Trips to visit grandchildren, long vacations, and family celebrations hosted at your paid-for home. That’s the kind of retirement many Americans wish for. To achieve this dream, you have to live and plan today with that goal in mind.

Unfortunately, some of us dream a little too long. Then, we wake up one day to find we are 70, wondering where all that time – and money – has gone. Fortunately, it is still possible to get rich late in life, but not without a lot of work and sacrifice of time. Try these four ideas on building your wealth in retirement.

1. Budget

Budget like your future depends on it, because it does.

Years ago, balancing your personal budget required a great deal of initiative and calculation. You had to gather hundreds of paper receipts, bills and bank statements, crunch all the numbers, and map out a financial strategy by hand. Thankfully things have changed for the better.

In 2019, there are plenty of online tools that allow you to easily balance your budget and plan for retirement. A budget ensures you’ll have the money for the things that are important to you, like fun money and retirement savings. Some great (and FREE) personal finance apps we’ve found that seniors are finding helpful include Mint, PocketGuard, Prism and Albert.

BONUS: Financial Calculators… Calculators are also ideal for retirement planning. A good online retirement tool can make crunching decades of numbers and assumptions a breeze. The best tools allow you to understand the assumptions that are being made and to change those assumptions easily. From monitoring Investments to Cost of Inflation, check out the full list of financial calculators here.

2. Invest

While saving money helps, it simply isn’t enough if you’re hoping for a wealthy retirement. To build wealth, you should devote years of your life to investing cash in appreciating assets.  Investing in assets that gain value over time isn’t as simple as it sounds; Historically, the stock market builds serious wealth for investors because their investments appreciate, but there simply isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

In today′s world, the importance of a well-executed retirement plan cannot be underestimated. By talking to a financial advisor you can develop an investment strategy that works best for you. A high-level financial advisor like CKS Summit Group gives you sound advice for fresh new ideas for your retirement income with plans which are specifically structured to limit downside stock market risk. (We design custom portfolios to protect during uncertainty and perform during prosperity. Find out more here.)

3. Research

You may be missing out on serious cash in your retirement years because you haven’t researched all your financial options available to you. Alternative income sources can come from areas such as:

• IRA Contributions
• Roll-over IRAs
• Employer Matching 401(k)
• Using Surplus Funds
• Stocks and Shares

Take some time to look into these options to see if they are applicable to you. Again, this is where a good retirement income advisor can help you.

4. Stay Focused

Planning for retirement requires you to consider many factors such as when you plan to retire, how much you need to retire comfortably, your risk tolerance and much more. You can build a big retirement fund based on these requirements, but you must stay focused! Keep your goal in front of you and work toward it relentlessly, even if you can only take small steps forward.

The above actions multiplied over time will equal the retirement of your dreams. Start today and reach out to a financial advisor if you haven’t done that yet. A retirement income professional can help you create a plan that’ll set you up for success for decades to come.