Retirement Income Planner 
- planning your future

Your Retirement Income Planner 

Having a retirement income planner to follow makes life easier to juggle. Take a look here at some suggestions.

When you start to think about retirement, there is a lot to consider, but if you have do some work ahead of time, and build your retirement income planner, things will go more smoothly. Unfortunately, the earlier you start your retirement planner, the less accurate you will be, as in some cases you are guessing at your expenses, but at least it will give you some idea of how much income you need to save. So what do you need to know? Firstly, you need to have some idea of your fixed expenses, such as rent, hydro. You also need to have a rough idea of how much it costs you to eat each month, and be realistic here. At this initial stage you don't want underestimate. Do you have monthly medical prescriptions to pay for? Are you hoping to keep a car, in which case you need to put in amounts for servicing as well as costs for running it? These questions will help you get an idea of how much money you need every month to live on. Once you have this total, multiply it by 12 to find the annual amount you think you need to live on.

By this time you are probably in panic mode, but just calm down and take it steady. You may have many years, never mind decades, before you may need to access your retirement funds. But having started your retirement planning, you can get a good idea of how much you need to earn in investments so you can enjoy retirement.

Then you need to think about how you are going to get this money, legally! There are several individual retirement accounts that may fill your needs. There are the traditional individual retirement accounts, SEP IRAs for those of you who are self employed, as well as the Roth Iras, and a couple of others. The biggest difference is between the Roth IRA and other IRAs. For the individual retirement accounts contributions are generally made through your employer, with pre-tax dollars, which means that you do typically save a little on your taxes when you make these contributions. However, for a Roth individual retirement account, you make contributions with post-tax dollars, which may make it harder for you while you are working. But when you reach retirement age, the money invested in the Roth ira is yours to spend how you wish, whereas with the other iras, the tax man gets paid before you.

There is a lot to consider for your retirement income planner, since you still have decisions to make when you have invested some money.

You have to decide whether you wish to invest in stocks, bonds, or mutual funds, although there is also an option that not too many people take advantage of. You can also invest in real estate with the money from your ira, but for this you have to have a custodian to look after your ira, and make the purchase. You are not allowed to own any of the property yourself, or rent it after your ira has purchased it.

There are some other restrictions that you should find out about too, but this could be the best way for you to grow your investment fund.

However, whatever you decide to do, you need to talk with a professional financial planner who will be able to answer all of your questions and advise you on the tax implications of various methods, etc. These are trained people, and there advice is valuable. And however you decide to invest, good luck, I hope your retirement income planner helps you to plan for your retirement.