Lauren Bernardo Of Cheapstudentsca
Lauren admitted this was a tough question for her, because she just graduated three years ago. But shes already invested part of her salary early, so that puts her ahead of her peers. Laurens logical calculation about her retirement target is also a good starting point for younger readers.
How much do you need for retirement and why?
First, she considered how long her retirement income should last and whether or not shell be working during retirement.
Given the average life expectancy of a Canadian woman born in the early 90s, I could be kicking until Im 80. But based on my workaholic tendencies, I might still be working after I retire.
Then she listed her target retirement savings:
Ive already started saving for retirement through my company pension, and RRSP, TFSA, and Self-Directed RSP through my bank. I plan to save about 10% of my income during my 20s and 15% to 20% starting in my 30s.
That said, the ballpark number Im targeting is between $1.5 to 2 million dollars with a return of 4% to 6% through a safe portfolio equally split into GICs and Canadian Bank stocks
What conservative investment option can you recommend to a friend whos afraid of risk?
As a Canadian investor also scared of risk, I would suggest they build a portfolio of 50% GICs and 50% Canadian Bank stocks.
Ive only been buying and selling stocks for 5 years, but Ive seen relatives retire comfortably and early because of their investments in high dividend stocks.
The Courage To Leap Into Retirement Is Part Math Part Overcoming The Fear Of The Unknown
Figuring out when you can retire can be a mathematical calculation, very much rooted in facts and figures.
However, actually deciding to quit work and live a different kind of life is a more difficult and very qualitative decision.
Gilbert described it this way, In that last year that I was working, I was like, okay, the math is fine, the numbers are great. I quit worrying about money. I didnt have the angst about the financial side, it was more like almost an obsessive curiosity about what is this life going to be like in retirement? And what am I going to do with myself? Whats my purpose going to be?
Not sure about your purpose? Explore 4 ways to find meaning in retirement.
What Is Early Retirement
Early retirement can mean different things to different people. Some may consider giving up work a year or two before reaching state pension age as having retired early. For others, early retirement will mean work takes a backseat long before they reach their 60s.
Neither is right or wrong, and you dont necessarily need to give up work entirely to retire early either. Some may take a phased retirement, by reducing their hours or taking a part-time job, for instance. But if you do retire early, its likely that working will be something you choose to do rather than have to do.
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Review Your Income Sources And Expenses
âA conservative portfolio built largely with investment-grade bonds and cash is unlikely to provide the growth you will need â especially if inflation increases down the line.â
Take a look at all of your possible sources of income. These could include an early retirement or severance package from your employer, a pension, Social Security benefits and withdrawals from retirement accounts. Then ask your advisor about the pros and cons of tapping these sources now versus later. For instance, accessing retirement accounts earlier than expected can have damaging tax consequences, while taking Social Security benefits earlier will reduce the amount of guaranteed income you have later in retirement, says senior vice president, Wealth Management Advisor Mary Jo Harper.
Keep in mind, too, that your expenses likely will look different in retirement. If you no longer have employer-provided health insurance, you may need to cover the full cost of your health insurance premiums before you become eligible for Medicare.
On the other hand, some work-related expenses will be reduced. Think no more commuting costs â or high-end wardrobe needs. In fact, when you do these calculations, you may find that retiring early is more affordable than continuing to work. Lisa Kent, a Merrill Financial Advisor, recalls one client, who, after taking a close look at the numbers with her, realized that continuing to work would be more costly.
Retirement Can Be Tough On Couples
“Retirement is a major life transition, and you have to be patient with yourself and your spouse, says Patti Black, a certified financial planner in Birmingham, Alabama. Most retired couples do not look like those pictured in ads and commercials. You’ll have to decide how work around the house will change. Will you really share cooking, cleaning and yard work? And do you honestly want to be together 24-7, particularly if you downsize to a smaller home?
These decisions can have serious consequences for a marriage. Gray divorce, or divorce after age 50, has doubled since 1990 while declining across all other age groups, Black warns. And it is most often the wife who asks for divorce after age 50.”
John Waggoner covers all things financial for AARP, from budgeting and taxes to retirement planning and Social Security. Previously he was a reporter forKiplinger’s Personal FinanceandUSA Todayand has written books on investing and the 2008 financial crisis. Waggoner’sUSA Todayinvesting column ran in dozens of newspapers for 25 years.
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Know The Basic Formula But Beware
The basic formula for an early retirement is to build up 25 times your annual expenses and then plan on drawing down no more than 4 percent of that value, every year. If you can afford to live on that, you should be good.
