4 Ways to Find Your Retirement Number
Before you can start saving for retirement, you've got to figure out how much you'll need to save. Finding your "retirement number" can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, with the caveat that more complicated plans are likely to produce the most accurate retirement number. However, even a simple "off the rack" plan will get you enough information to build a solid retirement savings strategy. Here are some of the most popular approaches for coming up with your retirement number.
If your retirement plan consists of sticking 15% of your income into a retirement savings account and investing the money with an appropriate allocation between stocks and bonds, you are quite likely to end up with plenty of retirement income. The beauty of this plan is that there's no need to do any calculating at all if you have a 401(k) plan; just set your contribution level to 15% and you're done. If you have an IRA you can multiply your paycheck by 0.15 to figure out how much you'll need to contribute for each pay period, then set up the transfer.
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Source: Fool.com
