Homeliving in Style

All of us have one big transition facing us not that far down the road. Of course life is all about transitions. We make a transition from childhood to adolescence. We transition from being a child of a house to adulthood and independence. And we make big transitions through marriage, parenthood and even becoming a grandparent. But of all of these, maybe the one we need to focus on in terms of preparation is the big transition to retirement.

Moving from the world of work and the active life that all that entails to retirement and your golden years is a huge adjustment for people. There are lifestyle changes, changes to your goals and priorities and even in how people view you. But the changes to your finances are perhaps the ones you will notice the most. When you move from getting a steady paycheck to living on your Social Security and retirement, that is a major shift in your expectations and how you plan your life.

The saddest thing we see when it comes to people in late middle age are those who are depending on Social Security to be the sole means of their support in retirement. While Social Security is a fine program, it has created a false illusion of security that somehow the government will take care of you in your old age. The brass tacks truth is that if you are depending on any outside agency to be your means of support in your retirement years, your assurance that you will be conformable in your retirement years is not assured.

Even if you are currently working at a job that has a retirement program or a 401K that you put some into, you may still be allowing yourself to depend on your job to be there for you when you get to retirement age. And the horror stories of the elderly who finally arrive at retirement age to discover that what they thought they could depend on was not reliable are tragic.

This is why starting now to prepare for you financial future will be the best way you can be absolutely sure you will have what you need as you enter that time when you should be able to relax and enjoy the fruit of your labors. This is a major attitude shift and if you can accomplish it and take charge of your financial future, you will approach retirement with much greater confidence.

The outcome of your decision to take charge of your retirement will be that you wont just let money get put away for you without any oversight on your part. You cannot always trust that the managers of your retirement account at work are handling the money correctly. By staying on top of how those funds are being invested and doing all you can to direct where those funds go, you are making sure that you get maximum return on your investment all along the way. And when its time for you to need those funds, you will be ready to use them because you are acutely aware of their value.

We cannot control Social Security and there is a chance it will be there for you when its time for you to retire. But instead of depending on Social Security, build a financial future that is secure whether it is there or not. Then when you retire and your retirement packages begin to kick and give you that lifestyle of leisure and financial safety that you want, if you do see Social Security add a few dollars to your monthly funds, so much the better.

By taking control over your financial future, you are putting the security of your funds and the planning that you will have what you need when those wonderful years come along. You are depending on the one person you know is in turn with what you will need and has always been abler to plan and provide for yourself and your family and that is you. Its a good feeling to put the management of your financial future in your own hands in preparation for retirement. But its a wonderful feeling you worked hard to enjoy so you deserve it.

Your house that you bought so many years ago represents one of the biggest investments of your life. By the time you approach retirement, if you have stuck with it, you may well have that house paid off. And with appreciation, that home may be worth twice or three times what you paid for it and you have all the equity from those years of house payments. Therefore, in addition to the joy you have had living in that house and raising your family there, that house is also can be a big part of your retirement planning as well.

It used to be that to take advantage of that equity when you enter retirement, you either had to sell the house and go live in a nursing home or retirement community or you took out a new mortgage borrowing against the equity and you find yourself paying huge interest payments all over again.

But a new kind of mortgage called the reverse mortgage is now available so a senior citizen who is preparing for retirement can begin to realize some of that equity as capital and not have to take on a loan payment or move out of their home. This innovative new program allows you to set up the equivalent of a home equity loan but instead of getting a huge lump sum, you can have the equity sent to you in the form of monthly payments so the equity of your home can actually become part of your monthly budget to supplement Social Security or other retirement funds.

What is great about the reverse mortgage type of financial vehicle is that you are never required to pay back the loan of the money that is based on your equity. The only time that loan amount would be required of you would be if you moved, sold the house or passed away in which case the sale of the house would realize the equity to retire the loan. In other words, if you take out $100,000 from your home for medical costs or just to finance a comfortable retirement living, you are not called upon to pay back that money and you can continue to live in the house for as long as you want to.

This is a phenomenal arrangement that seems tailor made for senior who want to enjoy their retirement years without financial worries and do so living in the house where they raised their children and a home that has become so precious to them. For children of a retiring parent, the reverse mortgage is a godsend because mom or dad can stay in their own home where they are happiest. And if they can keep the old homestead, the whole family will continue to enjoy coming to visit there, seeing the grandkids run and play in the same yard they grew up in and having holidays there as well.

Like some of the best programs for retiring persons, the reverse mortgage was originally put together by the US. Department of Housing and Urban renewal. It isnt often that the government gets something right but they hit one out of the ball park with the reverse mortgage. It is a program and provides federally insured funds to seniors so they can supplement their income in a safe way that allows them to use the equity of their home for their retirement comfort without ever having to give up that home. And because the money coming out of a reverse mortgage is technically a loan, you never have to pay taxes on that money which is another big financial blessing.
The reverse mortgage is an option worth considering as part of retirement planning. It gives seniors one more option for keeping their homes. And that is good for everybody.

In the newspaper business, when a reporter wants to find out all about a case, they always ask the big five questions which are who, what, when, where and why. If the reporter can get these basic questions answered about any story, that is considered good research.

We can use the same approach as we begin to process the idea of retirement planning. It would be a mistake to only look at retirement planning as strictly a financial step. If all retirement consisted of was a change to where you get your money, that would be one level of change. But retirement also brings with it big lifestyle changes and changes to your priorities and how you use your time. So its a good idea to prepare for all of the changes retirement brings by asking the big five questions.

