To benefit or not to benefit?Thinking of taking Social Security? Before you do, you’ll want to weigh your options carefully. This decision can have a significant impact on the level of benefits you receive over time. For a quick estimate of what your benefit will be at your selected retirement age, visit the Social Security Calculator on mybmoretirement.com.

It’s significantThe percentage of American workers planning to retire at age 66 or older has increased significantly in the last 10 years. In 2003, 24 percent of workers said they plan to retire at age 66 or older; today, that number stands at 36 percent.

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, Fact Sheet #4.

Is this you?• 44 percent of American workers ages 25–34 are currently not saving for retirement.

• Nearly half of workers (49 percent) ages 45–54 have not calculated how much money they’ll need to save in order to live comfortably in retirement.

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, Fact Sheet #4.

Before you do, consider the potential loss to your retirement savings and the impact this may have on your retirement timeframes or goals. To understand all of the implications of taking a loan from your retirement plan, check out the Impact of Taking a Loan From Your Retirement Calculator on mybmoretirement.com.

3. Work with a professional. At ages 40 to 50, you’re still a long way from retirement. To make sure you’re doing all you can to maximize your savings, now may be the time to add a financial professional to your team, if you haven’t done so already. The right financial advisor can help you refine your goals, set realistic targets and help ensure you have the right mix of investments to meet your specific goals. For more on this, please see our article, Who’s Quarterbacking Your Retirement Team?

The final push: Nearing retirementYou’re in the home stretch! This is a crucial time for boosting your retirement savings, aligning your resources and making sure your portfolio is properly positioned to reflect this next important stage of life.

These three tips can help bring you closer to living comfortably in retirement:

1. Boost your savings with catch-up contributions.Try to save the maximum permitted by the IRS (currently $17,500) in your employer-sponsored plan. Once you’ve maxed out your regular contributions, boost your retirement savings further with catch-up contributions of up to $5,500 (for workers age 50 and older).

2. Create a realistic budget. Now is a good time to take a close look at your anticipated expenses, including health care and prescription costs that may currently be covered by insurance. To help you get started, use the Retirement Budget Calculator located on mybmoretirement.com. This will help you estimate your costs and determine what adjustments, if any, may be necessary while preparing for retirement.

3. Re-evaluate your asset allocation. As you near and enter retirement, portfolio losses — especially when coupled with regular withdrawals — can put your financial security at risk. A trained financial professional can provide the objective, personalized advice you need to

protect your assets and help ensure income distributions meet your financial needs.

Now, it’s time to enjoy: In retirement You’ve saved your entire career for retirement; now it’s time to enjoy those savings. Just be sure you don’t spend your nest egg too quickly. After all, with life expectancies on the rise, you could spend 30 or more years in retirement.

To make sure your money lasts as long as you need it to, consider the following three tips:

1. Stay the course. Stick with a sound asset allocation strategy to provide a regular stream of income. Now is not the time for risky investments. Make sure your asset allocation strategy matches your needs and risk tolerance by going to the Asset Allocation Planner at mybmoretirement.com.

2. Don’t ignore inflation. You could live another 20–30 years or more in retirement — time enough for your cost of living to double. It’s important to ensure a portion of your portfolio is aimed at outpacing inflation. A qualified financial advisor can help you determine the right mix for you.

3. Create a withdrawal strategy for retirement.Once in retirement, you may need help with identifying all your sources of retirement income and deciding how and when to take that income. For example, what part of your monthly income will come from Social Security? What investment account do you take additional money from? How much can you take? A financial advisor is your best resource for developing a distribution plan. The Depletion Calculator at mybmoretirement.com can help you determine how long your savings will last based on how much money you need per year.

Retirement can be exciting and fulfilling. Whatever you envision for your golden years, remember, BMO Retirement Services is always here to help you each step of the way.

The first member of your retirement team may be someone you don’t think of often enough: you. Each of us brings a different set of expectations and circumstances

when considering retirement. These experiences help determine how we approach planning for this important event. To ensure your retirement savings evolve with life changes, it’s important to start early and have a playbook. Consider the following tips for each part of the game.

The first step? Getting startedRetirement isn’t usually top-of-mind when you’re in your 20s and early 30s. You may be focused on other life events: paying back school loans, buying/leasing a car, starting a family or even purchasing a new home. Retirement seems like a distant dream, a consideration for “later.” But, as with any important goal, saving for retirement is another life event that is best planned early.

