Military Retirement Planning

Ryan Guina of The Military Wallet offers a great article on the opportunities for former military servicemen to capitalize their savings during retirement. Because former military men and women have the opportunity to earn income both from a military pension and a pension in the workforce (in addition to any personal savings accrued), the opportunity to double dip and live a nice during the twilight years hopefully exists for men and women who gave so much to this country during their youth. Like with all retirement plans, it's difficult to come up with a one-size-fits-all approach to military retirement planning, but there are some universal rules that can be helpful in determining what to expect annually from your pensions and retirement savings. I have limited knowledge on the benefits that are particular to servicemen, and I would highly suggest checking out Mr. Guina's post to get a handle on the general opportunities that servicemen should take advantage of during retirement, link here: http://themilitarywallet.com/military-retirement-planning/ .

Life Expectancy & Retirement

The Five Cent Nickel recently put out an adroit post that urges readers to consider their life expectancies in your preparation for retirement. He gives a pretty impressive breakdown of how to budget your retirement expenses adjusting for how long you should expect your money to last. My word of advice on the matter is to prepare for longevity--after all, this is not an area of your life that you want to find yourself unprepared for--and expect to live thirty years in retirement. Generally speaking, you can afford to withdraw 3-4% of your nest egg throughout retirement, but often, you're particularly at the mercy of the overall economy during the early stages of your retirement. If say, a recession like the one we saw in 2008 struck during the early stages of your retirement, you'd find yourself with a lot less money to live on than you had probably planned. But if a bull market like the one we saw in 1999 occurred during your first year in retirement, then that might give your assets a boost that would enable you to withdraw 5% of your savings throughout retirement. And unfortunately, these macroeconomic factors are completely out of your hands as you prepare for retirement. To check out a great article on life expectancies and retirement savings, check out this great article at Five Cent Nickel: http://www.fivecentnickel.com/2011/07/06/life-expectancy-retirement-and-the-your-investment-time-horizon/

How Much To Save For Retirement

One of the hardest questions to answer is the ubiquitous, "How much should I save for retirement?" And of course, investors expect a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all answer to this very complicated question. Some experts tell couples to save a million bucks, others advise saving enough so that you can safely withdraw 4% per year without facing any negative consequences. Of course, neither of this answers applies to everyone's situation. There are so many variables that you have to consider--do you plan on travelling extensively during your retirement? Will you have your house paid off by the time that you retire? Will you be providing money to any of your children during retirement? Do you expect to spend more, as much, or less than your pre-retirement income during your golden years? Do you have a pension? When will you start claiming social security benefits? And these are only a handful of the questions that you will have to consider before arriving at a golden number to reach during retirement. One thing you can take solace in is the fact that most experts are overtly cautious in their retirement estimates, often preparing for a worst case scenario--so if you save less than they recommend, you may not necessarily have to despair. I highly recommend that you check out The Retirement Income Blog to arrive at an estimate of how much you ought to be saving for your golden years, link here: http://www.retirement-income.net/blog/ .