Retirement Calculators - What Can They Tell You?
A basic retirement calculator is a program you can find for free on the internet that will take your current retirement savings information, let you factor in things that will affect the final number, and then tells you how much more you need to save to be able to retire at the level you want to retire at.
The results from the retirement calculator are always ballpark figures since the calculator is taking current situations and trying to predict where the financial world will be in the future and how that will affect your retirement savings. Since there is no way to perfectly make such predictions the calculator can only guesstimate how your retirement plan will work out.
A basic retirement calculator works in current day dollars. So if you tell it that you want to know how much you will have to save to retire in 20 years and have the equivalent in 20 years of your current $4,000 a month lifestyle then that is what it will tell you.
Most financial consultants use a retirement calculator to stress the need to save as much as possible for your retirement. The calculator compares cost of living expenses now with what they will be in the future, maybe 15 to 20 years down the road, or whenever it is that you will be ready to retire. Those numbers can be a bit overwhelming. But remember it is just a shot in the dark estimate.
Some people are discouraged by the economy and its instability over the years. They feel that it may be better to enjoy what you have today and not even bother worrying about what tomorrow will bring.
No One Knows How Money will Change
The economy has been extremely unstable and unpredictable over the years. That is evident by the millions of dollars that have been lost on investments when the market crashes as it has every 10 to 20 years over the last century. One thing is for sure, the prices have consistently risen throughout the years. Consider how much it used to cost to buy a car.
In the 40's you could buy a new car for well under $1,000. Now it cost at least 15 times that amount to buy a new car. Things have really changed. The cost of living continues to rise dramatically. Unfortunately, salaries have not followed suit. These are things a retirement calculator may not factor in.
The results from the retirement calculator are always ballpark figures since the calculator is taking current situations and trying to predict where the financial world will be in the future and how that will affect your retirement savings. Since there is no way to perfectly make such predictions the calculator can only guesstimate how your retirement plan will work out.
A basic retirement calculator works in current day dollars. So if you tell it that you want to know how much you will have to save to retire in 20 years and have the equivalent in 20 years of your current $4,000 a month lifestyle then that is what it will tell you.
Most financial consultants use a retirement calculator to stress the need to save as much as possible for your retirement. The calculator compares cost of living expenses now with what they will be in the future, maybe 15 to 20 years down the road, or whenever it is that you will be ready to retire. Those numbers can be a bit overwhelming. But remember it is just a shot in the dark estimate.
Some people are discouraged by the economy and its instability over the years. They feel that it may be better to enjoy what you have today and not even bother worrying about what tomorrow will bring.
No One Knows How Money will Change
The economy has been extremely unstable and unpredictable over the years. That is evident by the millions of dollars that have been lost on investments when the market crashes as it has every 10 to 20 years over the last century. One thing is for sure, the prices have consistently risen throughout the years. Consider how much it used to cost to buy a car.
In the 40's you could buy a new car for well under $1,000. Now it cost at least 15 times that amount to buy a new car. Things have really changed. The cost of living continues to rise dramatically. Unfortunately, salaries have not followed suit. These are things a retirement calculator may not factor in.
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