Four fool-proof tips on planning the perfect retirement from Smart401k

Roughly 39 percent of Americans who participate in 401k plans do not save enough for their retirement, according to a recent survey by Financial Engines. This comes at a time when 401k assets in the U.S. have risen by 42 percent to $1.8 trillion over the past decade, and 34 percent of U.S. companies have switched to a 401k plan from a traditional pension plan. Holsopple sat down with International Business Times and gave four fool proof tips on how to achieve a secure retirement. Smart401k is based in Overland Park, KS, and named Holsopple CEO last year.

"Many people don't get started in saving for retirement early enough in life," said Holsopple. "They see retirement as being very far away, and often don't realize that they need to start saving until they are middle-aged."

“People aren’t actively engaged in the saving process,” said Holsopple. “They set an asset allocation for their 401k plan and then never look at it again. What they should do is look at it, or have their advisors look at it at various intervals, say, every quarter. We do that automatically for our clients. We’ll make adjustments based on what the markets and the economy are doing.”

"People often say to themselves when it comes to how much they should be contributing, 'well, I think I've got the company match and that's all I need'", said Holsopple. "We don't subscribe to that view. You should keep increasing your contributions in accordance with the progression in your career and salary."

Holsopple added that people sometimes make the mistake of blowing most of their retirement savings early in their retirement. “People often don’t think about what their retirement is going to be,” said Holsopple. “People often don’t account for the fact that they’re going to have more time to spend money when they’re retired then they did when they were working. They spend more time planning their vacations then they do their retirements. This is the money that you’ll have for the rest of your life, and you have to adjust accordingly. Also, medical bills are likely, along with increased spending, and people sometimes don’t plan for that, either.”