Protect your Future: A Retirement Planning Guide

Protect Your Future: A Retirement Planning Guide

Planning for retirement should be a part of everyone’s financial strategy. This helps sustain income for you (and your spouse) in the long run.

How can you prepare for retirement? Here is a brief retirement planning guide to help you build your nest egg.

Start Saving As Early as You Can

Saving for retirement early in your career will increase your money’s potential to grow. Set aside a portion of your paycheck to go to your retirement fund. Experts recommend saving 10% to 15% of your annual salary/income. If that percentage is not yet feasible, you can start with a little less, then increase your contribution as you get pay raises.

You can also set an automatic savings plan for your retirement fund. This eases the process by automatically transferring a set amount of money on a scheduled date from your current account to a separate savings account. Another popular method is to…

Get a Good 401(k) Match

A 401(k) plan allows employees to contribute a portion of their income into a separate retirement investment account. A 401(k) account is tax-deferred, which means you don’t pay taxes with your contributions. You are only taxed when you withdraw funds from the account.

Employers can offer matching contributions to your 401(k). They can match a partial or full amount of your contributions. If your employer offers a high percentage match, say 50% to 100% of your contributions for up to 6% of your salary, go with 6% if you can. The goal is to save as much as you can to maximize your 401(k) match.

Maximize Your Social Security Benefits

Signing up for Social Security ensures that you can receive a fixed monthly income even after you retire. Paying more into the Social Security system during your working years will increase your retirement payout.

Save Money in an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)

An IRA is a long-term savings account that you can set up at a financial institution (usually a bank). As the name implies, it is designed to be a “nest egg” for your retirement.

One of the prime advantages of an IRA is that it is tax-deferred. You don’t have to pay any taxes until it is time to withdraw money from the account, which is when you reach the age of 59 ½. Any withdrawals made before that age will be subjected to additional tax penalties except for certain cases.

If you want to learn more about IRAs and other retirement plans, contact us or stop by any of our branches in Oklahoma or Texas. We offer competitive interest rates to help boost your retirement savings.