Your Guide for Retirement Planning

Your Guide for Retirement Planning

Getting ready for retirement requires consistent saving, prudent investing and successfully avoiding penalties and fees. You can build a nest egg faster if you take advantage of workplace retirement benefits and make optimum use of government programs, including Social Security and Medicare.

Here's how to make a basic financial plan for retirement:

• Save regularly when planning for retirement.
• Maximize your 401(k) match.
• Take advantage of retirement planning tax breaks.
• Open an IRA.
• Carefully select a retirement investment allocation.
• Minimize fees in your retirement accounts.
• Use retirement planning tools to help you financially plan.
• Boost your Social Security benefit.
• Sign up for Medicare on time.
• Make an estate plan.

Save Regularly When Planning for Retirement

The key to retirement planning is to save a portion of each paycheck beginning as early in your career as possible. Meghan Murphy, a vice president at Fidelity Investments, recommends aiming to save 15% of your pay each year for retirement. If you can't save that much, save a smaller amount and then increase it each time you get a raise.

"A 1% increase might mean $30 or $40 each pay period," Murphy says. "If that's in line with a raise or a pay increase, you don't even miss the money because you didn't have it, to begin with."