Are You Ready for Retirement? Make Preparation a Little Easier with These Simple Tips

Are you getting closer to retirement age? When you’ve been working all your adult life, it’s nice to have something to look forward to. To enjoy time with your loved ones, to make the most of your money and to live as comfortably as possible as you welcome the next stage of your life.

Are You Ready for Retirement? Make Preparation a Little Easier with These Simple Tips
[ image: pexels.com by Monica Silvestre ]

However, retiring isn’t as easy and as simple as not going to work every day. It requires careful planning and putting everything in place so you can create the retirement that you want and deserve. You’ll need to get your finances and your benefits in order first (click the link to find out more about collecting social security retirement and disability simultaneously). But, what other steps should you take to plan your retirement? Read on for some simple retirement advice.

Decide what kind of retirement you want

Do you plan on traveling? What about splitting your time between home and overseas? Maybe you want to volunteer or even work part-time at a job you actually enjoy? Once you know what kind of retirement you want, you’ll be able to plan your finances accurately.

Figure out your retirement income

As mentioned above, once you visualize what you want your retirement to consist of, you need to focus on your finances. What savings do you have? Make sure you’re taking full advantage of any employer pensions, investment accounts and social security payments to boost your retirement income. If you’re planning on taking on a part-time job, then you could also estimate further income from that. You should continue to revise your finances as you approach retirement and factor in any changes.

What about your expenses?

Then, you’ll need to calculate what your expenses are going to be. Mortgage or car payments, food bills, medical expenses etc. Some expenses may stay the same, others may increase as you get older (health bills/eating out) and others may decrease (clothing bills/commuting). Much of this is circumstantial and will depend entirely on the kind of retirement you want to have.

Decide where you want to live

If all your children have grown up and left home, do you really need a 4 bedroom house? Contemplating a house-move during your retirement makes sense if you want to save money and have more cash to play with. You could downsize and buy a smaller property or rent somewhere instead. You may want to live near your family or friends – the choice is yours, but it will have a considerable impact on your financial standing.

Speak with your partner

Your retirement journey is your own, however, you should also discuss your future with your partner and find out their own goals and wants. Rediscover each other and decide what you want to do with your free time, share your dreams and retirement aspirations. Consider achievements you could reach together and invest time with each other to make your relationship stronger. You may not have had this much free time together for decades, so you might not know what to do with it!