Thursday 31 March 2022

John Labunski - Planning your retirement

 Retirement is the period in which the worker ceases to be active and begins to enjoy a paid retirement without carrying out any work activity. Since World War II, many countries have developed a welfare state in which their citizens enjoy a retirement backed by public pensions. Currently, the demographic and economic crises are changing the retirement model as we know it. Therefore, it is important for workers to bear in mind that their public pension will not be guaranteed in the future, so they will have to save and invest if they want to maintain their standard of living once they retire.

 The main tips that can help you plan for retirement are the following:

 1. Prepare for the future. The first step is to become aware that public systems cannot guarantee the standard of living of retirees in the near future. To this we must add that life expectancy has grown in recent decades and the retirement period is becoming the longest stage of a person's life.

 2. Calculate how much money is needed in retirement. Knowing how much we need to maintain our standard of living in retirement is essential to be able to plan it. Making an estimate of the economic needs and the unforeseen events that may arise during retirement will help us to have a good plan that guarantees us a certain standard of living.

 3. Calculate how much money we could get with the public pension. The first exercise on the source of income for retirement is to estimate how much the public pension could bring us. As an initial reference, we can consider how much we would receive as a pension if, hypothetically, we retired today, and met the requirements. Thus, in principle, we would know how much we would charge if the current situation were maintained. Then, we would have to estimate a negative scenario where hypothetically we would not receive at least 50% of the pension that we have estimated. In this way we will know what amount of pension we could receive in the future in an adverse scenario.

 4. Look for alternatives to the public pension. The evolution of the public pension system does not guarantee that future workers will have a good standard of living in the future, when they retire. For this reason, within retirement planning it is necessary to look for income alternatives to the public pension. The first step is to identify what could be the sources of income in the retirement period apart from the public pension.

 5. Know the different alternatives and calculate how much income they can contribute. Investing in real estate to obtain rental income is an option with a view to enjoying different sources of income in retirement. The rental of homes, parking spaces, offices and commercial premises can generate higher returns than what savings deposits in banks currently provide. Other ways to save are pension plans. These are a widely used savings and planning vehicle for two reasons: first, because they help you save for retirement on a regular basis; second, because they present fiscal advantages by deferring the payment of taxes. Some large companies offer collective private pension systems; this represents an important supplementary income source. Investing in mutual funds, in the stock market,

 6. Don't forget insurance. Insurance is one of the fastest growing retirement savings tools. Its security, profitability and flexibility are attracting future retirees. In insurance we can find different types, such as insured pension plans, individual systematic savings plans or savings and income insurance.

  

 

Posted: John Labunski

No comments:

Post a Comment