Estate Planning and Tax Lawyer Blog

With unemployment in Florida still in the double digits, some older workers who have lost their jobs during the economic crisis may be thinking more about retirement rather than finding a new job. Even those still too young to exit the workforce should think about retirement now – not just doing it, but planning for it.

The fact is, most Americans have no idea when or even if they can retire. In this three-part post, we’ll look at what you should be thinking about when it comes to planning your retirement:

1. How much money you will need to live on in retirement. In general, most experts agree that you should plan on using 70-80 percent of your current annual income for living expenses when you retire. To others, this figure seems high. The right answer is hardly the same for everyone, and depends on when and where you retire, what you plan to do in retirement, and other variables. Consulting an estate planning attorney to develop a comprehensive estate plan will enable you to come up with the figure that fits for you.

2. Sources of income. Once you figure out how much income you will need in retirement, you will need to identify the sources of that income – i.e., Social Security, IRAs, 401(k)s, pension plans, annuities, and so on.

3. Retirement quality of life goals. Most of us look forward to retirement as a time to enrich our lives, whether it is through spending more time with a spouse or other family, traveling, pursuing a sports passion, engaging in new hobbies and more. Write down all your personal goals for your retirement so you can be sure the funds are there to finance them.

For more information on successful retirement planning, contact our Jacksonville Florida estate planning law firm.