Who will you be retiring with is a very important question because your mode of living is going to change in every way imaginable. That man or woman who has been part of your life for so many decades will now become central to every move you make when retirement puts you together every day all day. So you should think that through and decide how you want to arrange your time so both of you still have your own interests, activities and friends but you can also enjoy a new closeness that retirement affords you.

What you will be doing with your time is a huge question as you walk away from the working world. Retirement is a great time to start enjoying those hobbies that never got enough time. You can catch up on your reading, write the great American novel or take classes to learn to paint or do woodworking. See retirement as a time when the sky is the limit for you to explore your creative side.

When you retire is a big factor on how much of your retirement savings you have to have ready by a certain time. For many, dipping into the retirement savings can be postponed for years. If you get to the point that you can collect Social Security and still make a fair amount of money part time or performing some cottage industry job, you might be able to keep your retirement savings growing even for the first five to ten years of retirement. And that means a longer more prosperous retirement time frame for you and your spouse as well.

Where will you live once you settle into the place you want to call your retirement bungalow. If you plan to sell the house and buy a condo or move into an assisted living center, there is a lot of preparation for both of those steps. There isn’t time like the present to begin that retirement planning by getting the house ready to sell and by getting out and researching the best retirement living options for you to consider.

Why retire is more than just a philosophical question. You may be retiring because you got to a certain age and it is required of you. But to enter retirement with a good attitude, its good to find your own motivations for wanting to scale back your responsibilities and enjoy some leisure time as a senior citizen. And if retirement means more time for hobbies, chances to travel or enjoy time with your spouse or greater access to those sweet grandbabies, those are great reasons to enter the life of a retired person.

But the one question we did not list that may be more than all the rest is the how of retirement. How you go about moving from a life of working, selling the house and getting settled in a completely new world, perhaps with new friends and new objectives for living is a major challenge for anyone especially if you have been a productive member of the business or working world for many decades.

There are a lot of levels to the how question. That is why in a lot of ways the period of time leading up to retirement and doing retirement planning can be as active as retirement itself. But its good you are getting started now because by being prepared, your transition to retirement will be smooth and as painless as possible for such a big change of life.

The concept of retirement planning brings up the image of you working with your investment counselor or setting up your 401K so you have adequate financial resources when you retire. And it is true that a big part of being ready to retire involves being ready financially to be able to step out of the work world and start to take life easier.

But just as life is not just about making money, retirement is about so much more than having the money not to work. Preparation for retirement also means preparing to live a simpler life, preparing to become a senior citizen and a grandparent and preparing to look at life differently.

Your health care is going to be an important issue in your retirement years. As you enter retirement, you may be strong as an ox and active and full of health and life. But any of us can fall prey to poor health or accidents. And if your employer from whom you retired does not extend your health care insurance for you to continue your coverage past your employment, you should make other plans. You can continue the same coverage that you had under the Cobra system but that can get pretty costly and dip into your finite retirement savings pretty significantly. Medicare can be helpful too. But to be perfectly comfortable that you have coverage, look to Medicare supplement insurance so you maintain the same quality of care in retirement that you have now in the working world.

Dont just limit your retirement planning to your money. Your retirement will be a time of a big change of lifestyle and a change to your values and how you spend your time as well. You will have more time on your hands and studies show that those who enter retirement without an agenda can become adrift in all that time and that isnt healthy. Human beings are doers so even though you may no longer be working for a living, find ways to be productive and make a difference in your community. You can start finding those opportunities long before retirement so when you finally step out of the work world, expanding those hobbies and volunteer efforts is as natural as can be.

In addition to the change of where you spend your time each day, you may have even a bigger change in where you live ahead for you in retirement. Many times people who step into their retirement years find that maintaining the house where you raised the kids is just not necessary and more work than it worth. Selling the home and using the equity to finance a leisurely retirement life is a great way to go. But you should start early both preparing the home for sale and preparing the family that grandma and grandpas house is going away.

In addition, where you go to live is something that can be great fun to dream about and doing some research on just the right place. You may choose to rent a small place in an older part of town and enjoy a whole new lifestyle in that setting. Or you might go for a high-rise condo with a view of the river or a nice quiet apartment in a retirement oriented apartment complex where you and other retirees can explore this new world together.

Above all its important to embrace the retired lifestyle with the enthusiasm and excitement that you might greet any new opportunity. Dont let being retired mean just not working. In fact, go through the mental and emotional exercises of putting the working world behind you and redefining yourself in this new role. You are retired now and you are a senior citizen and maybe even a grandparent.

These are not negative things. There is a strong role for grandma and grandpa in society and in your family. And the world takes great joy in a senior citizen who embraces that time of their life and sets out to be the best senior citizen they can be. If you predetermine that this is the kind of retired person you are going to be, that attitude will propel you past that sudden change of life shock and get your retired life off in running in an exciting way that will lead to many happy and fun times in your life of leisure as a retired person.

We can all remember a time when we took the children to some event or theme park that was supposed to be totally awesome. Then when the kids get there and see that Mickey Mouse is a guy in a suit and that the rides are about the same as the local Six Flags, an inevitable let down and disappointment sets in. And that is no fun for the parents on the trip home when all of those expectations did not come to pass when the kids came face to face with reality which did not line up with their dreams and hopes.

