If you are nearing retirement age, you may be exploring ways to put your retirement savings to work in creating a reliable income for yourself well beyond your working years. You may have already devoted some time to speaking with someone to help you accomplish this, because let’s face it, retirement is complicated. Most of the topics surrounding retirement involve money, and rightfully so – it’s the main thing on most American retiree’s minds. Aside from money, however, there are other lifestyle factors that will be key drivers of your retirement success.
Balancing both the management of your finances and your lifestyle in retirement will play large roles in how you’re able to enjoy your new chapter of life.
By exploring the topics listed below, you may gain some insight on ways to make your retirement more comfortable and enjoyable.
1. Downsizing may make a lot of sense
The choice to downsize your home once you enter retirement is a big decision, but, depending on your homeownership costs, it may potentially be one of the best ways to create retirement income by extracting equity from your home to serve you elsewhere in your retirement budget. Many retirees require a larger house and more property to raise their family – commonly in houses with multiple floors and two or more bedrooms and bathrooms. Once the children become adults and move out, retirees often find themselves with too much space.
In addition, many retirees, as they prepare to grow older, may have a desire to have all of their rooms and utilities located on one floor, eliminating the need to travel up and down stairs to complete daily tasks like laundry, cleaning or cooking. A smaller yard may also mean less upkeep and maintenance. As mentioned, downsizing to something more modest may create immediate equity to help accomplish other retirement goals, and likely will also cost you less in taxes, insurance and utilities. Beware, however, the costs associated with downsizing. Do your homework to ensure real estate and moving costs don’t eat away your newly-recognized equity.
2. Make your physical health a priority and a hobby
The cost of assisted living facilities jumped 14 percent in 2017, to more than $54,0001 per year, so it’s easy to understand why so many Americans have large amounts of their retirement savings wiped away due to the need for some sort of long-term care. A multitude of factors
play into your health in retirement, but staying active and working on building and maintain strength can make a world of difference in preserving your mobility, balance, posture and overall well-being. While we as humans will undoubtedly age, and if we live long enough, may eventually require some form of living assistance, you can help stave off the aches and pains of old age with a healthy diet and regular workout routine. In addition, many retirees are making a hobby out of their fitness activities, and it’s easy to see why – yoga, cycling, water aerobics, dance classes and golf are all great ways to stay fit and meet new friends. In addition, studies show exercise can reduce your chances of a fall, and can boost memory and prevent dementia.2
3. Consider a part-time job to stay active
Many retirees find it difficult going from forty or more hours of work per week down to zero when they retire. With so much more free time, it’s easy to see why. In addition to extra time, many retirees underestimate the socialization aspect of working life. Many Americans are finding that going from full-time employment to an enjoyable part-time job strikes the perfect balance – it allows them to retain some semblance of work-related accomplishment, along with the socialization factor mentioned previously. In addition, the added income from working part time allows you to stretch your retirement budget further or leverage the extra cash for investments. Working part time may also allow you to delay touching your tax-deferred dollars, saving them until you absolutely need to withdraw them and they become subject to taxes.
If you have questions about preparing for retirement, call Nevada Senior Advisors at 775-674-2223.
Sources: 1 http://www.richmond.com/business/local/study-shows-cost-of-long-term-care-continues-to-rise/article_1fb90ff2-9a6a-5914-8574-5ba90be7e4ba.html
2 https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/features/exercise-older-adults#1
WILL YOUR RETIREMENT PLAN BE GOOD ENOUGH?
How much thought have you given to your retirement plan? For many of us, probably not quite enough. Retiring in today’s financial environment requires more planning than it did for generations past. We live in a more complex world, not only financially, but technologically as well. Extended life spans, increased costs of living, and reduced employer benefits, are just a few factors making it more difficult for Americans to secure their futures. A man reaching 65 today can expect to live, on average, until 84.3. A woman turning 65 today can expect to live, on average, until 86.6. Additionally, about one out of every four 65-year-olds will live past 90, and one out of ten 65-year-olds will live past 95.
