Retirement Calculators to Help You Determine Your Required Retirement Savings

A U.S. Government Sanctioned Retirement Calculator

How much money do I need to retire? Good question! It would be nice to punch three or four numbers into a simple retirement calculator, punch two or three more keys, and calculate retirement income based on a number that allows us to retire happy, wild, and free.

Before you can use even a simple retirement calculator to estimate how much you need to save to provide the retirement income you want, it's probably best to calculate your current financial situation. You want to know how you are spending your present income, how much you are saving for retirement, and the average rate of return those savings and investments are presently generating. An estimate of when you would like to retire and how long you expect live are also necessary.

The next step is to calculate your required retirement income to provide you with all your wants in retirement. Keep in mind that most retirees live on a lot less once they retire than when they were working. You can find eight major reasons why retirees need a lot less income in my international bestselling book  How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 125,000 copies sold and published in 9 languages). 

Retirement calculators are not the holy grail, however. Fact is, how much money anyone needs for retirement is a wild guess at best, regardless who does it. There are too many parameters and these keep changing daily. The best retirement plan is to save at least 25 percent of your income once you turn forty and don't rely on the government any for your retirement income. A simple retirement calculator can then be used to determine how to spend any government money if it comes your way.

I have never budgeted and didn't start saving for retirement until I was in my forties. In fact, I semi-retired when I was 35 and had a net worth of minus $30,000. Even though I have worked less than half of my adult life and have never made a penny in house appreciation (simply because I rented for over thirty years), I can retire comfortably.

It was J.P. Getty who said, "People who don't respect money don't have any." This precisely explains why so many people will be broke in retirement.

Having said this, the following link gives a pretty good simple retirement calculator for how much money you need.

http://www.choosetosave.org/ballpark/index.cfm?fa=interactive 

Most major financial institutions offer retirement calculators as a means of trying to attract business through their websites. Here are five of them which may help you calculate retirement income and retirement savings necessary for your retiring financially comfortable:

WealthRuler: This retirement calculator charts your retirement savings and income outlook and suggests ways to help you develop a retirement plan to reach your goals.

ING Your Number: This microsite provides visitors with a guided, user-friendly experience to calculate their retirement income and savings.  It also facilitates a connection with a financial professional, if consumers are interested, and contains resources and links to companion financial web tools.  These include www.INGCompareMe.com, a site that enables consumers to compare their personal finance behaviors and retirement savings progress to others just like them.

T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator: This retirement calculator projects whether your retirement-income needs will be met based on your retirement savings, other financial assets, and age.

Vanguard Retirement Center: Here you can use three different calculators for retirement depending on your needs and age: One calculator is for more than five years to retirement, the second is for less than five years to retirement, and the third is for the already retired.

Aside from the retirement calculators offered by the major financial institutions, there are many others that you can utilize. Here are some of them:

Choose To Save: Created by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, this financial website offers savings tips, retirement calculators, and links to retirement resources to help you plan your retirement.

CNN Money Retirement  Tools: Here you will find a number of simple retirement calculators to figure out how much you need to save for retirement.

Yahoo Finance Retirement Tools: Offers retirement information and a variety of retirement calculators to help you with your retirement  planning.

Social Security Estimator: For Americans: On this government website you can estimate your future Social Security retirement benefits at different ages using different future earnings projection.  

 Should You Use a Financial Planner

Sixty-seven percent of retirees in a recent Bank of America survey said they don't work with a financial adviser for retirement planning. Fifty percent of non-retirees said they use a financial adviser and 44 percent said they intend to work with a financial adviser to determine how to increase their financial assets when they retire.

One of the biggest problems with the financial planning industry is that any salesperson can call themselves a financial planner or a financial adviser and most do. Near as I can tell, it doesn’t take much to get a business card that says, Financial Planner.

Indeed, during the great recession, many people have turned to careers in financial planning, a number who are likely themselves broke due to mishandling of their own finances. Needless to say, you don't want to use one of these "financial planners' to advise you on how to save your money and spend your money.

What you may want is a financial planer with a CFP designation. CFPs distinguish themselves because they must have a minimum of three years experience in the field, have passed a rigorous slate of exams to receive certification and are obligated to uphold ethical standards. Only about a quarter of financial planners have CFP distinction.

Two additional popular qualifications you might see are the CRPC - chartered retirement planning counselor - held by those who specialize in retirement planning, and the ChFC - chartered financial consultant - held primarily by insurance specialists who have studied and practiced financial planning.

Last, a certified public accountant (CPA) could also be a used as personal financial specialist if he or she has had additional financial planning education, or a CFP.

 Perhaps You Should Use Advice from Retirees Instead of Advice from a Financial Planner

Interestingly, a majority of wealthy Americans said they are concerned that they won’t have enough retirement income to last through their lifetimes, according to a 2010 Bank of America Corp. survey. This is the new retirement, apparently.

The BOA survey said 53 percent are concerned about making sure retirement assets will last. Fifty-nine percent of retirees also said rising health-care costs are a concern. More than half of non-retired respondents made some adjustments to their lifestyles last year, such as spending less on personal luxuries or giving less to charities, and 29 percent said they expect to retire later than originally planned, the study said.

Perhaps retirees can provide valuable retirement planning advice to these wealthy individuals and to us, which is all that we need, without having to hire a financial advisor.

In a recent survey conducted on behalf of Merrill Lynch Global Wealth Management, retirees were asked where they would recommend those within ten to fifteen years of retirement focus their attention on retirement planning and where those more than fifteen years from retirement should be focused:

Within Ten - Fifteen Years of Retiring:

• Create a retirement plan around what is most important to you (51 percent).
• Have a retirement plan to manage income throughout retirement (47 percent).
• Pay down debt before retirement (40 percent).
• Account for unexpected costs and risks such as health care, cost of living and/or market fluctuations (38 percent).
• Pursue home ownership (24 percent).
• Be cautious of taking investment risks (21 percent).
  

More Than 15 Years Before Retiring:

• Create a retirement plan around what is most important to you (43 percent).
• Pay down debt before retirement (41 percent).
• Have a retirement plan to manage income throughout retirement (39 percent).
• Account for unexpected costs and risks such as health care, cost of living and/or market fluctuations (38 percent).
• Work with a financial advisor if you don't already (25 percent).
• Pursue home ownership (25 percent).

No doubt if you follow the financial advice of these retirees, you willl do okay. Again, as J.P. Getty said, "People who don't respect money don't have any."

One week into retirement, you'll be so damned bored that you'll want to stick bicycle spokes into your eyes. You'll probably opt to look for another job or start another company. Kinda defeats the purpose of waiting [for retirement], doesn't it.
— Timothy Ferris in The 4-Hour Workweek 

"It [retirement] was absolutely boring. You can't go and say, 'I'm retired now. That's it!' It won't take long and you're really gone for good and someone throws the last shovel of dirt on a coffin with
your name on it. That's the moment you're really retiring — when you die."
— Ozzy Osbourne

What Sort of Legacy Will You Leave to Your Children and Grandchildren?

Will Any of These Be Your Retirement Story?

It Doesn't Have to Be That Way! 

Make the most important investment that you can  make for your retirement right now:

  Purchase How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free Today: 

       Purchase How to Retire on Amazon.com

        Purchase on BarnesandNoble.com

 Copyright 2010 by Ernie Zelinski,

Author of The World's Best Retirement Book

All Rights Reserved