But sometimes even adults can be guilty of letting dreams and images of a golden time ahead get the best of us. We often develop a mythology of how retirement will be when we get there and when that retired life actually starts, there are some real, down to earth adjustments that need to be made. So if you can know some of the hidden dangers of retirement in advance, it is so much better to go into retirement with your eyes open and have realistic expectations.

There are two negative reactions to the sudden shift of lifestyle in retirement. They are loneliness and boredom. Even if you are going to be home all the time, there is no question that once you stop going to an office or having regular responsibilities, you can often feel a sense of loss and grief because you miss the people, the regular human contact and the fun of being out and that can result in loneliness that can get pretty chronic.

For men especially the feeling of boredom can also set in pretty fast when the challenge of the work world goes away. In a lot of cases, men live for their jobs and when that world goes away, there is a sense of disorientation and not knowing what to do with themselves that is disconcerting for the family and for the retired man himself. You may have been looking forward to a less stressful life only to find that it was the stress that makes you tick and without it, you feel adrift in life with no direction or goals.

Both of these problems can be addressed by not letting your retirement life be to idle, at least not at first. You can fill your life up with volunteering, getting busy with family or by getting involved socially with other retired people. One area of volunteering that can go a long way to replace the gratification of the work place is to work with habitat for humanity to help build homes for people who cannot afford a home any other way. Both retired married partners can find ways to pitch in and it gets you out with people doing things that are worthwhile.

Give yourself time to get used to the idea of retirement and to the new lifestyle. It should be a simpler lifestyle because your responsibilities are reduced and you have more time on your hands. Be aware that if you and your spouse are suddenly around each other every day and every hour of the day, that is going to create new stresses which can also qualify as a hidden danger of retirement. By being aware that this is not the fault of either spouse but a natural reaction. The best response is just to get out and do things separately and create that natural space you are both used to more often.

There will be a natural down time when you first retire and treat the first month like vacation. But dont stay on vacation. Let your ambition and zeal for life find new outlets. It will be fun and exciting to see where it takes you and that is what retirement is all about.

One of the most common dreams many people have for their retirement years is to travel. So often when you are in the middle of building a career and raising a family, your travel consists of trips to Orlando for Disney World or doing something focused on the kids. So when you get to that phase of life where your children are grown up and its just you and your spouse, now you can focus on trips that are for just you two going places you to go and doing things you want to do.

So if you feel that you will be taking your travel life to a new level when you reach retirement age, there is plenty you can do to get ready. Obviously, you will need to focus your savings and financial preparations so you have an ample budget for travel when the time arrives. The last thing you want is to come up on the time when your dream of traveling together can be a reality only to find that you did not set aside the budget for it.

One way you can do that is to take advantage of the years between when the kids all move out and are done with college and the beginning of you retirement years. This can be as much as a ten to fifteen year time span when both of you can work to payoff bills and build that retirement nest egg. If your basic retirement fund for you to live on is healthy and you are meeting your financial retirement goals, to take one of the spouses salary and put it all aside for future travel can result is a very healthy budget to get out and see the world in your golden years together.

It might feel like its a little self indulgent for you to set aside so much money for you and your spouse to have travel adventures late in life. Well, you have been a good citizen, a good dad or mom, a good worker and in every respect done the right things all these years. So nobody would deny you the joy of really enjoying the thing you love the most when you do reach your retirement years together.

You can afford a few training trips in the years coming up on retirement from time to time to begin to retool your travel skills. If you have been in your career a long time, you may have sufficient vacation that you can take an extra week a year just for adult travel and still have plenty to go see the kids and do all the family stuff that you must do and you enjoy so much.

It will be during these training trips that you will hone your ability to stay on the road longer each time out. Traveling for long periods of time is a developed skill. You will need to learn how to pack, how to manage your international paperwork if international travel is in your plans and how to handle jet lag as well. These are travelers skills that you can be developing leading up to that big moment when both partners are able to retire full time and really start getting out there and seeing the world.

Another adjustment and financial resource that can put some additional funding into your travel funds is your house. Many people sell their homes late in life when you dont need so much space to raise kids and you no longer have the desire or take great joy in taking care of a yard and managing the upkeep on a home. If you know you are going to make this big change of lifestyle away from the home bound mom and dad and toward the world travelers you want to be, you can be preparing the house for sale in the last few years before you retire.

Because you know well in advance that you have a new life of adventure and fun ahead in your retirement years, you can use the last few years before both of you stop working to get ready. Then once your retirement is official and you walk out of the retirement party at work, you can walk right onto the jet way and take off on a brand new life of fun and adventure seeing the world together during your retirement years.

When you are in the middle of your years of raising a family, there is nothing like owning your own home to make that experience rewarding. So if you bought a home with the conventional yard, fence, neighbors, dog and all of the trappings of suburbia, you no doubt have many happy memories that you had back at the farm as you may have called it. Many people even go so far as to name their home something like Happy Acres to give their homestead even more personality and add that sense of ownership to it.

Probably to your kids, the house you raised them in will forever to your home and the idea of anyone else living in it is heresy of the worst kind. But as you begin to move toward retirement age, you may see the value in selling that home and getting into something smaller, cozier and with less overhead.

Retirement doesnt always mean moving into a nursing home or retirement center. You may have many happy years ahead of you where you are plenty able to get around and have no need of assisted living. But selling the house as you enter into your retirement years makes a lot of sense for a lot of good reasons.

