Four Simple Steps to a Successful Retirement

You’ll need a budget, a risk-tolerance test, a list of family members, a list of favored charities and a plan for assisted home living. Building a basic retirement strategy should include the categories outlined here. They are the simple steps that need addressing. There’s some chronological here as well, so may want to do them in order. 

Step One: Cover Your Domestic Expenses

You and your spouse need to select a budget that outlines your domestic spending and routine trips like visiting the grandchildren or going on church missions. Once you’ve collected all your bills and travel costs, assess them against your Social Security income and corporate or government pension. If there is a short fall, you might need to buy a guaranteed lifetime annuity with a cost-of-living adjustment for you and your spouse to make up the difference. You’ll want a licensed insurance professional familiar with lifetime income annuities to assist you. 

Step Two: Protect Your Portfolio Against Inflation

You and your spouse need to take a risk-tolerance test and share the results with each other. Then, you both need to work at establishing common-ground principals with your portfolio purchases and the mix of your investments. One rule of thumb is to buy equities with returns greater than inflation, with low expense charges and low beta risk. It may be prudent to hire a financial advisor experienced in asset allocation to assist you.

Step Three: Insure Your Legacy and Charitable Giving

You and your spouse need to make a list of family members and charities you desire to help after you’re gone. If you and your spouse are in relatively good health, you should investigate Survivorship Guaranteed Universal Life. Survivorship Guaranteed Universal Life can cover both spouses and transfer tax-free death proceeds to your beneficiaries for pennies on the dollar. Then, you can enjoy your retirement knowing your family members and charities are funded. You’ll want to engage a life insurance professional to bid out your policy for the best possible rate.

Step Four: Indemnify Yourself Against Elder Care Costs

No retirement strategy can be complete without long-term care coverage. The most expensive costs in retirement are medical and elder care costs. Medicare can take care of the bulk of the medical costs you’ll incur, but you still need elder care coverage. There are conventional long-term care insurance policies as well as hybrid polices attached to life and annuity contracts. Contractual language is important in these policies, so it’s imperative to hire a long-term care specialist.

These four steps can be expanded upon to build out a comprehensive retirement strategy, but if additional sophistication becomes necessary, you’ll need a professional financial advisor whose area of expertise addresses all aspects of retirement. For more information on how you can use these four steps in retirement, just go to onthemoneynews.com and request you free information.  

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