A Few Tricks to Making Your Retirement a Treat

Halloween is creeping right around the corner, and spooky trick-or-treaters will roam the streets, stuffing their candy bags with delicious treats. And while this once-a-year celebration helps children get their fill of sugary sweets, investors experience a similar process every day while saving for their futures. While saving for your retirement may seem scary, there are a few simple tricks to make your retirement a treat. 

The first trick is making sure you participate in the 401(k) plan at work and take advantage of employer contributions. Just like you need to put effort into a costume to get candy, these plans are often based on what you put in yourself. In fact, about nine in 10 401(k) plan participants are in plans with employer contributions.  

The next trick is investing, choosing among the many fund options in your 401(k) plan. Just like a big bowl of candy, there are a lot of great choices, such as a target date fund, which is diversified and takes care of rebalancing your asset allocation as you approach and enter retirement. About six in 10 401(k) plan participants have invested in target date funds.

If you don’t have a retirement plan at work, then contributing to a traditional or Roth IRA will put you on the right path. Once you’ve opened the IRA, you can choose among a wide variety of investment options, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Many people choose to consolidate their workplace retirement plan accounts into a rollover IRA when they change jobs or retire.

If you trick-or-treat like this over your full career, when you reach retirement, you will have quite the candy haul! 

But don't forget, scary, new government policies that risk your retirement could be lurking around every corner! Click here to tell Congress to secure your retirement!