3 New Ways to Save for Retirement

Posted on: April 19th, 2010 by

Financial Planning - Rockville, MDHalf of Americans don’t have a retirement plan through their employer, and those that do, few are saving enough to finance a retirement that will last several decades.  To encourage more workers to plan for the future, federal initiatives were established to make saving easier.  Often, when employees are left to their own devices, they fail to sign up for their company’s 401(k) plan.  To get more workers to save though, many large companies now automatically enroll their employees unless the worker takes the initiative to opt out.  A new rule also makes it easier for smaller companies to automatically sign up their employees and increase their amount of savings each year.

Another easy way to save is to convert your unused sick & vacation days into your 401(k).  The new federal initiative allows workers to roll over their unused days into their retirement account.  Although many workers have not taken advantage of this, it can pay off tremendously in the long run.  One theory is that, on average, US workers only receive about 15 paid days off per year and people value these days tremendously.  They may not use them all within the year, but employees tend to hold these days very close and are not willing to convert/roll them over.

Finally, especially for those that have filed extensions on their tax returns, you can have a portion of your tax return directly deposited into an IRA OR you can easily purchase Series I Savings Bonds simply by checking a box on your return.  Additionally, next year, it will become available to add co-owners to the bonds, such as children.  You can speak to your tax preparer about how to go about doing this.


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