As an entrepreneur and a self-employed person, you’ll be in charge of your finances in every way possible. There’s no one to ask for a raise, no one to appease in order to advance in your career and no one to ask for health insurance and a retirement fund. This latter part is particularly troublesome due to the fact that the retirement money has to come from your profit. This means that you’ll constantly be torn between the desire to reinvest your profit and the need to put it into your retirement fund.
Moreover, due to the fact that your business may continue generating revenue even after you’re no longer in charge, some assume that they can just ignore the retirement fund and live off of their business indefinitely. This is a grievous mistake. With that in mind and without further ado, here are several tips for small business owners to prepare for retirement.
What type of retirement do you want?
Before you even start planning the retirement, you need to be honest about what kind of retirement you want to have. Do you plan to just live out the rest of your days modestly, without any stress or turmoil? Even if you did, there are often some unforeseen expenses and occurrences that you’ll have to cover. Then, there’s the issue of the bequest, which, although far from your mind, may not be something you want to forget about. Sure, you’ll leave your successors a share in your business, however, leaving something in the account might be a nice touch, as well.
Then there are those who plan to keep helping their family out long after they retire. Needless to say, this requires more money and even puts a greater emphasis on the issue of the bequest. On the other hand, there are those who aim to live their life to the fullest in their retirement. The problem with relying on your small business for this lies in the fact that it’s not guaranteed that your business will be able to sustain this habit of yours. This is why it’s smart to prepare your retirement fund for this task. Naturally, here, the issue of will and succession is of a secondary importance.
Diversify your portfolio
The next thing you have to keep in mind is the fact that the time for your retirement might come in years and decades. This means that just through inflation, changes on the market and change of prices, what you own might end up being a lot less than what you’ve counted on. Therefore, you have to diversify your portfolio as it is the only way of fighting through this.
In other words, you need to keep your assets in stocks, savings account and commodities like precious metals and diamonds, at the same time. Buying wine, real estate or art is another great way for you to diversify, yet, the above-discussed precious metals, such as platinum or gold, are probably your safest bet.
Developing a succession plan
Previously, we talked about the idea that your firm needs to produce a profit even after you retire and how a part of this profit will affect your lifestyle quality in retirement. However, there’s more to it than that. You see, your business is also your legacy and it may turn out as pivotal for the future of your family, as well.
All of this said, it’s vital that the person who takes over is capable enough to run it successfully. It’s likely that you’re the person who has launched this small business and ran it from the start. Therefore, finding someone who can be a worthy replacement may be completely impossible, yet, you still need to find someone capable. Therefore, as a part of your retirement plan, you should start grooming a successor right away.
Make sure your business can survive without you
In the previous section, we talked about the succession plan, well, if you ensure that your business can run without you, ahead of time, this won’t be as hard to pull off. No matter how intuitive this may sound, having an entrepreneur-centric business is not the best of ideas.
Conclusion
As you can see, like with any other topic, the issue of retirement is one that greatly depends on what your expectations are and what your current financial status is. No matter what goals you have for your retirement, it’s simply unrealistic to deposit 50 percent of your entire profit into your retirement fund, however, ignoring this investment prospect altogether is even worse. The future of your business and your retirement plan go hand in hand.
Raul is a B.Sc. in Innovative entrepreneurship and has a lot to say about innovations in all aspects of digital technology and online marketing. While he’s not enjoying travel, football and great food, you can find him on Technivorz.com