Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retirement

Retirement. It’s something that many people look forward to but that people often don’t adequately prepare for. This is unfortunate since not properly preparing for retirement can lead to a difficult and stressful retirement, which is the exact opposite of what most people want. In order to plan for retirement, though, you have to know what your retirement is going to look like, and you can often figure this out and adequately save by asking yourself a few simple questions.   

Question #1: What Do You Want to Do When You Retire?

How much money you’ll need in retirement will depend largely on what you plan to do in retirement. Think about whether you want to travel regularly, where you want to live, and how you plan to spend your time. Obviously, someone who wants to stay home and garden is going to need less to retire on than someone who wants to travel the world! Thus, come up with an idea of how you plan to spend your retirement years and then save an accurate amount to help you accomplish those goals.

Question #2: How Long Will My Retirement Last?

You have no idea how long you’ll be retired or how long you’ll live once you retire. No one can predict the future, but you can make a pretty accurate guess. Figure out your life expectancy by analyzing your overall health and your family history. If you have a realistic idea of your life expectancy, you can make sure that you’re saving enough money to actually get you through your entire retirement.

Question #3: Am I Preparing for Retirement Like I Should?

This last question requires you to be super honest with yourself. If you’re not, you could end up like the many other people out there who are not adequately prepared for retirement. Honestly, unless you’re saving around 10 to 20% of your income on a regular basis and have been for quite some time, you’re probably not doing enough. If you think you could be doing more to prepare for retirement, then start! Talk to a financial adviser to learn about good options for saving for retirement.

As you can see, retirement isn’t something that you can really do without a lot of thought, but if you do put the thought and effort it, it will be worth it because you should have a much better retirement experience when the time comes.

What You Need to Know about Surviving During Retirement

From the time we’re young and start working, we are often told that we need to start preparing for retirement. If we’re smart, we heed that advice, but, even then, it can sometimes be hard to know exactly how much we’ll need to “get by” during our retirement years. Even people who have planned as carefully as possible often find that, when they retire, they don’t have quite as much money to live on as they had planned for. And, while there are always going to be some “unknowns” about what retirement life will be like for you, there are some things you can do to greatly increase the chances that you save up enough money to be financially stable (or better) in your retirement years.  

Know Your Spending Habits

One of the first things you can do to ensure that you adequately prepare for retirement is to be realistic with yourself about your spending habits. Many people underestimate how much they regularly spend and, thus, how much money they’ll actually need to be financially stable in retirement.

If you’re really not sure where your money goes, tracking everything you spend for a few days or weeks can really be eye-opening. You might find that a huge chunk of your pay is going toward dining out or that your mortgage payment is taking most of your money.

Whatever the case may be, taking a realistic look at your spending can help you to make smarter decisions about how you spend your money and to break bad habits before retirement. At the very least, you can get a better idea of how much money you’ll need to live comfortably in retirement and then plan accordingly.

Save Up for Healthcare Costs

Another smart thing you can do to prepare for retirement is to have a savings fund that is dedicated to your general expenses during retirement and another that’s dedicated specifically to your healthcare expenses during retirement.

The average person will spend a lot more money on healthcare in his or her golden years than he or she bargained for. You’ll likely want to have long-term care insurance, as well as savings for those “just in case” health events in life.

No matter what, though, if you have a sizable retirement savings fund plus a fund for healthcare, you should be covered.

These tips can definitely go a long way in helping you adequately prepare for retirement, but remember, in addition to educating yourself on how to be financially sound, you should also consider working with a financial adviser who can go even further toward helping make your dream of a comfortable retirement a reality.

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