per cent income-replacement ratio doesnt work well for someone with a relatively low income like Joe. For others, though, that may be plenty, especially at higher income levels.

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How Can I Work Out My Retirement Income Budget

Here are some questions to ask yourself or discuss with your financial advisor:

• What is the minimum income I need to cover my outgoings? Consider everything from your mortgage/rent payments and utility bills to transport and grocery shopping. These are the absolute basics that you need to be able to comfortably cover in retirement.

• How much would I like to be able to spend on non-essentials? Whether you want to travel, indulge in eating out a bit more or take the grandchildren for days out, it’s important to plan for non-essential spending too.

• Am I entitled to state benefits? As long as you’ve made 35 years of National Insurance contributions , you’ll be entitled to claim a state pension from the age of 66. The maximum amount you can receive is £179.60 per week, adding up to £9,339.20 a year per person far below even the essential level of income if it’s your way to fund retirement.

• How much am I saving, or can I save towards retirement? It’s best to start saving for retirement as early as you can. Whether you’ve already started or want to begin building up your pension pots, tools like Unbiased’s pension calculator work out how far your money will go.

If you’d like more information on when you may be able to retire, check out our previous article on retirement age.

How Much Should My Pension Pot Be Worth

This is a very personal question that will depend on the lifestyle you’d like to have in retirement. The sum will also depend on what you’re planning on doing with it. For example, you could save a smaller initial amount and siphon it off slowly using pension drawdown, allowing the fund to continue growing . Or you could purchase a pricier, but guaranteed, annuity, which will give you a set income every year.

Using Which?’s estimates, you would currently need to have a pension pot worth £757,000 to buy an income that gives you £41,000 a year. By comparison, you could enjoy the same lifestyle through income drawdown with just £442,020 saved but this is a riskier option with no guaranteed income at all.

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How Do I Save For Retirement

So weve answered how much money do you need to retire?, but what about how do you save for retirement? Well answer that in the section below.

Whether youre just entering the job market or are nearing retirement, there are numerous savings vehicles and plans that you can take advantage of to reach your retirement goal.

How Much Retirement Savings Do You Really Need

Money Magazine recently ran an article on how much you should have in retirement savings based upon your age. The article suggested the following retirement savings amounts at certain ages in order to live a lifestyle in retirement comparable to your current lifestyle. It suggested you should have the following amounts in your retirement savings by the following age ranges:

This makes sense if you do not have a pension but what about those who do have pensions? How much should you save on top of your pension in order to live a comparable lifestyle to your present one when you retire?

The answer may be a little frustrating without some help. Every state has different pension plans and different rules around Social Security. In an ideal world, you could simply figure out what your pension will pay you in retirement, add Social Security, and then compare that to your salary today. In reality, pensions can be confusing and planning your retirement can be overwhelming.

Here are some things that can help you think through how much you will need to save:

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Multiply Current Annual Spending By 25

Here’s a broad rule of thumb that you can use to figure out how much money you’ll need when you retire. Multiply your current annual spending by 25. That’s what your savings will have to be in retirement to allow you to safely withdraw 4% of that amount every year to live on.

You’ll need an investment portfolio that’s 25 times $40,000 a year$1 million at the start of your retirementif you spend $40,000 per year now. This sum allows you to withdraw 4% in your first year of retirement, and that same 4% adjusted for inflation every year going forward. You’ll maintain a decent chance that you won’t outlive your money.

You could amass a $1 million portfolio even on a salary of only $30,000 to $40,000 if you begin saving at an early age, as early as your twenties.

The Road To Retirement Is Much Harder If You Dont Invest Or Avoid The Stock Market

In both of our scenarios, Joe is investing his savings, including after retirement. His 3 per cent return is a very realistic goal for someone who puts half of their savings in stocks and half in less risky investments like bonds and Guaranteed Investment Certificates , according to Engen. But it will be very hard to achieve your retirement goal if youre avoiding the stock market entirely, he added.

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Impact Of Inflation On Pensions And Savings

The amount you get from public pensions, like the Old Age Security pension and Canada Pension Plan, is protected against inflation. This means as the cost of living goes up, the value of your benefit goes up as well.

Not all employer pensions are protected against inflation. Ask your pension administrator or employer whether your pension is protected against inflation.

Personal savings and investments, such as mutual funds or guaranteed investment certificates , are usually not directly protected against inflation. Your savings need to grow by at least the rate of inflation. If not, the amount of things your savings can buy in the future will be less than what they can buy now.

For example, something bought for $100 in 2002 would cost $129.92 in 2016. If your income isn’t protected against inflation, you may have a hard time maintaining your lifestyle in retirement as the cost of goods and services increases.

What Percentage Of My Income Should I Put Into My Retirement Savings

It is suggested that you put at least 15% of your pre-tax income into your retirement savings account or 401. The percentage you set aside for retirement can change due to your particular circumstances, including how much you’ll need during retirement and how much you can afford to set aside each month. You can always use a retirement calculator to help estimate how much you’ll need in addition to Social Security.

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Do I Need $1 Million To Retire In Canada

In some cities, you do if you want to maintain a certain lifestyle. Its plain and simple that retiring in Toronto and Vancouver will be easier if you to have a $1 million portfolio or equivalent in pension plan.

Given that everyone has different expenses and expectations for life in retirement, to get an accurate picture you will need to budget your annual spending. Personally, I think its harder to budget the annual spending than putting a plan to reach $1 million.

The plan for a $1 million portfolio can be as simple as seeing the numbers grow through simple math. Here is how you can do it with your TFSA account. Imagine when you have two TFSA accounts how fast you can make it.

The amount of money you need in retirement depends on when you want to retire. Moreover, it depends on what you want to do once you are retired .

