If you’re gearing up to retire in 2030, you may be growing increasingly excited by the month. And you’re also in a great spot time-wise.
At this point, you don’t have to wait too long to enter that next stage of life. But you also have a prime opportunity to approach your post-working years with more confidence. To achieve the latter, here are three things you should definitely do now rather than wait.
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1. Come up with a budget
You may have a good sense of what your annual spending looks like now. But some of your expenses might change in retirement.
Your healthcare and utility bills might rise once you stop working, while your housing costs might fall if your mortgage is paid off in the next three years. And if you’re not commuting to a job every day, you may not have to make as many trips to the gas pump.
Now’s the time to create a retirement budget that clearly spells out your costs. Make sure to build in room for surprise expenses as well as once-a-year expenses so your numbers aren’t thrown off.
For example, you may have a homeowner’s insurance policy that you pay a premium for once a year. Forgetting that expense could wreck your budget and cause you stress. As a baseline, comb through your current bills, credit cards, and bank account statements line by line.
2. Assess your income streams
When you’re working, you may be used to living off a single paycheck that comes in every two weeks or once a month. In retirement, you may have various income streams available, from Social Security to IRA withdrawals to a pension, depending on the type of employer you work for.
Once you’ve created your budget, make a list of your different income sources and figure out how much money each one can reasonably provide you with. Those estimates may require some thought and strategizing, though.
Your Social Security benefits, for example, will change based on your filing age. And the amount you get from your IRA each year will hinge on the withdrawal rate you decide you’re comfortable with. If you have a $1 million retirement savings balance and you land on a 4% withdrawal rate, that’s $40,000 in annual income, versus just $30,000 if you decide to stick to 3%.
These are things to figure out now to ensure that you’re not retiring into an income shortfall.
3. Figure out what you’ll actually do with yourself
Retirement can be thrilling and jarring at the same time. You might love all that free time at first — until you find yourself bored and restless.
Now that you’re close to retirement but not quite there yet, ask yourself what you want to do with your days. Then make sure your budget can support that plan. If it can’t initially, some adjustments could help you maintain a more fulfilling lifestyle.
For example, if you expect housing to eat up a lot of your retirement income but you want to travel, you could consider downsizing to free up the money. And if that doesn’t appeal to you, you could get on board with some type of part-time job.
Also, if you think you’ll want to work in some capacity as a retiree, now’s the time to set yourself up to be able to do so. That could mean making more connections in your industry to line up consulting clients or developing new skills.
Getting close to retirement can feel exciting and scary at the same time. But if you make these moves now rather than waiting, you’ll have time to tweak your plans as needed so that you can move forward with much more confidence.
