Free From Broke

A Personal Finance Blog for Regular Folks

Retirement

9 Things to Do When You Retire

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Retirement is a stage in life that everyone in the rat race looks forward to.

It proves that you paid your dues to society, worked for a lengthy period, and it’s now time to open up the next chapter in your life.

Previously, when people retired, they didn’t have as much time to enjoy it.  There wasn’t much to do, and they weren’t expected to live very long afterwards.  With improvements in technology and health, people are living longer, and in some cases, are retired longer than they spent working!

So how can you spend your days with your new found freedom?

Here are 9 things to do when you retire:

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Don’t Forget Your 401(k) When You Leave Your Job! Here’s What You Can Do With It

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A 401(k) plan is an awesome vehicle to save for retirement!  

You get to lower your tax basis (the income you get taxed on).  You might get a great company match… What’s not to like?

But what do you do with your 401(k) if you leave your job? 

Do you take the 401(k) with you?  Where do you put it?  Should you leave it?

You have some choices for your 401(k) which I’ll outline for you below:

Choices For Your 401(k) When You Leave Your Job

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If Your Teen Has a Job, It’s Not Too Early to Think About Retirement

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Generally, retirement is something that middle aged individuals are concerned with, not teens.  

Teens may feel like they have all the time in the world, while their parents hear the ticking countdown to retirement.

Parents can no longer change the fact that they probably didn’t contribute to their retirement at a young age, but they can help their children learn about retirement planning and contributing earlier rather than later.

This discussion can start with the teen’s first job.

There are Two Primary Ways Teens May Be Able to Start a Retirement Account:

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College Savings or Retirement Savings – Which Should I Save For First?

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There is a deep, deep instinct within parents to care for their children. Every parent I’ve ever known wants their children to have it better than they did.

Often this means Mom and Dad sacrifice for their children.  These sacrifices can be small such as not ordering dessert when eating out or driving the old beat up (paid off) car one more year before buying something manufactured in the last 5 years.

Other times the sacrifices made by parents can be financially devastating.

The desire to provide for children is so strong that choices are made that can make things worse than they need to be.

The classic question of saving for your children’s college funds or for your retirement falls right in line with this idea.  Is it a terrible idea to set aside your retirement needs to save some extra dollars for the college fund?  Or can you justify putting off retirement savings to make sure there is enough money to pay the college bills?

Deciding Whether to Save for College or Retirement

Here are 6 factors to consider when making the decision of whether to save for college education costs or your retirement.

1. Why Not Do Both?

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Do I Need Life Insurance In Retirement?

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You can save a boat load of money by re-evaluating your life insurance needs once you retire.

If you do, you’ll probably find that you need a whole lot less insurance after you retire than you needed while you were working.  In many cases, you’ll discover that you won’t need life insurance at all during retirement.

So Do I Need Life Insurance in Retirement?

The Purpose Of Life Insurance is the Key

Counter to what many life insurance agents tell you, life insurance isn’t an investment.

That’s one reason why term life is far better than whole life.  It’s also one of the reasons I question the need for life insurance on a non-working spouse.

Insurance is a financial tool and nothing more.
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