The decisions you take within the last 10 years of your working career is critical to your capacity to enjoy or regret your retirement status. During this stage, a lot of major life events need to take shape.
If you have children, they should be thinking of leaving the nest and launching their own careers, while you may be thinking of how to save more, and probably increase the pace of your work.
In fact during the final decade of working age, a lot of people in the United States and developed economies of the world make saving for retirement their utmost priority. Beside savings, with retirement around the corner, here are 9 tested and trusted strategic steps you should take to make your transition a successful one.
- Define Your RetirementÂ
Be practical. Draw a scale of preference, and rule out unnecessary expenses from your life. Buy only things you need, not want. Set realistic financial goals, and start envisioning how you intend to spend your retirement.
- Take Stock of your ‘Assets’
You know how much you earn every month, the savings in the bank and in your retirement account. But, have you tried to explore other nontraditional assets that can fund your retirement? Maybe you collect restore or antique cars or you have a novel you have been writing, but yet to finish.
You can turn some of your skills and hobbies into real income during your retirement. For example, this could be teaching people how to write novels or trading antiques.
Take time to list all your skills and hobbies. If you have one or two skills, try to boost your capacity in them, and see how you can convert them into money-making ventures during retirement.
- Evaluate your health status now
If you want to get the most out of your retirement, then you need to strive as much as possible to be healthy. While few people enjoy doctor’s visits, taking preventive medical attention would surely go a long way.
Schedule your preventive and checkup examinations now, and at every appointment, make sure you ask your health provider how to maintain or improve your health.
Commit to getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating healthy. Commit to staying mentally alert with books, puzzles, and brain games. Stay in close contact with your friends and family, this will help to maintain your health mentally, physically and emotionally- all these will help in fighting anything that may arise during your retirement.
- Determine when to collect social securityÂ
It would be awesome if you can save and invest, so that you can enjoy financial freedom during your retirement. Many people will need social security benefit- this will help in paying for their basic essentials and supporting their retirement dreams.
The time you decide to start collecting social security will have an impact on how you will get in monthly benefits. The longer you wait, the better for you and your family.
- Build and maintain an amazing network
It is important you build and maintain a formidable network in your retirement. Various networking opportunities can help you to showcase your talents, skills and hobbies. It is good to showcase yourself to people that can help you scale your retirement dreams.
So, including a networking strategy in your retirement plan will pay you awesome benefits. This could be spending half an hour on social media a day conversing, networking with people who share your interests and skills. Such strategies can grow your network and net worth during retirement.
Be socially active and viable, both online and offline- this will create more opportunities for you.
- Decide how much work is necessaryÂ
This is the best time to decide how much you will need to work. Write down your retirement goals, and decide how much how much work is required at every given time.
Right now, weigh the pros and cons of working hard, including how many hours you will need to work per day, per week and per month. The more you do this, the more secured you will be in your retirement plans.
- Create a retirement budgetÂ
Your budget should include:
- Your income
- How much you will need to accomplish your financial goals, andÂ
- Your current debtÂ
Start today to track your income and expenditure for a couple of months, and then figure the amount of money you will need in supporting your chosen lifestyle.
Also, do a financial assessment of your investments, and try as much as possible to diversify your investments into multiple opportunities. If you are indebted, ensure your budget includes strategies on how to knock it down, monthly.
- Save more and Cut down your expensesÂ
Saving more will make you well prepared, but this doesn’t mean that every cash you make should be saved. Cut down your expenses; start listing your bills and how to trim them. You can decide to limit the number of times you eat out.
Growing your vegetables or cash crops around your garden can save you some cash that could have saved. Please don’t ignore your debts.
Cut your debts today, by paying off all the smallest debts first, then concentrating on paying the biggest debts gradually. This is one strategy that works for everyone.
- Get ready for the unexpected
It is good to prepare for the unexpected right away so that you won’t get caught off. Take time to plan on how you will respond to minor issues such as roof leak to serious issues like ailments.
Planning and getting for them will enable you to weather those storms as they come. Discuss it with your family, and know how much it will cost you to make adjustments to minor or bigger issues as they come.