For one thing, you may have that house paid off and there may be a lot of equity in that home that you can use to get into a cozy little condo or apartment and have plenty of money left over to pad your retirement savings or afford a bit of travel with your spouse. If your home can finance some of the trips you have been dreaming of all these years, that is a good payback for being so careful with your money during your working years.

You can take a one time tax exemption that we all are allowed to use which permits you to sell the house and not have to pay taxes on the proceeds even if you dont sink the money into another house. That means that all of that equity money is sitting there waiting for you to put it to work. While you cannot sell your memories, if the house isnt serving your needs as a family any more, why bother with it?

Many times when you get done raising the kids and no longer are tied down to a job, it might be time for you and your spouse to get out there and enjoy life and travel. Retirement is often a time to get rid of a lot of your material possessions and get lose to get out and enjoy your freedom and see some of the world that you couldnt do when you were raising children. But if you live in a small place that is not difficult to lock up and walk away from, you have the freedom that you always dreamed of when you thought of the word retirement.

Another great reason to get out of your house as you move toward retirement is that a house with a yard and all of the other trappings of ownership is a constant ownership problem. You are responsible to fix the fence, get the plumbing fixed, grow a yard, a garden and keep up the house year in and year out. If you sell the place and rent or move into a smaller place such as a condo, a huge amount of that maintenance if not all of it disappears. Now when the appliances break down, just call the super and let them deal with it. You deserve to have those worries taken off of your back. That is what retirement is all about.

So getting rid of the homestead might be a great idea for your retirement planning. But be prepared for the move and the work that getting the old place ready will entail. You didnt clutter that place up in a week and you wont get out of it that fast either. But by going through your stuff and streamlining your life now, that is something your kids wont have to do later. And when you are moved out and another young family is getting started in your old homestead, you can congratulate yourself on a great move to put yourself in a perfect place to enjoy a happy and fun retirement with the love of your life.

It isnt too surprising that the time when we really start thinking about retirement and planning for it is middle age. Perhaps it is when we have our lifestyles pretty well defined, perhaps the career is where you want it to be and the kids are here and growing up that you start looking down the road to the future. Perhaps it is looking toward the future in terms of insurance, planning for college and other issues such as this also gets your mind moving on how you will be ready when retirement gets here.

But if we were able to step back above our lives, the best time to start preparing for retirement is not the middle age years. Retirement planning experts tell us that if young people in their twenties or even teens can start putting a little bit back toward retirement, the rewards when they reach their golden years will be phenomenal. If a youth in his early twenties or teens were to just put one percent of what they make back, and that money stayed in some form of investment vehicle that would grow into a retirement account, the growth between the time of investment and retirement at 60 or 65 can be explosive even at a modest interest rate.

Unfortunately, few young people are looking that far ahead when they are in their early adult lives. That is a time when the transition from teen years to family life is pretty all consuming. So it might be the responsibility of parents and older advisors to help youth see the value of starting to work on their retirement savings well in advance so they have a well developed program when their retirement years come along.

One of the best places for a young person to start their retirement program is with the 401k or retirement benefits at their job. Now, in the last decade, many businesses have eliminated retirement benefits where the company pays for the retirement. But if the young person works for a company that offers 401K, they can set aside a percentage of their income and it will be put into a retirement fund before taxes. Moreover, often the company will match the funds up to dollar for dollar and the company will manage the investment of the funds as well.

The outcome is a healthy and rapidly growing fund that starts out with an immediate doubling of the invested funds and then grows steadily over the years as more is put into the fund with each paycheck. The young worker gets used to the retirement money coming out so they adjust their budget to live without it. And without giving retirement much more thought than that, within a few decades, the 401K can evolve into a very impressive retirement account to be sure.

If you are a young person and you are considering if you might think about starting a retirement account, congratulations. You are one of just a few people who have the foresight to think about retirement this early in life. And by starting now, you take advantage of the thing that is your greatest asset time. Because if you only put a little bit back, that can grow and grow and grow and become a sizeable retirement nest egg for you and your spouse even if he or she is the spouse off in your future.

This may come as a shock to many people, but after a lifetime of working, Social Security retirement benefits do not provide enough for most people to live on, especially if they plan to continue their previous standard of living. In order to maintain their quality of life, they will need something to supplement the Social Security retirement benefits they earned during their lifetime.

Although many people will also receive retirement benefits from the place of employment, that plus Social Security retirement benefits still may not equal the income they were receiving while they were working. Additionally, there may be some income received by retired workers that will affect the amount of Social Security retirement benefits they are entitled to receive. At any time during a person s working life, they can contact the Social Security Administration for an update on the benefits they would be eligible to receive upon retirement.

The age at which a person chooses to retire will affect the amount they receive in Social Security retirement benefits and the full retirement age, according to SSA is based on the year of birth.

Benefits Reduced By Early Retirement

Laws governing Social Security retirement benefits recently changed, and could change again in the future, but currently with an age of 66 considered as full retirement age, if a person has earned enough credits, they can retire at the age of 62 with a 25 percent reduction in Social Security retirement benefits. At age 63 they would receive a 20 percent reduction of the full amount and at 64, a 13 and one-third percent cut and at age 65, their benefit would be reduced by six and two-thirds percent.

