by Dexter Damien Chan

Created on: August 12, 2011

Is it too late for a 40-year old person to start planning for Retirement? The answer to this will depend much on when you wish to start your retirement.

For example, if you plan to retire at the age of 60 and beyond, you are still in a pretty good situation to plan for it because you got around 20 years to work hard towards it, therefore the answer is that it's not too late.

But if you plan to retire at the age of 45 or 50 (lucky you!), you need to assess your current financial situation. Ask yourself whether you have enough financial means to sustain a desired retirement lifestyle to last until the date you pass on which means an average of 30 years (also depends on the average mortality rate in your country).

If you do not have the means, then it's really late to plan for your retirement and the suggestions are to extend your retirement age or work extremely hard to achieve it.

What are the factors that you need to know if it's too late to plan for retirement?

1. Know Your Desired Retirement Age

This is the Golden Number that you need to know. This is because the difference between this number with your current age will determine the amount of time you have left to plan with what you currently have. As the saying goes, you need time to work its magic (= make your money work harder for you)

2. Know Your Desired Retirement Lifestyle

To know your Desired Retirement Lifestyle you will need to attach a monetary sum to it. What does it mean? For example, based on my current lifestyle, I am spending an average of $3000 every month and I get to enjoy everything that I want. And so, for my retirement lifestyle, I may not need that much but still I will prefer to have an average of $2000 to spend each month. This forms the desired lifestyle that you wish to have.

3. How Long You Wish To Have Your Desired Lifestyle

All good things will definitely come to an end, and that's why you need to know how long you wish to enjoy your desired retirement lifestyle. You can base it on your average lifespan of your family or base it on the mortality rate in your country. For example, in some countries, the male may get to live up to the average age of 80 and the female may live up to an average age of 88. And if you are a male who desire to retire at the age of 60, you will have a 20 years of desired lifestyle to enjoy.

4. Get The Full Figure Of The Amount You Need For Retirement

By asking and answering the above three figures, you will get a value on the amount that you need to

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