Family Time Goes Better When You're In Those Golden Years

| Sunday, May 8, 2011
By Beth Willis


By the time you reach your late forties to early fifties, the thought of retirement comes to mind. After all, who doesn't want to retire at a young enough age that would allow one to enjoy his/her golden years?

This is the perfect time to contemplate on a full life, if it has been such. Now that your kids are most likely all grown up now, this would be the right opportunity for you to focus on what you want to do in life and how you wish to spend what they call "the best years of your life", without much else to distract you. You probably want to do something like coach your neighborhood Little League baseball team some 40 years after you were part of that team, or maybe want to get away from it all on the beach or on an RV.

Going abroad is becoming a more popular option these days for retirees, according to studies. They may have an old vacation spot in mind where they are considering settling in once they retire. However, there are still some who choose to stay in the country and spend their retirement with their families in the States.

In any case, whether your best option is to go abroad or to stay home, you can spend those retirement and leisure years in familiar surroundings - with family.

First things first - sort out your finances. This, by far, is the main concern of most retirees. It is unfortunate that not everyone thinks about this aspect of "growing up" while they are young and healthy. This causes a lot of would-be retirees to get the pre-retirement jitters, because their savings aren't what they should be considering all the years they have worked.

Instead of planning at the last minute, you always want to plan for retirement as early, and as completely as possible. The more comprehensive your preparation strategies are, the better your chances are of enjoying those golden years once you're ready to retire.

Let's use some basic math in the next example. Assuming you set aside $100 worth of savings per month, you should have $6,800 or so saved up after the first five years. This could increase to about $41,000, give or take a couple thou, in 20 years' time. We wouldn't want to give you more math problems when doing taxes (and your kids' homework you may have helped with through the years) is more than enough, but that's basically how it works with most of the factors (rate of return, etc.) figured in.

This is just a simple example of why a solid retirement plan is a good investment if you start and prepare early.

Do not let the anxiety of retiring sneak up on you by preparing early. It is all about preparing as early as you could and making sound decisions so that you can enjoy your retirement years with your family, with nary a care in the world.




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