Its never to early to start saving for retirement and the more you have the better you can enjoy your golden years! Youll be amazed at how much money you can accumulate by changing a few things early on. Heres some tips on what you can do to get a boost in your retirement savings.
Review your insurance. As you age, you may not need the same insurance coverage for life, house and car as you did when you were young. Your life insurance is there to provide income for your family but when the kids are grown and out of the house you might want to evaluate how much your spouse really needs. If you can lower the amount, then you can put the extra savings on premiums into your retirement fund.
The same goes for your home and car insurance, now that you are more financially secure you can probably afford a higher deductible should you need to. Raising your deductible can reduce the annual premiums by 20 percent and this additional money can go into the retirement fund. With any luck youll never need to use this insurance anyway!
Make your car last. Resist the urge to get a new car every two years and wait until a couple of years after you have paid off the loan before you trade in. The key is to still make the monthly payment - except you can make it to yourself into your retirement savings account. These days cars are pretty well made so if you take good care of it from the beginning, it should last and be reliable for many years.
Pay off your credit cards. With an average interest rate of 15 percent, running a balance on your credit card is like throwing money down the toilet. Pay off any debt as soon as you can and once you have the balances to zero try not to use the cards. If you have to use them, then make sure to pay the balance in full each month to avoid any new charges. Take the money you used to pay in interest and apply that towards your retirement savings.
Take advantage of new 401K contribution limits and put away the max amount. You might feel a little pinch now, but you will soon get used to it and be thankful when you reach retirement. Take away the temptation of spending money by taking advantage of direct deposits from you paycheck. Also, when you get a raise, instead of buying something new or going out to eat more, why not just apply that towards your retirement?
Many of these tips will allow you to put a bit of extra money away from retirement and not even notice that it is missing. If you are diligent in your savings now and put away money instead of living extravagantly it will pay off in the long run! |
