Saving enough for a comfortable retirement can feel like a huge hurdle, and that’s even before adding in potential travel costs.
Josh Jalinski, author of “Retirement Reality Check” and president of Jalinski Advisory Group, has four money-saving tips that could help you pay for travel expenses in retirement.
1. Start saving
Jalinski suggests maxing out your 401(k) or a Roth 401(k) and stashing 10% to 15% of your income for retirement as soon as you can.
2. Focus on income
Too many people are focused on asset allocation and diversification rather than the actual income they’ll need in retirement, Jalinski said.
However, he believes the 4% rule, which is a commonly used metric for how much a retiree should withdraw from his or her retirement accounts each year, is dead.
For instance, if you saved a million dollars by the time you retired, you could withdraw $40,000 a year. That hardly seems like enough to live on and travel during retirement, Jalinski said.
“Think about a proper spend-down strategy where you get to spend all your money until the day you die and when the hearse comes and picks you up from the funeral parlor, your last check bounces,” Jalinski said.
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3. Consider a consumer-friendly annuity
An annuity can be a tool for you to earn a paycheck, or a “playcheck” for the rest of your life, Jalinski said.
“Think about the last person you know who retired with a pension. They love it. They get checks in like clockwork,” Jalinski said.
He notes that annuities are backed by insurance companies and some even come with little to no fees, yet he warns that shoppers should take into account extra risks and expenses.
4. Be tax smart
Jalinski said too many people have money sitting in a traditional IRA or 401(k) without thinking about how to maximize their tax benefits.
For example, if you have 10% of your retirement savings in a 401(k), he suggests putting 5% of it in a Roth 401(k). That way you can withdraw some of your savings tax-free later on in life.
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Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns.
