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It’s not too late to start planning for retirement
You may have woken up in a cold panic, wondering who will wipe your ass when you get older because you haven’t saved a dime for retirement. However, with our guide below, it’s not too late to start planning for retirement. In the meantime, get your free copy 5 building blocks for a happy gay life Here.
What you will find in the 9-step plan:
The 9-stage late retirement plan
1. Start now
The first of nine steps in the late retirement plan is the most obvious: Start now! Don’t dawdle or dawdle. Retirement is no longer as far in the future as you can imagine.
It’s like virtual reality here. It is now.
Your task now is to face reality. It is your responsibility to take responsibility.
Listen to Teresa Mears talk more about late-stage retirement planning here Queer money®:
2. Know where you are now
You can’t figure out how to get to your destination if you don’t know where you are. So, get to work.
Collect all statements for all your accounts or, if you are a modern person, get online access to all your accounts. Search far and wide to calculate every cent you have and every cent you owe. This includes giving you access to the 401(k) you signed up for for the job you had for two months. That means you have to figure out what happened to the credit card account you gave up years ago because you thought you’d never have to pay it off.
Do you have any pension plans anywhere (are there any pension plans anywhere?)? Do you have a small IRA at a local bank somewhere? Do you have a 403(b) at a nonprofit where you worked while in college? Have you already inherited money that is sitting in a bank account you never accessed?
Create an account on the Social Security Administration website to calculate what Social Security benefits you can currently expect to receive when you retire.
Search far and wide. Go high and low. Get everything.
3. Maximize retirement savings contributions
Since your future is not so far away, sacrifice today for tomorrow. For your long-term benefit, reduce your current budget and put all of your extra money into your retirement account. Maximize contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement plan.
If you don’t have an employer-sponsored retirement plan or are lucky enough to have money left over after exhausting contributions to your employer-sponsored retirement plan, contribute to a traditional or Roth IRA.
Learn more about the differences between traditional and Roth IRAs here Queer money®:
If you are over 50 and have access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan (401(k), 403(b), 457), the IRS allows you to make “catch-up” contributions. In addition to the regular contribution limits of $18,500 for 401(k)s in 2018, you can make an additional contribution of $6,000. Catch-up contributions for traditional and Roth IRAs allow you to invest $1,000 in addition to the regular contribution limits of $5,500.
According to Fidelity, this could mean an additional $1,000 per month after taxes for retirement savings. That’s nice, right?
If you still have money left after exhausting an employer-sponsored retirement plan – why haven’t you been investing all this time – put even more money into a brokerage account.
If you are a low to middle earner, use the savings loan. Instead of taking a tax deduction on your individual IRA or company-sponsored retirement contributions, claim the savings credit. The saver credit can deduct up to $2,000 from your tax bill.
Tax credits are better than deductions because they represent a dollar-for-dollar reduction in your taxes. Invest 100% of all your tax refunds and tax savings in an IRA or brokerage account and make it work for you. Speak to your accountant to find out if the savings loan is right for you.
Learn more about the differences between 401(k)s and 403(b) here. Queer money®:
4. Be a smart investor, not a greedy one
Most people who avoid investing do so because they think investing is difficult. That’s not it. Click here to Get our 10 super easy steps to investing.
Don’t invest too conservatively. Avoid keeping your money in cash or interest-bearing accounts. These investments can’t keep up with inflation, meaning you make less money on each dollar.
Always be an investor. The trend is to switch to more conservative investments like bonds and CDs as you get older. This is not a good strategy for keeping up with inflation. It makes sense to keep 20 to 40% of your investment money in large-cap, medium-cap and small-cap stocks. For definitions of these terms: Get our super simple investing guide here.
Don’t be too aggressive – think Goldilocks. Avoid hot investment tips and current trends. The rare person who gets rich from these investments makes headlines, but most people get burned. So don’t gamble but adopt a safer investment strategy.
As we said above in our #DFGLive, you don’t have to do this all alone. Rent a robot as we describe below!
Retirement robots for rent
Try Blooom for your 401(k) or 403(b).
Get 401(k) and 403(b) investing help from Blooom. Investment advice for 401(k)s and 403(b)s is limited and it can be difficult to select and manage the investments yourself.
Let Bloom do it all the work for you. Get yours FREE Click here for Bloom analysis.
If you have a traditional or Roth IRA with Vanguard, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab, Blooom can help you with that too.
If you are concerned about the current market volatility and its impact on your 401(k) and 403(b), Blooom provides you with three special O’s to help you with your investing during these turbulent times you can see that here.
Hire M1 Finance
If you are an independent investor, try an account with M1 Finance. M1 Finance is free for retirement accounts with a minimum access amount of $500 by clicking on this link Here.
M1 Finance is a flexible, automated investment platform and is ideal for people comfortable managing pre-built and customized portfolios based on Exchange Trade Funds (ETF) (see below). However, you can also model pre-built portfolios from Wall Street experts and robots. recommended (robot!) models.
• Trading is free
• There are no asset management (AUM) fees
• There are no account fees (for brokerage accounts with a minimum balance of $100 and retirement accounts with a minimum balance of $500).
