When you start planning for retirement, it may seem like those years are way down the line, and you have plenty of time to prepare. But this type of thinking leaves you open to making amateur financial mistakes!
As you consider how you’ll plan for your Golden Years, you don’t want to outlive your savings, especially with the ever-lengthening lifespan trends you may get to enjoy! To prevent this problem from happening, let’s examine the common mistakes people often make with their finances. Knowing what to avoid can help you create a successful retirement plan.
1. They Don’t Invest Enough During Their Working Years
When’s the best time to save money? While you’re making it, of course. However, most of us want to keep as much of our hard-earned paychecks as possible in our pockets rather than a retirement account.
Still, this is a common mistake, especially among those working for employers that provide retirement plans, such as 401(k)s. Because employers often match dollar-for-dollar (up to a specific limit), you’re losing out on essentially free money if you aren’t contributing the maximum to your plan.
Investing in a retirement plan, such as an IRA, can also reduce your income tax burden. Money that’s placed in these plans is often tax-deferred (depending on the plan), which means your current year’s adjusted gross income is less. This smaller total could be enough to lower your tax threshold and reduce the amount of income tax you owe.
2. Not Consulting a Financial Advisor
Finances, like medicine, are best left to the professionals. In today’s world of online “experts,” many people prefer to go to Google or an AI tool for advice. Yet, this channel rarely takes the whole picture into account. Working with a wealth management professional, as discussed in this article by OJM Group, gives you a holistic plan using your current situation, projected changes, and targeted goals. A financial advisor helps to ensure your retirement plan covers your preferred lifestyle, adjusted for cost-of-living increases.
Wealth management professionals can monitor your portfolio, advising you when something needs to change to keep your goals on track. Leaving this in your hands means you run the risk of getting busy and overlooking something important, or adjusting your portfolio out of fear or uncertainty during market dips. With an advisor guiding you, you’ll have a well-developed retirement plan with investments you can pull from while you continue to accrue earnings on others.
3. Overlooking the Details
When planning for retirement, a frequent mistake is to develop an investment portfolio and move on without paying attention to the other details.
Retirement planning is about more than a 401(k) or an IRA. It also requires a deep dive into the details of how you’ll live once you get there.
For example, as of 2025, the official retirement age for those born in or after 1960 is 67. But as the average lifespan continues to increase, this retirement age may change. If you’re not retiring for a couple of decades, you may see another shift in when you can begin collecting your Social Security check, which also impacts the age you can start using Medicare as your health insurance.
Other details include decisions about where you’ll live, what your spending plan will be, whether you’ll work part-time after you retire, and what you’ll do if you or your spouse needs long-term health care. These are the big little things that should be addressed before you’re at the cusp of retiring.
4. Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket
We’re not saying a 401(k) is a bad basket. But what happens when you need money quickly, so you dip into your retirement savings? The tax consequences are severe.
Your retirement investments are also long-term savings plans. Ensuring there’s money in each of the “buckets” gives you flexibility to move funds around when you need to.
For instance, if you’re out of work past your emergency savings, where can you go to cover your bills? Most retirement accounts have early withdrawal penalties, but a whole life insurance plan that you’ve had for years has cash accrued. You can “borrow” from those earnings instead of taking out a loan or breaking into your 401(k).
Conclusion
No matter how near or far your retirement years are, it’s time to start planning for them. The earlier you start, the better, but regardless of where you’re at in your career, avoid these four common mistakes, and you’re headed toward the enjoyable Golden Years you’ve worked so hard to achieve. Plan well today, and skip the struggles of financial worries tomorrow.
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