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Worried You’ll Never Save Enough Money to
Retire?
You Can Retire
Successfully - Even If You're Broke or Started Saving
Late
By Richard
J. Roll
Today, every ten seconds
a Baby Boomer turns 50, and another Baby Boomer turns
60.
It’s the first time in history that any generation can expect to live more
than half of their adult lives AFTER AGE 50. So, the
good news is, we’re going to live another 40 or 50
years. The bad news is, we’re going to live another 40
or 50 years.
The greatest challenge for the 78 million Baby Boomers is how to be prepared
for the financial and health challenges of living a much
longer life than our predecessors.
Unfortunately, most Americans spend more time planning for their vacations
than planning for their retirement. Only 42 percent of
workers have tried to calculate how much money they will
need to retire comfortably.
5 Simple Steps to Retire Rich
I’m a financial expert who’s personally tackled and overcome issues most
Boomers are facing: from caring for infirm elderly
parents via long distance to raising kids after 50 and
recovering from financial disasters to rebuild my nest
egg.
When I use the term “retire rich,” I mean having the income and security you
need to support your lifestyle, and an absence of stress
and anxiety about money. I’m not promising to make you a
fortune. I am promising that it’s not too late to start.
These five simple steps will help you to overcome the obstacle most likely
to cause people to struggle later in life:
procrastination.
1. Start by making sure you “pay yourself first” (and put your monthly
savings on Auto-Pilot).
2. Pay off or replace high interest rate debt. You can renegotiate with your
current credit card company (they’re often willing to do
this for long-term customers). Or switch to a company
offering lower rates, and be sure to make timely
payments.
3. Know your A,B,C’s.
Scenario A: You can find “The Cost of Retirement Calculator” on my website.
Use this calculator to calculate how much it costs you
annually to live in the home where you live now. If all
goes extremely well, you can afford to stay in your
current home with your current property taxes and other
annual expenses.
Scenario B: Now, calculate your annual living costs if you were to downsize
and move to a less expensive part of the country, or
downsize (maybe dramatically) in the town where you’re
living now.
You can probably reduce your annual expenses by 40% with plan B. One woman I
know lives and travels in a motor home from a home base
in Mexico. Her annual expenses are now just 20% of what
they were.
Scenario C: Finally, estimate how much lower your cost of living could be if
you moved to a low cost paradise overseas.
4. Being prepared for the rest of your life means knowing:
* How long you’re likely to live.
* How much income you need in your A, B, and C scenarios to maintain your
standard of living.
* How much income you can count on from existing sources and resources.
* How long your retirement cash reserves can last at different rates of
withdrawal.
* What options are available to you to earn supplemental income.
5. Buy long-term care insurance at the right time.
Make sure you plan for the possibility that you, like 50% of your peers,
will eventually require long-term care, whether due to
illness, accident, deterioration or bad luck.
Surprisingly enough, long-term care costs are not
covered by Medicare. The monthly cost to buy long-term
care insurance is based on the amount of benefits you
choose to receive, your health, and what age you are
when you buy it.
If you’re looking for ways to achieve a happier and more successful next
stage of life, The Baby Boomers Retirement Club can
help. Use the tools and calculators we provide to
develop an intelligent financial plan for your
retirement years.
About the Author: Take a free 10-minute retirement quiz at
http://www.mybbrc.com. Richard Roll, a retirement
expert and bestselling Book-of-the-Month Club author, is
the founder of the Baby Boomers Retirement Club (BBRC)
and the American Homeowners Association (AHA). Contact
Richard at
richardroll@mybbrc.com.
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