Money Management

Need accounting help? Read on to see why summer is the ideal time to look into it. 

Whether you need an accountant for your small business or your own personal needs, it’s important to find the right person for the job. The accountant you hire should be someone who’s trustworthy, who takes the time to explain things, and who’s knowledgeable enough to help you make savvy financial and tax-related decisions.

If you’ve yet to find the right accountant for you, it pays to focus on that search during the summer months. Here’s why.

You can take your time without pressure

Many people first seek out accounting help when they’re gearing up to file their taxes. But if you wait until the winter to find an accountant, you might struggle.

Accountants tend to be very busy during tax season. And the demand for them can be strong at that time. So an accountant may not have the time to schedule a consultation with you in February or March.

Similarly, toward the end of the year, some accountants are busy helping their business clients close out their books. Between that and the holidays, it’s not the best time to be searching for help, either.

But during the summer, accountants tend to have more flexibility. This isn’t necessarily the case for everyone, but in general, the typical accountant has more wiggle room in their schedule. So they’re more likely to have time to sit down and have a lengthy discussion about what you’re looking for.

Also, you yourself might feel a lot less pressured going about the process of finding an accountant during the summer. That’s because you won’t have a tax-filing deadline looming.

Ask the right questions

There are several key questions you’ll want to ask to find the right accountant for you. These might include:

What’s your preferred method of communication? You might prefer someone who’s willing to have you come in for meetings rather than someone who does most of their business over email and Zoom.What are your rates? This is an important one, because you need an accountant whose services you can afford. Forbes says that an accountant’s rate can range from under $37 to upward of $400 per hour, depending on their experience and the work at hand. Clearly, that’s quite a wide range, so you’ll want to figure out what your fees will look like and what they give you in return.What experience do you have with situations like mine? If you run a small business, you’ll want an accountant who’s worked with small businesses before. It’s important to find someone whose experience aligns with your needs.

At the same time, you’ll want to make sure any accountant you talk to asks you the right questions. They should want to know things like what your employment status is (salaried versus self-employed, for example) and what your financial goals and concerns entail.

An accountant can do a lot more than just help you with taxes. They can also help you with tax and financial planning and help you implement strategies to lower your IRS burden. So if you need someone to do those things for you, start looking this summer — before you head into a crunch.

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You deserve a comfortable retirement. Read on to see how to set yourself up for one. 

The idea of going from earning a steady paycheck to retiring completely can be scary. After all, instead of bringing in money, you’ll be relying on what will likely be a combination of Social Security and personal savings to cover your senior living expenses.

Meanwhile, only 59% of Americans say they can afford a comfortable retirement that lasts more than 10 years, according to recent data from Edward Jones. If you want to be in a position where you can live comfortably for well over a decade, it’s important to prioritize your retirement savings from a young age. Not only that, but you should also plan to invest your savings in stocks so your money grows at a rapid pace over time.

A winning formula

If your goal is to enjoy a comfortable retirement, it’ll take money — there’s no getting around that. And to end up with a lot of money, you’ll need to commit to funding your retirement savings from an early age and investing in the stock market to generate strong returns.

Over the past 50 years, the stock market has averaged an annual 10% return before inflation, based on the performance of the S&P 500 index (which is generally considered to be representative of the market on a whole). As such, if you invest your retirement savings in either a bunch of individual stocks that are part of that index, or an S&P 500 ETF, which basically lets you invest in the entire index with one transaction, you might enjoy an average yearly 10% return on your money, too.

So, let’s say that happens, and that you start funding an IRA at the age of 25. Let’s also assume you want to retire at age 65, which is when you’re old enough to sign up for Medicare. That gives you a 40-year savings and investment window.

Finally, let’s say you’re able to sock away $200 a month for retirement throughout your career. The reality is that you might be able to contribute more than that as your career progresses and your earnings pick up, but we’ll go with that $200 regardless, since it’s a fairly reasonable sum of money to part with on a monthly basis.

When we combine all of these factors, you’re left with a nest egg worth a little more than $1 million. That may be hard to believe considering that 40 years’ worth of monthly $200 contributions means putting in just $96,000 of your own money. But it’s that lengthy investment window and 10% return that could make it possible to end up with more than 10 times your money.

A comfortable retirement could be yours

Holding down a job for many decades isn’t easy. So once you’re ready to stop working, you deserve a rewarding, enjoyable retirement to look forward to.

Saving for that milestone from a young age and investing in stocks could set the stage for the comfortable retirement you want, so make every effort to follow these guidelines. Your senior self will thank you for it.

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We’re firm believers in the Golden Rule, which is why editorial opinions are ours alone and have not been previously reviewed, approved, or endorsed by included advertisers.
The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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