Office of the Vermont State Treasurer - Financial Literacy: Saving for Your Retirement

CALCULATE THE AMOUNT YOU WILL NEED TO SAVE FOR RETIREMENT

Experts estimate that you'll need about 70% of your pre-retirement income to maintain your standard of living when you stop working. Use this ballpark estimator from EBRI to calculate the savings you'll need to meet your retirement goals.

Retirement

EBRI (Employee Benefits Research Institute) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that works to encourage productive employee benefit programs and policy through objective research and education. More...

Saving for Your Retirement

Are you hoping to enjoy a long and productive retirement? Nationwide, Americans are living longer than ever-especially in Vermont. The average life expectancy for a Vermonter is now 79.6 years, one of the highest in the country. To help ensure your retirement years are all that you hope for, you need to begin planning now.

When it comes to saving, the payoff from earning compound interest can help you grow your money into a valuable retirement nest egg. Compound interest is the idea of earning interest on interest. For example, if you put $100 into an investment that earns 10 percent a year, you'll earn $10 after 12 months. You'll then have $110 in your account. If you earn 10 percent again, you will have $121 after two years. It starts to look more promising when you invest more money. If you decide to save $4,000 a year and you earn 7 percent a year, within five years your investment will have grown to $23,003. In 15 years, your investment will grow to $100,516 and after 25 years you would have more than $250,000.

The State Treasurer's Office administers three pension plans that include more than 35,000 active and retired state personnel, teachers and participating municipal employees. The Treasurer's Office wants to encourage all Vermonters to plan for their retirement needs. We have grouped resources on this page to help you set retirement goals and evaluate your financial future.

Top 10 Ways to Prepare for Retirement

This U.S. Department of Labor publication gives you some quick tips on steps you can take to start a plan for your retirement years.

What You Should Know About Your Retirement

If you are currently participating in a retirement plan at work, what kind of plan is it? Have you ever calculated what your benefit would be at retirement? If you are contributing funds to an individual retirement account, have you ever projected how this investment will grow in five, ten or 20 years? This booklet produced by the U.S. Department of Labor and EBRI walks you through questions you might have about your current retirement plan.

SMART 401(k) Investing

The 401(k) plan is a retirement savings plan to which an employee or self-employed individual can make contributions from his or her paycheck before taxes are taken out. It is one of the most common types of retirement plans available today. At this link, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) has created a detailed step-by-step description of how you can open, invest and manage a 401(k) plan. FINRA is the largest non-governmental regulator for all securities firms doing business in the U.S.

How to Start Saving for Retirement

The Office of the State Treasurer offers these suggestions for beginning to save for your retirement.

Late Savers Can Still Prepare for Retirement

The National Endowment for Financial Education has prepared this site to assist individuals who are coming late to the retirement savings arena. The "Guidebook to Help Late Savers Prepare for Retirement" is a six-module series packed with useful information.

Keep the Gold in Your Golden Years

The State Treasurer’s Office is pleased to offer this free 90-minute workshop that teaches participants how to evaluate their personal finances to determine if they are on track to cover future retirement expenses. If you’re interested in attending a workshop or are part of an organization or club interested in hosting one in your community, please contact us. If you’ve already attended the workshop, this retirement estimator will help you re-calculate the figures we examined in class.

Request Free Retirement Planning Materials

The State Treasurer's Office has assembled several resources to help you plan financially for retirement. Among the resources we are happy to send you free-of-charge is a 60-page workbook titled, "Taking the Mystery Out of Retirement Planning" created by the U.S. Department of Labor. Please send us your mailing information electronically or you may phone and request the packet by calling (802) 828-2305 or toll-free in Vermont at 1-800-642-3191.

Who Can You Work With to Select the Right Plan?

Vermont's Department of Banking, Insurance, Securities & Health Care Administration (BISHCA) helps Vermonters choose, work with, and report problems with the businesses it regulates. Here's a list of Vermont-domiciled businesses that can help you select a retirement savings plan right for you. This list is updated regularly.

Office of the State Treasurer