The good news here is that people are living longer due to healthier life styles, improved diets, and advances in medical technology. The bad news? Longer life expectancies require a reliable income stream to draw from for potentially 30 years or more. Whatever your retirement dream, the last thing you want to worry about is outliving your money. The fact that people are living longer should call for a fundamental shift in the way they plan for their retirement.
Arguably one of the most difficult things to do in both retirement and life, is to project future expenses – especially into your final years of life. Many Americans have a blind spot when it comes to planning for long-term care costs. Long-term care is a range of services and supports you may need to meet your personal care needs. Most long-term care is not medical care, but rather assistance with the basic personal tasks of everyday life, sometimes called Activities of Daily Living (ADLs)2. Forbes reports that the average American underestimates the cost of in-home long-term care by almost 50 percent. Meanwhile, a semi-private room in a nursing home can be as expensive as $82,125 – that means an average American is underestimating long-term care costs by around $40,000! Even if you’ve got a healthy nest egg stashed away for yourself, when illness strikes, many need someone they trust to enact the plan they’ve laid out for themselves.
In addition to planning for long-term care costs in retirement, prospective retirees need to be sure they’re taking measures to maximize their Social Security benefit. Most people’s Social Security benefit acts as the foundation of their retirement plan and is usually capable of supporting the rest of their financial plan. The best way to do this is by understanding how it works and what different options may be available to you. In the past, collecting Social Security was mostly a matter of triggering your benefit. Today, however, this is really only one piece of the puzzle: in order to get the most out of your Social Security benefit you need to file in the right way and at the right time.
Before you choose to begin receiving payments or selecting the type of benefit you should file for, you should first know how your Social Security benefit will be calculated. The primary insurance amount (PIA), is decided by your earnings history and how many years you worked. It only becomes available to you at your full retirement age (FRA), which is set according to your birth year. It is not necessary to wait until you reach your full retirement age before you begin taking benefits.
You can elect to file for Social Security as early as age 62 or as late as age 70. Delaying when you file for Social Security may have a profound impact not only on your benefit amount but also on the future of your retirement. Many people don’t realize their monthly benefit could have been much higher if they had delayed filing for Social Security, even by a few years. It is extremely important to consult with a financial professional to decide when the right time is for you to claim your Social Security benefit.
Another large piece of the retirement puzzle is your risk tolerance. Your ability to bear risk could potentially impact the income plan you design for your retirement. Consequently, determining your risk tolerance is a critical component of the planning process. Determining the amount of risk that is right for you depends on your specific situation, which means every person’s risk tolerance is unique. Every investor can fall in one of a number of categories, from extremely conservative to extremely risky, although their position will most likely fluctuate throughout their life as their financial needs and goals evolve.
It is important to note that there are many factors to take into consideration when determining if your retirement plan is good enough to meet your needs and goals in retirement. Planning for retirement is not something that you do a few years before you stop working. Rather, it’s a process that may encompass the better part of your life. Throughout our working years, most of us experience major life events such as engagement, marriage, birth of children, purchasing a home, changing jobs and finally retirement. As you trek through this journey, your finances will undoubtedly continue to evolve, but it’s important to keep your retirement vision at the forefront of your mind and never let it out of your sight.
Will Debt Consolidation Hurt or Help My Credit Rating?
Debt consolidation can lead to an improvement in your credit rating by making your debt easier to manage. Sometimes, debt consolidation means taking a loan at a lower interest rate to pay off several smaller loans at higher interest rates. Making one payment instead of many may help you keep your debt under better control, make it easier for you to make timely payments, and thus improve your credit rating.
Although managing your debt will improve your credit record in the long run, consolidation can have a more immediate impact. For example, if you have 10 accounts in default on your credit report, your lenders will consider you a bad credit risk. But if you can pay off those accounts with a consolidation loan, you have eliminated the problem. Your new credit report will now show that you cured the defaults and retired the debts. And you have only one open account–your consolidation loan. As long as you stay current on the consolidation loan payments, your credit rating will be viewed more favorably than before.
