Retirement is a time to relax, settle down, and fully enjoy the fruits of your life’s labor. However, many retirees often find it difficult to live comfortably in retirement. Whether it’s because their finances have taken a blow by ending their career, because they simply haven’t saved up enough to retire comfortably, or because they suffer health problems, retirement can be a struggle for some people.
Today, we’re going over what it takes to live comfortably in retirement. Here you’ll find concrete steps that you can take today to ensure that your golden years are spent happily reading by the pool and playing with your grandkids, rather than worrying about health and finances.
Start planning early
The best thing that you can do to ensure that you live comfortably throughout your retirement is start planning well before you actually start thinking about retiring. How early? The short answer is it’s never too early. Even if you’re still in college, if you can afford it, it’s smart to start stashing a little bit of money away on the side.
Through compound interest, which is what most retirement planning accounts use to increase your savings, you stand to earn much, much more over time than you would if you only saved for a shorter period. So, if you need to, tighten your belt a bit and start stashing away extra cash. Future-you will be happy that you did.
Make a retirement budget
If you are nearing retirement, or you’re old enough to have a good idea where your career will be by the time it is time to leave your working days behind you, it’s smart to start building a retirement budget. Here’s how that works:
- Track your monthly expenses and tally them up.
- Calculate how much money you’ll withdraw from retirement accounts each month.
- Make a budget, deciding how much you want to spend in different categories.
Pro tip: Remember that, as you age, it’s likely that you’ll start seeing more health complications arise. So, when making your budget, be sure to allocate a little extra toward medical expenses with each passing year.
Consider funding options
Retirees have a number of options when it comes to funding their retirement expenses. As you start to think about winding down your career and settling into retirement, it’s important to consider the source of the money you’ll use to pay for your day to day life.
Retirees generally make use of one or more of these options:
- Pension or retirement savings: Those with careers that allowed them to save up money, or who worked in sectors where they were provided with a pension, may be able to largely rely on these funds once they retire. If not, they may have to start looking to other sources of income.
- Reverse mortgage:Retirees who own property often think about using a reverse mortgage to fund their retirement. Reverse mortgages allow homeowners to use the equity they’ve built up in their home to fund their retirement, usually through a lump sum or line of credit. Reverse mortgage qualifications can vary, so it’s good to start researching this option soon.
- Encore career:One of the simplest ways to keep up your income streams during retirement is to not fully retire! Some professionals continue on as highly-paid consultants, contractors, freelance workers, or motivational speakers after their working days are done.
Focus on your health
One thing many people in general, and especially those close to retirement, forget about is that it’s not just your finances that you’ll need in order when you retire – it’s your health too.
That means that, in order to live comfortably in retirement, you’ll have to focus on getting enough exercise, eating right, and keeping your mental health in tip-top shape too.
If you haven’t already, now is the time to start thinking about re-evaluating your nutrition, exercise routine, and mental health care plans, to ensure you’re in your best health for your golden years.
Remember the important things
Lastly, it’s important to remember that living comfortably means living. Retirement is the time when you can truly focus on the things that make life most enjoyable: your family, your friends, your favorite hobbies and more.
With the right financial and health plans going into retirement, you’ll be able to enjoy your best life for years to come.