One of the best things you can do for your retirement is to max out your retirement plan contributions. Two of the factors that can have a big impact on how much money you end up with during retirement are when you start saving (it's best to start as early as you can), and how much you actually contribute.

For most of us, contributing $100 a month just isn't going to cut it in retirement. Instead, consider maxing out your retirement plan contributions. At the very least, try to max out an IRA each year. Here are some strategies you can employ to help you max out the contributions you make to at least one of your retirement plans:

Take advantage of the employer match. If you have an employer match, you should be taking advantage of it. Find out what you need to contribute in order to receive the maximum matching contribution, and then add that money to your account each month. If your employer is offering a match, that is free money that you can use to boost your retirement account contributions. Remember, the more you put in now, the better compound interest can work on your behalf to build wealth for later.

Slowly increase your contributions. Gradually increase your retirement account contributions. You don't have to suddenly go from contributing $100 a month to contributing $500 or $1,000 a month. Instead, step up your contributions slowly. Look for an extra amount of money to regularly apply to your retirement contributions.

If you think that you can find $50 more a month to save for retirement, add that to your contributions. This should be a regular contribution that permanently raises the amount of your deposits. After a few months, when you are comfortable, look for another $50 or $100 a month that you can contribute to your retirement account. Step up your contributions regularly until you reach your goal of maxing out your retirement account each month.

Add windfalls to your retirement account. If you receive an unexpected windfall, add it to your retirement account. Whether this is a one-time bonus, lottery winnings, or a raise, consider adding money to your retirement account. This will help you move toward maxing out your retirement account--at least this year.

If you end up with a raise, immediately appropriate a good portion of that raise to your retirement account contributions. Do this as quickly as possible in order to avoid the problems that can come with lifestyle inflation. Instead of getting used to spending more on things you don't actually need, spend part of it on shoring up your retirement nest egg.

You don't need to put the whole of a raise or a windfall toward your retirement plan contribution amount, but you should put some of it toward that goal. This is extra money that can help you hit your retirement contribution target for the year, and help you ensure that your retirement is successful.

Start now. Do what you can right now to start increasing your retirement plan contributions. Even if you don't feel as though you can increase your contributions by a huge amount, just adding a little more to your retirement account on a consistent basis can be a huge help in the end.

If you are conscientious about increasing your retirement account contributions, and make it a goal to eventually max out one of your retirement plans, you will be able to watch your nest egg grow. You will also have fewer worries about how you will pay for your retirement years.

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How to Max Out Your Retirement Plan Contributions

Time for another retirement rule of thumb According to Fidelity investments, you should have saved 8x your annual (final) salary by the time you reach age 67 if you want to replace 85% of your pre-retirement income in retirement.

To stay on track for this, you should have saved 1x your income by age 35, 3x your income by age 45, and 5x by age 55. They do acknowledge that every individual's situation will differ greatly based on desired lifestyle in retirement, but still

In my view, this is just another in a long line of bogus (imho) guidelines that feed into the fallacy that retirement planning should be based on pre-retirement income levels. I've said it before and I'll say it again:

Retirement savings goals should be based on expenses, not income.

If you're living paycheck-to-paycheck, then income might be a decent proxy for expenses. But I'm hoping that's not the case for most of you.

There are also a number of underlying assumptions here. Among them:

In the end, if rules like this spur someone to action (vs. complete inaction) by at least providing a concrete and/or conceivable (if wildly inaccurate) goal, then I guess they're doing their job.

But you're not doing yourself any favors (again, imho) by burying your head in the sand and basing your retirement plan on overly-simplistic assumptions.

Here's a simple rule of thumb: Project your retirement income needs and multiply by 25 (or 33 if you want to be conservative). These values correspond to 4% and 3% withdrawal rates, respectively. That's how much you'll need in a well-diversified portfolio.

Is that number overwhelmingly large? Then you need to start earning more, investing more of what you take home, and/or reducing your desired standard of living. Or all three. You can't cheat reality.