The amount received in Social Security retirement benefits will be determined by the amount a person has earned over their lifetime. A person who continues to work past their retirement age may see an increase in their benefits. SSA will annually review a person s work record each year and notify them if there will be any change in their benefits.

Persons who opt to retire before reaching full retirement age will be restricted to the amount of income they can earn before losing some of the Social Security retirement benefits to which they were qualified at the time of taking early retirement. The maximum amount a person can earn each year without losing benefits is currently $12,960 and the Social Security retirement benefits will be reduced by $1 for each $2 earned over that limit.

You may be thinking about retiring already, but you may also be thinking if you could afford it and if the government could back you up on your plan. This is all possible with your social security retirement because you get to receive many benefits from your social security that would aid you in your road to blissful relaxation in your retired life.

The government backs the social security retirement for you to enjoy the rest of your life without worrying and designed it to guide you when to stop working and when to file for retirement.

Social Security Online

You will be pleased to know that there is an official website for your social security retirement and that is the www.socialsecurity.gov to give you all the information that you may need about retirement and your benefits. On the website, you could also apply for benefits and help you plan about your retirement when it comes to achieving the most secure, comfortable, and healthy retirement life.

With the planner that was designed by the people behind social security and the government, you could find the right age when to retire, provides detailed information about your benefits from social security retirement, and learn about social security programs. Also, the website could forecast and tell you about what happens if you work after you retire and helps you learn how certain types of earnings and pensions could affect your social security benefits.

If You Are Already A Retiree

If you are nearing the age of sixty-five, you could immediately start out your benefits from your social security retirement at the age of sixty-two. The only downside of starting out early is that the full amount of your benefit would be decreased and they will be permanently reduced basing on the number of months you receive your benefits before your reach your full retirement age.

Also, another great thing about visiting the website is that you could immediately apply online and fill out all the necessary documents for you to start your qualification on your social security retirement. Aside from that, you could also apply online for benefits for your spouse, divorced spouse, and children. If they should be qualified, then you are sure to learn that the government is taking good care of you and your family.

Also, when it comes to the matters of social security retirement, remember to also sign up for Medicare for you to receive health benefits for you to have a more secure and comfortable retired life without having to worry about your health.

The classic picture of a couple retiring and the wife cashing in on the great retirement planning of the husband is a pretty picture for sure but it doesnt always line up very well with reality. For thousands of women, seeing the retirement years ahead mean you will be making plans for retiring yourself. But even if you have a husband, its a good idea to look at retirement with the idea of what if you have to face it alone. Its a sad statistic but women outlive men in general. So if you get to retirement or just before it and you find yourself facing that next transition of life, retirement looks a lot different through a womans eyes than when a man does the same preparation.

Saving up for retirement is something that is at least as important if not more important for women as it is for men preparing for the same time of their lives. And since women typically earn somewhat less than men during their careers, sitting down and thinking through the formula of how much to set aside for retirement should be a carefully considered act and one that is repeated frequently over the years to make sure you are on track.

This is especially true if your work is not in the conventional world of big business. If you make a good living running your own antique shop or as an entrepreneur as many women do, you have to think about your retirement planning yourself because you will not have the advantages of a company sponsored 401k plan to cash in on. So as soon as you feel you know that the way you make your living is not gong to change, start your saving and investing immediately.

On the other side of that equation, it might be worth taking a look at getting into a corporate situation entirely for the insurance and the retirement benefits. While there is often a glass ceiling in the business world, if you know why you are there which is to build a strong retirement planning package, you can leverage your position in the business world shrewdly and not have the stresses that many men endure in that same setting.

Above all, make it your private passion to learn all you can about investments and ways you can build your retirement portfolio. With the advent of internet trading, often a woman can start with very little and with some careful investing and conservative stock purchases, build up an impressive portfolio that can serve as an excellent retirement vehicle down the road.

Just as you may have done if you spent your working years in a family situation, you should look at how your money is used not only for the immediate value but as an investment down the road. It is often convenient to live in an apartment or rental property because when you are a working woman, upkeep on a home is a nuisance. And if you dont like mowing the lawn and all of the other overhead of a home, that purchase may not fit your lifestyle.

Nonetheless, home ownership is one of the smartest ways to go about building equity in advance of retirement. You might look at buying a house as a big step toward financial independence in your retirement years. The way the tax laws are structured, you will get a lot of financial value out of home ownership and it can serve as the basis for further financial planning once your ownership of the home is secured. So take a second look at home ownership in a house with a yard and all of the trappings. If the overhead is too much to take on, you can often bring in renters or roommates who may enjoy that aspect of living in a house and you can cut them some slack on the rent if they take care of upkeep of the place.

By beginning to plan early in life for retirement later, women can do just as well as men in preparing for this important part of life. But you have to face the responsibilities of retirement planning squarely and not procrastinate on starting your investment and retirement portfolios far enough ahead that they will pay off later. If you do, you too can enjoy a peaceful and prosperous retirement years.

When someone you love is retiring, you want to make sure that it is as enjoyable as possible for them. After all, although retirement is supposed to be a fun and relaxing time for the retiree, it can often be a very overwhelming and confusing experience, as it is sort of telling the person that they are getting old and cannot work anymore.

This is even more the reason to make sure that you give as best retirement wishes as you possibly can, in order to make the experience as fulfilling and comfortable for them as possible.