However, there are so many variables that can throw a wrench into or even improve that formula.
To get a more nuanced answer about retiring early, try different scenarios with the NewRetirement Planner. Input as much detail as possible and keep playing with your information until you come up with a plan that really works for you.
Rules of thumb are okay as a starting point, but a reliable retirement plan needs to be customized to you.
Why Unprecedented Numbers Are Deciding To Retire Early: Can You Afford To Quit Too
Kathleen Coxwell
The pandemic has changed the way many of us think about our time and it suddenly feels like the whole country young and old is contemplating retirement or a shift in their approach to work.
It might be an understatement to say that the year in quarantine was really hard for some in big and small ways. However, many are finding a silver lining in the form of a new mindset toward time and money that may promise a better way of life. For some, that means an immediate and complete retirement. Others are transitioning to a different type of work.
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Do You Have A Reserve For Significant Expenses
You may face some considerable expenses around retirement age. For example, healthcare costs like hospital bills, ambulance fees, medications, health insurance, and surgeries can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Do you feel comfortable taking on those expenses with how much you have saved up?
If so, proceed confidently.
Could 2022 Be Worse Than 2001
In my post three weeks ago, I happily declared that the 4% Rule works again, thanks to the much more attractive equity and bond valuations. Its always fun to deliver pleasant news. But keep in mind, everyone, that this refers to todays retirees with their slightly depleted portfolios. But how about the folks who were unlucky enough to retire earlier this year in January 2022, when equities were at their all-time high? That cohort is off to a bad start, to put it mildly. Of course, its too early to tell what should have been the appropriate safe withdrawal rate for that cohort. Were only less than a year into a multi-decade retirement. My recommendation back then would have been that due to the wildly expensive equity valuations and low bond yields one should have treaded a bit more cautiously. Maybe do 3.50-3.75% for a 30-year traditional retirement and 3.25% for a 50 or 60-year early retirement. And maybe raise that a little bit again depending on your personal circumstances, especially if you expect large supplemental cash flows from pensions and Social Security later in retirement, see my Google Simulation sheet . Also notice also that with my estimates, Im a bit more aggressive than the widely-cited Morningstar study recommending a 3.3% safe withdrawal rate for a 30-year retirement.
Lets take a look
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Can I Claim My Nhs Pension Or Teachers Pension Early Due To Ill Health
Both NHS workers and teachers in the UK can claim their pensions before retirement age due to ill health, often without the usual reductions applied to early retirement pensions. Both have their own rules, criteria and restrictions, so do some background reading or ask your employer for their policies. If you have an NHS pension, see how you can make the most of it by getting NHS Pension Advice from a financial adviser.
If you think you may need to retire early due to ill health, talk to an independent financial adviser at the first opportunity.
Ramping Up With Saving And Investing
While conventional wisdom often says that the safe plan is to stick with a job and build stability through multiple years, the anonymous blogger who writes A Purple Life found that being willing to change jobs was key to her boosting her savings.
“I changed jobs almost every year of my career for a variety of reasonsfrom toxic work environments to layoffs to cross-country moves. Those job hops allowed me to increase my salary about $20,000 almost every time I moved, and that allowed me to save more towards my goals. In 2015, I moved from Manhattan to Seattle, and with that move alone, because of the difference in rent and taxes between those two locations, my expenses decreased 50 percent while my standard of living actually increased,” she says.
Michelle of Fire and Wide endured the unexciting toughness of a very long commute for years in order to take advantage of earning a higher salary while not having to pay those high cost of living prices.
“Earning a high income but having low living costs really makes a big difference. By working in London and living in Norfolk , it vastly increased how much I was able to save each year,” she says. Finding ways to earn money in one place and spend it in a place where prices are cheaper is known as “geo-arbitrage,” a term coined by Tim Ferriss of The Four Hour Work Week fame.
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Build Your Savings And Investments
Making sure you have easily accessible funds to cover unexpected expenses is essential if you want to retire early. Youll also need other savings and investments to pay for the hobbies and holidays that retirement should allow you to enjoy.
Your savings will hopefully deliver an income too although with interest rates either at or near to record lows, this can prove challenging. Investing has the potential to deliver greater returns, but the associated risk that you could lose money must always be considered.
How To Retire At 70
If youre still working at 70, you may be the type who never wants to retire. Plenty of people continue working in their golden years, simply because they can, and they prefer to stay active.
If you do want to retire at 70, the good news is that youll get the maximum amount of Social Security benefits by waiting until youre 70 to start payments.
