How to Kickstart Your Retirement Savings

Forty-five percent of Americans report they have no money put aside for retirement.  How much money will you need to retire?  It depends on many variables, but most financial advisors will agree that $0 is not enough!  If you have not yet begun to save for your golden years, now is the perfect time to kickstart your retirement savings.

Take out your to-do-list.  Now write, “Open Retirement Account.”  Star it, put a #1 by it, set a deadline of Friday by close of business.  Do you have a good excuse not to save?  If so, check out this link to Business Insider to see if your excuse made the top 17 list of WORST excuses. Listen, there will never be a convenient time to start saving for retirement.  You will never know everything about investing.  You will probably never have extra money in your budget.  Never-the-less, will you commit to opening your retirement account this week?  Maybe even today?

Notice I mentioned you will probably never find extra money in your budget for retirement savings?  You won’t unless you make a habit of paying yourself first.  You must make retirement savings the highest priority in your budget.  And you don’t need to start with a lot of money.  There are many financial institutions that will let you start with as little as $25 per month when opening a retirement savings or investment account.  You may need to make cuts somewhere else in your budget or get a part-time job to make this possible.  But if you commit to paying yourself first, you will make this happen.

Consistent with the decision to pay yourself first is the need to automate the decision.  Setting up an automatic deduction takes the guesswork out of saving for retirement.  It’s also the perfect tool to kickstart your retirement savings.  You decide once.  Then handle the initial set-up through a payroll deduction or automatic withdrawal from your checking account.  From then on it’s hands-off!  Modern technology makes it very easy to set up an automatic withdrawal and link it to the retirement account you just opened.

If you feel overwhelmed by the idea of saving for retirement, ask for help.  There are accredited non-profit credit agencies available to assist you.  You may seek help with budgeting, eliminating debt, or even establishing an on-going coaching relationship to provide the support and structure you need to achieve your savings goals.  It’s also key to connect with a Financial Advisor to get his/her expert opinion on financial planning and retirement savings. Today is the perfect day to kickstart your retirement savings.