FinanceDude
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
- Messages
- 12,483
I recently turned 60. I have a small retirement fund with the company for which I work, roughly 27 to 28K at this point. I DO NOT want to work past 65 or 66. Is there any way to turn my financial mess around? I have never seriously thought of retirement and the need for money until recently. My philosophy was spend it if you've got, because you can't take it with you. Not sound financial thinking. Is there any hope?
— Gene H. Urbandale, Iowa
There’s always hope. But depending on your current living standard, it may be difficult — if not impossible — to stop working at 66 with $28,000 in savings. The only way you’ll know for sure is to sit down and work out a plan. The process is fairly simple:
Figure out how much you think you’ll need to support yourself. If you don’t have a monthly budget, sit down and make one — you’ll need to stick to a budget even more carefully once you stop working. Some retirement planners use rules of thumb like 70 percent of current spending, but only you can decide how much you really need. You may have to make some fairly drastic changes: some people end up moving to a cheaper part of the country to stretch their spending power, for example.
If you’re currently covered by health insurance at work, try to figure how much you’ll need to budget for health care expenses. Even though you’ll be eligible for Medicare, it doesn’t cover all health costs. The rapid rise in health care costs is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy filings among Americans over the age of 55.
— Gene H. Urbandale, Iowa
There’s always hope. But depending on your current living standard, it may be difficult — if not impossible — to stop working at 66 with $28,000 in savings. The only way you’ll know for sure is to sit down and work out a plan. The process is fairly simple:
Figure out how much you think you’ll need to support yourself. If you don’t have a monthly budget, sit down and make one — you’ll need to stick to a budget even more carefully once you stop working. Some retirement planners use rules of thumb like 70 percent of current spending, but only you can decide how much you really need. You may have to make some fairly drastic changes: some people end up moving to a cheaper part of the country to stretch their spending power, for example.
If you’re currently covered by health insurance at work, try to figure how much you’ll need to budget for health care expenses. Even though you’ll be eligible for Medicare, it doesn’t cover all health costs. The rapid rise in health care costs is one of the leading causes of bankruptcy filings among Americans over the age of 55.