Bankruptcy

Preparing for Retirement after Bankruptcy

By admin

As you begin to develop savings and investment strategies for your after your bankruptcy filing, it?s important to remember to develop a strategy for amassing money for your retirement.

1. Consider the changes. Before doing any math, try to figure out how your expenses will differ after retirement: you won?t have commuter or business wardrobe expenses, but you may travel more. Also, consider mortgage payments ? will you own your home by the time you retire?
2. Determine what you?ll need. Then, figure out how much money you?ll need per year to live once you?ve stopped working. Many experts suggest that 70% or more of your salary should cover your retirement needs.
3. Figure out where it will come from. Many retirees receive pensions or Social Security benefits. Others find that working part-time enriches both their free time and their budgets. If you can expect to have income after retirement, you don?t need to save quite as much right now.
4. Consider your employer?s offers. If you have a retirement account through your job, you should take advantage of it, especially if your employer matches any percentage of your contributions. This is a great way to save for retirement because it forces you to put the money away before you?re tempted to spend it.
5. Crunch the numbers. Once you know what you?ll need to live comfortably and how much you can expect to make after retirement, you?ll need to determine how much to save from each paycheck.

Staying the Course

Retirement may seem like a distant dream right now, but you?ll have to start saving now to set your self up. Especially if you can only set aside a little money from each paycheck, you need to start saving as soon as possible to meet your goal.

If you have trouble disciplining yourself to hang onto money, be sure to ask your employer about automatic savings programs. And try to get an account with compound interest so the money you put away can work for you.

Full post as published by The Bankruptcy Blog on April 01, 2009 (boomark / email).