Remember, your goal is to manage your debt by making your payments more affordable. You can do this by lowering your interest rate or increasing the number of months you have to pay off the debt. There is no point in consolidating if you don’t achieve one or both of these goals–you’ll want to be sure you can afford the consolidation loan and make the payments. Otherwise, you’ll end up back where you started.
Although debt consolidation has its advantages, you must recognize that by extending the time to pay off your debt, you will ultimately be paying more in interest charges. Also, once you get a consolidation loan, you should consider closing some of your credit card accounts so that you can’t simply run up your bills again.
Source: Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright, 2018
A RETIREMENT YOU CAN BE PROUD OF
Changes in society and the economy may affect your personal life and the ways you interact in your everyday happenings – and retirement is no different. Each generation faces its own unique set of financial circumstances and challenges to overcome, which are ever-evolving. For instance, baby boomers grew up in the tumultuous Cold War times, members of Gen X shouldered the brunt of the recession and millennials have more student debt than any generation in history. Things like technology, health care and older Americans working longer than ever continue to reshape our current retirement landscape.
In many areas, technology may help make retirement easier – from shopping online to easily having access to your accounts, but like anything, it has its downsides. Technology has added to complexity in retirement planning, with more specialized products and more and more levels of savvy needed to properly manage your own retirement funds.
Additionally, health care has also dramatically changed – particularly the costs associated with it. The ever-increasing costs of insurance premiums and prescription drugs are likely one of the more stress-inducing trends facing retirees in the very near term. More retirees are also working longer into their golden years. For many people, work will remain a part of their lifestyle throughout retirement. All of these changes are constantly altering the way we view retirement in today’s day and age.
It’s difficult to talk about retirement planning without also talking about Social Security. The importance of maximizing your Social Security benefit really cannot be overstated. Remember that every dollar you get from your Social Security benefit is one less dollar that has to be pulled from your personal accounts. So, your decision as to when you will receive your Social Security benefit can either positively or negatively affect your benefit. It is important to understand your benefit to help determine when the best time for you to begin collecting would be.
It’s important to remember that each retiree is different and facing unique challenges, just as each generation is different. Maintaining stream of income, while also having a plan for the possibility of needing long-term care as you get into your latter years or life. Many retirees may also pride themselves on leaving a little something behind for their heirs as a legacy.
As you approach your retirement, it’s important to view it as a major life event that will affect both your financial life and your personal life. Carefully planning the lifestyle you want to live, like how much you’ll travel, how long you’ll work and adding any new hobbies will help you keep the financial aspects of your retirement in clear focus. Last but not least, it’s best to not hesitate in crafting your plan, as you want to do so when you are healthy, independent and are able to execute well-informed decision making.
If you have questions about Retirement Planning or would like a complementary consultation, please call us today at 775-675-2223.
HOW OFTEN DO I NEED TO REVIEW MY ESTATE PLAN?
Although there’s no hard-and-fast rule about when you should review your estate plan, the following suggestions may be of some help.
Reviewing your estate plan will not only give you peace of mind, but will also alert you to any other changes that need to be addressed.
There will be times when you’ll need to make changes to your plan to ensure that it still meets all of your goals. For example, an executor, trustee, or guardian may change his or her mind about serving in that capacity, and you’ll need to name someone else.
Other reasons you should do a periodic review include:
Source: Broadridge Investor Communication Solutions, Inc. Copyright, 2018
If you would like more information on reviewing or setting up an estate plan, give our office a call at 775-674-2223.
ORGANIZING YOUR RESOURCES FOR RETIREMENT
Retirement should provide you the financial freedom to do all the things you’ve always wanted to do in the years after you’ve finished your working life.
However, you’ll need a plan to carefully execute the financial side of things before you can start checking things off of your bucket list.
Retirement lifestyle planning encompasses the non-financial elements of retirement and life, things like traveling, spending time with family, partaking in new hobbies, engaging socially and more. Carefully setting goals for how you’ll best accomplish this is an important factor to take into consideration when preparing for retirement.
Without the framework of an 8-hour, everyday job to provide structure to your life, you’re going to be left with no choice but to find new ways to spend your time and give yourself purpose, and some retirees will have more trouble accomplishing this than others.