Theres more good news: Like wine, some retirement products get better with age. Annuities and reverse mortgages are two products that are more attractive in your later years, because a reduced time frame works in your favor when calculating costs and interest rates.
From age 70, youll also need to keep in mind the minimum distribution limits on your retirement accounts. Many plans require withdrawals by 72 for those who turned 70 1/2 after December 31, 2019. If you miss these, there is a hefty penalty, so make sure you start them on time.
Lastly, although it applies to people of all ages, when youre in your 70s , you should make sure that all your affairs are in order: If you havent done so yet, review all of your accounts and policies for beneficiary designations, create an advanced directive, and take care of estate planning.
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How To Retire Early Budget
Knowing what you spend now and what you might spend in the future is critical for retirement and especially if you want to know how to retire early.
Gilbert recommended this: Weve never really been big budgeters. For a year, we tracked every single penny we spent because we wanted to know as realistically as we could, what our spending was. And then we adjusted it for how we thought things would change in retirement, etc
The NewRetirement Planner allows you to create a really detailed budget now and document how those numbers will change in the future. The system even enables you to enter necessary spending as well as nice to spend amounts. It is fun and easy to think through how your spending will change over the rest of your life in over 70 different categories.
Think Strategically About Pension And Social Security Benefits
For most retirees, Social Security and pensions are the two primary sources of regular income in retirement. You usually can collect these payments earlyat age 62 for Social Security and sometimes as early as age 55 with a pension. However, taking benefits early will mean that you get smaller monthly benefits for the rest of your life. That can matter to your bottom line, even if you expect Social Security to be merely the icing on your retirement cake.
On the Social Security website, you can find a projection of what your benefits would be if you were pushed to claim them several years early. But if you’re part of a two-income couple, you may want to make an appointment at a Social Security office or with a financial professional to weigh the potential options.
For example, when you die, your spouse is eligible to receive your monthly benefit if it’s higher than his or her own. But if you claim your benefits early, thus receiving a reduced amount, you’re likewise limiting your spouse’s potential survivor benefit.
If you have a pension, your employer’s pension administrator can help estimate your monthly pension payments at various ages. Once you have these estimates, you’ll have a good idea of how much monthly income you can count on at any given point in time.
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Can I Afford Early Retirement
If youre considering early retirement, youre in good company. COVID-19 has been a catalyst for older Americans to leave the workforce voluntarily due to their high risk of infection. Quitting a job poses financial challenges for early retirees who suddenly have fewer years to accumulate assets and more years to live without a regular paycheck.
Determining whether you can afford early retirement can be complicated. Obviously, the future is uncertain, and projections involve many variables and assumptions. I believe in keeping things simple by focusing first on whats certainwhat you know right nowthe current amount of your take-home pay. If the paycheck thats deposited into your bank account covers your expenses and allows you to live comfortably, it can be a great starting point for estimating your retirement income needs.
Typically, retirement plan contributions, taxes, and health insurance are automatically taken out of your paycheck. Of these three expenses, only retirement plan contributions end with early retirement. Youll continue paying federal, state, and local taxes, and unless youre fortunate enough to have retiree health coverage, youll need to purchase individual health insurance until youre eligible for Medicare at age 65.
Factor in the cost of individual health insurance
Weigh the pros and cons of paying off your mortgage
Look at Social Security benefits from a different angle
Protect your retirement assets
Think before you leap
Sharon Marchisello Of Sharonmarchiselloblogspotcom
Sharon is the author of the Live Cheaply, Be Happy, Grow Wealthy e-book, which is based on her own experience of retiring early, living frugally, and investing money. She also writes about financial fitness and retirement.
How much do you need for retirement and why?
I set a personal goal of $1 million, because it sounded like plenty of money but still achievable. But since no one really knows how long they will live, and what inflation will be like, I strive to save as much as I can.
Sharon adds that she also arrived at her $1 million target after using the Rule of 25, where she estimated her monthly expenses, and added it to her expected fixed income, then multiplied the difference by 12 to get a yearly estimate. And finally multiplied the number to 25 to get how much she should earn for a 25-year retirement.
What conservative investment option can you recommend to a friend whos afraid of risk?
The most conservative investment option, with a guaranteed return, is the retirement of your own debt.
Sharons response to this question is unique among the responders for this article, but her logic is quite sound.
She continues, Mot consumer debt carries a higher interest rate than most investment products these days. As you whittle away at the principal, you eliminate the interest expense you would have otherwise paid.
The less debt you have at retirement, the less money youll need to cover your living expenses.
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