Retirement Planning - Essay Example

us to take decisions regarding the finances which we hold in our hand right now, the opportunity cost they throw and the ultimate decision which needs to be taken up to optimize our earnings for a trouble-free future. It has various components like tax planning, managing liquidity, financing for large purchases, asset and income protection, money investment plans, and the most important function being planning for your retirement. In fact, all the above five functions are usually taken up only to cater to the financial needs after retirement.

Depending on the above five parameters, you will have to set up your retirement planning goals for which the following points are to be considered: Social Security is a federal program which intends to tax the individual at the time of his employment in order to finance his older years. The online social security program gives all the details of the eligibility and the benefits which are usually changed from time to time. This program delivers a minimal payment base which may not be quite sufficient to meet all the daily needs of retirement in these inflating times (Anonymous, 2008).

The funding of this program is done by taxing the current employees at the rate of 7.65% under Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax. Same amount is also paid by your employer also. In this way, the current tax contributions are utilized to fund the current retirement payments and not for your future purposes. Your future receivables would be funded by the then available contributions. Here, one needs to note that, as the retirement life is prolonged, there is more burdens on the balancing act as the tax receivables is far more exceeding the tax collectibles.

Hence, many people also look for other alternatives. Defined Benefit Plans: Contributions are made by the employer and the percentage of vested interest varies from one firm to the other. Vested interest means the % of contribution which can transferrable into your retirement