Though, with more information available today than ever on retirement lifestyle options, it’s easier than ever to research and find ways to make your retirement meaningful while also leaving plenty of time to relax and doing all the adventuring you dreamed of during the years of hard work.
Although you can plan years in advance, you likely won’t have a perfect read on things until you actually have reached retirement and become entrenched in that lifestyle. The baby boomer generation tends to have a very hardworking mentality, which makes it difficult for many of them to disassociate with what they’ve done for a living. If you are within this generation and nearing retirement, the very attitude that has likely served you very well throughout your career could now make for an uncomfortable first few months or even years away from work.
Most retirees do not have a sound plan for how they’ll adjust to life with no constant paycheck coming in. The shock from going from the constant flow of income to becoming responsible for transforming their nest egg into a steady stream of money to live off can be a big transition for many. However, just as stressful an issue for retirees may be how they fill their time. Continuing to work, whether you stay at your current job and scale back your hours, or find new work geared more toward something that you have a passion for, can be great ways to ease into
Retirement while generating supplemental income. In fact, many retirees are able to delay accepting their Social Security benefit by continuing to work after their professional career comes to an end. Doing so will then increase your monthly benefit once you do decide to accept at a later date. In addition, continuing to work can help you remain active and help you stay mentally sharp, and keep you from becoming sedentary.
Exercising has proven to be a great source of mental and physical release, and gives you a multi-pronged approach to improving your retirement lifestyle. Not only will you have something to help fill the hours of your week and give yourself new goals to work toward, but you’ll likely be improving your health and longevity of your life inthe process.
Another great way to fill your time and gain a sense of satisfaction is to volunteer in your community. In reading about retirement planning, we oftentimes talk about filling the income gap from your working life to your non-working life, but these are great ways to bridge the psychological gaps you’ll also face!
Lastly, ask yourself how you want to be remembered. Think about your legacy, not only in terms of your wealth and the inheritance you want to pass on, but what you accomplished in other aspects of life, like family, community, spirituality and other causes. Finding the perfect balance once you reach retirement won’t be as simple as it may seem during your working years, but this is simply the next challenge for you to overcome.
For additional information about this topic or if you have any other questions regarding retirement, please do not hesitate to contact us at 775-674-2223.
What Is The Difference Between A Fixed And A Variable Annuity
An annuity is a contract with an insurance company in which you make one or more payments in exchange for a future income stream in retirement. The funds in an annuity accumulate tax deferred, regardless of which type you select.
Deferred fixed annuity
A deferred fixed annuity is an insurance-based contract that can be funded either with a lump sum or through regular payments over time. Fixed annuity contracts are issued with guaranteed minimum interest rates. The funds in your fixed annuity are able to build and earn interest during the accumulation phase. You don’t have to pay taxes on interest earned until it is withdrawn. By postponing taxes while your funds accumulate, you keep more of your money working and growing for you instead of paying current taxes. This means an annuity may help you accumulate more over the long term than a taxable investment.
Deferred variable annuity
A variable annuity is a contract that provides fluctuating (variable) rather than fixed returns. The key feature of a variable annuity is that you can control how your premiums are invested by the insurance company. Thus, you decide how much risk you want to take and you also bear the investment risk. Most variable annuity contracts offer a variety of professionally managed portfolios called “subaccounts” (or investment options) that invest in stocks, bonds, and money market instruments, as well as balanced investments. Unlike a fixed annuity, which pays a fixed rate of return, the value of a variable annuity contract is based on the performance of the investment subaccounts that you select. These subaccounts fluctuate in value with market conditions, and the principal may be worth more or less than the original cost when surrendered.
Variable annuities provide the dual advantages of investment flexibility and the potential for tax deferral. The taxes on all interest, dividends, and capital gains are deferred until withdrawals are made. When you decide to receive income from your annuity, you can choose a lump sum, a fixed payout, or a variable payout.
Annuities have contract limitations, fees, and charges, which can include mortality and expense risk charges, sales and surrender charges, investment management fees, administrative fees, and charges for optional benefits. Annuities are not guaranteed by the FDIC or any other government agency; they are not deposits of, nor are they guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank or savings association. Any guarantees are contingent on the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company.
