Pressing Forward – The Golden Years

[cs_content][cs_section parallax=”false” style=”margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;”][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][cs_text]We know that we should be good stewards of what God has given us because it is all on loan to us from him. We need to prepare for our retirement needs as this is a loving thing to do�so your kids, the church, or society won�t have to provide for you. We know that the word of God calls us to store up in the storehouse during the time of plenty so that we will have the things we need in the future.

When I am in client meetings I ask my clients what age they would like to retire. What I have found is that the most common answer that I receive is �yesterday� or �tomorrow�.

People for the most part want to retire at an earlier age but do not know how to make that happen for them. The most desired retirement age that I find in today�s society is 55 to 65.

First, let�s define retirement. Retirement is not necessarily the day that you stop working for the rest of your life. Retirement is the day that you wake up and you do what you want to do, not what you have to do because you have the financial security to do so. There are ways that we can accelerate your retirement plan and today we are going to look at a few of them.

Save More

If you put back more money then you will be able to have more money put away at an earlier time in your life. We need to be putting away into our employer sponsored retirement plans especially if they have a company match. The company match is the magic behind these retirement plans. Even if it is only a 25% match then that is still an immediate 25% return on your investment. These accounts also come out pre-taxed so you will have these monies going into your retirement while not feeling as much coming out of your take home pay.

Tax-Deferred Accounts

We can accelerate our retirement savings by growing our monies in tax-deferred accounts and getting the compounding interest train on a roll for ourselves. Anytime we do not have to pay capital-gains taxes on our earnings then it enables us to be able to keep more money in the account and this will eventually make your money explode into a rolling snowball of growth. Employer sponsored accounts such as 401K�, 457�s and 403b�s grow tax deferred as well as Traditional and Roth IRA�s.

What many people don�t know is that there are accounts available for non-qualified (non-retirement accounts) monies as well. Many people see their interest in CD�s fall away with the taxes that they must pay each year on their capital gains when they receive their 1099�s. Just by simply repositioning these investments we are able to reduce thousands of dollars in tax�s as well as increase our returns on their money by allowing it to grow tax-deferred. This in my opinion is the most important retirement acceleration methods available.

Debt Reduction

This strategy goes along with the first point of saving more money. Many people want to save more money but they have no extra left over a month to put towards their savings. Their extra money is tied up in paying debt every month towards credit cards, vehicles, and their homes. An aggressive debt liquidation strategy is one way to free up the extra money that you need to put towards your retirement. A debt snowball strategy is one of the quickest and simplest forms of debt liquidation. This is something that we have implemented in our clients lives and seen many of them become debt free even including their primary home in just a very short amount of time. These strategies not only free up extra money but they save our clients thousands of dollars of interest because of the accelerated payoff. Once we get the debt paid off then this opens the additional monies needed to put towards an accelerated retirement.

These are just a few of the ways that we help our clients ascertain their retirement goals at the age that they dream of. If there is anything that we can do to help in your financial life then please give us a call. We would love to be a blessing to you and your family or business.[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][cs_row inner_container=”true” marginless_columns=”false” style=”margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;”][cs_column fade=”false” fade_animation=”in” fade_animation_offset=”45px” fade_duration=”750″ type=”1/1″ style=”padding: 0px;”][x_callout title=”Let us help you plan a successful future” message=”Office – 770.830.2721″ type=”left” button_text=”Email us” circle=”false” button_icon=”user” href=”/contact” href_title=”” target=”blank”][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]