As more people enter their golden years, retirement portfolios become more and more scrutinized. While the next few years seem to be relatively stable in economic terms, there’s always a chance that fund markets might waver, especially in the wake of last decade’s financial crisis. It’s therefore important to weed out weak investment options for those that are tried and true.

The most basic rule for fund portfolios is the four percent rule. This basically means that retirees should only withdraw up to four percent of their fund during their first year outside of their employment. This will help them assess their monthly expenses now that they don’t have a fixed income unlike before.

The rule of 20 encourages investors to save up their funds to 20 times what they are most likely going to spend. This means that for every dollar they project to spend in the future, they will need to save 20 dollars right now. The 10 percent rule is more straightforward; it tells the employee to set aside ten percent of his gross income as savings. This is a quick way of saving up for the future without any overly technical computations.

There are plenty of other tips and tricks when it comes to saving up for retirement, but the most important by far is to make sure that there is actually a portion of the monthly income that goes into savings. Whether it’s one dollar or 100 dollars, the habit of saving money for the long haul will be a valuable one well into the future.