Monday, Oct. 26, 2009

Know Where You Stand

Ideally, you have been checking your retirement portfolio every year and making small adjustments like rebalancing to keep your target mix of stocks, bonds, cash and commodities. But now it's time to dig in and estimate exactly what you'll have on your desired retirement date. "Know your worst-case scenario in advance," says Joshua Kadish, financial planner at Retirement Planning Group in Riverwoods, Ill. That way you can adjust your level of savings, your retirement date or your expectations accordingly. For the clearest picture of where you stand, plug in your vitals on the T. Rowe Price Retirement Income Calculator. Just the fact that you are willing to run such a check makes you three times as likely as someone who isn't to be on track for retirement, according to the Employee Benefits Research Institute. That's because people who set goals and have a plan succeed more often.

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Planning For Retirement: Your 50s

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