Need advise ??

Question

ok i started a job two months ago with great benifits, 401k with 4% match , pension, health insurance, so im going to work until im 65 and im 49 now, i have not been very smart about my retirement until now , any advise about saving a decent amount money for retirement? thanks.

Answer 1

work hard.maybe your boss will be impressed

Answer 2

Max out your 401k contribution.  Trim your budget until you have as much extra as possible, and put that into a savings or investment plan.  If you've not gathered much retirement savings up to now, you've got a lot of catching up to do.  You can do double duty by cutting back on lifestyle and putting the extra into savings.  That is because once you retire, you won't need as much money to maintain your quality of life, and you will have more saved away.  16 years isn't a long time to compile everything you need for retirement.  Move quickly and aggressively.

Answer 3

You should maximize your match.  Also know that once you reach age 50, if you meat certain criteria (and given your comments regarding not being smart about retirement until now) you may put in funds in excess of your match, generally up to $15,000 per year.

Answer 4

Try to possess as much information as you can maybe is one option,however it is time consuming,here is the one i have ever had good experience with.http://health-insurance.online-tips4u.in...

Answer 5

2 things you need to focus on:  contributions and asset allocation

1) contributions.  Max out your 401k.  Find the IRS Maximum contribution limit for 2008 (I think its $15K) and figure out what you need to contribute each pay period so that the sum of your contributions is as close to 15K as possible.  This will maximize the 4% company match.  This is the most important thing you can do.  Don't get intimidated by picking the right fund.  Your contributions matter the most.

2) Asset Allocation.  This is a fancy word for what % stocks, bonds, or cash equivalents.  This is done by picking the funds.  For beginners look for a target retirement fund (will likely have a year in the name i.e. Target retirement 2025) and invest everything in that.  If something like that isn't available a rule of Thumb is to take 100 - your age (49) and that percentage is what you should have in stocks, the rest in bond.  Since for you that is roughly 50%/50% they might have a fund with 'balanced' in the name.  THat would be a suitable fund