When older Americans retire, they need to take many decisions regarding their future. Preparing a proper plan to coordinate with these decisions will ensure enough income for paying the bills after retirement. Planning your retirement income is a very crucial step. To learn more about facing such decisions, read the 5 surprises of Retirement Income Planning as mentioned below:
- Choosing the right retirement investments is not an essential retirement decision which is to be made by the retirees. More than half of your income after retirement comes from social security. For Americans, choosing social security benefits has a greater impact on retirement security than knowing how to invest financial assets.
- It is better to pay more taxes today than to wait until tomorrow. The conventional thinking of Americans is to pay as low tax as possible today and try to defer or avoid taxes for as long as possible. Many people can instead reap the benefits of the 401(k) investment pre-tax benefits.
- You can start collecting your social security benefits even before your retirement. Many people mistake that the social security benefits can be reaped only after retirement. There are tremendous benefits in deferring social security, and people should consider the deferring benefits past their retirement ages.
- One of the most important challenges of retirement income planning is to understand that taking away money from your investment portfolio along with volatile returns means you have to be careful in taking out money each year. If your volatile retirement assets might have an average of 8% return every year, this does not mean you can withdraw 8%.
- Sometimes giving away some of your assets may be good for you. The employee normally opts for a lump-sum money instead of an annuity. This is the part where people make mistakes. They must take the annuity method and receive a sum every month, but unfortunately, people consider it too complicated to do.