No matter where you are on your Retirement journey, Servant Solutions is here to help you plan with confidence. Here are five strategies to consider as you save and plan. Servant Solutions wants to be your life-long financial planning partner. We’re available with multiple tools and planning documents to help you arrive at your retirement years well-funded.
Servant Solutions continues to uphold its mission of "Serving Those Who Serve" and strives to improve the financial security of all church staff. One invaluable tool we advocate for is the incorporation of the Minister's Housing Allowance into compensation packages—a critical step towards enhancing retirement planning and overall financial well-being.
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, wrote: “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens” (Ecclesiastes 3:1). That includes retirement. In some occupations, retirement is voluntary. In others, it is mandatory. The appropriate age is different for a pro football player than a Walmart greeter. Regardless of the nature of your employment, there will come a time to step down and make room for younger leaders.
Ministry is a high calling. Most of our servant leaders could command a higher salary in the for-profit world, but they have chosen to use their gifts and talents to serve the Lord. What is proper compensation? The church setting is indeed unique, and often a helpful question for church leaders to ask is “What would persons carrying similar responsibilities in other vocations be paid?” Servant Solutions, as part of our ministry to the church, stands ready to help your congregation in any way possible. We invite you to visit our Church Compensation Planning page at servantsolutions.org. There you will find additional resources that we have found to be reliable and helpful.
What do all these things have in common? We get our teeth cleaned twice per year with regular x-rays every other cleaning. We get an annual physical once per year that normally includes a blood draw to check things like cholesterol, blood sugar, and odd things like iron levels. We replace our smoke alarm batteries with the changing of the time in the spring and fall, (more on this later). Yet, most of us should also include a Retirement Check Plan checkup, but have either chosen to ignore it, delay it, or worse yet, have not even given it a thought. Retirement planning does not have to be complicated. It does not have to be painful. It should not be something you put off. So why are most people ill prepared for retirement, and what should they do about it?
Glad you asked!
Most of us we look at retirement as an event that will happen years or decades from now and feel there are certainly more pressing things that deserve our attention and our resources. Getting married, buying a house, having kids, and the business of life all seem to take our attention. I heard a wise saying one time, “We plan to fail when we fail to plan”. This is so true with retirement planning. It is never too early to begin giving it some attention.
We are likely to spend about a quarter of our lives in retirement years. Each generation is living longer and having a plan for how to navigate retirement is something we can start thinking about by having the end in mind.
If you are in your 20’s, begin by making sound financial decisions that will follow you for life. Avoid the debt trap and stick to a budget while saving something – even if it is $50/month. In your 30’s, you should begin investing between 10 to 15 percent of your gross earnings. This should be invested in something that will grow at a rate significantly higher than inflation. In your 40’s you should continue refining your budget and draft a personalized financial roadmap that will help you get to retirement successfully. Your 50’s, during peak earning years, is the best time to max out your eligible contributions to your retirement account. Meeting with a certified financial planner will be encouraging, educational, and allow you to stay on target with the plan you have created. With retirement approaching, begin planning for retirement by understanding the steps and remember, it is a process not just an event.
Servant Solutions offers FREE financial planning to all its members. We can help you with this process no matter what decade you are in. From simple budgeting to more complex issues of investing, and managing college expenses, Servant Solutions will walk with you on your journey no matter where you are starting. As Ellen Daniels always says, it is not too late to start preparing unless you are retiring tomorrow.
Patt and I took a trip out west to visit my aunt and uncle. During one night of our stay, the smoke alarm began loudly chirping at 3:00 in the morning. It woke us up which made for a long next day. Had those batteries been replaced, we would have kept sleeping peacefully.
Is your future retirement plan chirping at you? Let Servant Solutions assist you with providing a financial roadmap and then at least once per year review it with one of our certified financial planners to tweak it as you go.
Servant Solutions, “Serving Those Who Serve”
