Are You A Millennial? Here’s What You Need To Know About Retirement
In a world chock full of labels, the two most popular are the ‘baby boomers’ and the ‘millennials’. Two camps, two generations and two very different ways of life, wherever you look online there are articles comparing the two. Retirement is something the baby boomers are currently approaching, and the millennials are finally embarking on careers or college degrees to start out in life.
If you are currently a millennial, you are in a position of great luck when it comes to saving for retirement. There is a lot of time ahead of you to save up for those long and luxurious cruises or the time you’ll spend at Riddle Village. Most members of the current generation are 22 when they begin saving for retirement, and with the age of stepping back increasing every year, so can your prospects for interest on your savings. You want to be able to maximise the return on the money that you save, and it’s for that reason we’ve put together four things you can do to help your autumn years feel that much warmer.
- Matchy Match. Employers are bound to match 401(k) payments – well, some of the contributions anyway. This means if you make payments of your own into your retirement account, they will match up to a certain amount. The more you put in of your own money, the more your employer will match, and who can turn down free money? Find out from your HR department what exactly your employer will be willing to match and make sure you put that amount in.
- Invest Well. You may be young, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do some research and invest wisely. A lot of places will tell you that the best option for you is a volatile investment. This is usually because high risk often means a high return. Stocks are a typical investment that bounces up and down and thus, is a volatile one. Read more about that here.
- Plan Ahead. Being new to the working world doesn’t mean being naïve to the fact you shouldn’t blow every pay packet you earn. Put a percentage away every month alongside what you pay into your 401(k) accounts. Having money as a fall back now is better than blowing everything on parties and champagne lunches.
- Calculate. Use this retirement calculator to figure out the exact amount you need to put away each month and do so, so that you can ensure you don’t leave yourself short later on.
The majority of millennials in the current generation may end up outliving their retirement savings especially as we live in a world where healthcare has become something far more futuristic than could have been imagined. Planning carefully and saving money from an early age can avoid the panic in later life and have you set up to enjoy years ahead after you reach working retirement age. It’s all about possibilities and isn’t that what millennials are all about?
