Freedom During Retirement

The very essence of retirement is freedom:

• freedom to travel
• freedom to pursue activities one did not have time for while working
• freedom to go where one wants and when one wants

   These perks of retirement would appeal to anyone. In fact, approximately 40 percent of working Americans envision retiring at or before age 65. However, consider the following results of a survey by the Employer Benefit Research Institute in Washington D.C. Only 24 percent of workers are very confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout retirement; 38 percent of those surveyed admitted that they are either not too confident or not confident at all.

• Only 13 percent of workers are very confident that they will have enough money to live comfortably throughout their retirement years, and only 27 percent feel very confident about having enough money to pay for medical expenses.
• About 30 percent of workers believe they need to save less than $250,000 to achieve a comfortable retirement. The majority of those did not undertake any kind of retirement needs calculation.

These statistics, though compelling, are not surprising. Americans have not been very diligent in developing sound retirement savings plans. Despite the fact that most individuals cite retirement as their primary savings goal, they have difficulty juggling their many financial obligations. They view retirement as a distant point in the future. As such, people find it easy to set aside the goal of retirement in favor of current financial demands: a new home, college educations for the children, vacations, medical expenses, a new car, or daily living expenses.

Yet the reality is that retirement planning cannot be reserved for tomorrow or perceived as optional. Retirement planning cannot consist of putting aside the dollars that remain after all other obligations have been paid for. Rather, retirement planning takes a conscientious and strategic effort to ensure that you can sufficiently provide for your retirement.