Retirement Funds
- for your future 

Do You Have Your Retirement Funds Ready?

Time flies by so fast these days, and before you know it, it'll be time to retire, so what about your retirement funds?

Retirement funds can be composed of individual retirement accounts where the funds are invested in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, and the better individual retirement accounts diversify to minimize the risk involved. There are rules about how much you can invest each year, and there is a penalty if you should withdraw funds before you are 59 1/2 hears old, a penalty of 10% which is enough to discourage all but the desperate. There are certain cases of extreme hardship that would mean you could access your funds before retirement age, but they are extreme, for example to pay for the cost of the funeral for a family member, or your loss of employment due to disability. If you need to know more it is covered in other pages on this site.

Now if you own property, then you may very well have retirement funds that you didn't realize you had. If you have a house, with the mortgage paid off, or mostly paid, then you may find that in retirement you want somewhere smaller. This could give you a good source of retirement funds, especially if you have owned your home for years, and the property has appreciated substantially. Do you own any other assets that could be used to fund your retirement? Sometimes you are so used to having things around you that you don't even realize they may be of value to you or someone else.

Retirement or near retirement is a time for many changes, and it may be a good time to sort through all your possessions to decide what you really want to keep. This can be very difficult, to be faced with so many memories from days gone by, but by sorting through your possessions you may just find something of value that you could sell to help your retirement funds. If nothing else, it will help to un clutter your home, which would be a good thing!

So, if you haven't reached retirement age yet, try to contribute regularly to an individual retirement account so that you will have some retirement funds there for when you need them, and if you are just about to retire, I hope you have a very happy retirement.