For additional information about annuities, CLICK HERE or contact us at 775-674-2223.
DON’T OUTLIVE YOUR INCOME
With the added complexity found across today’s financial topography, there seems to be more questions than ever before for investors and retirees alike when it comes to determining how long their savings will last them.
Whether it’s the rising cost of healthcare, uncertainty in the stock market or skyrocketing consumer and credit card debt, being able to comfortably retire in today’s financial landscape may seem more like a chess match than a relaxing game of checkers.
If each of us knew the exact day in which we would take our last breath, retirement planning would be a breeze. Other than the extreme morbidity of knowing your ultimate expiration date, you’d have the ability to walk your budget backwards, carefully earmarking funds for all the important things you’ll need money for along the way: vacations, home expenses, groceries, bills and ultimately, your end-of-life expenses.
If this were the case, you’d know exactly how much money you’re left to play with after all of the “must-do” items were checked off the list. None of us have this luxury though, so we’re left to navigate these ever-murky retirement waters. However, the days after you’re finished working should be sunny and optimistic – you’ve simply got some planning to do. Only in recent decades has the accountability for retirement savings shifted – almost completely – from employer to the employee, as pensions have largely gone the way of the dinosaur. With the wealth of information available to us today, the duty now falls squarely on you, the retiree. Below are three areas where you will be best served focusing your efforts to ensure that you don’t outlive your savings in retirement.
MAKING A REALISTIC BUDGET AND WITHDRAWAL STRATEGY
First, start with your essential expenses such as food, housing, utilities, clothing, baseline healthcare cost and any monthly payments like auto and homeowners insurance. These should be the expenses that you tie to your most reliable sources of income. What you’ll find now is that once you separate your costs between “wants” and “needs,” is that there is also a lot of “want” within your “need” category. Take some extra time to further analyze this list and decide if you can scale back any of these “highly-desired needs.” Once you’ve met your essential costs, now turn your attention to your discretionary spending – things like vacations, entertainment or one-time travel costs. One of the biggest mistakes that you can make in creating your budget is not including something as “essential” when you should’ve included it within the “discretionary” list, which serves only to add confusion to your budgeting practice.
BOOST YOUR RETIREMENT CASH FLOWS
Even once you’ve called it quits with your career work, there are still so many ways retirees can stay busy while producing extra revenue streams to stretch out their savings, in addition to finding something to fill the hours of their new, wide-open schedule. The real retirement winners are those retirees that are able to combine a hobby with a part-time job. For instance, someone who loves gardening being able to work outside as a groundskeeper after years in front of computer screens as an accountant. Oftentimes, part-time employment allows you to maintain some level of employee-sponsored benefits, which could hold the potential of saving you money on healthcare.
If you have questions about preparing for retirement, call Nevada Senior Advisors at 775-674-2223.
MAKING SENSE OF TAXES IN RETIREMENT
During your working years, everyone told you retirement was the easy life. As you near retirement, however, perhaps it’s seeming like a bit more work than you had imagined. After all, correctly positioning your various retirement accounts, honing in on your risk tolerance, determining your income sources, creating a budget, and deciding the age to start accepting your Social Security benefit are all important issues that should be at the forefront of your retirement planning checklist.
But have you given much thought to the role taxes will play in your retirement lifestyle?
Sadly, most retirees have not, and risk detonating the potential ticking tax time bomb in their portfolio that could have been avoided with a little bit of education and a touch of guidance.
Although taxes are imminent to some extent, once you retire you have the distinct advantage of being able to choose what to pay yourself for income each year by withdrawing from your various accounts or accepting a Social Security benefit. Estimate your taxes for the year and see how much additional room you have in your current tax bracket before you reach the upper threshold. “Maximizing your tax bracket” refers to taking additional withdrawals to “fill up” the entire bracket without going into the next one.
