七條建議助你退休後增收
To live comfortably in retirement, you need "to save until it hurts," says financial adviser and best-selling author Ric Edelman.
People give lots of excuses for not saving for retirement, he says. They may be procrastinating, think they can't afford to save or fear losing money to bad investments, but they have to overcome those fears, because "a financially secure future will be up to them," says Edelman, who has a new book on the topic,The Truth about Retirement Plans and IRAs.
The CEO and founder of Edelman Financial Services, a firm with more than $12 billion in assets under management, Edelman has written eight personal finance books, including the best-selling The Truth About Money. He's also a national radio and TV host.
If you're not tucking money away for the future now, you can start by saving as little as $10 a paycheck or putting away half your next raise, he says. "A small amount of money can produce massive amounts of wealth over time. The key is getting started."
It used to be that people didn't worry about saving for their later years because many had pensions, and they didn't live as long as people do now, Edelman says. "But we can no longer count on our employers, partly because they aren't offering pensions, and we don't stay with one employer. Many people change jobs every few years."
Most experts expect Social Security benefits will be lower in the future, he says. "You can't count on your employer and you can't count on the government, therefore your retirement is up to you. That statement scares people, but in fact it should empower you, because it's remarkably easy to achieve retirement savings success."
Edelman offers these tips for saving for retirement:
1. Join your retirement plan at work. It's the easiest way to save because money is automatically deducted from your paycheck, he says. If your employer doesn't offer a retirement plan, if you're not eligible to participate in it or if you're already contributing the pre-tax maximum and can afford to save even more, then contribute to an IRA.
2. Start small. If you're not contributing anything to a retirement plan, start by contributing 1% of your pay. If the 1% contribution hurts, then stay at that level until it doesn't hurt anymore, he says. If it doesn't hurt, then increase your contribution by another 1%. Do that until it hurts.
A 1% contribution may be less painful than you think. Say you make $44,259 a year. If you're paid twice a month, that's $1,844 per paycheck. If you contribute $18.44 from it, you lower your taxes by about $5, assuming you're in the 25% tax bracket, meaning your paycheck only has to drop by $13. That's about a dollar a day.
It's easy to cut a dollar a day from most budgets, he says. "We're talking about one large cafe latte a week or you can skip drinking soda daily at lunch," Edelman says.
3. Start even smaller. If even 1% sounds like too much money, make it $10 a paycheck. Then increase by $10 increments until it hurts.
4. Save half your next raise. If you can't contribute anything now, wait until your next pay raise. When you get it, put half your raise into the retirement plan. Your paycheck will still go up some, and your contribution will be completely painless, he says.
5. Don't miss out on company incentives. Most employers that offer retirement plans give incentives for you to contribute some of your pay to your plan. Many add an amount equal to 3% of your pay. "Your employer is offering you free money, so take it."
6. Find a new job. If your employer doesn't offer matching contributions, find a job with an employer that does, he says. Matching contributions can really add up.
Consider: If you contribute $5,000 a year for 40 years, earning 6% annually, you'll accumulate $773,810 for retirement. If your employer adds to your account with a 3% match, the value of your account will be $232,143 more — giving you a total of slightly more than $1 million.
"You need to recognize that many employers are willing to provide a matching contribution. If your employer isn't doing that, you owe it to yourself to change jobs," he says.
7. Invest with a long-term perspective. You have to create a diversified mix of mutual funds that invest in stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign securities and government securities, he says.
You can keep your money entirely invested in stock funds provided you understand the risks and you plan to leave your money invested in stock funds for at least five years, preferably longer, Edelman says. These two criteria are crucial for your decision to leave money invested in stock funds, he says.
"I would never recommend that people put money in stocks if they plan on withdrawing it in a year or two. Look at 2008. If you had a two-year time horizon and had invested in 2006, look what have happened. But if you had a five-year time horizon, you would have been fine.
