Financial security has become a more real concern for most individuals as we continue to struggle toward an uncertain future and attempt to plan for retirement as best we can. It is a very real fact that a significant number of families are living paycheck to paycheck, barely able to make ends meet, while trying to support their loved ones in an unstable economic environment. Despite the immediate needs of your family, however, you should still be looking forward into the future and making plans to establish a reasonably secure retirement plan.
There are many resources on the Internet that can help you plan for retirement in a variety of ways. Some of these resources offer tips and advice while others provide financial tools, calculators, and methods of estimating where you will be financially once you reach retirement age. Here are the top six retirement planning resources on the Internet, where you can learn more about making sure that your future is as financially secure as possible:
#1: What You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan
The United States Department of Labor offers a 10 chapter retirement planning guide titled What You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan that can give you a detailed look at several different aspects of retirement. The guide covers different types of retirement plans, how you can fund your retirement, claiming your benefits, plus a great deal of other useful information.
#2: Wealth Ruler
Wealth Ruler is a free online tool offered by TD Ameritrade that gives you an overview of the steps you need to take today to secure your financial future for tomorrow. It provides a visual graph that displays key information relating to your retirement planning and how you can meet your goals.
#3: Retirement Planning Tool (Market Watch)
Market Watch by the Wall Street Journal offers an online retirement planning tool that can help you determine if your retirement planning activities are on track to ensure that your future finances will provide you with what you need when you reach retirement.
#4: Retirement Calculator
An online Retirement Calculator by Charles Schwab takes your entered data and gives you a look at where you stand financially at your expected retirement age. They also offer other resources relating to retirement, including a question and answer section and planning information for meeting your retirement goals.
#5: My Retirement Plan Savings Calculator
Wells Fargo Bank offers an online Retirement Plan Savings Calculator, and you do not need to be an account holder to make use of the tool. The tool lets you know where you stand financially today, what you need to do over the next part of your life to get where you want to be, and offers advice and guidance for financial planning and saving.
#6: Blueprint Retirement Planning
Blueprint Wealth offers a “blueprint” approach to help individuals better plan for retirement. They combine retirement planning quizzes, retirement plans, tips for borrowing from retirement plans to purchase property, retirement flowcharts, etc to help people follow the steps to their owner personalized Blueprint SMSF Setup.
Many employers offer retirement savings plans and other financial options that can help you save for your future, so make sure you are doing all you can to ensure your security when you reach the point where you no longer want to work or can no longer work due to age or physical limitations. It’s your future and it is up to you to make sure that you have a plan in place that will provide you with the financial security you need to continue enjoying life long after you have retired from the workforce.
About the Author
Nicole writes about the latest in the financial planning and retirement planning industries. She loves teaching people how to better manage their finances and plan properly for retirement.