I get it – you’re at the peak of your career, climbing the ladder, making your way to the top.

Maybe you’ve just bought your first house, or you’re planning for that first kid.

Then there are the daily expenses, unforeseen expenses (that idiot who ran a red light and caused you to fork out for excess, or the geyser that burst), and those times you just need to treat yourself.

It all adds up, and when you’re stuck in the daily grind, it can be easy to forget that you’re going to be on the planet for quite some time, the last few decades of which might be spent not working.

Saving for retirement is an important part of preparing for the future, but for a lot of South Africans, the future is looking bleak.

IOL says that the state of private retirement savings in South Africa is worsening, with a report showing that 67% of people have no retirement plan at all, or only a vague one.

The report, commissioned by 10X Investments, also found a lack of understanding among clients of the retirement-savings industry on what they have actually saved and what they will need to have saved to preserve their lifestyle in retirement.

In the poll, 72 percent of those with a retirement plan are concerned that they will not have saved enough money to live on after they retire, while 77 percent of those who do have some sort of a plan accept that they will need to continue earning an income after they retire.

The report says 72 percent of women across all demographics either have no retirement-savings plan at all or have only a vague plan.

An expert in the field of personal wealth told BusinessLIVE that even people at the top of their game have trouble understanding their retirement plans.

“They don’t understand the mechanics or the tax or what they can do with retirement money. Understanding is short-lived, too,” he says.

…most fund members, including the CFOs of companies and even trustees, are very poorly informed. Many trustees can’t say how much they’re paying in fees, where their fund’s money is invested, and if it has performed in line with the market, he says.

If you need more convincing that we are not doing well as a nation when it comes to retirement savings, read these damning stats.

Look, you could drive yourself crazy trying to figure all of this out, or you could do this the easy way.

The best way to ensure that your retirement plans pan out is to get an expert involved in your planning and decision making.

Consequence Private Wealth believes that “the consequences of decisions made today will unfold over a lifetime based on the sound principles applied at their inception”.

In other words, they want to help you plan for your future now, so that you can enjoy the best possible financial outcome when you retire.

Because, if the above stats are anything to go on, the sooner you start looking towards that future, the better.

[source:iol&businesslive]