Do you know how much money you will need in retirement? Like many people, you may have no idea. AARP has a good, easy-to-use calculator to help you find out. The calculator will help you figure out where you are now and what you will need to save to meet your retirement needs.

Once you finish calculating and get a sense of where you are now with your money and where you would like to be at retirement, we encourage you to review the section on investing. In particular, there are simply three main strategies for investing money for retirement:

• Protecting it (investing in cash equivalents such as money market funds)
• Using it to earn income (investing in bonds, bond funds, or other fixed income funds)
• Using it to grow more (investing in stocks or stock funds

Additional Resources

The U.S. government's MyMoney.gov site provides many tools to help you plan for retirement, including links to apply for benefits online

Retire from work. Not from life.

A retirement plan is an assurance that you will continue to earn a satisfying income and enjoy a comfortable lifestyle, even when you are no longer working. To understand why an increasing number of individuals have already started planning for their retirement, and why you should too, read on.

Independence is the new way of life: An increasing number of young Indian professionals are moving away from the traditional joint family structure. Since support no longer comes easily, parents have realized the need to provide for themselves during their retirement years.

Costs set to soar: Skyrocketing costs throw even a well-salaried person off balance. With rates rising everyday, you can imagine how high they will be when you are ready to retire. A retirement plan provides you with a steady income every month, to arm you in the face of rising costs.

To understand how inflation can impact your monthly expenses, use our special tool, the Inflation Index calculator.

Non-earning retirement phase is now longer: Only 4% of India working population- mostly government employees – are covered by pensions. The remaining 96% comprises self-employed and salaried professionals who do not have a formal, mandated provision for pensions.

ICICI Prudential offers two key retirement plans, LifeLink Super Pensionand LifeTime Super Pension - flexible income cum insurance plans that ensure you meet all your retirement requirements. So you can retire peacefully from work, but not from life.

Retirement Planning Calculator

One goal nearly all investors share is planning for a comfortable and secure retirement. That is a commendable goal. People are living longer, which means staying ahead of inflation is more critical than it has ever been. In addition, Social Security's future is uncertain and individuals now typically have several jobs throughout their careers, meaning less likelihood of a long-term financial plan with one employer.

This calculator is a very simple assessment of your situation and should only be viewed as the first step to increasing your awareness to the level of savings you will need in order to plan for and enjoy the retirement lifestyle you desire.

For a personalized and detailed analysis, please contact your Raymond James financial advisor, who has sophisticated retirement planning software that can create retirement plans under different assumptions tailored to your specific financial situation.

If you do not yet have a Raymond James financial advisor to assist in your investment and financial planning decision-making, please use our Office Locator to find the office most convenient to you today.