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Another Retirement Rule of Thumb

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Lakers guard Kobe Bryant on retirement - Video

Oct 11 (Reuters) - Veteran lock Nathan Sharpe has delayed his retirement for a second time and made himself available for Australia's northern hemisphere tour next month, the team said on Thursday.

It has been a remarkable 12 months for the 34-year-old Sharpe, who had slipped to being a fringe player at last year's World Cup where he won his 100th cap, and he had planned to retire after the Super Rugby season.

He was persuaded by Wallabies coach Robbie Deans to play on in the southern hemisphere's Rugby Championship after injuries ruled out captain James Horwill and Dan Vickerman and with little in the way of depth of international experience in Australia's locking stocks.

He rose to the captaincy for the second half of the Rugby Championship when Horwill's successor David Pocock injured his knee in the opening match and scrumhalf Will Genia followed two games later.

Sharpe's performances and leadership of the injury-ravaged Wallabies in those three matches persuaded Deans to ask him to postpone his retirement once more for the tests against France, England, Italy and Wales starting next month.

"Playing for Australia is something I have never taken for granted. As such, to be asked to continue beyond the deadline I had set for myself was both flattering but also a request that was very difficult to turn down," Sharpe said in a statement.

"I have never known a season where the Wallabies have faced such adversity as we have this year.

"To show the spirit and character that the team has is a mark of how the group has grown, both individually and collectively, and I have enjoyed playing my part in that.

"The opportunity to lead the Wallabies again on what will be a challenging but exciting tour was too tempting. It is not easy to say no to your country."

Sharpe is expected to play his last test on home soil in Brisbane on Oct. 20 when the Wallabies face the All Blacks in the final dead rubber match of the Bledisloe Cup, which the world champions wrapped up in August to retain the trans-Tasman trophy for a 10th successive season.

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Rugby-Sharpe delays retirement, again, to play on for Australia

If you are near retirement, you will hear this advice very often: Stay in your job for a few more years. This is good advice, but it isnt very palatable or always possible. Some of us may have to leave a career due to family reasons, a health issue, or a company layoff. If your retirement fund is a little low, then its wise to keep working. However, there is an alternative to delaying retirement: Phase into your retirement and delay withdrawals instead.

Phase into retirement. Phasing into retirement will let you stay active in your most healthy years of retirement. Most of us still want to work and contribute to society when we are 55 or 60 years old, but may be bored with our careers or want to spend more time with family. One way to phase into retirement is to transition to part time. Another is to change careers to a more interesting and fulfilling job. These options will most likely reduce your income, but they will enable you to delay withdrawals from your retirement fund. Many of us are uninspired by our jobs after working for 30 years, and perhaps the change will enable us to delay full retirement.

Delay withdrawals. Delaying withdrawals has a big impact because the extra time will let your investments continue to grow, and you will spend less time in retirement. For example, lets say you expect to live until age 80. Robert retires at 60 and he needs to spread his retirement fund withdrawals over 20 years. Jane also leaves her full-time career at 60, but delays her withdrawals by 5 years. Jane will have 15 years of full retirement to cover. Lets assume they both have $500,000 in their retirement funds at age 60, earn a 6 percent annual return on their investments, and encounter an inflation rate of 3 percent.

By delaying withdrawals, Janes retirement fund will have a longer period of time to grow. We estimated the annual growth rate to be 6 percent, but it will be up and down in real life. After 5 years, Janes retirement fund will grow to $669,100. In addition, her withdrawal period will shrink to 15 years instead of 20. This enables Jane to have 44 percent bigger annual withdrawals in her retirement. Jane has more money to cover expenses and less time she needs her money to last, so she will be much better off than Robert during her retirement.

Early retirement. So far we looked at the effects of delaying withdrawals, but it works the other way, too. Lets add another example. Dora accumulates $500,000 by the time shes 55, and then phases into her retirement without withdrawing from her nest egg until shes 65.

Each year, Dora will have 66 percent more money than Robert and 15 percent more than Jane. More importantly, she can quit her job at 55 and work minimally for 10 years before retiring full time.

