Offshore Banking Captial Growth International Mortgages Saving for Children’s Education Financial Protection Corporate Employee Benefits and Pension Plans Retirement Planning Can you afford to delay? Achieving a secure retirement is a major undertaking which requires careful planning. As life expectancy increases and state benefits in many industrialized countries decrease the burden of retirement planning is falling ever more on the individual. In many cases retirement planning funding is started much too late in life necessitating much higher contributions as the individual endeavors to "catch up" or in some unfortunate examples the individual has to postpone his retirement date and continue working or face a subsistence standard of living in later life. Here are two case studies which make the case for starting retirement planning at the right time. Case Study 1 John Matthews started working in Asia 2 years ago. He is 25 years old and wants to retire in Hawaii when he is 50. He earns $100,000 a year and wants to retire on $60,000 per year in today's terms. With consultation from his financial adviser he works out the funding rate required to achieve the income he wants at age 50.He then compares this with his disposable income and selects a contribution that works within his budget. During the course of his working life he supplements the pension with lump sums from the bonuses he receives. He receives regular reviews of his pension plan to show that he is on track to achieve his dream of retiring in Hawaii at age 50. Case Study 2 Brian Edwards is an expatriate working in Europe. He hasn't started contributing to a pension plan and is unclear about when he could afford to retire. He wants to retire at 55 on an income in today's terms of $50,000 per year and seeks advice from his financial adviser. Because he has deferred starting a pension he discovers that he will have to contribute considerably more per month than if he had started just 5 years earlier. As a result Brian has to consider deferring his retirement age to 60 instead of 55. Leaving your retirement planning until later can make a substantial difference to your contribution amount or the final retirement account figures.