How To Save More For An Early Retirement

Silvur’s retirement planning tools allow you to plan what age to elect Social Security, project your lifetime income and know if you’re on the right track toward retirement. (Shutterstock / George Rudy),

This post is sponsored and contributed by a Patch Brand Partner. The views expressed in this post are the author’s own.

Everyone dreams of a comfortable retirement full of travel, leisure and spending time with loved ones. Oftentimes, though, life gets in the way of building your retirement nest egg. Changes in employment status, medical bills and other unforeseen expenses can cause your retirement savings to fall by the wayside and derail your retirement plans.

Fortunately, Silvur, a free app dedicated to helping folks reach their retirement goals, is here to help by letting you know how long your money will last in your retirement by calculating your Retirement Score. With its sophisticated retirement planning tools, you can project your lifetime income and find out what steps you need to take today to ensure a brighter, financially secure future down the road — even if you started saving late.

Download Silvur To Calculate Your Social Security Benefits At Any Age

Calculate How Long Your Money Will Last Into Retirement

Silvur helps you make smart decisions about your financial future based on your Retirement Score. To calculate your Retirement Score, simply download the iOS app and enter your income, assets and planned retirement date. From there, you’ll receive a Retirement Score that shows you how long your money will last into retirement. If you’re in a less secure financial situation, don’t worry — there are plenty of steps you can take today to grow your retirement nest egg. Silvur takes those decisions into account as you plan your retirement, and shows you in real time how they impact your Retirement Score. For example, taking advantage of Retirement Store savings offers and cash-back rewards, reducing your monthly spending and adding some part-time work will increase your retirement score — while moving your retirement start date up a few years will lower your score.

Silvur’s new feature, the Retirement Store, offers exclusive discounts to members that can also affect their Retirement Scores. It helps users save even more money on everyday purchases and specialized products alike — including wills and prescription drugs. With the Retirement Store, you can also access brands that work toward improving your Retirement Score and get exclusive Silvur member discounts so you can continue to extend your savings.

Find Out Your Retirement Score With Silvur. Calculate Now

Silvur’s new feature, the Retirement Store, helps users save even more money on everyday purchases and specialized products alike. (Silvur)

Find Out When To Elect Social Security

Another important aspect of retirement is figuring out when is the best time to elect Social Security for your specific financial situation. Most people who have paid into the system for at least 10 years are eligible to begin collecting Social Security at age 62 — but that doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Silvur offers some much-needed clarity about the confusing world of Social Security.

The “best age” to start claiming your Social Security benefits is contingent on a number of different factors. Thankfully, Silvur lets you quickly and easily calculate the Social Security benefits you’re entitled to receive at every age and see how they compare to your expenses and net worth. Silvur also helps calculate your benefits based on your marital status, Medicare cost estimates based on your ZIP code and various other factors that are tailored to your specific situation.

With Silvur, retirement planning is straightforward and concise. Don’t take our word for it — check out this testimonial from Silvur member David, a 53-year-old network engineer from Nebraska, detailing how he got back on the path toward a comfortable retirement using Silvur’s retirement planning tools.

How A Late Retirement Saver Got Back On Track

David got a late start to saving for retirement because of family medical bills, but he’s tentatively on track to retire between 62 and 65. He began saving for retirement five years ago, after paying off $120,000 in medical debt. When he started, he had only $3,000 set aside for retirement, but today he has $50,000.

David saves 20 percent of his gross salary in an employer-sponsored 401(k), and he plans to continue until he retires. His employer contributes about 1.25 percent in addition to what David puts in.

Since every month is a little different, David creates a new budget each month to cover basic living expenses and other bills he may have to pay that month. He worked hard to become debt-free. And if he wants to make a larger purchase, instead of putting it on a credit card or taking out a loan, he sets aside money every month until he has enough saved to pay for it with cash.

If there’s any money left at the end of the month after he contributes to his 401(k), pays his regular expenses and takes care of life’s emergencies, he puts it in an after-tax account that he plans to use for retirement.

“The biggest key is avoiding debt,” David explained. “I don’t make a lot of money, but now that I don’t have any debt, including a mortgage, it doesn’t take a lot of money to get by. I’m not going to retire a millionaire, but I’ll be OK because I got rid of debt. The best thing people can do is pay things off as quickly as they can because it gives you so much freedom to do what you want to do.”

David says he found that the “snowball method” of paying off the smallest to largest debt works.

“If I had just gone by interest rate, I probably wouldn’t have followed through,” he said. “If I didn’t get those quick wins, I probably would’ve given up. I also automate my savings. When I automate, it happens. When I don’t, life happens. When I don’t see [the money] in my check, I can’t spend it.”

Take Steps Today To Ensure Your Financial Security With Silvur

Follow These Retirement Savings Tips And Tricks

In a recent survey, Silvur users shared their best tips and savings hacks to get on track toward a comfortable retirement. We put together a short list of some of our favorite ones:

Start contributing to your 401(k) and IRA at a young age. Contribute consistently, and don’t try to time your investments. Avoid making emotional decisions, and continue to contribute to your retirement accounts even during a market downswing. If your investments pay dividends or earn capital gains, reinvest them.

If you’re married or have a partner, live off of one person’s salary and save the other person’s.
When you invest, make sure you have a diversified portfolio.

Consider working more than one job or taking advantage of overtime if it’s available to you, and use credit cards sparingly.

Automate savings to employer-sponsored 401(k)s and pensions through payroll deductions. If the money’s not in your paycheck, you can’t spend it. If you wait to use what’s left over, you’ll never save.

Every time you get a raise, automatically contribute at least half of it to your 401(k) or IRA.

For Silvur members, take advantage of member discounts and cash-back rewards in the Retirement Store.
Take advantage of cash bonuses when you open a new account with your financial institution.

Consider working part-time in retirement to supplement your income. But be careful if you’re collecting Social Security. Depending on your age and how much you earn, you may receive a reduced Social Security benefit.

At the end of the day, retirement planning can be overwhelming — but with Silvur, it doesn’t have to be. Using Silvur’s state-of-the-art retirement planning tools and services, you can project your lifetime income, find out when you should start to collect Social Security benefits, and safely and securely chart a course toward a comfortable retirement.