The Money Café - Retirement and Money

Saving for Retirement

The key to a happy retirement is to have enough money to live on, but not enough to worry about.
- Unknown Wise Person

Research has shown that nearly half of all workers in the United States have less than $25,000 in total savings. Even more startling is the fact that slightly more than one in five workers say they have no savings of any kind.

Reasons Why You Should Save for Retirement

Because you don’t want to work forever, and you will ultimately be responsible for paying for your retirement.

Because you want to have enough money saved for a comfortable retirement.

Because you don’t know how long you will be able to work.

Because you don’t know how long you will live.

In 2006 Gallup identified the top 10 sources of retirement income available to Americans.

1. 401(K) & other retirement savings accounts
2. Home equity
3. Pension plans
4. Social security
5. Bank accounts and certificates of deposit
6. Stocks and mutuals funds
7. Retirement jobs
8. Annuities or insurance plans
9. Inheritance
10. Rent and royalties

Retirement Income Resources

1. Retirement Income Calculator: Take an edcuated guess at how much money you will have to spend in retirement by estimating your retirement benefits at this U.S. Government website.

2. Budgeting & Savings Tips For Retirees: Financial advice on the right way to change spending habits and learn why the wrong ways don't work. Budgeting is an important tool to use at any age, although to many of us it sounds like a four letter word. Practical ideas for budgeting and saving that make managing expenses easy.

3. Fiscal Fitness for Older Americans: Stretching Your Savings and Shaping Up Your Financial Strategies. Advice from The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation which has been publishing FDIC Consumer News quarterly since 1993 to help people protect and stretch their money.

4. National Save for Retirement Week : National Save for Retirement Week is a key event employers use to inspire their employees to save more for retirement.

5. Retirement Saving Tips: From the Choose to Save Website.

6. Saving for Retirement on the Retirement Cafe: How to save for retirement so that your retirement income is adequate to enjoy a comfortable retirement.

7. Retirement Income for Unconventional Retirees: This webpage on The Joy of Being Retired Website is for retirees who are motivated and creative enough to generate income in unconventional ways such as Internet marketing.

8. How Much Do I Need to Retire: Conventional wisdom in the financial industry says that people need about 80 percent of their pre-retirement income to be comfortable after retiring. Some financial advisors are now raising this to 90 percent, even 110 percent of pre-retirement income. Columnist Scott Burns of the Dallas Star has been saying for years that the 80 percent figure is idiotic. So have I!

Retirement Job Resources

1. Retirement Jobs and Retirement Businesses at The Real Success Resource Center: For Retirees who want to retire to a job they love instead of one they love to hate! Top-10 Retirement Jobs. Top-15 Cool Retirement Jobs. Also retirement business ideas.

2. Retirement Job and Retirement Business Resources at The Retirement Cafe: Retirement Jobs and Retirement Businesses for Retirees Too Bored with Being Retired

3. Best Retirement Jobs on Squidoo: Looking for interesting and rewarding work opportunities after retirement but aren't sure what to look for? This webpage provides some resources that can help.

4. Unreal Retirement Jobs and Dream Retirement Careers on the UnrealJob.com Website: Unreal Retirement Jobs and Dream Retirement Careers: Approaching retirement and not sure if you want to quit working? Check out these retirement job resources loaded with opportunities perfect for the skills and maturity you can provide!

money quotes image

Quotes about Retirement and Money

Retirement can be a great joy if you can figure out how to spend time without spending money.
- Author Unknown

You can be young without money but you can't be old without it.
- Tennessee Williams

All right, let's not panic. I'll make the money by selling one of my livers. I can get
by with one.
— Homer Simpson

It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor, as long as you've got money.
— Joe E. Lewis

What good is freedom if you've not got the money for it?
— Lillian Hellman

I advise you to go on living solely to enrage those who are paying your annuities. It is the only pleasure I have left.
- Voltaire (in retirement)

I don't believe the federal government should be involved in retirement. I think it's too important to leave it to the government.
— Peter Schiff, who forecast the U.S. housing bust and the U.S.credit meltdown.

By the time I have money to burn, my fire will have burnt out.
- Author Unknown

The question isn't at what age I want to retire, it's at what income.
— George Foreman

For the loot, honey, for the loot.
— Ava Gardner, (On why she came out of retirement to appear on a prime time soap opera.)

An open mind collects more riches than an open purse.
— Will Henry

No man is rich whose expenditure exceeds his means; and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.
— Haliburton

The waste of money cures itself, for soon there is no more to waste.
— M.W. Harrison

You don't seem to realize that a poor person who is unhappy is in a better position than a rich person who is unhappy. Because the poor person has hope. He thinks money would help.
— Jean Kerr

Paying attention to simple little things that most men neglect makes a few men rich.
- Henry Ford

We have a balance of $0.32 in the bank … Which made us four-and-a-half trillion dollars richer than the federal government.
- Jim Borgman

My retirement investments are diversified. Blue lottery tickes, yellow lottery tickets, green lottery tickets, red lottery tickets ...
- from a Glasbergen cartoon

Retirement: The time in your life when time is no longer money.
- Unknown wise person

It's an absolute fact that as people get older they spend less money.
- Rick Ferri president of money-management firm Portfolio Solutions in Troy, Mich.

The Money Cafe is brought to you by Ernie J. Zelinski, an innovator and content creator of best-selling books, creative free e-books, and websites.

Ernie is the author of the international bestsellers How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free (over 125,000 copies sold and published in 8 foreign languages) and The Joy of Not Working (over 250,000 copies sold and published in 17 languages).