"If you are terrified of the stock market, you need to invest in it anyway," Edelman says. "A lot of people are terrified to go to the dentist, but they go anyway. Don't let your fears stop you from doing what you need to do."身兼財政顧問和暢銷書作家的瑞克·愛德曼說，爲了在退休後生活舒適愜意，你需要“節省資金以備不時之需”。
愛德曼說，人們給出許多理由解釋不節省的原因。他們可能是藉故推遲，認爲面對糟糕的投資時不能應付過去或害怕失去資金。但是必須克服種種擔心，因爲“他們將來的財政安全就取決於此，”愛德曼說，針對此課題，他出版了一本新的圖書，名叫《退休的真相》。
作爲愛德曼金融服務中心的首席執行官和締造者，愛德曼已編著8本個人財務書籍，包括暢銷書《金錢的真相》。他同樣是國家電臺和電視主持人。而他的公司管理有條，已擁有超過120億的資產。
如果還未爲將來存儲資金，那麼你要開始此項工作了。例如節約僅僅10美元的薪資或者儲存半筆下次的加薪，他說。“時間會見證少量資金會帶來大筆的財富。而重點是此刻開始。”
在過去，人們不在意爲老年生活節省錢財，因爲許多人有養老金，並且壽命沒有如今這般長，愛德曼說道。“但我們可以不再依賴僱主，部分因爲他們不會提供養老金，另外是我們不會總跟隨一位僱主。大多數人會在幾年內更換多份工作。”
大部分專家預測到未來的社保受益會降低，他說。“你不能依賴你的僱主和政府，這就表示你要依賴自身。這份聲明讓民衆擔驚受怕，但事實上這是在賦予你權利，因爲提前爲退休儲備資金很簡單且成功率高。”
愛德曼關於爲退休節省資金而提供以下建議：
1. 工作時制定好退休計劃。這會是最簡單的方法，因爲錢會自動從你的薪資中扣除，他說。如果你的老闆未提供退休計劃，如果你就此項未符合條件或如果你已繳納稅前最大標準，並能節省更多，那就設立個人退休賬戶。
2. 開始於少量。如果你未關注半分退休計劃，那就從薪資中抽取1%作爲貢獻。如果1%使你感到心痛，則可開始於任何人可接受的指數，他說。如若未使心痛，則可增加1%，知道達到使你心痛的地步。
1%的抽取或許不如你想象般痛心。假設你的年薪是4,4259美元。如果你每月兩次，則薪資會是1844美元。比如你從中抽取18.44美元，你就會降低5美元的稅收，假設你屬於25%的稅階，這意味着你的薪資僅少13美元。這就是每天一美元機會。
從大部分預算中每天減少一美元很簡單，他說。“我們討論的是每週一杯拿鐵咖啡，或者你可在每天的午餐中省去喝蘇打，”愛德曼說。
3. 開始於更小的金額。如果1%對你意味着數額大，那麼可從10美元開始。而後繼續增加10美元直到使你痛心的地步。
4. 下次加薪，拿出半數，作爲儲蓄。如果現在的你未能拿出一點，請等到下次加薪。拿出半數的加薪，放入退休計劃中，如若有加薪時。你的薪水仍會增長少許，而投入退休計劃的薪資將永不會使你痛心，他說。
5. 不要錯過公司的獎勵。許多僱主會提供退休計劃，這會激勵你投入些許薪資，使其歸入你的計劃。而你的工資也會增加3%。“這是僱主爲你提供免費的錢財，所以拿着吧。”
6. 找到一份新工作。如果你的老闆未能提供與付出等價的薪資，請更換工作，尋找做到此點的老闆，他說。與勞動相對等的薪資必會增加退休儲蓄。
試想：如若在40年內你每年抽取5000美元，且每年增加6%，退休時你就會積累77,3810美元。假如老闆爲你的賬戶提供3%，那麼你的賬戶將會有額外的23,2143美元——總數會比百萬美元多一點。
“你需要清楚許多老闆願意提供對等的薪資。但你的老闆如若做不到，你要告訴自己去換工作，”他說。
7. 懷着長遠視角而投資。你必須創立多種混雜的互惠基金，範圍包括股票，基金，房地產，外國證券和政府證券，他說。
愛德曼說，基於瞭解風險且計劃將資金投入股票基金，時間至少爲5年且時間越長越適合，你可將資金全部投入股票基金。這兩條標準對於你決定將資金投入股票基金很是重要，他說。
“我從不會推薦人們將資金投入股票，然後一兩年後撤回資金。回想2008年。如果你有兩年的投資期且開始於2006年，你就明白髮生的事件。但是如果你有五年的投資期，你將會受益良好。”
“如果你對股票市場畏懼，不管怎樣你還要投資其中。”愛德曼說。“許多人害怕去牙醫出，但最後還是去了。不要讓擔心害怕阻止你需要做的事情。”
