January 3, 2013
1:36 p.m.

Subject: Retirement Financial Literacy and Education Program - Retirement Readiness NOW Tip - January 2, 2013

This week’s Retirement Readiness NOW Tip to help you—

New Year’s Resolution—Plan for Retirement

People who have a retirement plan are more likely to feel their retirement savings are on schedule than those who do not have a plan. Seems obvious doesn’t it? Yet the 2012 Retirement Confidence Survey conducted by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found many workers are unaware of how much they need to save for retirement. Less than half of workers (42 percent) report they and/or their spouse have tried to calculate how much money they will need to have saved so they can live comfortably in retirement.

Let’s all make a New Year’s Resolution to make a retirement savings plan--or review it if you already

Two tools that can help you get started are the Federal Ballpark Estimate and you Social Security Statement.

OPM developed the Federal Ballpark Estimate: a savings goal worksheet. You can use the Federal Ballpark Estimate to automatically calculate estimates of future Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) or Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) retirement benefits and Thrift Savings Plan account balances. It will also let you know how well you are doing in meeting your savings goal. The Federal Ballpark Estimate was developed in partnership with the American Savings Education Council (ASEC) of the Employee Benefits Research Institute.

http://www.opm.gov/retire/tools/calculators/ballpark/BallparkIntro.asp

Social Security Statements are now available online. The online Statement also provides estimates for disability and survivors benefits, making the Statement an important financial planning tool. In addition to helping with financial planning, the online Statement also provides a convenient way to determine whether your earnings are accurately posted to your Social Security records. This feature is important because Social Security benefits are based on average earnings over a person’s lifetime. If the earnings information is not accurate, you may not receive all the benefits to which you are entitled. The online Statement also provides the opportunity to save or print the personalized Statement for financial planning discussions with family or a financial planner.

http://www.socialsecurity.gov/mystatement

Retirement Readiness NOW is not just about saving money and not just something you do just before retiring. Money is very important, but that’s not all. There’s a lot more to planning for your future than putting aside income out of each paycheck for retirement.

What else is there? Happiness, both today and in your future years, is based on your total well-being. So, when planning for your future, you also need to consider your total retirement well-being that encompasses the following:

Networking Overall Health Wealth What are you doing today that will allow you to be engaged, challenged and fulfilled in retirement? What are you doing to stay healthy so that you can enjoy your retirement years? How well are you managing your income and investing for your future so that you will be able to support your desired lifestyle in retirement?