3. Establish a retirement savings program as soon as possible. The final step is to establish a program to help you reach your savings goal. Most important is to decide what percentage of current income you can set aside to meet your savings objective and how long it will realistically take to achieve it. Next you must decide how your savings will be invested. Finally, retrace these steps every few years to ensure that your retirement plan is still on target.
Analysing your retirement income needs
Next you need to estimate your own retirement income and expenses as well as any savings that might be required to meet your objectives. While it's fairly straightforward to pinpoint what your RRSPs, investments and savings are worth today, the calculations to project their value when you do retire - which could be some time down the road - are rather tricky. Similarly, while it shouldn't be too hard to estimate your retirement expenses in today's dollars, the math to project those costs in retirement is again rather advanced. We suggest that instead of wading through complex formulas, you check out Web sites of banks and other financial institutions. Many, if not all, of these sites have special calculators or programs that will crunch the numbers for you once you supply the required information. When you have the numbers you need, simply add them in the appropriate spaces on the worksheet. For more suggestions, check out your bank's Web site.
Page 2 of 3- Learn what you can do to help bridge the shortfall on page 3
