The digital age presents people planning their retirement with a significant advantage – they can do it all online. Gone are the days of pouring over paper statements and trying to find a way to keep track manually. Using powerful online tools, you can map out a strategy that will keep you comfortable when it comes time to retire.

Why Manage Your Retirement Accounts Online?

Monitoring your retirement accounts online helps you plan. With the right management tools, you can tweak your accounts and diversify your investments to create the best opportunities to meet your retirement goals.

How Do You Keep Your Retirement Saving Secure?

The cyber-world offers many benefits, but it also carries risks. According to the Federal Trade Commission, over one million identity theft complaints in 2023 resulted in more than 10 billion dollars in financial losses.

You can keep your online accounts secure by being vigilant on three key levels:

• Passwords - Choose strong passwords that don’t tie back to anything specific for you. Don’t use your grandchildren’s birth dates, for instance. Use both upper and lower case letters, symbols, and numbers.
• Multi-factor authentication – This adds an extra layer of security beyond just passwords.
• Phishing scams – Be careful with emails in particular. Avoid clicking on any links unless you are sure you understand the source.

Also, store your passwords and account information in a manager program. This will help you track them and tell you when to change passwords.

Check the balance of your accounts regularly, too. That will alert you to any unauthorized activity.

If you are unsure how many retirement accounts you have, a practical starting point is to contact your current and past employers. There are a couple of online tools that can help with that, as well.

The National Registry of Unclaimed Benefits will search for retirement accounts you might not know about using your social security number. If the company you worked for is closed, try the U.S. Department of Labor’s Abandoned Plan Search engine.

Don’t forget social security. You can track that on the Social Security website. Sign up for an account and get regular statements to follow your benefits.

How Do You Consolidate Your Retirement Accounts?

Once you have a plan and locate your accounts, the next step is consolidating them and making them more manageable online. Consolidation allows you to access your retirement income in one place. It will also streamline some of the legwork you must do with account management, such as creating beneficiaries.

One of the most significant benefits of consolidating retirement accounts, though, is to save on fees. There are often administrative fees and annual charges associated with accounts. If you roll them all into one, you can eliminate those costs and add to your savings.

Be sure to read each account's fine print because moving funds may also cost you. Also, look at any benefits of the account and determine if you want to lose them, such as hardship withdrawals.

How Do You Find the Right Online Tools?

Regardless of your stage in retirement planning, there are online tools that can help you manage it.

Just Getting Started

The earlier you start planning ways to fund your retirement, the better, but it is never too late. The federal government offers a tool that helps you organize your retirement planning. This website provides interactive worksheets for:

• Goals and Priorities
• Financial Documents Checklist
• Retirement Saving
• Cash Flow Spending Plan
• Debt Reduction

A summary page also gives you completion dates for each section. You can use these tools to get you started or register for a free account and save your information.

There are also private sector platforms available for retirement planning. Empower, for example, is an all-in-one retirement planner with a subscription fee. When you open an account, you can access account management tools, cash advances, online trades, and financial advice.

Other retirement planning platforms include:

• Vanguard
• Betterment

These are large retirement and investment planning programs. If that’s a bit much for you, free online tools can help you understand what to expect from your retirement savings. These apps act as calculators that estimate your retirement savings. For example, TransAmerica offers one that tells you how much money you will have at retirement age when you save a percentage of your income into a retirement account.

Managing your retirement accounts online will help you meet your financial goals regardless of when you start planning. As you near retirement age, online management will allow you to withdraw from your accounts strategically to reduce your tax burden and costs.