Too Busy to Plan for Retirement?

We all know that life is busy from time to time. It happens to everyone. Whether it is taking care of your family, working a job that  sucks all of your energy, grad school, or one of the many other things that takes your time, I can understand. I’ve gone through quite a roller coaster myself and while I don’t wish that level of busyness on anyone, it has helped me come up with a new way to approach my finances.

The story of this blog is simple – we are all too busy to waste time on our finances, so it’s up to us to come up with tools that can help us manage our finances. Retirement planning is something that I’ve talked about before, so it should come to no surprise to you that it’s much easier to plan for retirement than many people make it seem. There are a lot of resources on retirement, like Genworth, out there. Everyone has advice for retirement, not not everyone has advice to keep your time commitment to a minimum.

Planning for Retirement with as Little Time Investment as Possible

1 – Save More Money

One way to minimize the time necessary to plan retirement is to save and invest more money each year. Investing more money each year means that you don’t have to obsess over the rate of return on your money. You should still try to get a decent amount, but it may mean the difference of sweating over the smallest details and not having to think about your retirement.

2 – Set a Concrete Retirement Goal

Many people try to save as much money as possible and then just hope that it is enough money without thinking twice about what their needs are. A great way to minimize your time investment while also making sure you have enough is spending an hour or two and determining how much money you will need to retire. If you have a number in your mind from the beginning (for example, $2 million), it is much easier to gauge your progress along the way.

3 – Accept Downturns in the Market

While no investor loves to see their portfolio drop, it is a matter of fact that there will be good years and bad years. Too many people react to the market without thinking about the long-term. As a passive investor, who is trying to minimize his/her time managing his/her portfolio, this should not be the case for you. Don’t over-react to the market. Remind yourself that a slow economy will happen from time to time and if anything, it means that future growth is likely to come soon after that.

While retirement planning may seem to be a daunting task, it does not mean that you have to waste all of your free time obsessing over your portfolio. While I occasionally look at my investments to keep an eye on them, I also hold myself back from checking it too often because I realize that the more time I spend watching it, I am losing money that I could be making by working a little more.