Its important to note that these calculations did not include tax rates or Social Security payments, but the point is still applicable. Saving up early and then delaying retirement withdrawals will enable you to have more income when you retire full time. Even if you cant put off retirement, consider putting off retirement account withdrawals if at all possible.

Joe Udo is planning an exit strategy from his corporate job by reducing expenses and increasing passive income. He blogs about his journey to early retirement at Retire by 40.

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Why You Should Delay Retirement Fund Withdrawals

A bout of long-term unemployment can trigger trauma and uncertainty. Some have equated the emotional fallout with that of a divorce or the death of a loved one.

But Alan Moore, founder of Serenity Financial Consulting in Milwaukee sees potential opportunities for smart retirement planning moves.

"If properly managed, I believe this time can be one of the most beneficial periods in my clients' career(s)," he says.

Following are three ways to turn the sour lemons of job loss into the sweet lemonade of financial security in retirement.

Certified Financial Planner professional Clark Kendall, founder of Kendall Capital, has watched many clients struggle with employment income issues over the last decade.

"First it was the IT people who went through an economic fallout, then real estate people, then bankers," says Kendall, whose firm is based in Rockville, Md. "It's been kind of like a rolling recession."

However, people usually overcome hard times and thrive again in the future, he says. His message to hardworking, out-of-work taxpayers is upbeat: "Your income's falling off, your tax rates are falling off -- let's take advantage of that," he says.

Converting a traditional individual retirement account to a Roth IRA is one of the best ways to plant financial seeds that will bloom in later years, Kendall says.

Small-business owners sometimes use this strategy if they anticipate little or no taxable income in the venture's first several years, Kendall says. Each year, the entrepreneur converts tax-deferred retirement savings earned earlier in his or her career to a Roth IRA.

The entrepreneur pays "a little bit of taxes, maybe at 5%" on the converted retirement savings once deductions and write-offs are figured in, Kendall says.

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Turn Job-Loss Lemons into Retirement Lemonade

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Fidelity Investments, a leading provider of not-for-profit workplace retirement savings plans to higher education employees1, today published a best practices guide for plan sponsors in higher education. The insights in the report are based on plan data and millions of employee-level transactions from 415 higher education plans, representing more than $52 billion in assets and over one million participants. The reports purpose is to illustrate ways that Americas academic institutions can improve retirement readiness among employees.

The report, the first in a series, examines trends in mandatory and voluntary plan design, and highlights three key areas for improvements in plan design, employer and employee contributions, as well as plan participation rates.

Higher education plan sponsors are increasingly looking to their retirement plan to help them attract and retain top talent and increase employee engagement, while ensuring cost effectiveness, said John Ragnoni, executive vice president, Fidelity Tax-Exempt Retirement Services. In order to achieve these goals, its essential for employers to assess and benchmark how elements of their plan design could ultimately impact employees retirement readiness and satisfaction with their benefits offering.

Key Findings:

Fidelitys Six Best Practices for Higher-Education Plan Sponsors

1. Target employee and employer contributions totaling 1015 percent of an employees annual salary to increase retirement readiness.

2. Administer a combined benefits plan of contribution and employer match to increase total contributions, employee engagement and potentially lower costs.

3. Use employer match to increase voluntary participation rates and employee contributions.

4. Consider automatic enrollment to raise voluntary plan participation rates.

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Fidelity® Report Defines Best Practices for Retirement Plan Sponsors in Higher Education

MILWAUKEE, Oct. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Retirement planning is cited as a top reason individuals 18 and older obtain life insurance as part of an overall financial security strategy, according to new research from Northwestern Mutual. The research found that one in four Americans is incorporating life insurance into their retirement planning efforts.

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Marriage stood out as the most common driver (32 percent) for purchasing life insurance, while other factors included the birth of a child (22 percent) and home ownership (19 percent).

