MONEY MATTERS: Make Yourself Healthy, Wealthy and Wise

BY CAROL MAYORGA

A new year and a new you! Common resolutions to exercise and lose weight might come to mind first, but your health and wealth go hand in hand — now and when you retire. To make sure you are doing everything you can today to plan for a better tomorrow, consider these tips for making yourself healthy, wealthy and wise.

Save as much as you can, as soon as you can. No matter what your age, you should be saving for your future. Start young and you can put the power of compounding on your side. Your money will grow faster over time as your earnings produce their own earnings. With the price of oil dropping, put the money you save into a retirement account.

Prepare and prevent. When planning for a healthy future, preparation and prevention play a key role. Preparation means saving for retirement and making sure you have appropriate insurance. Prevention means having routine tests, screenings, and health exams to catch any problems before they become serious and expensive health conditions.

Understand your retirement benefits. Learn as much as you can about your retirement savings plan. Don’t miss out on the company match your employer offers, and avoid taking out loans and making withdrawals that can reduce the money you’ll have available in retirement.

If you have a pension plan, find out about projected benefit levels at various retirement ages and under various distribution options. Also be sure to review your personal Social Security statement that is available online at socialsecurity.gov/myaccount. The statement is an easy-to-read record of your earnings and a summary of the estimated Social Security benefits you may receive as a result of those earnings.

Another helpful tool is the Social Security Claiming Guide from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. The guide can help you understand your options and when the best time might be to start collecting your Social Security benefit.

Insure you have a better future. Make sure you have the insurance you need to protect your health and financial future before and after you retire. As you approach retirement, learn everything you can about Medicare, supplemental health policies, and long-term care insurance. While you don’t want to waste money by having too much insurance, you also need to be careful you aren’t leaving yourself exposed to financial catastrophes.

All things in moderation. Moderation (and diversification) is good advice for many aspects of your life. Your money should be appropriately diversified (not too risky, not too conservative, and typically not all in one basket). To determine an asset allocation strategy that’s right for you, take the interactive risk tolerance quiz by visiting wellsfargo.com/riskquiz.

Carol Mayorga is a District Manager for Wells Fargo in Southern Nevada. For more information about saving for your future, please visit www.wellsfargo.com or visit a local Wells Fargo branch to speak to a personal banker.