Retiring is an exciting time for many – it means more time for your family, hobbies, friends, and even travel. But just because you retire, doesn’t mean financial management comes to an end. In fact, you will still need to manage a budget and use your funds for standard, everyday expenses like a mortgage, car payments, credit cards, debt-payoff, insurance, and more.
Utilizing financial calculators can be a great way to ensure you’re saving enough for your future retirement. Read on to learn about some of the benefits that calculators have for everyday financial management, including ease of use, accessibility, forecasts, and more.
What is a Retirement Calculator?
Financial calculators are more than a standard calculator you find on your phone, computer, or tucked away in a junk drawer. Using a financial calculator allows you to forecast retirement savings based on a variety of factors, such as desired age of retirement, annual household income, income increases, investment returns, inflation, social security and more.
By combining these variables, a calculator can help to determine where you may need to make adjustments to your budgets today. For example, if you’re not content with the results, you may need to revise your investment strategy, add additional funds to your emergency savings, or extend your timeline for retirement.
Planning for retirement involves more than simply tucking money away for your future nest egg. It includes setting goals, crunching numbers, and making a solid plan that holds you accountable until you’re ready to retire. Read our 3 Step Guide to Using Financial Calculators for Retirement for deeper dive into using retirement calculators.
Access Financial Information at Your Fingertips
A major perk of using a financial calculator for retirement savings is that you can access them anywhere, anytime, all with the touch of your finger. Financial institutions and advisors have free calculators available through their websites or mobile apps that allow you to input new information to see various outcomes and strategize accordingly.
Slavic401k has a retirement calculator that provides a chart that analyzes your projected retirement savings, and provides notes on how you should change your current strategy to fit your future wants and needs. View the retirement calculator here.
Additionally, we offer a variety of other calculators that can help you plan for your future. View the calculator library here.
Review Timelines and Adjust Budgets
When using calculators, it’s important to reevaluate every time you experience a major life change, including marriage, divorce, or having a child. These changes can drastically change your projections and will require adjustments to your budget and retirement strategy.
Making adjustments may include getting a side hustle to help you increase your savings efforts or adjusting your budget to include a more aggressive savings approach. Using financial management tools like the 50/30/20 budget rule, downloading mobile apps to manage finances on the go, or opening additional retirement savings accounts may be beneficial depending on your situation.
Regardless of the changes, financial calculators can help you understand your immediate and future needs, which can be refined with the help of financial planners and advisors. For more information regarding retirement savings and advice, visit the Slavic401k blog.
