401(k), IRA, SEPP, Keough-how much do you really know about retirement planning? Are you sure it's enough? How well you and your employees retire and how much you pay in taxes are directly shaped by your retirement planning (mainly because most retirement contributions are deductible). The bad news: None of this stuff is easy to decipher. Even worse, if you fumble this ball, you'll pay more taxes-and everybody involved will retire a pauper. Ouch.
So if you find yourself at a loss when tricky questions come up-as in, What's the chief advantage of a 401(k)?-don't just guess, hit the Net for an answer. There are plenty of top-notch retirement planning sites. For instance, one best-of-breed site is Quicken's, which contains most of what you need to know. Also worth glances are: www.investorguide.com/Retirement.htm, www.401kafe.com, www.savewealth.com and http://moneycentral.msn.com/retire/home.asp. Key advice: Visit the sites, soak up the critical information and bookmark at least one for regular reference. You'll be checking back periodically; retirement planning will likely change as Congress fine-tunes Social Security and tax-retirement laws.
Robert McGarvey is the author of How to Dotcom(Entrepreneur Press). To reach him online, e-mail rjm@mcgarvey.net.
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This article was originally published in the March 2001 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: Retire Right.
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