For example, let’s say you want to accumulate $1 million by the time you reach age 65. At age 25, you’d need to contribute just $502 each month to reach your goal, assuming a six percent average annual return, compounded monthly. Wait until you’re 35 to get started and you’d need $996 each month to build that same nest egg.1

Here are three retirement planning strategies to implement in your 20s and 30s that can help you plan for a secure retirement:

1. Make saving a priority. Sign up and take full advantage of your employer-sponsored retirement plan. Reap the benefits: pre-tax contributions may lower your taxes, your company may make a matching contribution and automatic deductions from your paycheck make it easy to start saving. To learn more about retirement plans, check out the video, Seven things you may not know about your company’s retirement plan, on mybmoretirement.com.

2. Determine your retirement goal.Retirement is likely to be expensive. Experts estimate

you may need 70 percent or more of your pre-retirement income in retirement in order to maintain your standard of living once you stop working. The Savings Planner Calculator on mybmoretirement.com can help you determine whether you’re saving enough to meet your goals.

3. Review your investment portfolio. Diversifying your investments is an important step in managing your risk as you prepare for retirement. The Asset Allocation Planner on mybmoretirement.com can assist with ensuring you’re not taking on too much risk based on your time horizons and retirement goals.

Your top priority? Staying on trackYour 40s or 50s are likely to be your peak earning years. That additional income can be a big help when saving for retirement. This is the time you begin to visualize retiring and start thinking about how much you need to save and what kind of retirement you’d like to have. Will you travel? Or will you stay close to home to enjoy family? These decisions help you determine how much you need to save to maintain your lifestyle. Financial experts agree that retirement should be a top priority in this stage.

Here are three things you can do now to keep your savings on track:

1. Pay yourself first.If you’ve been saving all along, you may only need to tweak your habits. However, if you’ve put retirement on the back burner, you’ll need to push hard to make up for lost time. Increase your retirement plan contributions as much as you can; the maximum personal contribution limit for your retirement plan is $17,500 in 2013. If you’re age 50 or older, you can contribute an additional $5,500 this year. The Salary Deferral Take-Home Pay Calculator located on mybmoretirement.com can help you determine the impact increasing your contributions will have on your take-home pay.

2. Don’t dip into your savings. You may be tempted to use some of your retirement savings to fund other needs and wants.

Game onWhat’s your playbook for retirement?

1 This example is for illustrative purposes only. It is not representative of any investment vehicle. Your results will be different. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.

Snap a picture of this QR code to find the calculators, tools and videos in this article.

EducatedWherever you are. Wherever you are going. 4

To benefit or not to benefit?Thinking of taking Social Security? Before you do, you’ll want to weigh your options carefully. This decision can have a significant impact on the level of benefits you receive over time. For a quick estimate of what your benefit will be at your selected retirement age, visit the Social Security Calculator on mybmoretirement.com.

It’s significantThe percentage of American workers planning to retire at age 66 or older has increased significantly in the last 10 years. In 2003, 24 percent of workers said they plan to retire at age 66 or older; today, that number stands at 36 percent.

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, Fact Sheet #4.

Is this you?• 44 percent of American workers ages 25–34 are currently not saving for retirement.

• Nearly half of workers (49 percent) ages 45–54 have not calculated how much money they’ll need to save in order to live comfortably in retirement.

Source: Employee Benefit Research Institute and Mathew Greenwald & Associates, Inc., 2013 Retirement Confidence Survey, Fact Sheet #4.

Before you do, consider the potential loss to your retirement savings and the impact this may have on your retirement timeframes or goals. To understand all of the implications of taking a loan from your retirement plan, check out the Impact of Taking a Loan From Your Retirement Calculator on mybmoretirement.com.

3. Work with a professional. At ages 40 to 50, you’re still a long way from retirement. To make sure you’re doing all you can to maximize your savings, now may be the time to add a financial professional to your team, if you haven’t done so already. The right financial advisor can help you refine your goals, set realistic targets and help ensure you have the right mix of investments to meet your specific goals. For more on this, please see our article, Who’s Quarterbacking Your Retirement Team?

The final push: Nearing retirementYou’re in the home stretch! This is a crucial time for boosting your retirement savings, aligning your resources and making sure your portfolio is properly positioned to reflect this next important stage of life.

These three tips can help bring you closer to living comfortably in retirement:

1. Boost your savings with catch-up contributions.Try to save the maximum permitted by the IRS (currently $17,500) in your employer-sponsored plan. Once you’ve maxed out your regular contributions, boost your retirement savings further with catch-up contributions of up to $5,500 (for workers age 50 and older).

2. Create a realistic budget. Now is a good time to take a close look at your anticipated expenses, including health care and prescription costs that may currently be covered by insurance. To help you get started, use the Retirement Budget Calculator located on mybmoretirement.com. This will help you estimate your costs and determine what adjustments, if any, may be necessary while preparing for retirement.

