How Does Your 401k, IRA, and Certificates of Deposit Compare in Their Value to You?

What will your retirement account look like when you reach that age when it will be your only means of living? Well let me tell you, there is a surprising kick of reality when most people consider their final forecast for their retirement savings. In this article, we will compare the three scenarios mentioned in the title, and see how well they will each provide a retirement.

But lets ask a question, first. When you consider the long-term value of your retirement savings, does it look like you will have poor living conditions when you retire, or doe is look like you will be well off? Does it even look like you will be able to retire at all as you have planned?

With the current losses that have been imposed on those having a 401k, it becomes obvious that we need to use other means of securing a nest-egg for our golden years. And there are several options aside from having a 401k.

Considering the Advantages of a 401k

Concerning the 401k, the advantages are that we can have our money taken out pretax, while we are still in a larger tax bracket, and then withdraw the money at retirement when we are in a lower tax bracket. And to top it off, the company we work for may even match a certain percentage of our contributions.

But lets consider our 401k contributions a little further. To make it simple, if you make $50,000.00 a year and you contribute 3%, your total contributions for 30 years, that would be a grand total of $45,000.00 ($1,500.00 x 30). And if your company matches that, your total contributions for 30 years would be the total of $90,000.00 ($3,000.00 x 30). That is not a lot of money to retire on. And considering that you may be able to earn compound interest-if there are no great losses in the meantime-on that money, you can easily have over $100,000.00. But that is still not enough. The average person will probably need approximately $500,000.00 in the bank to have a descent retirement.

The Benefits of an IRA

The benefit of an IRA is that you can contribute your money after tax, and, therefore, you do not have to pay taxes on it when you retire, which can be a nice feature. But you need to remember that you will probably be in a lower tax-bracket when you retire. And so you are left with the choice to either not save the money because you do not want to pay the higher tax-which you will do anyway, if you do not save it-or you can save the money in a way that is not as good as earning interest on the non-taxed portion of your money, as your 401k does.

The Benefits of a CD

Another way to save money is a CD. And similar to a 401(k) plan, a CDs money is tied up. (However, it does guarantee a higher interest than you will get from a regular savings account.)

The Best Opportunity to Accumulate Money

But the best opportunity you can have is owning a home. If you own a home, or if you even purchase a home now, you can use the banks systems to pay your mortgage off in less than half the time. (That is better than the bi-weekly program.) Then you can begin to save the money you would have paid in your mortgage for more than 15 years and combine it with your 401k savings and earn interest on it instead of paying interest to the bank.

This will provide you several advantages. You will save tens of thousands of dollars in interest on your mortgage loan, after which you can then start saving what you would have paid to the bank in mortgage payments, and then you can even begin to contribute at least most of it in your 401k and gain compound interest on this money. This could quite possibly more than double your retirement savings. And to top it off, you will own your own home free and clear.

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Alfred Spengly currently works through a company that is registered with the Better Business Bureau since December, 2006 and has zero complaints. It is a company that strives for their customer's satisfaction in providing a method for managing their own money with the tools they need to establish their own financial security.

Personally, Alfred has worked in the financial field for almost 15 years.

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