by William Bond

Created on: February 03, 2009   Last Updated: March 05, 2009

Many people busily investing in their retirement programs in 2008 found that many of 40l(k) retirement programs fell to 30-40% of the figure they started with on January lst 2008. Many people in their forties and fifties found that losing this amount of their retirement plan, means they will have to work longer than age 65, even to age 70 to be able to retire now. What does one do now? You get back into the saving for retirement game, and continue to fund your retirement, which means making weekly contributions, each week, all year long.

l). How does the person 40 years old, and older make up for the losses of 2008, and rebuild it, so she can retire? The quick, and accurate answer if to contribute to your retirement plan, and even set up your ownn IRA account at the national mutual fund companies, which you can find on the internet. Just continue to save, at 40 years old you can still contribute money into your retirement for 25-30 more years, this is more than enough to build a retirement for yourself.

2). If you get laid off from your job, never withdraw the money from your 40l(k) at your company. Rather, keep the 40l(K) with your former employer if possible, if not, then contact a national mutual fund company, find them on the internet, and do a roll over IRA(Individual Retirement Account), and they will help you set this up, and transfer your 40l(k) balance to them.

This information is crucial to the person over age 40 because you might have 8-l0 40l(K) plans which can be turned over into roll over IRA's and can be waiting for you at age 65 or 70 when you choose to retire. For example, if you have l0 roll over IRA's and they average $20,000 each, that means that you could have over $200,000 in retirement money, and with your social security benefits you could retire well.

3). Be willing to take an extra job to increase your retirement funds, and boost your social security contributions. Too often people who look to retire, do not monitor their investments into their Social Security program, to retire successfully means that you build your social secuirty benefit to as high as possible, and this payment of monthly benefits is based on your top 35 years of employment and paying into Social Security. You get a summary of your Social Security send to you yearly, and gives you a payment figure for age 62, 66, and 70.

4). Your retirement nestegg can still be built by you, once you decide continue to fund it during the thick and thin times in your working life. You must continue to build it up, and even when you have a down year, you continue to fund it. This retirement is for you, and you are worth it, and have worked hard to get a chance for the good life, and you can get it. I have a friend, that started back to work at age 53, he had no retirement, and found a job in finance, and began investing, and contributed to his 40l(K), and and few IRA's, and he took a second job, teaching at night, started working hard on his writing, and he retired at age 65 with enough money to retire. You can do the same. Go for it my friend. You can do it.

Now, this is crucial information for the 40 or older worker, because at the end of your working years, you might have 7-l0 roll over IRAs from former employers all over the country. This could be a substancial amount of money to help you retire. For example, if you have l0 roll over accounts with an average of $20,000 in each one, your potential retirement numbers could be as high as $200,000 or more.

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