Retirement Planning
Understand retirement accounts, employer plans, contribution strategies, and long-term retirement preparation.
What Retirement Planning gets you.
By the end of this upgrade you will understand the retirement accounts available to you and have a written strategy for how and when you contribute to each.
- List of retirement accounts you currently hold or have access to
- Employer benefits summary (if applicable)
- Recent pay stub showing current contribution rate
- Estimated target retirement age
- Current account balances
Run the upgrade.
- 01
Inventory all available account types
List every retirement account you can access, including employer plans (401(k), 403(b), TSP), IRAs, and any pension, and note the current balance of each.
- 02
Identify any employer match
Check your benefits documentation for a matching formula and confirm the contribution percentage required to receive the full match.
- 03
Set a target contribution rate
Choose a percentage of income to contribute across accounts based on your timeline to retirement and other financial priorities.
Annual retirement savings = income x target contribution rate
- 04
Sequence your accounts
Prioritize capturing any full employer match first, then decide how additional savings split between employer plans and IRAs based on fees, investment options, and tax treatment.
- 05
Choose an investment approach inside each account
Select a diversified allocation appropriate to your time horizon inside each account rather than leaving contributions in a default cash setting.
- 06
Estimate your retirement savings trajectory
Project your balance forward using current contributions and a conservative growth assumption to see if you are on track for your target age.
- 07
Document and schedule contribution increases
Write down your contribution rate and a plan to increase it with future raises so the strategy does not stay static.
- All available retirement accounts are inventoried with current balances
- Any employer match is being fully captured
- A target contribution rate is set and applied via payroll or automatic transfer
- Each account holds an intentional, diversified investment allocation
- A written plan for future contribution increases exists
Annually
- Review contribution rate at each raise or job change
- Rebalance investment allocation as retirement age approaches
- Confirm employer match formula has not changed
Contribution limits, tax treatment, and match formulas change and vary by plan — verify current figures with your plan administrator or a tax professional.