After hours, and hours, and year after year of punching a time-clock it’s happened: the thought of retiring is front and center in your mind.
It happens to everybody, usually when your career starts to slow and you’re aging. Yes, you might be thinking it’s time to finally leave the workforce.
So, what’s next after you make the choice to swap your time card and daily routine for a set of golf clubs and cruises? You’ll probably want to think about the state of your financial future.
When it comes to financial planning, it has always been and will continue to be the question if you can affording retirement. This makes sense with the retirement of tens of thousands of Baby Boomers expected to take place for many years to come.
For Boomers, many of whom have little to no retirement plan in place, affording retirement is something to think about and take positive action.
Concerns over Social Security solvency alone epitomize the fact that your personal wealth, a clear-cut concern for each individual, goes well beyond just you. And as crucial as it is to afford retirement in your Golden Years, there are some ways in which retirement planning extends beyond you, the individual. Here are some tips/ideas:
Long-term care: No one wants to think about struggling with debilitating illness or injury, but experts calculate that 70 percent of people older than 65 will need some form of long-term care at some point. Absence of planning for this potential eventuality is like gambling on a stock that’s at a 70 percent risk of loss. But it’s worse than that, because of the toll infirmity places on immediate and extended family. An inadequate long-term plan for health care can not only eradicate savings for you and your spouse, but most other assets you are planning to leave to your children and grandchildren.
Grandchildren: You are either one presently or maybe in the future. Grandparents often prove to be indispensible teachers and caregivers to grandchildren. Whatever saving and spending habits you inculcate into your grandchildren are likely to stick with them their whole lives. Think of it like this: The more financially adept you can make them, the more you can spend out of their inheritance without feeling guilty. On another note, grandparents who lead by example with a strong ethic in money may serve as the best examples. And an ability to contribute to a grandchild’s college fund can make grandparents feel more confident in their future well-being.
Community/charity: While some retirees are trying to turn the tide from a lifetime of poor financial planning habits, others have been carefully accounting their spending habits and expectations for the future. Or, some grandparents have always been financially set. Whatever the circumstances, many retirees would like their legacy to be felt beyond the benefit of their family. There are ways to maximize a contribution to the community, and the earlier you understand what you’d like to accomplish in this capacity, the better.
Before you decide to actually retire think once, twice and be ready for all that goes with as well as what it might mean for others around you in terms of finances.
