Do You have Enough Money for Retirement?

November 1, 2000 -- Planning for the retirement years is perhaps the most important financial goal anyone can have, to make sure there is enough money put aside for the golden years for when the working years are left behind. But how will you know when enough is enough? Whatever the answer, experts agree the time to start preparing for retirement is now, and avoiding mistakes while you're doing it.

"The most common mistake that people make when planning for retirement is forgetting the impact of inflation," says Gilda Borenstein of Merrill Lynch. "Inflation usually runs about 3.1 percent a year and that would take the money that you are planning on retiring with now and growing it by about 63 percent in the next 15 years."

Planning for the Unknown

Retirement planning is difficult because by its very nature, it involves planning for the unknown.

"When people plan for retirement a major mistake that they're making is to not remember that they are looking at after tax dollars and understand that they are going to be in a different tax bracket when they retire and what would that be," says Borenstein. "The other mistake that they often make is to forget that people are living longer nowadays and we don't want to actually outlive our money."

It's also important to remove as much non-tax deductible debt as possible such as credit card interest, while you're still working. Any remaining tax-deductible debt, such as that from interest on a mortgage, may then serve to put you in a lower tax bracket during your retirement years.