3. Re-evaluate your asset allocation. As you near and enter retirement, portfolio losses — especially when coupled with regular withdrawals — can put your financial security at risk. A trained financial professional can provide the objective, personalized advice you need to

protect your assets and help ensure income distributions meet your financial needs.

Now, it’s time to enjoy: In retirement You’ve saved your entire career for retirement; now it’s time to enjoy those savings. Just be sure you don’t spend your nest egg too quickly. After all, with life expectancies on the rise, you could spend 30 or more years in retirement.

To make sure your money lasts as long as you need it to, consider the following three tips:

1. Stay the course. Stick with a sound asset allocation strategy to provide a regular stream of income. Now is not the time for risky investments. Make sure your asset allocation strategy matches your needs and risk tolerance by going to the Asset Allocation Planner at mybmoretirement.com.

2. Don’t ignore inflation. You could live another 20–30 years or more in retirement — time enough for your cost of living to double. It’s important to ensure a portion of your portfolio is aimed at outpacing inflation. A qualified financial advisor can help you determine the right mix for you.

3. Create a withdrawal strategy for retirement.Once in retirement, you may need help with identifying all your sources of retirement income and deciding how and when to take that income. For example, what part of your monthly income will come from Social Security? What investment account do you take additional money from? How much can you take? A financial advisor is your best resource for developing a distribution plan. The Depletion Calculator at mybmoretirement.com can help you determine how long your savings will last based on how much money you need per year.

Retirement can be exciting and fulfilling. Whatever you envision for your golden years, remember, BMO Retirement Services is always here to help you each step of the way.

The first member of your retirement team may be someone you don’t think of often enough: you. Each of us brings a different set of expectations and circumstances

when considering retirement. These experiences help determine how we approach planning for this important event. To ensure your retirement savings evolve with life changes, it’s important to start early and have a playbook. Consider the following tips for each part of the game.

The first step? Getting startedRetirement isn’t usually top-of-mind when you’re in your 20s and early 30s. You may be focused on other life events: paying back school loans, buying/leasing a car, starting a family or even purchasing a new home. Retirement seems like a distant dream, a consideration for “later.” But, as with any important goal, saving for retirement is another life event that is best planned early.

For example, let’s say you want to accumulate $1 million by the time you reach age 65. At age 25, you’d need to contribute just $502 each month to reach your goal, assuming a six percent average annual return, compounded monthly. Wait until you’re 35 to get started and you’d need $996 each month to build that same nest egg.1

Here are three retirement planning strategies to implement in your 20s and 30s that can help you plan for a secure retirement:

1. Make saving a priority. Sign up and take full advantage of your employer-sponsored retirement plan. Reap the benefits: pre-tax contributions may lower your taxes, your company may make a matching contribution and automatic deductions from your paycheck make it easy to start saving. To learn more about retirement plans, check out the video, Seven things you may not know about your company’s retirement plan, on mybmoretirement.com.

2. Determine your retirement goal.Retirement is likely to be expensive. Experts estimate

you may need 70 percent or more of your pre-retirement income in retirement in order to maintain your standard of living once you stop working. The Savings Planner Calculator on mybmoretirement.com can help you determine whether you’re saving enough to meet your goals.

3. Review your investment portfolio. Diversifying your investments is an important step in managing your risk as you prepare for retirement. The Asset Allocation Planner on mybmoretirement.com can assist with ensuring you’re not taking on too much risk based on your time horizons and retirement goals.

Your top priority? Staying on trackYour 40s or 50s are likely to be your peak earning years. That additional income can be a big help when saving for retirement. This is the time you begin to visualize retiring and start thinking about how much you need to save and what kind of retirement you’d like to have. Will you travel? Or will you stay close to home to enjoy family? These decisions help you determine how much you need to save to maintain your lifestyle. Financial experts agree that retirement should be a top priority in this stage.

Here are three things you can do now to keep your savings on track:

1. Pay yourself first.If you’ve been saving all along, you may only need to tweak your habits. However, if you’ve put retirement on the back burner, you’ll need to push hard to make up for lost time. Increase your retirement plan contributions as much as you can; the maximum personal contribution limit for your retirement plan is $17,500 in 2013. If you’re age 50 or older, you can contribute an additional $5,500 this year. The Salary Deferral Take-Home Pay Calculator located on mybmoretirement.com can help you determine the impact increasing your contributions will have on your take-home pay.

2. Don’t dip into your savings. You may be tempted to use some of your retirement savings to fund other needs and wants.

Game onWhat’s your playbook for retirement?

1 This example is for illustrative purposes only. It is not representative of any investment vehicle. Your results will be different. Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against loss in a declining market.

Snap a picture of this QR code to find the calculators, tools and videos in this article.

EducatedWherever you are. Wherever you are going.3