6 Ways/Side Hustles To Fast-Track Your Retirement Savings

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Retirement should be a time of rest and relaxation, not a time to worry about your finances. Ideally, you’ve worked hard and saved a healthy sum of money throughout your career and now you’re ready to enjoy your golden years.

With proper planning and proactivity, there are some measures you can take to fast-track your way toward a financially stable and secure retirement.

6 Things You Can Do To Retire Sooner

Here are six measures you can take to ensure a secure retirement earlier than you might be planning for, according to Ramsey Solutions and CMP:

1. Max out your retirement accounts early and often: Contributing money to your retirement accounts is one of the best ways to fund your retirement. It’s important to contribute as much as you can from an early age. The earlier you start, the sooner you may be able to retire comfortably thanks to the magic of compounding. For tax year 2024, traditional 401(k)s have a contribution limit of $23,000 and Roth IRAs have a contribution limit of $7,000.
2. Take advantage of retirement account catch-up contributions: If you’re age 50 or older, you can make an extra catch-up contribution of $7,500 in your traditional 401(k) for tax year 2024, on top of the $23,000 contribution limit. For Roth IRAs, the catch-up contribution is $1,000, on top of the $7,000 contribution limit.
3. Get a side hustle: Increasing your income through a side gig or side hustle is a great way to increase your income on top of your salary. These can include being a babysitter, dog walker, rideshare driver, or food delivery worker — just to name a few.
4. Cut back on unnecessary expenses: Whether it’s your daily coffee out, buying lunch at work, extra streaming services that you don’t use anymore, or ordering lots of takeout, it’s important to take stock of and evaluate which expenses you can cut back on so you can direct more money to your savings and retirement accounts each month.
5. Set up automatic monthly or weekly deposits into a savings account: In addition to investments in your retirement accounts, consistently adding some money to your savings account will create a financial cushion in the event of an emergency and provide a pool of extra money to pull from for big expenses. Be sure to save money in a high-yield savings account.
6. Create a budget: Budgeting is key to organizing your finances and ensuring you have enough funds to save and invest each month. Aggressive and strict budgeting frees up more funds to save for your future, which could result in an early retirement.

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