Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that we’re putting your interests first. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions.
Key Principles
We value your trust. Our mission is to provide readers with accurate and unbiased information, and we have editorial standards in place to ensure that happens. Our editors and reporters thoroughly fact-check editorial content to ensure the information you’re reading is accurate. We maintain a firewall between our advertisers and our editorial team. Our editorial team does not receive direct compensation from our advertisers.
Editorial Independence
Bankrate’s editorial team writes on behalf of YOU – the reader. Our goal is to give you the best advice to help you make smart personal finance decisions. We follow strict guidelines to ensure that our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers. Our editorial team receives no direct compensation from advertisers, and our content is thoroughly fact-checked to ensure accuracy. So, whether you’re reading an article or a review, you can trust that you’re getting credible and dependable information.
You have money questions. Bankrate has answers. Our experts have been helping you master your money for over four decades. We continually strive to provide consumers with the expert advice and tools needed to succeed throughout life’s financial journey.
Bankrate follows a strict editorial policy, so you can trust that our content is honest and accurate. Our award-winning editors and reporters create honest and accurate content to help you make the right financial decisions. The content created by our editorial staff is objective, factual, and not influenced by our advertisers.
We’re transparent about how we are able to bring quality content, competitive rates, and useful tools to you by explaining how we make money.
Bankrate.com is an independent, advertising-supported publisher and comparison service. We are compensated in exchange for placement of sponsored products and, services, or by you clicking on certain links posted on our site. Therefore, this compensation may impact how, where and in what order products appear within listing categories. Other factors, such as our own proprietary website rules and whether a product is offered in your area or at your self-selected credit score range can also impact how and where products appear on this site. While we strive to provide a wide range offers, Bankrate does not include information about every financial or credit product or service.
Workers coming up short on retirement funds aren’t alone. A Bankrate-commissioned survey by GfK Roper shows that only three in 10 workers expect to have enough to retire comfortably. Fortunately, you don’t have to be one of the other seven. Here are five ways to boost your retirement savings.
Start early
The biggest helping hand you can give your retirement fund is time. Thanks to the magic of compounding, employees who sock away regular amounts annually starting at age 25 can amass twice as much by retirement as employees who start just 10 years later, assuming the same regular contribution amounts and annual returns.
Max out the match
Employees who work for firms that offer a company match on 401(k) contributions can get free dollars just for doing what they should already. Here’s an example using Bankrate’s 401(k) savings calculator: A 30-year-old employee earning $50,000 per year contributes $5,000 annually to a company 401(k) plan; his employer matches 50 cents on the dollar up to 6 percent of pretax income, or $1,500 in this case. Assuming an average annual return of 8 percent for 35 years, the employee will have nearly $270,000 more with the company match than without it.
Take control
Fees can eat up your account. Even a simple 1 percent fee can reduce your retirement savings up by up to 25 percent over 35 years. To make sure your plan is paying you, and not vice versa, investigate your advisory, management and distribution fees and check out Bankrate’s story on how to curb retirement plan fees.
Make it automatic
Out of sight, out of mind? A study by NACHA — The Electronic Payments Association, shows that those who have funds automatically deposited in a savings vehicle save an average of $90 more per month than those who don’t.
Let it be
To truly boost your retirement savings, leave it alone. That means keeping it in a 401(k), 403(b), IRA or other retirement plan until it’s time to quit working for good. While pulling funds out to buy a house, pay for college or finance a hardship can be tempting, it can punch a serious hole in your savings strategy. This Bankrate story offers seven alternatives to tapping retirement funds.
Share