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Tips for preparing a new career or volunteer path for retirement.
Americans’ idea of “retirement” is changing, and many people today are looking to spend their latter years of life doing meaningful and engaging activities—whether that involves income-generating work, volunteering, or both.
In fact, an AARP survey found that 37 percent of working Americans ages 50 to 64 plan to keep working after retiring from their current job. Of those, 44 percent plan to change fields.
Tips for estimating your expenses after you stop working
Planning for retirement means making a lot of educated assumptions—where you will live, how much income you will generate (based partly on how your investments will perform) and how long you will live. One of the most important assumptions, though, is how much you will spend in retirement—as that determines how much income you’ll need each month or each year.
When Should You Take Social Security?
Here are the key questions to ask yourself to determine the right age to start claiming benefits.
You can claim Social Security retirement benefits as early as age 62, which also happens to be the most common age people start claiming them, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. But while it might be tempting to begin that early, you should think twice.
So now that you’re closing in on hanging it up, do you have an idea of how you’ll pay yourself once you no longer have someone paying you? Retirement planning boils down to this: making sure you have enough income to meet your retirement goals once you’ve stopped working for income. That is, you need to create a stream of income from your pool of assets. But how?
You may be eager to retire in your 50s, early 60s or immediately after turning 65—but will you be financially ready? The age at which you retire can have major implications for your and your family’s long-term financial security. If you retire too soon, you run the risk of running out of money.