Even if you’re early on in your career, saving for retirement can be an essential part of your financial plan.
With these four tips, you can begin saving for retirement and making financial decisions that will help you achieve your financial goals now and during your future retirement.
Contribute to a 401K
Your employer may offer something called a 401(k) plan. If your employer offers this and you are eligible, it may allow you to contribute pre-tax money from your paycheck to this retirement savings fund.
On top of offering a 401K account, some employers offer 401K matching that can help make saving for retirement even easier. With 401K matching contributions, your employer would match and contribute the same dollar amount to your 401K each year that you yourself contributed. Typically if an employer offers this, they may have a max dollar amount that they are willing to match up to.
Since money for your 401K comes out of your paycheck before federal income taxes are taken from the paycheck, your take-home pay may only drop by a small dollar amount.
A nice feature about 401Ks is that even if you leave that employer that offers this 401K option, you will have choices on what to do with your 401(k) account.
Pay Your Savings Account First
Before you start spending your paycheck on assorted expenses, a good tactic for saving for retirement can be to take a certain amount of money each paycheck and put it directly into your savings account.
Doing this for every paycheck for months or years can significantly help build up your savings “nest egg” prior to retirement.
Open an IRA
Many financial institutions offer an IRA which stands for Individual Retirement Account. A Traditional IRA may be right for you depending on your income level and whether you have a workplace retirement plan (such as a 401K). Certain income levels are not eligible for a traditional IRA.
Contributions to a Traditional IRA may be tax-deductible and the investment earnings have the opportunity to grow from interest without being taxed until you make withdrawals during retirement. Since contributions to this type of account are tax-deductible up-front, this can be a nice incentive to begin saving for retirement while also lowering the amount of federal taxes you owe on your income in a certain year.
Start Saving as Early as Possible
Even if you can only contribute a couple hundred dollars or less every month, the earlier you start saving, the more years you will have to be saving for retirement, meaning in the long run, the more time this money has to collect interest and add up.
Saving for retirement as early as you can in your 20s or 30s also helps establish this healthy financial habit of setting aside a portion of your income for savings that you can utilize your whole life.
Even if you began saving for retirement late or haven’t started saving for retirement, it isn’t too late, and there are steps you can take to increase your retirement savings or to achieve financial freedom in your retirement years.
Do you need help managing your finances? Let us know!
It can be challenging to balance your savings, loans, and other accounts all in one place. However, we offer many ways to manage your finances at Camino Federal Credit Union through our branch location, online banking, and mobile banking app. Please give us a call at 800-835-3400 to speak with one of our Member Advisors, or contact us online at caminofcu.org for more information.