Country Financial, a financial planning service company released some results of their latest survey on middle-income families. They found that 50% of workers earning under $30,000 are saving nothing for retirement; 20% of those earning $30,000 – 50,000 save nothing; and 10% of those earning up to $100,000 save nothing. Among those middle-income workers that have a 401(k), almost one-third have no idea what investments their money is going in to.
Surveys like these highlight the need for financial awareness and financial literacy so that these workers and families will avoid predictable financial difficulties. One very useful tool for mapping out your financial life is the use of financial calculators. There are hundreds of them across the web that you can use. However, like everything, some are better than others. You need to understand which most closely matches your circumstances and which has assumptions that you can change to match your situation. Luckily, financial expert Todd Tresidder has narrowed down the calculator world into a helpful list on his website page here: http://financialmentor.com/calculator.
Tresidder has calculators for retirement, mortgages, credit card payoff, car loans, investing, savings, budgeting, and a couple dozen others that you may find very helpful. What does it tell you when experts spend a lot of time with financial calculators? That they are useful, if not critical, to mapping out your financial life and your financial future. How do you know where you stand if you do not plot out what you are currently doing so that you can make appropriate adjustments now, when it matters? Please bookmark that page, go through the list to find which ones may be helpful for you today.