If you’re like most Americans, you’ll be making New Year’s resolutions in the next couple of weeks. As always, many resolutions will be made, and many will be broken. On the top of your resolutions list should be your retirement and retirement savings needs. Let’s make some retirement resolutions for the New Year and stick with them.
According to Wall Street Cheat Sheet, if you are anything like the average American, you are woefully under-prepared for retirement.
A June 2013 report from the National Institute on Retirement Security highlights some the relevant data. The average working-age household has a retirement account balance of just $3,000; the collective retirement savings gap among working households aged 25-64 is between $6.8 and $14 trillion (depending on targets and measures); and as many as 48 million working-age households (45% of the total) do not own any retirement account assets.
The average American is woefully under-prepared for retirement.
Those numbers may look grim, but there are some resolutions to get you started off on the right foot in the New Year, by getting yourself in a better direction toward your retirement goals.
Here are five of the best retirement resolutions to make to help you get on the right track:
- Educate Yourself
- Figure Out Your Circumstances
- Seek Professional Advice
- Start Saving
- Watch the Market and Don’t be Afraid of It
A couple of these suggestions may be easier said than done, but if you dedicate yourself to making these resolutions come true — and stick with them — you will find yourself in a much better financial situation in 2015 than in 2014.
Sources: Wall Street Cheat Sheet | National Institute of Retirement
