How to Plan Your Income for Retirement

Planning for retirement is important if you want to cope with life after your days in the office. According to the Employee Benefit Research Institute, 4 out of 10 American workers are saving money for their retirement. Do you want to be part of these smart employees or the lost majority? Here are some of the things you need to know about preparing for retirement.

Setting Financial Goals
Saving is a process that demands commitment. Since retirement is definitely not your only saving goal, you should try striking a balance or prioritizing what is necessary and weighty. For instance, you could comfortably do away with lingering debts and saving for vacations, cars, homes, and lattes.

Saving for Retirement
Retirement involves more than just assessing the amount of saving you need. When planning for retirement, it’s is also important that you pay attention to where you save your money. Find the best investment or saving account. Take time to calculate how much you need to save for retirement as well.

Investing
While saving is simply amassing wealth, investing is the process of multiplying the wealth. Cash is not a great way to store your wealth, and there are thousands of reasons why. Before investing your money in any project, assess the reward-to-risk ratio and the return on investment. Which investments are more diversified, and when do you get in for maximum gains.

What Do You Invest In?
Are you ready to have your retirement saving work for you? Well, if that’s the case, setting up an investment portfolio should not be complicated. Acquaint yourself with principal retirement investment rules. Are you a DIY person, or will you need to hire the services of a financial adviser? If you want to manage your retirement saving yourself, it is recommended that you gather sufficient knowledge on investment strategies. If you will choose to work with a professional, get to know about the related costs.

Building Wealth
Retirement investing is not a phenomenon that occurs in one sitting. It is a process that will change with the dynamics of your employment as you move from one job to another or up the promotion ladder. You will also have to endure changes in the stock markets and meet family obligations. However, that does not necessarily mean that you will have to babysit your retirement investment. There are numerous ways to protect and manage your wealth and savings in the long haul.

There are two methods by which most accounting is done and by which income is reported to the IRS. There is the Cash method and the Accrual method.

These two things are basically the methods of business keeps track of its income and expenses. They have to do with the timeframe in which debits and credits are made. Which method a business uses is entirely up to them. However, it is important to understand how each one works.

Cash

The cash method is the common way in which small business tracks their debits and credits. With this method, income is not counted until cash is actually received, and expenses are not counted until they are actually paid.

Accrual

The accrual method is income that is counted when the sale occurs. It is also the method by which expenses are counted when the goods or services are obtained. In this method, you don’t have to have money in hand or actually pay money out, to record a transaction.

Choosing a method

As stated, you are free to choose whichever method you want for your business, with some exceptions. NOLO.com states that the exceptions are as follows:

Most small businesses (with sales of less than $5 million per year) are free to adopt either accounting method. You must use the accrual method if:

your business has sales of more than $5 million per year, or

your business stocks an inventory of items that you will sell to the public and your gross receipts are over $1 million per year. Inventory includes any merchandise you sell, as well as supplies that will physically become part of an item intended for sale.

Cash: Pros and Cons

Pro: provides a more accurate picture of how much actual cash your business has and you can deduct expenses in the year they are paid instead of having to wait until the related revenue is earned and reportable.

Con: may offer a misleading picture of longer-term profitability. You also need to report revenue as soon as payment is received, which means you may end up paying tax on the gross amount if your deductible expenses aren’t reported until a future tax year.

Accrual: Pros & Cons

Pro: shows the fluctuation of business income and debts more accurately.ou can deduct expenses in the year you receive the underlying service or property and become liable for payment, even if you don’t actually make payment until a future tax year.

Con: Does not show accuracy in which cash reserves are available. In addition, you will have to report income in the year your customers have a legal obligation to make payment, not at the time of actual payment. Because of this, you may end up paying tax on money you didn’t receive during the tax year.

Again, most small businesses function well on the cash method. This is the easiest to track and manage. However, there was a recent article written by Forbes in the Entrepreneur section of its website that might interest those considering the accrual method. It discusses some little known tax advantages of this method. You can find that article here.

No matter what method chosen, it is important to be knowledgeable about the choices available. Both cash and accrual have their advantages and should be considered with care.