Like most people, you probably look forward to retirement with great relish, given the expanded freedom of time it can offer. However, you may be wondering how you will survive financially without your usual sources of income. Read on to learn some useful tips for making retirement financially possible and indeed enjoyable.

Enjoy yourself! One of the great things about retirement is the ability to be able to do whatever you want. Make sure you take advantage of the time and do things that you enjoy. It’s easy to find yourself in a rut where you want to stay at home, but look for things that are fun.

Do not spend money on things that you do not need. Write a list of your expenses to help determine how to cut costs. The more you eliminate, the less you have to save.

Prepare yourself mentally for retirement, because the change can hit you really hard. While you might be looking forward to all that rest and relaxation, many people become depressed when they stop working. Schedule yourself some useful activities, and do things that keep you feeling like you’ve got a concrete purpose in life.

Save early until you’re at retirement age. Even small contributions will help. As your earnings rise, your savings should rise as well. When your money resides in an account that pays interest, your money has the chance to grow to provide you with extra money later on.

Set reasonable goals for retirement. Reaching too high in the sky can lead to disappointment if you do not have the resources to hit them in the first place. Set very conservative goals and increase them gradually as you hit them year by year. This will also prevent you from making rash decisions as you save.

If you take a lot of medications and are living on a fixed income in retirement, consider a mail order drug plan. These plans can help you to get a three to six month supply of maintenance medications for less than the drug store charges. You also get the convenience of home delivery.

You may be feeling overwhelmed since you haven’t even begun to save. Don’t give up. It’s better to start now than not at all. Examine your monthly budget and determine the maximum amount you can start to put away every month. If that amount isn’t very high, don’t fret. Begin saving now, and you will soon have a tidy sum to invest.

Retirement planning not only includes financial preparation, but also preserving your health. The retirement years can be filled with enjoyable activities if your body is still healthy. Make sure you can take advantage of those opportunities when you finally do retire by making sure to remain active and protect your health.

When trying to determine how much to save for retirement, first figure out what your ideal annual income in retirement will need to be. That should represent 2 percent of your total retirement portfolio. That will make your portfolio large enough to last a long life expectancy on your part.

Leave your retirement savings alone. Taking money out will hurt you in more ways than one. You will lose out on interest, for one thing. In addition, you could have to pay a withdrawal penalty. If you are switching jobs, either leave the money where it is or bring it over to an IRA.

Set goals which are both short- and long-term. This will benefit you in your efforts to put back money. When you know how much money you will need to live on, you will know how much that you have to save. Do the math and come up with the amount you need to save every week or every month.

Make sure that you see your doctor regularly. As you get older, there may be more issues with your health as your body ages. With the proper direction from your doctor, you can be watchful for health problems and nip them in the bud before they become a bigger problem.

Be very certain that the funds that you’ve saved for retirement are vested by the time you are looking to retire. Sure all that money is earmarked for retirement, but there may be restrictions on when you can actually touch those funds. Removing them early could mean having to pay fees for touching the funds.

Leave your retirement savings alone, even when you hit a financial slump. By doing so, you could lose both interest and principal. There could also be withdrawal penalties. You could also lose tax benefits. Only use those monies once you have retired.

Don’t count on Social Security to cover all your bills. Though it can help you out some, a lot of people can’t live only on this a lot of the time. Generally, Social Security offers roughly 40 percent of your previous income, and this likely will be insufficient.

With kids, you’ll probably need to save for their education. Your retirement savings are just as important. There are many loans that your children can take. You won’t be able to do these things post-retirement, so consider them now.

Keep in mind the magic age of 70.5. At this age it’s mandatory that you take minimum distributions from your IRAs and any work retirement funds. If you don’t do so, you could get some incredible steep penalties, as high as 50% of the total that should have been withdrawn during that month.

Does your employer match funds when you contribute to your 401K or another retirement plan? If so, take advantage of that because it will only help you in the end. The plan itself may not be the best, but the matching funds will certainly more than make up for anything else.

Retirement is a terrific thing, as it can provide you with the chance to spend more time on hobbies, with loved ones and just doing whatever you like. The key to maximizing this time in life is sound financial planning. With the information above in mind, you should be able to set yourself up quite well.