A Dream remains a dream once it is not acted on …TheBeyondWoman

So you dream of retiring, putting your feet up, hands clasped behind your head with a huge sigh of relief. You can now spend your days lazing; except for when the grandkids come over for those who have.

Recently I was reminded of the importance of pension planning especially for our women who are self-employed and without even the tiniest bit of security that is usually available to women who are employed by an organisation.

Sooner rather than later is always best when putting together a pension plan. As well as it is important to have at the fore of our minds inflation and anything else that usually eats away at the value of our dollar as we put it away. If there is no plan in place as yet we are here to rescue you… somewhat.

We want to help you to get to the moment described above. That moment you dream about, so here are a couple other things we believe should be the focus now in order to put together a plan that ensures your dream becomes a reality:

1. Current standard of living – this requires you taking stock of what you currently experience, the comforts, convenience etc. and ask yourself ;- is my current situation realistic to take into the future?  Maybe you have kids now and live in a huge home and will have to ask – what happens when I become an empty nester? Will I need to make any adjustment in the future? Can I maintain this type of living if needs be? At this point you will want to do some financial planning. Ideally you should include a financial planner who can help you put together a blueprint of your current situation and project it into the future. She/he will also help you to ascertain the future value of the money you will have to start putting away today in order to maintain your current standard of living.
2. Investment value / Currency protection – This is a biggie …understanding what is taking place with your local currency and knowing how quickly (or not) it depreciates against a hard currency is of extreme importance. If you live in country that is heavily dependent on another currency for purchasing goods and services, you should think of your purchasing power and how it will be impacted by that foreign currency. Planning your retirement should include savings (if possible) in a hard currency. This will help to minimise the risks to a dollar (most likely yours) that is depreciating heavily – which simply means the value of your money today can be significantly eroded by a rapidly depreciating currency. You should seek the advice of a financial planner to help in this regard.
3. Increased costs that can occur as we age – This is not up for discussion. It is a fact that as we age we are at a greater risk for increased medical complications. Do you have an emergency fund to take care of this risk? Is there any health or possibly Life Insurance/Critical Illness plan available to you? Healthcare when needed can be very costly and you want to be able to have access to a good health facility without the added worry of the financial burden.
4. How much to save and how much time to save – the million dollar question is how much time do you have to save and how much will you need to safely put aside monthly (recommended) to ensure you achieve your objective.
5. Less Debt more Savings – what is your personal debt to equity ratio at the moment? Do you cut ties with debt at this point? What is your current romance with either of these? It is important that you give serious thought and realistic planning to points 4 & 5 especially when putting together your retirement fund. Less debt is best as we get older.

These are just a few pointers to get you going on your journey to retirement planning. Soonest is better than waiting until there is not enough time. Time gives you the benefit of capitalising on compounding and longer term investment solutions that will give better returns over time. We strongly encourage you to think on these things, but do not take too long. Seek the advice of a Financial Planner/Investment Advisor. If you are in need of a financial expert we can send some recommendations your way.

Happy Pension/Retirement Planning.