To answer the question of whether or not you need $1 million to retire in Canada is not simple but until you are getting closed to retirement, you should work towards the $1 million. In your 20s and 30s, aim high for $1 million or more but as you enter your 40s and 50s, your life should be more stable that you can more easily budget what you need.

Pensions Dashboard And Simpler Statements

Which? calling on the government to press ahead with reforms to help provider savers with greater clarity about their pension savings so they can know if they are on track for later life.

The government must move swiftly to introduce long-delayed pensions dashboards that give savers access to all their pensions information including their state pension in one place.

Which? believes that the Department for Work and Pensions should also press ahead with plans to shorten and simplify annual benefits statements, but it should ensure consumers are provided with clear information about costs and charges in one simple, personalised figure.

Jenny Ross, Which? Money Editor, said: For many people, the events of the past year may have brought the amount of money needed for later life into sharper focus or accelerated plans to retire.

Our research shows that most people will need to be putting away significant sums if they want to ensure they can enjoy a comfortable retirement but many do not have access to the clear and accessible information they need to help them plan.

The government must move swiftly to introduce the long-awaited pensions dashboard and simplify annual benefits statements to enable people to understand how much theyve saved, what this could be worth in retirement and, crucially, extend its proposals to include how much consumers have paid in charges.

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% Rule Annual Withdrawal Rate

This rule is one that is being challenged with the low interest rate environment we are in as it assumes a certain growth.

Without going into details, the 4% rule state that you should be able to withdraw 4% of your portfolio every year and retire safely without running out of money. Another way to look at it is to not withdraw more than 4% to feel safe.

Its a tough rule though because in your 60s you want to enjoy life a lot more than in your late 80s when you could struggle to walk. So do you really want to keep 4% of your portfolio when you are bound to a chair in a home for elderly?

Estimate How Much Super You’ll Have

You probably know how much super you have now, but do you know how much you’ll have when you retire?

Use the Moneysmart retirement planner to estimate:

• how much money you’ll have to spend each year once you retire
• how fees, investment options and contributions will affect your retirement income

You can also use the planner to test out different scenarios and work out how to grow your super.

Estimate how much super you’ll have when you retire.

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Plan For Your Retirement

The emphasis is on “your” retirement here, because no 2 will look the same. You could take two 55-year-old women with the same job and even the same postal code, and their vision for this next chapter will probably be very different along with what they can actually afford. Thats because a range of factors from how much we have saved to how much we want to spend can all influence just how much money well need to retire. Ideally, comfortably as well!

Whether youre 25 or 55, it can be helpful to sit down and answer a few questions to help you clarify what retirement might look like to you. Heres what you should ask yourself and why that matters:

1) When do I want to retire?

Its just math: The later you retire from full time work, the longer you have to accumulate that retirement nest egg. You might want to retire at 55 like your parents did, but do you have their fantastic pension? Its also worth remembering that were living longer, so its possible you may have to make this amount last for several decades. Is this something you want?

2) Where would I like to live in retirement?

3) What will my expenses be?

4) What will my income be each month?

If You Want To Invest The Cash

Nowhere does it say you’re required to spend the money you get from Social Security. You can invest it in stocks, bonds, real estate or whatever.

One investment-related thing you cannot do with Social Security money is count it as “earned income” to qualify for contributions to an IRA. However, you can still invest via a regular taxable account. Just remember that in the short term, some investments can be very volatile and not appropriate for any cash you know you’ll need in the near term . Weigh that against the guaranteed return you would get on your money by waiting to file and amassing more delayed retirement credits.

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Stay On Track For Retirement By Knowing How Much You Need To Save By What Age

• The Bottom Line

A key part of retirement planning is to answer the question: How much do I need to retire? The answer varies by individual, and it depends largely on your income now and the lifestyle you want in retirement.

Knowing how much you need to save by age can help you stay on track and reach your retirement goals. There are a few simple formulas that you can use to come up with the numbers.

Retirement Planning Savings Tip

When using an annuity to save for retirement, open up two separate annuity contracts. Ensure one of the contracts is a Roth IRA, and contribute the annual maximum amount every year.

Why? Because when you eventually retire, all of your income from the Roth IRA retirement account will be tax-free.

Theres a high probability that taxes will continue to increase each year so pay the taxes now and reduce your tax bill in the future.

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What Is Retirement Corpus

In simple words, retirement corpus is the money that will support your lifestyle in your golden years i.e. when you are retired

WE all know the bigger the nest egg bigger the payout but the original question is still there. How much money do I need to retire?

The retirement corpus required is gigantic and cant be built overnight or even in a couple of years.

Building a large enough retirement corpus requires a lot of discipline and the sooner you start the better. And, the younger you are the larger the corpus youll need.

Contribute To Your 401 Account

Traditional 401 accounts allow you to contribute pre-tax dollars, which lowers your taxable income now. Some employers might even offer an employer match up to a certain percent, which is pretty much like free money. This means if you put aside 5 percent of your income, for example, to your 401, and your employer offers a 100 percent match on the first 5 percent, itll be as if youre contributing 10 percent of your income to your 401.

However, there are 401 contribution limits, which typically increase each year. Contribution limits can also vary by:

• Age
• Retirement plan
• If an individual is considered highly compensated

Its important to be aware of the average 401 balance by age so you can figure out exactly how much you can contribute to your plan.

401 retirement plans also compound interest and returns, which means your money will be able to grow faster over time, if all the income is reinvested and kept in the account. If you happen to leave your employer, you have plenty of options when it comes to your 401. You can leave it as is, roll your 401 into an IRA, or roll it into your new employers 401 if they offer one. There are pros and cons for each of these options, so do your research before making a decision.

Making an early 401 withdrawal might be tempting to do so that you can cover unexpected expenses, but it can do more harm than good. When you make an early 401 withdrawal:

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