Tax planning for retirement seems simple at first glance, however, retirees face a completely different set of challenges than do younger taxpayers. Oftentimes, clients come to a financial services professional (FSP) with a tax situation they weren’t ever expecting to face, and many of them have forgotten to account for taxes altogether when making important calculations. Each year you should carefully plan out you and your spouse’s income to ensure you know which tax bracket you’re going to land in. By developing and utilizing tax-efficient withdrawal sequences for your income, you can delay having to tap into your tax-deferred accounts until later in life. Many people seem to think that taxable income decreases or goes away in retirement, but that is not the case.
In order to pay Uncle Sam as little as possible over the course of your retirement, you must understand how your different modes of income will be taxed. Planning carefully – on both a long-range and an annual basis – in regards to your tax brackets, will help you increase your post-tax income for retirement. Remember that in retirement, you control (to some degree) how much you pay yourself in income each tax year from actualizing the funds from your retirement accounts.
Long-range tax bracket planning entails putting together a snapshot of the amounts you’ll withdraw from your retirement accounts and other financial vehicles through the years, and carefully coordinating it with when you start accepting your Social Security benefit. In doing so, many retirees are able to rearrange their income sources in such a way that delivers them more after-tax income. While long-range planning assists in designing an overall tax and income strategy over the course of retirement, annual planning, or being able to “control your tax bracket” each year provides an opportunity to revisit ways to reduce tax burden by taking full advantage of standard or itemized deductions and personal exemptions.
As our lives evolve and change, so does our tax situation. Just as it is important to revisit your risk tolerance as your financial landscape continues to undergo major life events and changes, it’s also necessary to do so from a tax perspective. As many retirees leave the working world, they drop into a lower tax bracket initially from the time they retire and stop receiving normal paychecks on through their 60s. At age 70½, however, you’ll be required to take required minimum distributions (RMDs) from your 401(k) or your traditional IRA.
These distributions, along with any other income you’ve still got coming in, has the potential to push you into a higher tax bracket. Some retirees have found success in taking distributions to steadily and carefully draw from their IRA while still in their 60s, and remain in the same tax bracket – many times this helps them avoid getting bumped into a higher bracket.
As most of us know, you’re not able to dismiss taxes altogether. If you are proactively taking measures to be as tax-efficient as possible, however, you will have a leg up on many retirees. It’s always recommended that you work with a tax or financial services professional to help you prepare. With proper tax bracket management, allocation and diversification of your assets, you can be better prepared and help keep as much of your retirement funds as possible.
If you have any questions, please contact Nevada Senior Advisors at 775-674-2223.
Thinking About Your Lifestyle in Retirement
If you are nearing retirement age, you may be exploring ways to put your retirement savings to work in creating a reliable income for yourself well beyond your working years. You may have already devoted some time to speaking with someone to help you accomplish this, because let’s face it, retirement is complicated. Most of the topics surrounding retirement involve money, and rightfully so – it’s the main thing on most American retiree’s minds. Aside from money, however, there are other lifestyle factors that will be key drivers of your retirement success.
Balancing both the management of your finances and your lifestyle in retirement will play large roles in how you’re able to enjoy your new chapter of life.
By exploring the topics listed below, you may gain some insight on ways to make your retirement more comfortable and enjoyable.
1. Downsizing may make a lot of sense
The choice to downsize your home once you enter retirement is a big decision, but, depending on your homeownership costs, it may potentially be one of the best ways to create retirement income by extracting equity from your home to serve you elsewhere in your retirement budget. Many retirees require a larger house and more property to raise their family – commonly in houses with multiple floors and two or more bedrooms and bathrooms. Once the children become adults and move out, retirees often find themselves with too much space.
In addition, many retirees, as they prepare to grow older, may have a desire to have all of their rooms and utilities located on one floor, eliminating the need to travel up and down stairs to complete daily tasks like laundry, cleaning or cooking. A smaller yard may also mean less upkeep and maintenance. As mentioned, downsizing to something more modest may create immediate equity to help accomplish other retirement goals, and likely will also cost you less in taxes, insurance and utilities. Beware, however, the costs associated with downsizing. Do your homework to ensure real estate and moving costs don’t eat away your newly-recognized equity.
