Sometimes, no matter how much you try to perfect your retirement planning, things just don’t go as you plan. Not only will you have to deal with the discipline that comes with saving your money, you also have to consider the unexpected circumstances that could affect it.
An increasing inflation rate, a lower housing market, an economic crisis – these are only a few of the things that can affect your plans and bring you some serious retirement problems. In fact, Baby Boomers, despite their positive outlook about it, are not retiring under the best conditions.
An article from Time.com reports that despite the fact that they are retiring without the yields they expected, Baby Boomers do not think they have retirement problems. At least they think that they are not lacking financially. Although this is probably just optimism on their part, computing what they have and the expenses that they will encounter leaves experts wondering what will befall this retiring generation.
Study shows that majority of boomers were forced into retirement
According to a study done by Metlife Mature Market Institute, more than half of the Baby Boomers who are already retired had to do so earlier than the usual. Apparently, job loss and health reasons were the leading causes of this untimed retirement. Obviously, if they were forced to do this, their finances could have suffered. This can lead to some serious retirement problems.
The study titled “The Oldest Boomers: Healthy, Retiring Rapidly and Collecting Social Security,” is published on Metlife.com in the middle of 2013. The highlights of the study reveals the following statistics:
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52% of retired Boomers and their spouses are fully retired and not working.
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12% are working part time.
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54% of the retired Boomers had to retire early because of job loss or health conditions.
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Boomers gradually increased their full retirement age to 71 in 2012.
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39% of working Boomers are confident they can retire as planned while 7% will retire later.
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20% of retired Boomers report a decline in their expected retirement life
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86% of retired Boomers collect from Social Security to help finance their retirement. 43% collected earlier than planned.
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More than half are on track with their saving goals. 34% are having retirement problems with their savings.
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Top retirement problem is the long term health care costs.
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40% of Boomers are confident about their future. 23% are feeling pessimistic about it.
The bottom line of these statistics is this: retirees are getting less than what they expected but they are trying to stay positive about it. This disposition is probably borne out of the fact that they have no choice about their current predicament.
What to do when you retire earlier than planned
While it may seem like it is too late for the retired Boomers, the upcoming retirees can still do something about it. Obviously, you need to prioritize your retirement savings now. The New York Times published an article in June of 2013 that claims how a $1million retirement fund may not last until the end. The article on NYTimes.com reveal that the inflation trend may not be enough to last a couple. Even if they put their money in municipal bonds and withdraw 4% (as is the norm), the computations made will reveal that it will not be enough.
As it is, saving up $1million for retirement is already hard. What if you were unable to reach your retirement fund target because you were asked to retire earlier than planned? Here are 5 tips that we have for you.
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Study your finances. First of all, you want to take a good hard look at what you currently have – regardless if it is less than what you expected. Look at your savings account, emergency fund, retirement fund and investments. It is also a good idea to look at any debt that you may have. Consider how much money you have, what needs to be paid and how much deficit you have to reach your intended retirement goals.
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Find out the benefits you will receive. We are mainly talking about Social Security but you need to understand that there is more to this. Check the Benefits.gov to get a list of benefits that you can avail. This can be added to your monthly retirement income.
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Identify the changes that you will make in your life. The next step is to identify any changes that you will have to make to help your retirement fund last. If you think that you can live like the Tiny House Movement during retirement, then that is a great way to downsize to make your resources last.
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Determine how you can add to your income. If your retirement problems will still require you to earn more, then you may have to accept the fact that you need to continue working. At least, you can do so part time. Or you can put up your own business. Nothing grand – just something that will add to your existing fund to help make it last.
Retirement work to help solve your money problems
Given that you are contemplating working to help deal with your retirement problems, here are some options that you may want to look into for your career. Just make sure you have decided on how much you will need to retire by locking in on the lifestyle that you will live during this time in your life.
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Part time nurse. There is never a shortage of help needed in hospitals and other health care facilities. You can use that to your advantage. Be a part time nurse if you have the employment history to back it up. You can limit your days to 3 days a week or scheduled your shifts to be as low as 4 hours a day.
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Patient advocate. If you are not a nurse yet you want to use your natural caregiving skills to earn extra money, you can hire yourself out as a patient advocate. These people are non-medical professionals who give health care services at home. The tasks include helping patients prepare meals, get dressed, bathe, etc.
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Temp jobs. This is another way you can earn income although you will have to rely on the availability of the work. Good news is, you can have the most basic office skills and it will qualify you for a job.
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Sales personnel. Retail jobs, specifically, will really help retirees deal with financial retirement problems. Some retail employers prefer elderly personnel to assist their customers because they are more patient.
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Tutor. Again, the patience of elderly people are at play here. You can opt to tutor kids to help them with their homework or in areas in their classes that they are having difficulty with.
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Babysit. Being a baby sitter is a job that can be done by both young and old but the more elderly are usually more dependable. They can think fast in case of an emergency so parents will be more than willing to choose them over the younger baby sitters.
There are other jobs that you can look into and it depend on what you want to do. Some retirees work on their hobby to earn from it. You may want to consider your strengths so at least, your work will be quite effortless. Or you can concentrate on your hobby so that you will love what you are working on. That should be a great way to earn more to solve your retirement problems.