There are those who feel as though they have plenty of time to start planning for their retirement in the future. They’re concerned with the present, and when you are young the matter of retirement can seem out of context. Though this line of thinking may be human nature to some extent it can leave you in a very difficult position when your retirement years do arrive.
One of the big stories in the elder law community these days is the rapid expansion of the senior citizen population. There are no less than 10,000 new applicants for Social Security every day, and this volume of applications is expected to continue for the next 20 years. This is due to the fact that the baby boomers are reaching their senior years, and an alarming number of them are not financially ready for retirement.
According to an AP-LifeGoesStrong.com poll that was conducted recently, 44% of the baby boomers that responded stated that they have little to no confidence that they will have the financial resources necessary to enjoy their retirement years comfortably. 24% of the individuals who responded to this poll had no savings at all, and one in four said that they expected to work for the rest of their lives and never retire.
One mistake that a lot of people make is to work with the assumption that Social Security will provide you with the financial underpinning that you need to enjoy your retirement. 64% of the people who were polled said that they would be relying on Social Security to provide their financial foundation during retirement. When you look into the facts, the average Social Security payout in 2010 was $1072 per month, hardly enough for most people to live on at all let alone comfortably.
The reality is that most people are going to have to make plans in advance and stick to them if they’re going to have the financial resources that they need for retirement. If you have not begun devising a strategy for the future, now would be a good time to make an appointment with an experienced, savvy retirement planning attorney.
John Kuhn, Estate Planning Attorney
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