M1 Finance also enables socially responsible investing, which is highly beneficial for the queer community.
Invest with M1 Finance by clicking The Link here.
Crack your retirement nut with Acorns
Too broke to invest for retirement? Incorrect. Invest through Acorns here!
With your spare change, Acorns allows retirement account holders to invest their spare change. This is a great way to start investing, especially if you think you don’t have any money to invest.
Let Acorns guide you down this easy path by clicking this link.
5. Work longer for someone else and become your own boss
Your investment strategy should focus on your cash flow and not savings. The latter works, but the former is better. If you can work longer for your current employer or a new employer that you care more about, do it and be aggressive in steps three and four.
Become self-employed alongside or instead of working for someone else. Again, the latter works, but the former is better. Today’s gig economy offers far more opportunities to pursue part-time and main employment. Within three years We made $60,000 from our own freelance writing.
For more tips on starting your own career or side hustle, see below:
However you choose to become self-employed, open either a SEP or a SIMPLE IRA and invest as much of the money you earn into this retirement plan to have more money in retirement.
6. Be insured
It may cost more than you’d like and you may not get all the coverage you want, but it’s time to address the big issues. Apply for long-term care insurance (LTCI). If approved, LTCI will provide home care for you if you become disabled and help you finance retirement or nursing care if needed.
Most queer people don’t need children to take care of us as we grow older, especially as our bodies and systems deteriorate. Even if we do, we don’t want them to have the last memory of us changing our adult diapers.
Hear LGBT Financial’s Ryan Taylor talk about long-term care insurance:
Then look for the right health insurance for your needs.
1. Try GoHealth for health insurance
Search, find and Thanks to GoHealth, getting health insurance is easier and more affordable.
After answering a few questions, GoHealth researches the health insurance landscape for you and puts together a shortlist of the providers most suitable for you and your family.
Search GoHealth Here Today!
2. Check out Haven Life for life insurance
Today’s life insurance is not your father’s life insurance. However, take a look at what we mean by finding and applying for term life insurance quotes MassMutual at HavenLife.com.
Plus, you can get life insurance right away! What’s better than that?
7. Get married
For the love of all that is holy and holy, if you have a partner, marry them. First of all, if one of you dies, the other inherits all of your marital property and anything not excluded as marital property in your prenuptial agreement, if you have any.
Likewise, Social Security spousal and survivor benefits only apply to married couples. Spousal pension allows you or your spouse to receive 50% of an employee’s pension (whichever is greater, depending on who worked or earned the most). With the survivor benefit, the surviving spouse receives 100% of his or her Social Security contributions or those of the deceased spouse, whichever is greater. You must be married for one year to be eligible for the spouse’s pension and nine months to be eligible for the survivor’s pension.
Learn more about Social Security spousal and survivor benefits here Queer money®:
These benefits could significantly change the dynamics of your late retirement plan and your retirement.
8. Invest in real estate
Consider a reverse mortgage on your current home
Today, reverse mortgages are not what they once were. A reverse mortgage allows you to systematically withdraw equity from your home to support you through retirement. They’re not for everyone, but reverse mortgages for the right person are great.
If you want to leave your house to an heir, only the portion of the equity that has not been paid out to you can be inherited. All of your property cannot be inherited because with a reverse mortgage you are giving up full ownership of your property.
Nor are they the answer to all of your retirement planning concerns. You’ll still pay property taxes, utilities, and hazard and flood insurance premiums. This is unaffordable for some retirees.
Speak to an unbiased professional and your family before taking out a reverse mortgage.
Become a real estate investor
Taking out a reverse mortgage is an option, but for some it is a scary option. However, there are many ways to get into real estate, such as: B. Buying properties for rent, selling, using for Airbnb and more.
We spoke to Mindy Jensen, one of Bigger Pockets’ biggest stars, about it Queer Money® Podcast. Mindy shares numerous ways to make money with real estate investing.
Listen to Mindy talk about real estate investing Queer money®:
Below are some platforms that allow you to invest in real estate without necessarily having to purchase and manage the physical properties yourself.
AcreTrader
AcreTrader was founded to provide investors with direct access to the extremely attractive agricultural land asset class. This is a niche that many miss and can help diversify your portfolio.
Connect with AcreTrader from Click Here.
M1 Finance REIT
Yes, that M1 Finance from above. M1 Finance is another trading company that offers you the opportunity to invest in real estate through its M1 Finance REIT. This could be another reason to join M1 Finance by clicking this link.
9. Pay off debt (now!)
Interest payments on debt reduce savings. Pay off as much debt as possible, ideally all debt before you retire. To pay off debts as quickly as possible, Click here to learn more about our exclusive debt lasso method.
If you need help following the Debt Lasso Method to pay off your credit card debt quickly, save money, and improve your credit score, Sign up for the credit card payoff plan here today.
Then avoid debt like the plague.
The current trend is for retirees to buy newer and larger homes and take out newer and larger mortgages. That makes no sense and is risky. Avoid these and similar wishes that will prevent you from spending your retirement well.
As you can see, all hope is not lost, but don’t wait another minute. Make the commitment and do what is necessary to protect your future.
For more great retirement planning click below: