Retirement Countdown 2025

  This has been such a common and important question many soon to retiree(s) need to make a decision. Do I stay or should I go? Sounds like a song lyric, but the truth is, yes where do I decide to live after retiring?  City Living  Here's my predicament, I live and work in the city where my job is so, it makes sense to be centrally located to where my job is - right? But, when you decide to leave, should you relocate? I live in an apartment in the city that has rent control. Many say once I leave, I can't come back as the cost of living for housing will never be the same. On the other hand, I also have real estate property outside of the city. This will be paid off soon. I could live there and forego any additional rent paying in the city. But I don't want to live in a remote setting. For me, I'm a city slicker, I love the city vibe, the convenience of walking out my door and getting a cup of coffee and sit and take in the city setting. Where as living in a remote locat...

I didn't plan on it, but it happened. Earlier this year, a tree fell on my home and I ended up paying for repairs and dealing with the costs after deductions are accounted for. This leaves me with a little debt on my credit cards. My normal approach with credit cards has generally been to pay them in full at the end of each month. Unfortunately, I have to deal with some additional budgeting to pay off a larger balance than usual. I was hoping to keep this streak of not having any consumer debt as retirement nears and of course, when I'm fully retired. But these things happen.  Fallen Tree  One way I could combat these in the future is to have some of the following in place.  EMERGENCY FUND - I'm told from others and reading financial posts, is 3-6 months of monthly expenses saved. These are hard to have on hand as I tend to invest more with my extra money. I need to probably divert some into this account to avoid any "emergencies" hence a tree falling on my roof a...

My last blog post was last December, come to think of it, I'm technically able to tap into my retirement accounts. I believe for those who are 59 1/2 years old, your able to draw from these types of accounts without any penalty. But do I need it as this time?  As I gear up for retirement next July, I feel I'm in a bit of a speed bump in saving for retirement. Earlier this year, I was hit with a huge tax bill as well as liability on my home insurance. Apparently a tree fell on my home during the winter season. I had to pay for the deductible and that set me back. Tapping into my emergency reserves was hard, but I'm glad something was in the reserves to tap into, that really helped. Also, for some reason, I didn't withdraw enough in taxes and I ended up paying, that also put me in a pickle to tap into my emergency reserves.  As a result of these sudden expenses, I had to also finance some of the portion on a credit card. Good thing, I was able to snag a couple of credit c...

As I write this post mid December, I wonder what things I need to gather and prepare for the coming year in terms of retirement planning which also includes tax preparation.  Certainly, I need to organize my paperwork for my finances, and also get all my "to-do" list planned out.  Here are a few points I need to make as the year closes and prepare for 2024.  CHECK LIST Review your net worth statement - It's good practice to compare how you did this past year and last year. Add all of your assets minus your liabilities. From there you'll have a sense of what you have to work with and help you navigate for the new year. In addition, you can make some nice improvements going into the new year.  Review your savings strategy - Are you saving enough? Is there a goal in place to get to where you want to be? What are you saving for, are you on target? These are just some of the questions you should answer to guide you to better saving as you are close to retirement.  Sa...

 When I mean third stool, I mean, one is fortunate to have 3 different versions for access for retirement income.  Personal Retirement Accounts  Social Security Income  Pension  In my case, 3. pension. I'm lucky to be employed with the very few employers that offers pension benefits for employees. I think less than 20% of U.S. employers even offer this type of benefit. Source A pension is basically a set amount of income offered to employees upon their retirement based on a set amount the employee has contributed in during their time of employment. Employers will provide this for the rest of their lives, at times health benefits will be included. Although, the premium you pay after leaving your employer will be slightly more as they will not be paying a higher portion, that portion will fall on you.  In the late 80s if I'm not mistaken, that the advent of 401k accounts were offered to employees. It took the burden off the employer to fund an employees reti...

This is always the question, many who plan to retire are faced with. Do I have enough to retire well?  How do you begin to approach this? Do we base it on our life expectancy? Do we base it on our lifestyle after retiring? So many factors. But here's a few guidelines I think I'd like to apply.  Image Source:    https://womenwhomoney.com/calculating-your-retirement-number/ COST OF LIVING EXPENSES  WHERE YOU'LL BE LIVING  TYPES OF ACTIVITIES  I think to start a conversation with these few key items will help you decide if you have enough to retire.  COST OF LIVING EXPENSES I think this would be based on your personal circumstances. For me, I think as I retire and age in place, my expenses will become much lower. Say, less expenses when it comes not working anymore. No more real transportation costs, clothing, dry cleaning, lunch expenses, etc. Anything that has to be an expense when traveling or dealing with work, expenses will be minimal or way les...

Recently, I took the time to look at my options and outcomes on when to collect social security benefits when retiring. I've been curios off and on over the years on how much I would be entitled upon retiring.  As I get closer to retiring, there are some things to consider when making that important decision.  ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS  Social security taxes are taken out of your paycheck so you can get a monthly benefit in your 60s. Although, these days, quite a few people are considering retirement before 60 but not taking retirement benefits until full retirement age. On the  https://www.ssa.gov/retirement/eligibility  website, it states the following:  You're eligible if:  You're 62 or older  You've worked and paid Social Security taxes for 10 years or more  They keep track of how many years you've paid social security taxes.  Check your Social Security account to see if you're eligible.  PLAN FOR RETIREMENT You can plan for mon...