October is National Retirement Security Month
So, Let's Secure You a Long, Comfortable Retirement
According to the Empower Institute:
“Individuals who regularly seek investment guidance generate 61% more income in retirement than those who do not.”
Each week during October, CRA will post a new article focused on helping you design your retirement planning strategy. The information provided in these articles will include actionable steps that you can take to improve your retirement outlook.
At the end of the month, you should have a vision of your retirement and a plan on how to get there. For this first week, we’re highlighting three ways you can improve your retirement in five minutes or less.
1) Register Your Online Account & Update Information
Registering your online account positively impacts your retirement in several ways.
First of all, registering your account makes it more secure. Security and transparency are fundamental to our partnership with you. We want you to know your retirement savings is safe with CRA and if any malicious parties try to access your account, you will be alerted by multi-factor authentication that someone is attempting to log in to your account.
Secondly, you can remain on track by monitoring your retirement savings progress and investment performance. This will help you determine how far you are from being able to retire. CRA’s recordkeeper, Empower, has also added several new features to help you get a complete view of your financial situation in one location. Learn more about these new features HERE.
Finally, keeping your personal information up-to-date is crucial to maintaining your account. If you have moved, changed contact information (phone number or email address), or need to add or update your beneficiary information, you can just log in to your online account and make these changes in a matter of minutes.
2) Increase Your 457(b) Contributions
As a general rule, experts recommend contributing 15% – 20% of your annual pay towards retirement. This includes contributions from you and your employer combined.
The amount an individual actually needs to save for retirement is dependent on many factors.
One thing is for sure, if you can afford to contribute more to your retirement, the retired version of your future self will appreciate the sacrifice shown by you, today. To put it into perspective, an additional $50 every 2 weeks for 30 years, at an average 6% annual rate of return, will increase your retirement savings by nearly $106,000. Check out this calculator for yourself, HERE.
If you are near retirement, you may be able to use the “3-Year Special Catch-Up Provision” to increase your 457(b) contribution maximum. For more information, please contact your CRA Retirement Counselor, HERE.
To invest in a more financially secure future,
complete one of the forms linked below and return it to your employer.
3) Take Advantage of CRA's Free Retirement Resources
CRA has curated several great tools and documents to help you achieve your best possible retirement. To be fair, it’s easy to spend more than 5 minutes browsing through these resources, but we wanted to bring them to your attention. If you ever need any assistance, we’re always here to help.
