Abacoa & Alton Neighbors - February 2022

32 Abacoa &Alton N E I G H B O R S | F e b r u a r y 2 0 2 2 The Retirement Conundrum Written By Al Townsend, Senior Advisor, Townsend Financial Life Management A Member Of Advisory Services Network, LLC One of the most important and difficult decisions everyone needs to make is how to save for their retirement. The question seems simple enough: “How much money will you need to live the life you want after you retire?”. However, in order to answer that question, you have to make a number of assumptions and factor in a lot of variables. Hence the retirement conundrum. Let’s start with the first question that needs to be answered which many of the people that I work with find to be very challenging, “What do you want your retirement to look like?”. Do you want to travel, spend more time on hobbies, start a second career, get more involved with a charity, what family commitments will you have? And the list goes on. Depending on how many years you are from when you want to retire, this can be difficult to visualize, especially if you are married. Next comes trying to estimate what that retirement will cost. That means taking that bucket list you came up with, along with the basic costs of living, and estimating how much money it will take every year after you stop working. Once you determine how much that is in today’s dollars, you will need to figure out how much that could potentially increase because of inflation. And at a 3% average inflation rate, that means your costs could double in 24 years. These are only the first two issues that need to be answered. Here are a few others that will have to be factored into your planning: • How much will you need to save to meet your income needs every year in retirement without running the risk of running out of money before you run out of life? We are all living much longer, which means that your retirement income will need to sustain you for potentially for 30 to 40 years. And don’t forget about inflation. Many of our expenses could be considerably higher in the years ahead. COMMUNITY CORNER 561.630.5800 5440 Military Trail Jupiter, Fl 33458 @WoofGangBakeryAbacoa Abacoa & Alton’s Neighborhood Pet Store *Come see Zou!* Village Square, 271 S. US Hwy. 1, Tequesta, FL 33469 Call Us: 561-277-9102 www.creativefloralsfl.com Local and Worldwide Delivery • Weddings • Bat/Bar Mitzvah • Special Events • Silk & Home Decor