Preparing for Retirement:
Expect the Unexpected

Common Sense Ideas on Living Within Your Income

Are you preparing for retirement?  Great... Read on!

You can plan for 30 years -- bank accounts for your kids college, funds for that little summer cottage, and some cash for retirement, some day!

However, especially in retirement, plans can go astray. Easily. The stock market takes a dump and just before you retire so that you don't have the time to let it rebuild. Your pension can disappear if your lifetime employer goes down and your pension with it. These things happen to thousands of people every day. 

Everything you depend upon is just gone and there is no indication that it is coming back soon. So now it is time to prepare to do what your preparation didn’t. Help you survive.  

Understand & Accept Your Situation

Mentally acknowledge and start living within your retired income. 

• Is there any way you can reduce the amount of your mortgage payments​? Remortgaging with lower interest rates maybe be a pain but could lower monthly payments and thus provide more spendable income!

• How about earning some income? Yes, you are retired, maybe even too old to be hired to do the job you previously held. You might be in the “over qualified” club for most everything. However, there is a job out there for you, if you do the work to find it. Try indeed.com -- search your local area, add keywords on what type of work you want, and see what's out there. 

• There IS one person who will give you a chance. YOU. What skills and abilities do you have that someone will pay for? Could you be a consultant or run a small service kind of business? Ever have a bright idea for something but never followed through on it? Are you seeking a Home Business?

• Consider a newer car now if you can. New for dependability, not for impression.  Get a small lower cost kind. Insure it for anything that can happen that will cost you money. 

• Perhaps most important of all is food. Learn to shop. Really shop. Not just write a check. Food costs a fortune but coupons, sales and specials save loads if intelligently used.

You might be too late to prepare for your retirement, but not too late to approach the inevitable without retirement anxiety. 

Live within your retirement income. Live without hunger and with security and dignity and comfort.