Every family has its holiday dinner traditions. If you plan poorly and wait to throw the bird in the oven at the last minute, you will end up with a turkey of a dish. The same can be said for financial planning and preparing for retirement. Follow the perfect recipe and you’ll be rewarded with a juicy retirement. Ingredients: onepart Social Security earnings, one part savings, a pinch of planning.
First, start your retirement casserole with a visit to the Retirement Estimator at www.socialsecurity. gov. As useful as a food processor, the Estimator gives you an instant projection of what you can expect to receive in retirement benefits. Just plug in some simple information and the Estimator uses your past earnings and estimated future earnings to project about how much you’ll get when you retire. Like an experienced cook, you can Social Security Today experiment with the recipe and plug in different future earnings and retirement dates until it’s just the way you want it.
Next, fold in the savings. The earlier you begin, the better off you will be. Social Security replaces about 40% of the average worker’s
pre-retirement earnings. Most financial advisors say you will need 70% or more of pre-retirement earnings to live comfortably. To
supplement Social Security you also will need savings, investments, pensions, or retirement accounts to make sure you have enough money
to enjoy retirement. Visit the Ballpark Estimator for tips to help you save.
Then, you’ll want to set up a my Social Security account so you can log in anytime to check your reported earnings and projected benefit estimates. If something isn’t just right, if your earnings are reported incorrectly or you find you need to save more to meet your retirement goals, there’s still time to make corrections before your retirement casserole is done.
Once you’ve added the ingredients of Social Security earnings, personal savings, and any pensions you may have, it’s time to let the retirement casserole bake. If the retirement casserole is underdone, just put it back in for a bit longer. Delaying retirement can increase your benefits and give you more time to build up your savings. To learn more, read our publication entitled When To Start Receiving Retirement Benefits. It provides helpful information regarding the things you should consider when making a decision on when to collect retirement benefits. When the retirement casserole is ready, enjoy it! You deserve a comfortable retirement!
You will find it, along with our other useful publications, at our Social Security Website.
Monica Ochoa is the Public Affairs Specialist at Denver’s Social Security Administration office.