Retirement Wishes Ideas

One of the most traditional and easiest ways to give your retirement wishes is by giving a card, and what with all the variety of cards available today, you should be able to find something really personalized and great. You can also give a cake, which is another typical form of retirement wishes, and get it decorated so that it is personalized to the retiree.

Going all out

If you really care about the person and are willing to put some time and effort into the process, then you may want to consider throwing them an entire party. You can invite all the rest of their friends and family to join in on the celebration and this is a great idea because it is bound to lighten up their spirit about the whole occurrence.

If you do decide to go this route, you want to make sure that you consider the honoree s preferences in order to make your retirement wishes go over well. For instance, if they are the type of person who would prefer not to be singled out, then you may want to stick to something more quiet and low-key, whereas if they love to be the center of attention than they are the perfect candidate for something like a roast.

You also want to come up with a theme that highlights their interests, including their hobbies, activities and passions, and this is great because then you have really personalized it and it will make it that much more special.

The most important thing is that you have taken the time and effort to celebrate the retirement of someone that you care about, and by bringing their friends and family together you are truly making it a memorable occasion that they will treasure in their hearts and minds forever and always.

Retirement toasts and speeches are always incredibly important, whether you are retiring yourself or giving a toast to another honoree, a retirement toast is really what says it all, professionally and personally. Your retirement toast should really express your best wishes to the honoree, and should tell them just how much you care about them and how good and pure your retirement wishes for them are.

Preparing for the Toast

Before you go to give your retirement toast however, there are a few things that you should think about. Setting up the toast is one of the most important parts of all, and before a toast of any sort, the speaker should always check to make sure that everyone else in the room is prepared.

For instance, they should make sure that everyone s wine glass is filled, that they are paying attention and that the most prominent person the retiree is present and paying attention as well. The tradition of clinking cutlery against the side of a glass is the most traditional route, although you can clear your throat, make an announcement, you can really do whatever you like, as long as it works to gain everyone s attention.

The Presentation

Next comes the actual presentation of your retirement toast, and you want to make it as perfect as possible. When giving a toast of any sort, words are truly only half the ceremony, and so you need to consider your entire presentation, and not just focus on the words that are coming out of your mouth.

Remember that all eyes are going to be on you and so you want to be as gracious and courteous to the guest of honor as you possibly can be, as at that point in time you are really speaking for everyone. You want to be personable with your words, maintain eye contact with the audience, and mention the individual by name at both the beginning and end of the toast, particularly for those speeches that are especially long.

As long as you took the time and put in the effort beforehand to make your retirement toast special and personalized, then it should really come out great and show that you meant it to come from the heart. This is what is really going to matter to the honoree, and so just let them know that you care and that you are here for them during this special time in their life, and that is what they are going to remember and care about more than anything.

Retirement parties are not always a fun event. People attend the parties out of obligation and respect for the person who has reached the end of their career and are not usually excited to be attending. The retiree is facing a complete change in their life and may not always be completely happy with the idea of retirement. As a whole a retirement party has the potential to be a boring and depressing event.

One way to insure a successful retirement party is for the retiree to give a great retirement speech. There are several things to think about in planning the retirement speech and several ways to make the speech enjoyable and memorable for the listeners. With some careful thought and planning the retirement speech can be as successful as the career of the person retiring and will be a great finish to a lifetime commitment.

Keys To Success

The first thing the speech maker needs to remember is to make the speech simple and personal. The speech giver should be them self and not attempt to put on airs or be overly impressive. People attending the retirement party are well aware of the personality and identity of the retiree and will not be fooled by an elaborate speech. The retirement speech should be an extension of the person retiring and should simply convey the thoughts of the speaker.

The retirement speech should also incorporate a bit of humor. Of course there are people who are incapable of telling a joke or funny story but it is nice for a person to tell something humorous from the past years spent in their career. This type of story is also a good way for a person to share something they learned over the years or to express gratitude for those who contributed to their career.

The retirement speech should also be kept to just a few minutes with a maximum of twenty minutes being adhered to. It has been proven many times that people have limited attention spans and will be most apt to hear and remember something communicated in short amount of time. People are glad to hear the speaker share some key thoughts but do not want to hear a rambling discourse.

Once the retirement speech has been written the speaker should have an honest friend or relative listen to it one time prior to the event. The friend can give some insight as to possible changes or omissions that need to be made. The person can also offer encouragement to a person who is not used to making speeches and is intimidated by the thought of speech making.

There is a phrase people use when referring to estate planning and all the things you do as a responsible adult so when you get into retirement years, you dont have to worry about those things. That is because one of the big objectives of retirement planning is to put all of your affairs in order as they say so if something came up, your kids would not have to deal with it. So you go through the checklist and make arrangements for your will and your DNR or do not resuscitate so the medical people will know what to do in the event you cannot be brought to consciousness.

But one level of preparation for your final years of a very full life that you may not have decided about is funeral preparations. Many funeral homes sell packages where you can pay for your casket and much of the funeral expenses well in advance. This is very appealing because you can think ahead about how you would like the funeral to go and select the casket and make arrangements so there is less guesswork for your family and loved ones if the moment comes up too quickly.

That is the real appeal of preplanning all aspects of what might happen when your final moments come. You dont want to leave your children to have to try to figure out your life insurance, your estate issues, your will and your funeral if your demise comes along suddenly. Most of these preparations are pretty cut and dried and you want all the paperwork in order, legal and the person assigned to resolve your estate informed and legal so there is no time lost on getting things the way they should be if the moment were to come.

