If you have already retired and realized you don’t have enough money in savings, what should you do? Here are some actionable items that retirees should make now to help build up your savings in retirement.
FINANCIAL PLANNING
Financial planning and removing fear from your decision-making process is really, important in retirement. If you realize you don’t have enough money and you have worked the 40 quarters necessary or have worked the 10 years required to receive a benefit from social security. Then making the most educated decision on when to take your social security benefit is one aspect to help you potentially improve your situation.
Social Security, the way they think of it, they think your benefits starts at your FRA (full retirement age) based on your year of birth. All they’re doing is penalizing you down for taking it before your FRA or they’re just simply rewarding you up for delaying it and waiting. The reason why this is important is your social security acts one way from 62 to your full retirement age and then it acts a completely different way from your full retirement age until age 70.
Making sure you know the ins and outs of social security and how it works can improve your financial situation greatly.
BUDGETING
Budgeting is the most important thing we all need to do no matter what financial stage we are in life. It is more important when you’re retired because you’re handcuffed with a fixed income. Understanding what’s going out and what’s coming in is a good first step in how to develop savings in retirement. Know your income in retirement then, manage your debt. If there is a shortfall…differentiate the expenses from discretionary and non-discretionary spending. This is the time to cut down on lifestyle spending until you have enough savings that will cover 3-6 months of your expenses.
CONTINUE TO INVEST
Being retired doesn’t mean you have to stop making money. Sure, you can pick up a hobby that pays or a part-time job. What we are really talking about is investing. Investing doesn’t stop when you retire. If you have a nice cushion of emergency cash and then some, consider investing that “lazy money” into strategies that can provide you moderate growth such as fixed income products in the form of online high yield savings accounts to a little more robust strategies like structured notes. The latter can provide you an element of principle protection with a growth component.
LIVE A HEALTHY LIFESTYLE
Our final suggestion on how to build savings in retirement is nothing of a monetary gain but more of a wellness gain. Staying healthy in retirement is THE best money saver. According to the Fidelity Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, an average retired couple age 65 in 2022 may need approximately $315,000 saved (after tax) to cover health care expenses in retirement. Healthcare is one of the largest expenses in retirement. You can save future expenses by staying healthy, exercising, and keeping with a nutritional diet. But don’t just think of the physical, think of the mental as well. Finding your purpose while in retirement is key in your wellbeing and your mental health. According to Transamerica’s 2017 retirement study found that 97 percent of retirees with a strong sense of purpose were generally happy, compared with 76 percent without that sense. So as the old adage states, one apple a day keeps the doctor away…from your fixed income wallet.
Photo by Sven Mieke on Unsplash
