boglehead guide to retirement

Preparing for retirement

You should prepare for retirement well in advance of beginning your actual retirement. Navigating the myriad of available information can be a daunting experience. Where should you start?

We often recommend the Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning , along with selections from Book recommendations and reviews and Taylor Larimore's Investment Gems . In addition, a Retirement policy statement can help you lay-out your plans.

Employee Benefits Security Administration

The Employee Benefits Security Administration offers free publications which will point you in the right direction. [note 1] Use this information as a supplement to information found elsewhere.

In the Retirement section of Publications , the most relevant publications are: [note 2]

• Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement
• Taking The Mystery Out Of Retirement Planning
• What You Should Know About Your Retirement Plan
• Retirement Toolkit

Expand the "Publications for Workers and Families" menu to see the reports.

Additional publications:

• Savings Fitness: A Guide to Your Money and Your Financial Future
• Women and Retirement Savings

Below are brief overviews of two retirement planning publications.

Top ten ways to prepare for retirement

Below is a brief summary of Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement .

Financial security in retirement does not just happen. It takes planning and commitment and, yes, money.

• Start saving, keep saving, and stick to your goals
• Know your retirement needs
• Contribute to your employer’s retirement savings plan
• Learn about your employer's pension plan
• Consider basic investment principles
• Do not touch your retirement savings
• Ask your employer to start a plan
• Put money into an Individual Retirement Account
• Find out about your Social Security benefits
• Ask questions

Taking the mystery out of retirement planning

Below is a summary of Taking The Mystery Out Of Retirement Planning .

The Table of Contents:

• Chapter 1 - Tracking Down Today's Money
• Chapter 2 - Tracking Down Future Money...At Retirement and After
• Chapter 3 - Tracking Down Future Expenses
• Chapter 4 - Comparing Income And Expenses
• Chapter 5 - Making Your Money Last
• Chapter 6 - Tracking Down Help For Retirement - Resources

This booklet uses three time periods in charting your retirement savings. The starting point is today, when you are about 50 to 56 years old and plan to work approximately 10 to 15 years more. This is a good time to take stock of where you are in terms of retirement savings and set financial goals you would like to achieve in the 10 to 15-year period you plan to work.

The second point in time is the day you retire, when you are about 65 to 66 years old. That period between now and then is an important one. In those (approximately 10 to 15) years, you will have time to put more of your paycheck to work in a retirement account. It will grow, not only from your additional savings, but also from the “miracle of compounding,” the world's greatest math discovery, according to everyone's favorite genius, Albert Einstein. This is the result of earnings from interest and from investments continually increasing the base amount.

Finally, the third time period used in this booklet is the approximately 30-year span you hope to enjoy retirement. It is the time period experts suggest you plan for, based on the average 65-year old American male living 17 more years and the average 65-year old female living 20 more years. These are only averages, so planning for 30 years will help you avoid outliving your income.

As you read through this booklet, keep an eye on the Timeline for Retirement that follows. Some of the terms, like "catch-up" retirement contributions beginning at age 50, may be new to you. The timeline offers some milestone opportunities to make changes so you can have the kind of retirement you want. The time to start is today.

While the Resources section contains a list of retirement calculators, a companion online worksheet planner to this brochure can found here: Interactive worksheets . You can also find calculators in the wiki here .

• ↑ The US Employee Benefits Security Administration is an agency under the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). See Bogleheads forum post: "Re: Take the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning" for further details on the DOL.
• ↑ US government publications have no copyright restrictions.
• Book recommendations and reviews
• Taylor Larimore's Investment Gems

The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning

Publisher description.

The Bogleheads are back-with retirement planning advice for those who need it! Whatever your current financial situation, you must continue to strive for a viable retirement plan by finding the most effective ways to save, the best accounts to save in, and the right amount to save, as well as understanding how to insure against setbacks and handle the uncertainties of a shaky economy. Fortunately, the Bogleheads, a group of like-minded individual investors who follow the general investment and business beliefs of John C. Bogle, are here to help. Filled with valuable advice on a wide range of retirement planning issues, including some pearls of wisdom from Bogle himself, The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning has everything you need to succeed at this endeavor. Explains the different types of savings accounts and retirement plans Offers insights on managing and funding your retirement accounts Details efficient withdrawal strategies that could help you maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle Addresses essential estate planning and gifting issues With The Bogleheads' Guide to Retirement Planning, you'll discover exactly what it takes to secure your financial future, today.

More Books Like This

More books by taylor larimore, mel lindauer, richard a. ferri, laura f. dogu & john c. bogle, customers also bought.

The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning

• Explains the different types of savings accounts and retirement plans, from the individual retirement arrangement (IRA) to single-premium immediate annuities (SPIAs)
• Warns you about the types of taxes that can affect your retirement plan
• Offers insights on managing and funding your retirement accounts
• Details efficient withdrawal strategies that could help you maintain a comfortable retirement lifestyle
• Discusses the important part disability and health insurance programs play in a retirement plan
• Addresses essential estate planning and gifting issues

It’s one thing to save for retirement, but another thing to plan for it. With The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning , you’ll discover exactly what it takes to secure your financial future, today.

Praise For The Bogleheads’ Guide to Retirement Planning

• Reset your password

Get A Library Card

#FinLit Book Review: "The Bogleheads' Guide To..." Portfolio, Investing, and Retirement Planning

• Wednesday, January 04

What is a “Boglehead?” Bogleheads are named after John C. Bogle (1929-2019), a founder of one of the first S&P 500 index funds and a lifelong advocate of low-cost index investing. He popularized “don’t look for the needle, just buy the haystack” as an investing strategy that purchases shares of entire markets instead of trying to pick individual stocks. He wrote plenty of books in his own right, but this #FinLit post is about a trio of books spearheaded by one of his most ardent followers, Taylor Larimore.

The Bogleheads’ Guide To The Three-Fund Portfolio

The Boglehead strategy itself is rather simple and easy to execute. In fact, you can read about it right now on the Bogleheads wiki page . What I love about this book is how it exposes the risks and pitfalls in so many other strategies. A lot of people get anxious even thinking about investing, but this book gave me confidence to learn more by also teaching me what to avoid. Sometimes, seeing what can go wrong is just as important as learning the “correct” method. I read over 100 more books about finance and investing after this one, and while some of them have been brilliant or covered specific topics in great detail, none have achieved the same simplicity and clarity of this book.

The Bogleheads’ Guide To Investing ( Hoopla audiobook )

For anyone wanting to dig a little more into the Bogleheads ethos, this guide covers a lot of the same ground but with more substance. There’s more discussion of how to build wealth, use retirement accounts, and types of insurance. This book delivers more financial basics beyond the three-fund portfolio strategy, making it a perfect complement to the Three-Fund Portfolio.

The Bogleheads’ Guide To Retirement Planning

No matter what retirement strategy anyone uses, we are all headed to the same place: the future. This book is a deep dive into many topics specific to handling money in retirement. If you want pearls of wisdom regarding withdrawal strategies, gifts and inheritance, and how to stretch your retirement accounts as far as possible, consider this the capstone of the Bogleheads trilogy.

Thomas M. is a Certified Financial Education Instructor ℠ (CFEI ® ) and has previously blogged about Financial Lessons That Can Backfire , Talking To Kids About Money , and Online Financial Literacy Library Resources .

Teen Center Professional

Certified Financial Education Instructor (CFEI).

Related Blog Posts