Even the most perfectly flawless financial plan needs strict discipline to achieve. At some point ,you might realize that you have fallen far short of your financial targets in regards to your retirement. So how are you going to retire as planned when the numbers don’t allow you to do so.
Don’t lose hope. Here are some things you can do to get back on track.
Financial review
This is probably the first thing that anyone would think about. There are basically 2 ways to accumulate money. You either earn more, or spend less. More often than not, the main reason people go above their self-allocated budgets is overspending. You need to make sacrifices on your consumption habits to spend within your budget. Either that, or be prepared to spend extra hours at your work place for overtime pay. You might even impress your boss enough to get a higher bonus for the year.
Retirement age review
If retirement age is a choice, I’m pretty sure most people in the workforce would set theirs at round 35. But that is not the world we live in today.
Many organizations, and even government bodies encourage people to extend their working age. You might get pretty good benefits by delaying your retirement. In this way, not only will you retain your income, you will be adding into your nest egg for a few more years. On top of that you will be shortening the period of time in which you will be digging into your savings. It could be a pragmatic choice.
Heard of home equity?
The value of your house minus the outstanding balance in your mortgage account is your home equity. If you have fully paid up your mortgage, the full value of your house becomes the equity. You can tap into this “money” by taking up a home equity loan. The bank with give your loan with the house used as collateral. It will be like restarting the engine of your mortgage all over again. The good thing is that you will access to most of that cash your home is sitting on.
If you have gone this far, you might as well take a look at reverse mortgages as well. Reverse mortgages uniquely serves retirement plans. Your children will eventually takeover the liability. You should talk to a banker to learn the details of how it works.
Get more aggressive in your sound investments
Anybody who have spare cash in time-deposits will have gone through periods where they are too lazy to move their money around. This leaves the deposits sitting in dormant accounts that collect a minute interest. And you do this while fully knowing that sacrificing a day to run some banking errands can triple or even quadruple the interest you could get on your cash reserves.
These little dollars can really add up over the years. Get more aggressive on your assets like cash, blue chip stocks, and even insurance. Laziness has a cost. And it could be an item costing you an earlier retirement.
Be self-employed
Nothing sound better than being able to do what you love and get paid for it. You can start to do this part-time. Who knows? You might be so successful that you start doing it full time. Almost anyone will have a set of skills that is of value to others. Choose something you are good at and enjoy doing. Then start posting online to see the response you get. A weekend tennis session can feel that much better when you are paid to play with someone.