Retirement Planning is the most common form of financial planning and requires the most time and commitment. Many people start thinking about retirement 30 to 40 years before it happens. This gives people some problems that they may not have thought of before, like how much is everything going to cost at that point, or what could you invest in that's still going to be around. There's also the question of whether the government will still help out with your retirement in the same way or if your pension will be around long enough to pay you.
So what do you need to think about for retirement? (DIY instructions for figuring out how much you should save per month)

Step #1







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Step #2




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Step #3​​
Think about your current spending habits. Most likely the type of life you lead after retirement will mimic the life you're trying to have right now. 
This is a pretty easy calculation- Take your current after-tax income
                                                           minus any savings you currently make
                                                           minus any expenses you won't have
                                                           = what you need after tax at retirement
**I usually recommend adding about 10% to the total since most people will have expenses they don't think about, like medication or vacations.

Now you also have to take into account inflation. Here are some approximations to help you out.
If your retirement is... 10 years away then add 20% to your total
                                      20 years away then add 45% to your total
                                      30 years away then add 80% to you total
                                      40 years away then add 130% to your total
After you have what you need every month, you can multiply that by 12 and then multiply that number by 1.20 (this is to take into account the taxes, if you understand taxes you can be more precise with the estimate). This will give you what you need every year.
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Then, after you have what you need every year, you can multiply that by how long you want your money to last. Most of the time I'll use a 95 factor, meaning that I want the money to last until the person turns 95. This means that if you want to retire at 65, then you will want your money to last 30 years. Feel free to play around with this number, but be realistic. 
For this step you'll need a financial calculator.

www.calculator.net    (**here's a good one)

So you have what you need every year and how long you need it for. For interest rate (what you make on your money) you should use 2% as a real return on your calculation for the START PRINCIPLE calculation. A real return is one that takes into account inflation.

After you have the big number from the START PRINCIPLE calculation, you'll use the PMT calculation in order to get how much money per month or year you need to invest in order to have enough to retire.


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**Remember that this is just an estimate, meant to help people that just want to do this on their own. If you want help with this please feel free to contact us at any point.