There’s so much talk today about the importance of saving for retirement. But just what does retirement mean to you? What do you want to do when you retire? Or do you even want to retire?
These are important questions to ask yourself before you build a strategy for saving for your retirement. If you aren’t planning on living extravagantly, traveling the world, or having expensive hobbies, you won’t need to save as much as those who do have big plans.
While some people are content to stay home and take life easy, others are preparing to be more active when they retire than they have been during their working years. Others don’t ever plan on retiring because they are passionate about their work and can’t imagine that life could go on if they were to ever quit.
Another key question to ask yourself is at what age you would like to retire. If you want to retire at 40, you better have a really high paying job and a disciplined investment strategy in place. If you prefer to retire at the more traditional age of 60 or 65, then you may have more time to save, however, you still need to take a disciplined and strategic approach by investing regularly in an RRSP, TFSA, or non-registered investment.
My suggestion to you is to not let the amount of money you have dictate your future retirement. In other words, save now for your future so that you are free to decide what you will do at retirement because money won’t be an issue. If you leave it up to chance, you will end up living far below your current standard of living when you retire and even if you had big retirement dreams you wouldn’t be able to achieve them simply because you didn’t plan ahead.
In order to ensure that your retirement goals are attainable (no matter how extravagant or mundane), you need to start saving now. I know it is extremely difficult to save for things that are so far in the future, however, a way to get motivated is to think of your retirement savings in terms of your future retirement goals and dreams. Whenever a goal or dream is attached to an investment, it makes it much easier to save. So, if your retirement dream is to buy a sailboat and spend time on the open seas, think of your RRSP as your sailboat fund. You’ll be far more motivated to save.
When it comes to your retirement, just like any other savings goal, it’s okay to dream big as long as you are willing to save big, too. Start an investment strategy today to ensure that you will be able to afford the future you want tomorrow.
2 Comments