"Individuals have long recognized the importance of life insurance in terms of providing financial protection to loved ones in the event of their death. However, these new study results show that people of all ages are also leveraging the flexibility of permanent life insurance to help meet long-term financial goals," said David Simbro, senior vice president of life and annuity products at Northwestern Mutual.

Simbro notes that life insurance plays a crucial role in planning, particularly as people grapple with the challenges of managing longevity in retirement.

The poll also found that:

Northwestern Mutual has a range of resources available to individuals seeking to learn more about longevity risk, life insurance and retirement planning, including:

Survey Methodology

This survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Northwestern Mutual from August 10-14, 2012, among 2,097 American adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. Contact Northwestern Mutual for complete survey methodology, including weighting variables.

About Northwestern Mutual The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company Milwaukee, WI (Northwestern Mutual) among the "World's Most Admired" life insurance companies in 2012 according to FORTUNE magazine has helped clients achieve financial security for more than 155 years. As a mutual company with $1.2 trillion of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual has no shareholders. The company focuses solely and directly on its clients and seeks to deliver consistent and dependable value to them over time. Northwestern Mutual and its subsidiaries offer a holistic approach to financial security solutions including: life insurance, long-term care insurance, disability insurance, annuities, investment products, and advisory products and services. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC, broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company, limited purpose federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company; and Russell Investments.

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Retirement Planning Reported as a Top Reason for Obtaining Life Insurance

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Global asset manager Russell Investments has launched the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution, a planning and investment program designed to help build a portfolio specifically for retirement goals. Available only through financial advisors, the program features an adaptive investment model strategy that aims to maintain a suitable clients funded status above 100% in retirement. The three-pronged framework easily leveraged and scalable for the advisor targets the primary concerns of many of their clients, that is, consistent income (reliability), not running out of money (sustainability) and maintaining control of their assets (flexibility).

The new program is initially available through two established partners Cambridge Investment Research and Lincoln Investment Planning and some of Russells largest clients in the Registered Investment Advisor channel.

Advisors are preparing for a sea change in their practices. Clients need more from them more time, more advice, more reassurance they are on track with their savings, and more personalized portfolios, said Sandy Cavanaugh, CEO for Russells advisor-sold business. Advisors know there isnt a magic bullet, but arent completely satisfied with the retirement income options available to them currently. They want to be sure they have the right tools to meet clients needs, while also managing their own practices efficiently and productively. Given this, we think advisors are going to find the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution to be a unique and valuable program that will help them navigate the retirement process, deliver a customized solution and provide ongoing support to their clients.

The three-pronged approach

The Retirement Lifestyle Solution consists of:

"Many of our independent advisors strive to provide their clients with financial plans and solutions that lead up to and through retirement, and this is important as clients consider how to plan their retirement spending and make their assets last, said Bobbi Martin, First VP, Marketing, at Cambridge Investment Research. Russells solution serves that effort well and provides advisors with a comprehensive support program to help them engage clients in meaningful, productive conversations on these vital questions.

In developing the Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution, Russell leveraged proprietary research focused on advisors and their clients, in addition to leveraging its more than 40 years experience applying strategic market insights, global money manager research and rigorous investment processes to create and implement multi-asset portfolios for some of the largest institutional investors.

Investors need and want help managing their retirement assets. Our new offering and related resources aim to help advisors be more relevant, realistic and responsive to their clients, said Tim Noonan, director, Capital Markets Insights for Russells advisor-sold business. Reengaging investors around retirement planning is key in helping individuals avoid the scenario they fear most: running out of money before running out of life. The Russell Retirement Lifestyle Solution is an important element of Russells efforts to help advisors reengage their clients.

Central to the planning process is Russells Adaptive Investing approach to help manage the risk of an investor outliving their assets, which starts by evaluating whether the investor is sufficiently funded to meet their desired lifestyle in retirement. By measuring and managing the clients funded ratio (or ratio of assets to liabilities), an advisor can help answer their clients three key questions: How much can I spend? Will my money last? Am I on track?

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Russell Launches Retirement Lifestyle Solution

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Reginald is not retiring - Video