You probably don’t want to think about your retirement days just yet. But you should think about how to start saving for retirement. And if you have not started yet, you should start today. The sooner the better.
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My husband and I have recently started to talk about retirement and how we should start saving. We finally found our dream home 7 years ago and now we are also talking about down-sizing when we retire. Whoa ! That’s what happens when you marry later in life.
Related Article: What Are The Pros & Cons of Marrying Later In Life
Getting closer and closer to those days, I myself can’t imagine going into retirement. My husband thinks the same way. We feel like there is so much yet to do and explore.
If you love to travel as we do, how will you do it if you don’t have some money put away? Wouldn’t it be wonderful once you become an empty-nester to travel the world?
Putting away some money now will enable you to do whatever you want when it’s time for you to retire. You don’t want to be worrying about how and where you will live when you go into retirement.
It’s smart to start saving for your retirement early but if you haven’t please start today. There is no telling what the future holds for us. There are many ways to start saving.
7 WAYS TO START SAVING for retirement
- Savings Account – Living paycheque to paycheque is not a healthy lifestyle. Putting away a few dollars now can go a long way in the future. Make it a habit. By putting away a certain amount into a designated account, your savings can build up before you know it.
You can start by opening a savings account. Have your bank automatically withdraw 5% of your weekly payroll cheque into this new savings account. What’s the saying? Out of sight out of mind – right?
It could be as little as $50 per week. Whatever you think you could do without each month.
- Create a Budget – create a budget that you could stick to. It isn’t hard. This is a good idea to do so you know where you stand with your expenses compared to your total income coming into your household. You should record every expense going out. Learn how you can cut down on your total expenses.
Related Article: How To Create A Budget For Retirement As You Enter Midlife
- R.R.S.P. – is a Registered Retirement Savings Plan which is similar to the U.S. 401(k) It is a beneficial source of savings plan for the employment force and the self-employed. The way it works is your employer will deduct a certain tax-deductible contribution from your income and if invested properly will accumulate until your retirement. Read more here
The great thing about this is that the contribution you make, you will not even feel it. The contribution goes automatically into your savings fund and you are not the wiser.
- Cut Back on Expenses – this is one of the major ways (in my opinion) how you can save. Do you tend to eat out a lot? Maybe a quick breakfast on the way to work, go out for lunch, and then uber dinner because no one feels like cooking. Does that scenario sound familiar? Lol.
I can attest to part of that scenario. Guilty. It’s ok sometimes. No one feels like cooking all the time. But don’t make it a habit. That’s where you can save on a lot of your total expenses. Eating out every night can really add up.
We love going out for coffee. My husband and I loved to go to Starbucks back in the day on our lunch hour until we realized how much we were spending. If you go to Starbucks every day for coffee you will be spending approximately $2,000 annually on just coffee. And that’s just counting the weekdays.
So we switched to Tim Horton’s. Although it’s less expensive, why not brew your own coffee at home. Saving a few bucks here and there can go a long way.
- Points Cards – there are a lot of points cards that can save you big bucks at a few stores. For example: Air Miles, PC points, and the optimum card to mention a few. Perhaps these are not available in your location but look into that.
I love my points cards, especially my PC Mastercard points card. Depends how much you spend. We redeem the points on our grocery bill.
And the Optimum Card, you save at Shoppers Drug Mart. When I go in to buy some makeup or some kind of toiletries, it’s nice to find out you have enough points to use against your final bill.
- Costco Membership – the big box stores have an annual rebate cheque that you get back but again it depends on how much merchandise you buy throughout the year. And you do have to pay for the membership. We try to buy all of our groceries and household items here.
- Scale Down – if you are finally and happily an empty-nester, you can down-size in your home which will save you a lot of money on a mortgage and on up-keep of a large home.
If you were a 2-car family, you can sell one of them. That will be a huge saving going down to one car. Perhaps even trade both to get a less expensive vehicle. It will save on car payments and insurance. But if you are like my husband, who loves cars, don’t deprive yourselves of everything. You still want to enjoy life to its fullest.
Scaling down is not meant to deprive yourself of all the little joys in life but for you to realize and think of things that are more important. If having each your own car is what you love, then so be it. Enjoy having your little pleasures.
Related Article: How to Spend Less and Save More
You see, saving for retirement isn’t so bad. It will become second nature like everything else we need to do to better our lives. We started saving for retirement as soon as my husband and I got married.
(wait til you see it now)
For now retirement is still in the distance but my husband and I are ready for it.
We are still fully enjoying our dream home with our two grown children. We are just finishing up the reno in our basement. Can’t wait to show pictures. Will have to post about it.
