Tips to Retirement Planning As a Couple

The latest research shows that, in general, Americans aren’t doing a great job of planning for retirement.In fact, one in three Americans has less than $5,000 set aside in their retirement fund. Are you and your spouse part of this group? Would you like to learn more about how you can work together to plan for your retirement? If so, keep reading. Listed below are five helpful and realistic tips that couples use every day to make the process of planning for retirement easier.

1. Discuss Your Goals

Financial issues are often a big cause of stress in marriages. You can avoid a lot of this stress, though, by discussing your financial goals with your partner and making sure you’re on the same page. Sit down to talk about what you want for the future. Do you want to do a lot of traveling? Do you hope to age in the same home, or do you want to downsize after you retire? Once you each know what the other wants, you can start assessing how much money you’ll need to save to make those goals realities.

2. Consider Your Needs

In addition to thinking about your wants, be sure to think about your needs, too. What is the bare minimum that you and your partner will need to have saved to keep up with your current lifestyle? This is a good opportunity for you and your partner to learn about what each of you considers to be a necessity.

3. Discuss Your Budget Often

Communication is essential for every aspect of a healthy relationship, including when it comes to dealing with finances and retirement savings. It’s not enough to talk about your retirement plans once with your partner. This should be an ongoing conversation. Sit down on a regular basis to talk about your budget and how much money is going into your retirement accounts.

4. Set Up a Retirement Account

Many couples do not use a retirement account to save for that period their lives. Instead, they use a regular savings account. If you take this approach, you’ll miss out on a lot of tax benefits. You also won’t earn as much in interest as you would if you were using a retirement-specific account like a 401(k) or IRA. After all, the average savings account has an interest rate of only 0.06 percent!

5. Choose Investments Together

Finally, make sure you’re working together to choose your investments. In most cases, it doesn’t work to have one person making all the financial decisions while the other remains oblivious. Talk to each other and decide where you want to place your money. Make sure you’re assessing the performance of your investments on a regular basis, too.

Learn More About Planning for Retirement

When you first start planning for retirement as a couple, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Implementing these tips works for lots of other couples, though, and it can work for you, too. Do you want to learn more about planning for your retirement? Do you want to make sure your finances are in order? If so, we can help at Goodwin Investment Advisory. Contact us today to schedule an appointment or to learn more about our services.