Good Tips to Make the Most of Your Retirement Savings

Looking for some tips for making the most of your retirement? Here are several good, basic, money tips that will help you be as prepared as possible for retirement. They are provided courtesy of Nationwide's RetirAbility Check tool. Their thoughts:

Tips for building a strong 401(k):

• REVIEW – Don’t forget about your account. Mark your calendar to review your fund choices at least once a year.
• GET IT - Don’t let FREE money get away. If your employer offers a match, ask how to get the maximum.
• DO MORE –Increase your contribution. It’s tax deferred so it may be cheaper than you think.
• BUILD – Increase your contributions over time. If you do it when you get a raise, you might not even miss the money.
• CATCH UP – Consider making catch-up contributions if you’re eligible.

Tips if your company doesn’t have a 401(k) plan:

• START – Don’t delay. Build your own retirement plan by looking into other options, such as traditional or Roth IRAs.
• BUILD – Are you self employed? Check into tax-advantaged investment options, such as KEOGHs and individual 401(k)s.
• BADGER – Your future is on the line. Ask your company to offer a plan and keep after them until they do.

Tips for every consumer:

• SHRINK – Cut the plastic habit. If you carry credit card balances, you may be shocked at the REAL cost of that lunch you charged last week.
• PAY #1 – That’s right! Pay yourself first. Don’t wait until you have extra money to put into savings. There’s no such thing as extra money.
• DO IT – Don’t leave your financial future to Uncle Sam – or chance. Take charge and prepare for your own needs through a 401(k) or IRA.

As I said, these are pretty basic tips, but let's face it, that's where most people are when it comes to saving for retirement -- just trying to get the basics right.

For more thoughts on making the most of your retirement, see Best of Free Money Finance: Retirement Posts.

Comments

[Foobarista]

Self-employed 401Ks are truly wonderful. If you're in a situation where you live on one person's salary and can save the other's self-employment income, there's no better way to salt away vast amounts of money than a SE401K. This is because you can put your FIRST $15K of self-employed income (exclusive of self-employment taxes) into your 401K. You also self-manage it, just like an IRA or other brokerage account, and after the first $15K, you can put in 20-25% of your net self-employment profit.

My wife is self-employed, and we put aside what amounts to about 40% of her profit into the 401K every year. Given that she would otherwise have a marginal tax rate of over 50% on her income, this helps out tremendously.