The earlier you are in your working life, the more time you have to take advantage of some powerful ways to help ensure you can retire comfortably.
One that qualifies as a no-brainer is to simply max out your 401(k) or other employer-sponsored retirement plan. Whether or not you have one, the same thing goes for similar plans like a simplified employee pension (SEP), Keogh plan, or an IRA unconnected to your employment at all.
This strategy might seem simple, but its potential to bolster your retirement savings is anything but ordinary.
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Take what they're giving you
IRAs and 401(k)s are tax-advantaged retirement accounts. In the case of traditional accounts, the money goes in pre-tax and you pay income tax on it when you make withdrawals. For Roth accounts, the money goes in after taxes and your withdrawals are tax-free. There are limits, of course, but the IRS raises them regularly. For 2024, that's $23,000 for 401(k) contributions from you, with those 50 or older getting to kick in an additional $7,500 in catch-up contributions.
At the very minimum, you should contribute up to your employer match. Otherwise, you're simply leaving money on the table. A very typical employer match is 6% of your salary.
As for IRAs, if you're under 50, you can contribute up to $7,000 to an IRA in 2024, either into a Roth or traditional IRA or a combination of both. Make that $8,000 if you're 50 or older. And you can max out both your employer-sponsored and personal plans.
There are a lot of rules and limits and personal factors to consider here, and it's a good idea to consult with an expert for financial and tax planning. The bottom line is that with disciplined savings and investing, you can win the long game when it comes to leaving the work world behind.
A long game and a million-dollar nest egg
Say you're 35 years old and plan to retire at age 67, what the Social Security Administration consider full retirement age (FRA) for most people nowadays. That gives you 30 years to work with. Now, say you have no IRA or 401(k) savings in place so you're starting from zero in that account.
Say your average annual salary over the next three decades will be $100,000 and you'll be contributing 15% of your pay to your retirement plan. Calculate in an employer match of 6% over that time and using a rate of return of 6%, you can expect a nest egg of about $1.8 million when you hit FRA.
The calculator I used for this example says that will yield about $4,200 a month at that point and that you'll need about $6,600 a month to live on comfortably. Social Security is generally intended to replace about 40% of your working income, so that math works pretty well.
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Compound your chances for a secure future
By the way, this example not only shows the power of compounding, but does so at a relatively modest rate of return. That 6% is far less than, say, the average annual total return of about 10% delivered by the benchmark S&P 500 over the past 30 years.
How to invest those tax-advantaged savings dollars is up to you. Employer-sponsored plans tend to offer myriad choices, and a whole world of stock and bond and mutual fund and other investments are open to you through your personal plans, too.
Again, this would be a good time to talk to a qualified financial planner you can trust to give you good advice.
Securing your financial future doesn't always demand complex strategies. Simply maximizing your 401(k) and IRA contributions forms a great foundation for just that. It's kind of a no-brainer.
