Mistakes that hurt retirement
If retirement seems out of reach, you may be making one or more of these common errors. » Never too late
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/8-ways-to-ruin-your-chances-brn-13925607.html
8 ways to ruin your chances to retire
Monday December 29, 2008, 6:00 am EST
...Last year Bankrate's Financial Literacy survey found that one in five people expect to work until they die.
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For the dedicated workers who aspire to devote their entire lives to propelling the economy forward with their unceasing toil, the dream of not retiring can be achieved in any number of ways. We came up with eight.
Ruin retirement
Spend a lot
Save nothing
Ignore savings vehicles
Disregard taxes
Overestimate portfolio earnings
Miscalculate lifetime earnings
Adopt the ostrich approach
Be ignorant about investments
Spend too much
... Ralph Lunt, a Certified Financial Planner and Chartered Financial Consultant at Strategic Capital Advisors in Cleveland.
Vacations, new cars, expensive home remodeling can all feel like necessities. "... can I afford it ?" says Lunt. "... maybe if you cut back in other areas you can afford it -- maybe skipping a vacation or not eating out so much."
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(biggest costs: house, vacantions, banking, insurance - sales & tech. force ? - & salary taxes, ...)
save ... for retirement
Disregard taxes
... people typically think that now that they're retired, they won't have to pay income taxes anymore.
... think they will be in a lower tax bracket, but they may be in a higher one."
... your retirement savings ... distributions will be taxed as ordinary income. "That could be 25 (percent) to 30 percent less in retirement dollars that someone isn't expecting," says Woods.
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Though they're completely unavoidable, taxes have to be considered when planning for retirement income. If you go to all the trouble of saving and then end up with less income than you expect, it can definitely ruin your retirement -- or at least put a damper on it.
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