4 Retirement Moves to Make in July Before the Fall Planning Season Kicks Off

For many people, July is a time to relax, enjoy the warm weather, and take a vacation. Retirement planning may be the last thing on your mind as you’re grilling out on the deck and basking in a lighter schedule.

But actually, July could end up being the perfect time to focus on retirement planning. Once fall arrives, many people become busy with work, school schedules, holidays, and year-end financial deadlines.

Image source: Getty Images.

Taking care of a few important tasks in July could put you in a stronger position to tackle some key retirement moves with less stress. Here are a few to put on your radar this month.

1. Check how far you’ve come on funding your retirement savings

July marks the halfway point of the year, making it an ideal time to see whether you’re on track to reach your retirement savings goal for 2027. Review how much you’ve contributed to your 401(k), IRA, or other retirement accounts so far this year. If you’re contributing less than you’d planned, you still have several months to increase your contributions before the year is up.

Let’s say your goal is to contribute $5,000 to your IRA this year, but so far you’re only at $1,500. That means you may need to make spending changes during the second half of the year to boost your savings rate. Now’s the time to figure out what those might look like.

2. Review your asset allocation

It’s important to have a balanced portfolio even if retirement is still pretty far off. You may be more heavily concentrated in certain companies or industries because of stock market gains over the past few years.

Now’s the time to review your asset allocation and make sure it still reflects your investment strategy. If you need to make changes, it’s best to do so when the market is doing well, rather than during a market downturn.

And to be clear, this doesn’t mean the market is headed for a crash during the second half of the year. It simply means that you may want to take action if your portfolio value is up.

3. Make a plan to pay off high-interest debt

You might assume that the debt you’re carrying now has nothing to do with retirement. In reality, it could have quite an impact.

Every dollar you spend on interest is money that can’t go into your IRA or 401(k) plan. So if you’re carrying a large credit card balance or have an expensive personal loan with huge monthly payments, now’s a good time to come up with a plan to whittle that debt away sooner.

4. Figure out if you’re saving in the right retirement account

It may be that you’ve managed to contribute to a retirement account every month this year, and that you’re on track to continue doing so through December. But are you saving in the right account? That’s the big question.

It may be that you’ve been contributing to a traditional IRA or 401(k) to get a tax break on the money you’re allocating to retirement savings. But if you expect to be in a higher tax bracket in retirement than you’re in now, then a Roth IRA or 401(k) could be a smarter bet.

Not only do Roth IRAs and 401(k)s give you tax-free gains on your investments and tax-free withdrawals, but they also don’t force you to take required minimum distributions the way traditional accounts do. That gives you more freedom with your money down the line.

The time to focus is now

Once fall arrives, you may be busy dealing with things like open enrollment at work and the back-to-school season. So you may not have as much time to deal with retirement planning.

For this reason, July is a great time to focus on all things retirement. And if you make these moves, you may find that you have an easier time meeting your savings and financial goals by the time the end of the year rolls around.

The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.