If you are self-employed or the owner of your own business, you may need to think a little harder about your retirement than the average person. Instead of having a pension or a company-sponsored (and sometimes matched) retirement plan, you are left to handle your retirement savings entirely on your own.
Unfortunately, retirement isn’t cheap, particularly since things are a bit different than in our grandparents’ day. People don’t buy a house when they’re young, pay it off by the time they’ve retired, and then significantly reduced bills for the rest of their lives. These days, retirement costs just as much as your life when you were working — if not more, because you have things like elder care to worry about.
There are a lot of things to pay for in your old age, such as going into a nursing home or paying for home care. And you’ll want to be able to pay for the good stuff, to make sure that the people taking care of you have had training in home care providers and know about things such as fall prevention in home care. And if you aren’t able to make the decisions for yourself, you’ll want there to be enough money for your kids to make good decisions for you.
So don’t wait to start saving for your retirement, and be sure you look into what retirement plans are available for the self-employed!