What Are the Obstacles to Successful Retirement Planning

There are a number of obstacles that you may face in planning for your retirement:

• Discipline to Save Many people find it difficult to form the habit of “paying themselves first,” by making regular deposits to a savings plan.
• Saving to Spend Money is saved for retirement purposes, but then is spent to make purchases.
• Income Taxes Income taxes can erode the growth of your retirement savings.
• Longer Life Expectancies Longer life expectancies increase the risk of retirees outliving at least a portion of their retirement income.
• Inflation Longer life expectancies also increase the risk of inflation eroding the purchasing power of retirement income. For example, if inflation increases at 3.5% a year, it would require over $1,400 in 10 years in order to maintain the original purchasing power of $1,000.

Since Social Security and your company pension plan probably will not provide the income you need for a financially-secure retirement, how can you overcome the obstacles you face in planning for retirement?