2. Make your physical health a priority and a hobby
The cost of assisted living facilities jumped 14 percent in 2017, to more than $54,0001 per year, so it’s easy to understand why so many Americans have large amounts of their retirement savings wiped away due to the need for some sort of long-term care. A multitude of factors
play into your health in retirement, but staying active and working on building and maintain strength can make a world of difference in preserving your mobility, balance, posture and overall well-being. While we as humans will undoubtedly age, and if we live long enough, may eventually require some form of living assistance, you can help stave off the aches and pains of old age with a healthy diet and regular workout routine. In addition, many retirees are making a hobby out of their fitness activities, and it’s easy to see why – yoga, cycling, water aerobics, dance classes and golf are all great ways to stay fit and meet new friends. In addition, studies show exercise can reduce your chances of a fall, and can boost memory and prevent dementia.2
3. Consider a part-time job to stay active
Many retirees find it difficult going from forty or more hours of work per week down to zero when they retire. With so much more free time, it’s easy to see why. In addition to extra time, many retirees underestimate the socialization aspect of working life. Many Americans are finding that going from full-time employment to an enjoyable part-time job strikes the perfect balance – it allows them to retain some semblance of work-related accomplishment, along with the socialization factor mentioned previously. In addition, the added income from working part time allows you to stretch your retirement budget further or leverage the extra cash for investments. Working part time may also allow you to delay touching your tax-deferred dollars, saving them until you absolutely need to withdraw them and they become subject to taxes.
If you have questions about preparing for retirement, call Nevada Senior Advisors at 775-674-2223.
Sources: 1 http://www.richmond.com/business/local/study-shows-cost-of-long-term-care-continues-to-rise/article_1fb90ff2-9a6a-5914-8574-5ba90be7e4ba.html
2 https://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/features/exercise-older-adults#1
The Costs of Financial Procrastination
Many people are guilty of some form of procrastination, whether that means they put off filing for taxes as long as possible or just have an ever-increasing stack of papers on their desk to sift through. This can be especially true with financial responsibilities, because doing financial paperwork isn’t exactly “fun” for most people.
Mark Twain once said “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.”
According to a 2016 report from the Insured Retirement Institute, only 55 percent of baby boomers have set aside savings for retirement. That means that the other 45 percent don’t have retirement savings to fall back on.
Whether it’s that they have a significant amount of debt, their finances are tied up in ongoing expenses, or that they hold onto the idea that they will have time to save for retirement down the road, people are always going to have excuses to delay saving for retirement. Putting off saving for retirement by even a few years, however, can mean the difference between the retirement you desire and outliving your money.
How this kind of procrastination might affect your retirement:
Based on calculations, a 25-year-old that saves $100 every month until he retires at age 65, with an annual return of 6.5 percent, would accumulate over $225,000. If he waited until he was 40 years old to start contributing to his retirement account, the balance would be a significantly smaller at $75,000. According to a report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the median amount of savings for many Americans is about $104,000 for households with members between 55 and 64 years old. That figure tells us that many Americans aren’t saving nearly enough for retirement. The amount that you need for retirement varies by each individual as there are several factors to be taken into consideration.
What should someone do if they find themselves behind on the retirement savings spectrum?
One of the most beneficial things you can do for your retirement savings is to sit down and come up with your list of realistic expenses that you think you will face in retirement. This can help you determine how much you will need to save, and help you gauge how far along you are in your retirement savings process.
If you aren’t sure where to begin when it comes to creating a retirement budget, you can start by looking up online what some of the average expenses are in retirement.
This will include factors like:
For the most part, a lot of your day-to-day expenses will change dramatically when you retire.
You won’t need to commute to work every single day, for example. You also may have your house paid off by then, so you wouldn’t have to worry about mortgage payments. There are some unpredictable costs in retirement such as health care. Health care costs tend to rise throughout your retirement, and the older you get, the more medical help you will likely need. It’s important to factor in these unpredictable costs into your plans, so that you can be as prepared as possible.
Your unique situation could look much different, depending on a list of things:
Source : https://www.protective.com/learning-center/retirement/the-cost-of-procrastination/