How to Avoid Ruining Retirement - The Five Worst Retirement Money Mistakes

Want to make sure you don't blow retirement financially? You should -- how you save now will dramatically impact your quality of life in your retirement years.

Here's an article from USA Today that lists the five worst retirement money mistakes -- errors you want to avoid if you want a good retirement. Their list of the worst:

1. Not saving enough.

2. Not having an emergency fund.

3. Not diversifying.

4. Not counting health care costs.

5. Not getting all the paperwork done.

My thoughts on each of these:

1. We're maxing out our 401k plus saving in a SEP IRA and a non-tax-advantaged account.

2. We have an emergency fund. We keep ours at Vanguard (easier to move around with our other investments), though Emigrant Direct offers a better yield.

3. We diversify by using broad-based index funds.

4. I need to get a better handle on my post-retirement health care costs.

5. We're updating our will this year which takes care of most of this issue.

If you want more information on retiring right, see these links:

• How Much Do You Need to Save for Retirement?
• Retirement is More Expensive than You Think
• Figuring Out Your 401k
• Retire in Style South of the Border

Comments

[Dus10]

Is the SEP IRA through one of your employers, or is it something you have setup yourself through some sort of self-employment? I am looking to set one up for my LLC that I am starting. My interest really peaked on this after reading an entry on Five Cent Nickel about using this to bypass FICA and SECA, as these are not avoided by 401(k) or Traditional/Roth IRAs.

[FMF]

My SEP IRA is through my side business.

[kassy]

I have a question not related to the post, can you tell me how this trackback works? I posted about the same USA Today article on the 17th, but I'm not sophisticated enough to have trackback on my blog. Thanks

[FMF]

Kassy --

If you don't refer to my post, you wouldn't leave a trackback anyway (in other words), you leave a trackback when you link to a post, not when a post links to an article you link to as well. I hope that's clear, I know it can be confusing. I didn't get it at first either.

As far as how to do it, I'm not familiar with Blogger, so I can't answer that for you. You'll need to ask them or someone who uses their service.