A common calculation for determining how much money you’ll need in retirement is roughly 70% of your pre-retirement income. Now this can fluctuate depending on many factors like; will your mortgage be paid off by the time you retire? Will your lifestyle change once retired, will you travel more? Be realistic and review your current expenses and determine how they’ll change once you’ve entered retirement.

Knowing all of the savings options that are available to you allows you to optimize the ways you can save for retirement. Find out if your employer has a traditional pension plan, and if so what are those benefits. If your employer offers a savings retirement plan like a 401(k), make sure you’re contributing enough to get the full company match. There are also many strategies on when and how to claim your Social Security benefi ts. You can calculate your benefit amount on www.SocialSecurity.gov. The more you know, the more you can plan.

The longer you wait to start collecting your Social Security retirement benefits, the larger those payouts will be. You’re probably asking yourself “why?” In order to receive the full retirement payout you’ve worked your whole life to earn, the government makes you wait until you’ve reached the “full retirement age.”

The full retirement age varies based on when you were born. The full retirement age used to be 65, but in 1983 Congress voted to raise the age to 67 for individuals born in 1960 or later. To find out your full retirement age visit http://www.ssa.gov/retire2/retirechart.htm

As a general rule, early or late retirement will give you about the same total Social Security benefits over your lifetime.

If you retire early, the monthly benefit amounts will be smaller to take into account the longer period you will receive them. If you retire late, you will get benefits for a shorter period of time but the monthly amounts will be larger to make up for the months when you did not receive anything.

There are advantages and disadvantages to taking your benefit before your full retirement age. The advantage is that you collect benefits for a longer period of time. The disadvantage is your benefit is reduced.

Once a year, the Social Security Administration will send you your annual benefits statement. In the statement, it will illustrate how much money you would receive in benefits if you wait until your full retirement age.

You can also estimate your benefit amount by using the Social Security Administrations calculator. You can access this at: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/retire2/estimator.htm

Keep in mind, that the younger you are, the less accurate your estimate will be, because your future earnings will play an important role