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Retirement Calculator -
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We have studied many retirement calculators that are available on investment websites or on financial advisor websites and most of them are grossly inaccurate for today’s retirees.
Why can we say that?
Because they are way behind the times. They do not factor into the calculations the more complex retirement model that Boomers are planning for their retirement.
Merrill Lynch conducted a landmark survey in 2005 which defined “the new retirement”. It showed that 76% of all retirees in the Boomer generation are planning to continue to work and earn income in some type of a job after retirement.
This retirement job income significantly reduces the savings needed to retire. If you are planning to be part of the 76% group and plan to have a retirement job, you can retire with a smaller retirement savings account than if you did not plan to have a retirement job.
The Merrill Lynch survey went on to say,
"New Planning Illustrator Shows Yesterday's Calculators Are Outdated
Merrill Lynch also unveiled today the new Retirement Illustrator, located at totalmerrill.com/retirement.The New Retirement Illustrator is an online calculator that illustrates how a new phase that balances work and leisure, changes all financial planning elements. It reflects a departure from a time when an advisor could insert a client's simple financial profile into a calculator to determine assets at a particular point in the future when they could be drawn down upon. That model fails to capture the complexity of boomers' lives particularly that they may want and be able to earn partial incomes after their retirement 'turningpoint'."
This is a bold statement from the company that is recognized as one of the world’s largest investment firms. They answered this finding by publishing a graphic model to show the results of various scenarios for the “new retirement”. To use this model, go to the following link (opens in a new window). When the page loads, click the link "Retirement Illustrator" on the right side of the page under "Tools". When you have finished, close the window to return for more important information about retirement calculators.
Merrill Lynch Retirement Illustrator
With this background in mind, we researched retirement calculators on the Internet. We found these that include income from work after retirement:
1, AARP Retirement Calculator
2. EBRI Calculator
3. MSN Calculator
The MSN Calculator is the most visual and easiest to use. You can see very quickly what impact a retirement job has on your retirement finances.
Calculator Weakness
These calculators have a weakness since they ask for the amount of annual income from a job after retirement, but do not ask for the age when that income will stop. They assume the income will continue until death which I do not think is accurate. We are all living longer, but I doubt if I am still going to be managing a job when I am 90.
These are the most realistic calculators that we found on the Net.
If you are still working, use these calculators to calculate your retirement finances. They will help you with that job.
If you are retired, these calculators do not help manage your post retirement finances.
Planning Finances after Retirement
Linda and I created our own retirement calculator that we use for planning after retirement. It is designed to be used upon retirement to determine how long our retirement savings will last under various conditions. Daniel Ashley helped us by upgrading it to the current version. Our sincere thanks to Daniel for his help.
You can download it free and use it to try various cases for your planning. Keep reading and you will get to the download link.
Fewer Variables After Retirement
Once we retire, the variables involved in calculating retirement finances are greatly reduced. Unless Aunt Bess leaves you an unexpected inheritance in her will, you know what your retirement savings are that have to last your lifetime.
Unless inflation runs away during our retirement, the major variables we have to consider are how much we budget to spend each year, the amount we make from our retirement job, and how long we choose to work at that retirement job.
Retirement Income Has a Positive Impact
Income from a retirement job has a very positive impact on your retirement finances. As a part of your retirement planning, have you thought about continuing to work after retirement?
(Read the page on Retirement Planning to see the full impact. Then come back here to get a free copy of our retirement calculator).
As part of your retirement plan, how would you like to find a job where your can work from home on your own schedule to generate the income that will help your retirement? Retirement Jobs Online.com is designed to help you find that job.
There are numerous possibilities for retirement work on the Internet and this site will help you explore those possibilities. Our goal is to give you the information that you need to decide if this is for you. I encourage you to make this part of your retirement planning and plug an amount for income from a retirement job into your retirement calculator.
Thousands of people are using the Internet to make a full time living. Why not use it to find retirement work and make some money to boot? This will be a nice supplement to your retirement income from your investments and Social Security. And you can have some fun in the process.
How to Use the Calculator
You can execute this retirement calculator from the Boomer-eZine website or you can download it to your own computer and use it when you want to. It is an Excel XLS file so your will need to have Microsoft Excel on your computer.
The calculator uses macros which you will need to enable. Here is a picture of the dialog box you will see when you load the calculator. Click the "Enable Macros" button.
Now that we have all the instructions out of the way, left click on the following link to execute the calculator.
Click here to get Your Free Retirement Calculator
To download it to your computer so you can run it later, right click the above link and select “Save Target As”.
You will then be presented with a “File Download” dialog box and then on top of that box will be presented a “Save As” dialog box so you can download the spreadsheet to your hard drive and run it later. Select the folder where you want the spreadsheet written. Just remember the folder name where you told the download to write it.
TIP: I have a folder named “Downloads” and I always download into that folder so I always know where the download is written. Many downloads are temporary so you can then come back and easily delete the unneeded files later since they are all in one place. Also, if a file is in ZIP format, the unzipped file is left in Downloads after you have extracted the content files and it can then be deleted.
I also created a new website to evaluate and list the best retirement calculators on the Internet. See the best retirement calculators at www.best-retirement-calculators.com.
If you want to learn more about using the Internet to generate retirement income, we have a well organized study guide to lead you through the process. To learn more about this, click the Study Guide link to begin your education.
Click here and go to the Study Guide to continue.
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