Everyone has to think about their financial future, and the younger age this is started at the better. Unfortunately a lot of people put this off thinking there is plenty of time to do this. Then when those golden years hit and funds are tight, the thought that comes to mind is “what was I thinking!”.
In general a while back some Canadians were asked what they thought the government could do to help citizens save more money for their future.
They responded by saying that the Canadian government could reduce their spending, which would allow taxes to be decreased. Then people could afford to put more into their retirement funds.
Others said the government could create more incentives to save.
There were some that said the government should allow voluntary contributions to their retirement savings options.
When some small business owners were asked the same question, their responses were along the same lines.
Okay so basically those are the “nice to have” solutions but are really out of your control. Although perhaps you can some limited control if you vote for a political party that is going to have these same views, but the chances of that happening may be pretty minimal.
So what you need to think about is what do you figure is going to be a nice nest egg for you to live on in your retirement years. It may be true that you will have a lot less expenses that you have now while your family is still living at home.
Try to imagine the future. How far ahead you are going to have to think depends on your age and when you will be able to retire. If that is twenty years from now, don’t fall into the trap of thinking that is plenty of time to get your finances solid for those golden years. Chances are you have some debt to think about, and how many years is it going to take to get that out of the way , so you can get down to some serious saving.
Getting debt free is your first priority. Start by adding up all your debts, and if you were to give it your all, how many years is it going to take to clear them. If you are one of the fortunate ones, maybe with some real belt tightening you could clear them in five years. So, that would leave you fifteen years to do some serious savings, provided the kids have become self sufficient.
Now just for assumption sake let’s say you are going to retire at sixty-five, and expect to have another 20 year life span. How much money do you think you can live on comfortably each year? Don’t forget that in 20 years from now the cost of living is surely going to be substantially higher than it currently is.
If nothing else this little exercise is going to be an eye opener for you, and get you thinking about your senior years and your financially situation now when you can still do something about it.
