Getting Your Retirement Nest Ready

Retirement can either be exciting or daunting, depending on how much cushion you prepared for yourself. If you are part of the former, congratulations! Your hard work paid off and you can now harvest the fruits of your labor. However, if you find yourself to be the latter, don’t fret yet. You still have time but don’t rush to a retirement calculator just yet and start taking these actionable steps to help you get ready for retirement.

The first step is self-awareness. Ask yourself, “How much do I have stashed away for retirement?” Second question should be, “What kind of lifestyle do I want?” Once you have the answers to these two questions, move on to the next step, you can now punch some numbers into a retirement calculator so you know how much money you should have saved up and how much more you need to get there. Just note that it is recommended that you retire with some saving of at least 10 times your last full time work year’s income. After getting that magic number, you can move on to the most exciting part, what steps you can take to get there.

There’s two ways to go about with preparing for retirement when you’re in your 50’s. You can either reduce your expenses or increase your income. Reducing your expenses means going back to the second question you asked yourself, which asks you to determine what kind of lifestyle you want. If you find yourself reading this article seriously, then you may want to opt for a low-key lifestyle that does not cost as much. Some cut down their retirement expenses by finding hobbies that do not cost as much. Retirement is often associated with more expensive toys to play with, but it does not always need to break the bank if you can find yourself enjoying in things that comes cheap. After all, most of the best things in life are free right?

If you prefer to find ways to earn more to maintain the lifestyle you are accustomed to, it would help if find yourself enjoying your full-time job so you can keep on putting money into your retirement accounts. People who are 50 and up can stash away $24,500 in a 401(k) and up to $6,500 in an IRA. Another path people, who are less averse risk like to take, is trading in the market. Stocks and bonds are two vehicles seniors can consider if they would like to make their money to grow. Just a word of caution though, you may want to keep an eye on the market of you go down this path because it is like gambling if you do not know what you’re doing. The rule of the thumb here is the higher the risk you take, the higher the reward you’ll get, however, this rule should be taken with more seriously especially when you are retirement. You can’t really afford to lose a lot of money, unless you don’t want to stop working. If you’re unsure how stocks and markets work, you’ll be better off with bonds as long as the interest rate is higher than the current inflation rate. If the rate is lower than inflation, then you’re just losing money so you might as well just leave it in your savings account and avoid the transaction costs associated with it. Another opportunity for seniors is part-time work and other job opportunities that the “gig economy” presents. What is the gig economy? It is the segment of the workforce whose work is characterized by short-term contracts and freelance work on almost any type of work. While pensions are unheard of in these job contracts, it is still a great way to earn a living at your own terms.  It is also a great way to keep yourself busy and have a purpose, as you can learn new skills while doing these side hustles.

Now, this is just a starting point for you in getting your retirement nest ready. You can learn more about being financially independent by attending classes that is geared towards helping you be prepared and informed about things like Medicare, estate planning, and other financial matters. Calamar delivers these classes as part of their Connect 55+ program available in different independent senior apartments, such as that in Kansas City, KS. There are also senior apartments in Kansas City, MO and some retirement communities in New Hampshire, NH that offers the same program.

This is the syndicated copy of an original article posted at https://www.calamar.com/getting-your-retirement-nest-ready-calamar