Ah, retirement. The golden years. That coveted time of life where you get to kick back at last and enjoy the fruits of your labor.
But retirement isn’t always or inevitably an age of endless ease, as so many of us hope and dream it will be. For far too many, retirement is fraught with financial anxiety, the fear that an uncertain future may drain that hard-won nest egg and rob you of the security you deserve.
The good news, though, is that it’s possible to find security and prosperity in your retirement, no matter how old you are or how soon you plan to leave the workforce. We’ll show you how.
Make a Plan
As with most good things in life, a prosperous retirement begins with a manageable plan. You can’t just sit back and hope that your retirement finances will work themselves out. Even if you’ve been putting a portion of your income into a retirement account, that’s just the first of many steps you should take to shore up your financial future.
Planning for your retirement begins with getting educated. Many employers will offer financial education opportunities to help employees prepare for retirement and other major life events. Once you understand the tips and tricks for maximizing your retirement savings at any age, the more likely you are to be prepared for whatever contingencies may arise during your retirement.
This might include, for instance, reducing your expenses and topping out your IRS retirement contributions. You might also take a closer look at your investments to determine if there are any fees that might be avoided or opportunities to diversify that might be pursued.
Avoiding Retirement Scams
Becoming financially savvy in your own right isn’t just about making a solid financial plan and steadily bringing that plan to fruition. It’s also about learning how to identify scams when they occur. Unfortunately, financial fraud can be a particularly significant risk when you are preparing for or already in retirement.
So beware of exorbitant promises or suspicious claims that aren’t supported by cold, hard third-party data. When it comes to avoiding retirement scams, the old adage, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” is a truth truly to live by.
Avoid the Avoidance Trap
For many of us, financial matters can be both mysterious and scary, particularly when it comes to something as important as your retirement finances. And because retirement finances are, inevitably, a fraught topic, your first instinct is likely to try to avoid the issue entirely.
That instinct, however, is unlikely to serve you well. Ensuring your prosperity in retirement is about being proactive, not reactive, and that will require you to make some significant decisions sometimes. For example, you may be faced with the possibility of refinancing your home to help secure your retirement nest egg. That’s not a decision to be entered into lightly. The key is to be informed. From determining how much equity you have in your home to getting your prequalification, getting the facts will enable you to be confident in your decision.
Obviously, determining whether such a move is right for you takes a willingness to make big decisions and see them through, armed with the right information and a guiding vision of the future.
Expect the Unexpected
If there are any certainties in life, it’s uncertainty. The only thing you can ever really know for sure is that you can never predict with 100 percent accuracy what may lie just around the corner for you or the ones you love.
Flexibility is critical in ensuring your long-term prosperity during retirement. And what that means is that you’ll need to be agile and responsive both while you’re building your nest egg and when you begin tapping into it after you stop working.
You may find, for example, that a decline in the value of your investments requires you to change up your strategy as you work to preserve and grow your wealth for retirement. Likewise, an unexpected circumstance, such as a health issue, may require you to adjust your retirement budget and rethink how you spend your savings to ensure they keep you comfortable and secure across the years to come.
Up Your Insurance Game
When we think of insurance, the first things that come to mind are often the biggies: life, medical, auto, etc. But specialty insurances can be vital in ensuring your prosperity through retirement. Long-term care insurance, for example, can safeguard you and those you love against a significant illness or injury, which become an increasing threat as we age. Such plans help ensure that you or someone you love will always receive the highest quality of care without compromising either your standard of living or long-term financial security.
Monetize Your Mojo
As assiduous as you may be in planning for retirement, as careful as you are in saving and spending, retirement is not a one-and-done deal. Your earning potential does not end just because your formal career has.
In fact, there are myriad ways to make money during retirement without recommitting yourself to the daily grind. Retirement can actually be the perfect time to live the dream of making money by doing what you love.
Monetizing your favorite hobby can keep the revenue stream flowing while also helping you to stay cognitively sharp, physically active, and socially engaged. From brewing and selling your own craft beer to restoring classic vehicles for a lucrative flip, the possibilities for translating a fun hobby into a bit of extra cash are endless.
The Takeaway
Retirement can be the opportunity to live at last the life you’ve been dreaming of for your entire career. But it doesn’t simply happen. Ensuring lasting prosperity throughout your retirement requires vision, strategy, and discipline. By combining commitment with flexibility, you can enjoy the retirement of your dreams for decades to come.