The big step of pre-buying your funeral plot, casket and paying for the funeral in advance is something to give some serious thought to. For one thing, you must be absolutely sure you are in the town where you will want to be buried. Many times later in life, a retired person wants to pack up and move to where the kids are living. That is one of the good things about begin retired and relatively unencumbered by a lot of possessions. If you are living in an assisted living center, the move is just not that difficult. So you dont want to own property, even if its just a burial plot and have to deal with transferring all of that paperwork to another town if you do move with your kids.

But the compelling reason not to put money into a funeral arrangement package is that funeral homes are not great at managing those funds. There have been plenty of stories come out of late of mismanagement of funds buy funeral homes. Or if the company owning the funeral home is bought, many times the new company will not honor your contract with the previous owners and your relatives find this all out just when they least need to hear about problems.

A much better option is to take the same money you would have put into funeral arrangements and put it into a trust set aside just for this purpose. You can name who you want to have access to the trust and even write out in specific detail what you want the money used for and how you want the funeral to go. That form of living will or ethical will gives your relatives the resources they need to conduct your affairs and the directions you want them to have. But they have the flexibility to pick the funeral home and buy the plot that seems right at the time. The money can accrue interest and it is secure because it is still owned by the family right up until it is needed.

The desire you have to get your final arrangements arranged is a good one. But thinking through some of the problems that can come up if you do too much prearranging gives you the wisdom to make the right choices so you can enter your retirement years knowing that everything is arranged when and if, God forbid, the moment of your departure comes along.

Many people think that taking advantage of retirement services is something that should be done just as you retire, but in truth it s something you should take advantage of months if not years beforehand.

Just as paying into a pension scheme will give you the best return the earlier you begin to do it, the sooner you seek out the help of local retirement services the better placed you will be to enjoy a financially healthy retirement.

Banks And Building Societies

Most financial institutions offer retirement services to help you decide what measures you need to take to prepare for your retirement. Ask your own bank for a meeting to discuss the various options available.

Talking to an independent financial advisor is advisable before you decide on any course of action. The earlier you do this the better prepared you will be financially. They will be able to look at any provisions you have already made and suggest other ways of providing a retirement income when the time comes.

Help And Advice From Your Company

If you work for a big company you may find they have their own retirement services you can call on for help. They will be best placed to advise you on their own pension and retirement packages.

If you aren t lucky enough to work for a company that provides this kind of service, don t worry. There are plenty of independent companies that offer advice to those who are approaching retirement age. Do an online search to find local ones, or ask in your local advice centre or library for further information.

Not Just The Money

Retirement services don t just cover financial needs and advice. They can also help with the day to day issues of retirement. If you are retiring due to ill health then healthcare and daily support could be an important issue for you.

A good example of this is the Meals on Wheels service, which uses a network of volunteers to deliver daily meals to elderly retired people. These are particularly beneficial to those who find it difficult to cook for themselves because of ill health, or who have special dietary requirements.

In short, whether you are months or years away from retiring, or you have been retired for several years, there is a wealth of retirement services you can draw on to make your retirement easier and more enjoyable.

The help is there to make your retirement one to enjoy you just need to take advantage of it.

It is never too early to begin thinking about retirement savings, as before you know it, the time will come when you are ready to quit working and the amount of cash available will be limited. As many retirees are finding out, the available funds from Social Security and any money from employment retirement probably will not be sufficient to enable them to live in the manner in which they grew accustomed while working.

A lack of planning may leave you with barely enough money each month to cover normal expense, with little or nothing left over for other activities. A well-thought out plan can help you achieve sufficient retirement savings to enable you to take trips and vacations and take the tarnish off the golden years. Without a good retirement savings plan, many find themselves unable to exist, let alone enjoy their retirement years.

Beginning with the amount of money currently available for retirement, and the amount you want to have when you quit working, the difference is what you will need to put into your retirement savings before the big day comes. By dividing that amount by the number of years you have left to work, will tell you how much you need to put into your retirement savings account each year. Simply dividing by 12 gives you a monthly amount you will need to deposit.

Decide Where Extra Cash Will Come From

When planning a strategy to improve your retirement savings account, many find that every day expenses eat up a good portion of available income, and there may not be enough left over to add to the fund. Some decisions will have to be made in setting priorities on cash decisions as to whether the expenses paid now can be cancelled and the money put into the retirement fund.

Think about all the extras being paid for now, such as a second phone line or the high-interest credit cards and decide if they are really needed. Many look at each individual expense to determine if it is nice or necessary and do away with some of the nice ones with the money going into their retirement savings to help pay the necessary expenses once they are no longer working.

Regardless of your age, the best time to add to your retirement savings is immediately, while you are still working. Once you retire, it will be too late to improve the balance of your retirement savings account and what you have is most likely what the ending balance will remain.

Retirement planning software can come in extremely helpful when you are trying to prepare for your own retirement, and most types of retirement planning software are designed and created to be so easy to use that really anyone can do it. Typically in less than 15 minutes you should be able to punch in your basic data and have the software running.

The Options

There are actually quite a few different options that you have when it comes to retirement planning software, each which offers its own perks and advantages as well as downfalls. The Still River retirement planning software is one of the most popular options of all, and this software produces retirement calculations that you can really depend on.

