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[F794]Free Retirement Planning Software

by Debra Dragon, Deb

Planning for your retirement is something you'll do throughout most of your life (ideally!) A retirement plan is more than figuring out how you will live out your golden years once you've stopped working – it's also a great way to figure out your current finances and improve your overall money management.

Getting Started Planning For Retirement

If you already have some investments or a retirement account, take a look at how much you've obtained so far. Consider how much you are likely to need when you retire, by estimating the age you plan to be when you retire and the number of years you will probably live – then determining how much you will need per year to live on to cover your expenses. You'll want to consider how much you might receive from Social Security, personal investments, pensions and employment earnings if you plan to take a different job when you “retire”. Finally, think about your tolerance to risk. Do you have 20 or more years left before you retire or are you quickly approaching retirement? The sooner you plan to retire, the less risk you will probably want to allow, but keep in mind that long-term performance investments may help compensate for investments with short-term risk potential.

Employer-Sponsored Retirement Plans

If you are lucky enough to work in a place that offers employer-sponsored retirement plans, you should contribute as much as they allow – or at least as much as your employer will match in the case of employer matching retirement plans. Investing in these retirement plans, as well as IRAs help your money work harder because they are tax-advantage accounts. The longer your money remains in these accounts, the more it can grow through compounding interest.

Asset Allocation

You don't want to put “all your eggs into one basket” as everyone says. You'll want to divide your money and retirement savings among a variety of investments, from employer-sponsored retirement plans and IRAs, to certificate of deposits and money market accounts, mutual funds, stocks and bonds, and cash. This will give you a complete and diversified portfolio. The percentage of money you contribute into each type of investment is based on your risk tolerance and how much time you have before you retire.

Annual Withdrawal Rate

You don't want to outlive your money when you are retired! Determining an annual withdrawal rate will help you make sure your investments will last you throughout your retirement years. You determine the annual withdrawal rate by knowing the amount of your total assets available when you retire, the assumed rate of inflation, and how many years you plan to live during retirement (a good estimate since no one knows this for sure!)

You may want to withdraw money from different investments at different times during your retirement, depending on the tax benefits of doing so. Some accounts allow you to start receiving the benefits at the age of 59 and a half; while some tax-deferred retirement accounts require that you are making annual withdrawals once you reach the age of 70 and a half.

Your Will

Part of your retirement planning involves the creation of your will. This will ensure that your final wishes are legally documented and that you are doing all you can to minimize the tax burden you might leave to your heirs. As your life changes, you'll want to review and update the will to make sure it is still what you want it to be. Planning for retirement is something most people do throughout the course of a lifetime, and plans can be modified and adjusted as your lifestyle and financial situation changes.

Within the financial service industry, it is a well known fact that the majority of so-called financial advisors and planners are not sophisticated investors who don't pay much attention to economic indicators affecting their client portfolios until it's too late! People need financial advice they can trust now more than ever. Consequently, a first class financial education is desperately needed so people can take control of their own finances by trusting someone with a vested interest - themselves.

It was just too easy for the financial service industry to make the gullible public believe that financial and investment planning was too complicated to understand and therefore we had to rely on "professional" help. Yet within the financial service industry, it is a well known fact that the majority of so-called "professional" financial advisors and planners are not sophisticated investors who don't pay much attention to economic indicators affecting their client portfolios. Well, we've all seen and experienced how tragically deficient that "professional" help has been in the last year 2008 and perhaps this is the impetus for more people to get that desperately needed financial education to learn how to do their own financial planning and manage their investments.

Families and individuals at every economic level deserve an alternative to the traditional sources of financial and investment planning through big Wall Street firms, other investment brokerage firms, fee only financial planners, and insurance professionals. Whether you are rich or poor, or somewhere in between, a new paradigm in financial planning focusing on a first class financial education is needed to instill the confidence in people that financial planning is not rocket science or that complicated. Rather, it's a lot of common sense! Such a financial education can teach anyone how to do their own "due diligence" which is the investigation and evaluation of investment managers best suited to their risk tolerances and needs.

Whatever level of practical every day financial education someone needs, this internet age is more than capable of providing an online financial planning software package that could produce a comprehensive objective in-depth analysis of one's finances based totally on their individual situation free of any hidden agenda or conflicts of interest by Wall Street and financial planning firms to steer people to products where they make the most money. Once armed with this financial education, people will be free to go directly to the needed financial specialist for implementation of their desired objective with no middlemen in between.

Since America is drowning in debt and most Americans are spending $1.05 for every $1.00 of income,a debt freedom component should be a part of any online financial planning software package to assist anyone to get out of debt as soon as possible. As debt is the number one problem facing most Americans today, this feature alone could save billons in unnecessary interest expense. When there is no product bias or agenda in a first class financial education, people are then free to learn about and obtain objective financial and investment strategies to help them overcome obstacles and put them on the road to reach their future financial goals. Wow, wouldn't it be nice to tell Wall Street to take a much needed hike as their integrity is in shambles and filled with so many conflicts of interest, middlemen, and unnecessary extra fees.

Through a new found confidence in one's own ability to make sound financial decisions because of a first class financial education, people will no longer have to be dependent upon others who may or may not have their best interests in mind. Rather, personal accountability and responsibility would restore a new found sense of self-reliance and personal pride for people to finally take control of their own financial destiny.

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About Author

Both Debra Dragon & Harley Hunter are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Debra Dragon has sinced written about articles on various topics from Blogging is, Finances and Arthritis Signs. DepositAccounts.com offers information on bank rates, mutual fund deposit accounts, , checking accounts, certificate of deposits, fixed-rate. Debra Dragon's top article generates over 8100 views. to your Favourites.

Harley Hunter has sinced written about articles on various topics from Finances. With more than 40 years experience as a high end financial consultant, Harley Hunter together with his son created Financial Planning 2.0 and are showing others how to use it to do their own financial and investment planning and take control of their fina. Harley Hunter's top article generates over 1300 views. to your Favourites.