Is Your Retirement Planning Frightening?

For one reason or another retirement planning has been on my mind lately. I could probably attribute it to our personal situation as we look at how to save for retirement while running our own business, but I know a lot of it has to do with numbers I have been hearing lately. Mrs. Frugal Rules and I were listening to NPR the other day and they were saying that 47% of Americans have less than $25,000 saved for retirement. That is a crazy number and one that does need to turn for the better. I believe that a number of factors are at play in regards to the specifics of retirement planning, but at the end of the day I think it points back to an obvious lack of concern and thinking only about today. It’s easy to neglect saving for the future when times are tough, I cede that point, but a lot of it comes down to choices. Each day we are faced with choices, some small and some big and I believe we often we do not think of impact those small choices will make over a long span of time.

How Does Your Retirement Planning Stand Up?

I found this infographic a few weeks ago and knew instantly that I wanted to share it with you, my readers. I know it’s not bright and colorful, but the numbers it points out are frightening to say the least. The figure I want to draw attention to says that 36% of Americans are saving nothing for retirement at all. I know that retirement is a term that can be debated by some and that’s not the point of this post; the point is that unless you plan on working until you drop then planning for retirement needs to be a concern for you. If investing in the stock market is not your thing I get that, but please do not let that hold you back. You can invest in things like index based etfs or mutual funds or you can even work in something like investing in real estate to help build up and diversify income streams. If you find yourself not thinking about retirement planning, then I encourage you to start now even if it’s in small amounts. Time is the greatest thing overlooked when it comes to saving for retirement which is truly a shame. If you find yourself not knowing where to start, then I encourage you to check out a retirement planning calculator like the one located here on Yahoo Finance and see what it has to say and what you might be able to do.