Incorporated in 1999 as the successor to a retirement planning software venture that was founded five years previous to that Still River is a company which counts among its clients market leaders in financial and retirement planning. They provide new and innovative approaches to retirement planning issues, such as flexible, needs-based, post-retirement income strategies.

They also offer a range of different types of retirement planning software, including: Retirement Works II, Retirement WORKS For You, Nine Keys Publication, 403(b) Contribution Planner, and Retirement Works. The most popular is Retirement Works II, which is really a revolutionary new software package that is able to help people figure out what they should do about their finances as they approach, or work to manage their retirement.

Another company, one that also offers fantastic retirement planning software, is RetireWare. They are a company which has been creating state-of-the-art financial and retirement planning technology since 1996, and their true dedication to innovation has lead to products that have an unparalleled level of mathematical sophistication, extensive functionality, and comprehension.

They too offer a range of products, including the self-titled RetireWare, which offers menus, toolbars and listbars which provide easy access to information, comprehensive context-sensitive help, easy to use Wizards that help you along every step of the way, Asset Allocation Graphs which display asset allocation for both registered and non-registered assets, and budget and net worth statements which show information graphically and in table format as well.

Choosing the right retirement planning software for yourself does not have to be a difficult process, you just want to review the most major types, including those previously discussed here, and then use the various advantages and disadvantages of each to help you make your decision.

Believe it or not, everyone will eventually retire from the workplace and without proper planning retirement will be harder than working was. Retirement planning is essential in order to be able to enjoy retirement. Most people have dreams for their retirement years and only planning will make it happen. The best time to begin retirement planning is as soon as a person has graduated from college and begins to work. Those people who begin early will find that their retirement years will be filled with the ability to do whatever they want or dream up.

Without good retirement planning, retirement can feel more like a nightmare. There are several good ideas to help plan for retirement. One good idea is to budget an amount of money say ten percent and have it taken from the pay and placed in an investment account. Doing it this way means that the money isn t missed and doesn t become part of the monthly budget. Don t expect that if the money isn t taken out automatically that a person will have enough will power to do it on their own. Retirement planning isn t easy and it takes determination and discipline to keep the plan together for years.

More About Retirement Planning

Good planning should also include the advice of a retirement advisor that can make suggestions and advise of opportunities to increase investments. As a person gets increases in salary or pay, keep the percentage of ten percent going to retirement planning. In doing this the person might also have the opportunity to possibly have early retirement. By retiring early a person will be able to spend more time doing all the things they have dreamed of. It doesn t mean that life stops. Because of all these reasons, retirement planning is essential for later on in life. In the same way that as a child one learns how the ants and birds work hard for the winter to come, it is important to have instilled inside a person a good work ethic.

When the day has finally come to retire, a person will be glad that they spent the time doing retirement planning. They will be proud of the fact that they had self discipline to keep it up over the years. For those people not at retirement age it s never too late to start preparing and if one sticks with the plan, retirement can still be filled with the opportunities to fulfill dreams someday. Retirement planning should never feel like a chore because it is a means to have a great time in the golden years of life.

Planning for retirement is something grown ups do. So as soon as you can when you settle into your adult life, if you can get your retirement planning moving, you will benefit from the wisdom of moving on this early in life when its time for you to retire. Too often young people live in a fantasy world that they will never grow old. But short of the worst case scenario of an early demise, everyone is going to get old and its far better to do so with a plan then to let it sneak up on you.

This is something you dont want to screw up. Is it possible to screw up retirement planning? Of course it is. If you speak to senior citizens who did not start planning in advance and got to their senior years with nothing to fall back on and no funds to use so they can step out of the working world and enjoy a more leisurely retirement lifestyle, that is an example of people who screwed up their retirement planning. So its good to know the common mistakes people make so you can avoid them.

Probably the biggest mistake that you can make in your retirement planning is to wait to start it until you are pretty close to retirement. If you want to retire at 60 and you dont start getting ready until you are 55, you will not have nearly as well prepared a retirement package as if you had started when you was 25 or 35. By starting early, you can set back a small amount each month and put it into an IRA, your employers 401k or some other retirement vehicle. Then just let that money continue to accumulate and grow and before you know it you are sitting on top of a pretty substantial nest egg.

Speaking of sitting on top of a nest egg, the second big mistake people make is not leaving that nest egg alone. When that retirement investment fund starts to get big, it is really easy to look at it as a way to get you out of credit card debt trouble or to borrow against for some new plan or possession you want. Above all, resist this temptation. If you lose that retirement fund due to foolish use of the funds in your middle age years, you are back to square one with nothing to show for your years of hard work developing that retirement nest egg.

The plan of setting up withholding from your checkbook or a direct deposit to your retirement account of retirement savings allows you to go about your busy life knowing that your retirement planning is underway. This is step one but its not a good idea to never go back and review your retirement plan and see if how you are going about getting ready for retirement well in advance. Make it a regular ritual to sit down and review what is going on with your investment funds. Look at the way your investments have been performing and if you are not getting a good return on those money, make some changes. Remember, just because your retirement funds are being managed by the company you work for doesnt mean the money belongs to them. Its yours so be responsible and manage it.

Starting early and staying proactive about your retirement is your best approach to retirement planning and one that will result in a much bigger retirement fund for you to start your golden years with. And by taking good care of your retirement before you need it, you are guaranteeing that it will take good care of you when its time to depend on that fund for a happy and prosperous retirement lifestyle.