There’s more to retirement planning than just funding your 401(k) or IRA. One of the chief reasons why people engage a financial planner is to know if, and when, they can retire. Just the thought of retirement can cause anxiety and many feel overwhelmed and unprepared. Listed below are some retirement planning mistakes that one should avoid.

Not all 401(k) plan participants are completely educated about their 401(k) plans and really do have a lot of misconceptions about it. So how much do you really know about your 401(k) plan? Let’s find out. The entire 401(k) account is mine when I quit the job : This is one of the biggest mistakes one could make in his/her 401(k) retirement planner.

Retirement plans are mainly classified into two types on the basis of benefit calculation namely: Defined benefit plans This is a pension plan where a final amount is calculated based on a formula that involves the service of a person with an employer and paid to all retirees from a dedicated trust fund.

Retirement planning becomes a little more complicated when you are a married couple as there will be double the financial considerations to be made and your values and priorities may diverge at a period of time in the future and all of these can affect your retirement plan. It is very important that you identify a retirement calculator that enables you to account for each of you as individual beings.

A 401(k) retirement plan is one of the best tools for working people and employees of a company for creating a secure retirement fund. For employees, the advantages are pretty obvious earnings and contributions to the 401(k) are tax deferred and secondly, employers tend to provide matching contributions to the 401(k) account (ranging from 0-100% of employee contributions).

Carefully choosing a location that can give you exactly the kind of relaxing environment you require post-retirement becomes an important factor. But before making any choice, you must keep in mind the factors such as overall cost of living, public health, culture, weather, and safety to make an informed decision.