retirement

Want to Retire Early? Be Aware of These 5 Financial Risks.

early retirement

Many people want to take early retirement. If you’ve saved up enough money then why not? Well, first of all, you have to be sure that you’ve saved up enough money. Many people think that they have planned accordingly only to realize that there are a lot of financial downsides to early retirement.

Here are five of the biggest money problems that people tend to face in early retirement:

1. Failing to Plan Properly for Taxes

Did you know that many people are in a higher tax bracket at retirement than for much of their working career? This means that you’re likely to owe more at tax time than you’re accustomed to. Moreover, once you start taking out your 401K money, you’ll have to pay taxes on that.

Therefore, taxes in retirement can be pricey. If you haven’t planned ahead, then you’re going to have to readjust for that reality. If you retire early, then you’ll have to start figuring that out years ahead of your peers.

2. Years and Years of Spending Ahead

That brings us to the next key point. If you retire early then chances are that you’ll have more years of retirement. Therefore, you’ll have to make your retirement income stretch. If you retire at 55 instead of 65, that’s ten less years of earning and ten more years relying on retirement income.

3. Where Will Your Money Come From?

You won’t even be able to access some of your retirement funds, such as your 401K, until you hit a certain age. Therefore, you’ll have to figure out where you’re money is going to come from prior to that. If you haven’t planned in advance, then you can easily find yourself overspending in those early years. If you tap into your savings or refinance your home to cover those costs then you’ll have to find some way to make up for it later.

4. What About Healthcare?

Just because you retire early doesn’t mean that you can access Medicaid early. Therefore, you’re going to have to figure out how to pay for health insurance until you reach regular retirement age. If you’re not working anymore then you can’t count on employer rates. Your health insurance could get very expensive very quickly.

Even though you’ve retired early, you’re old enough that you can’t risk going without healthcare. If anything were to happen, your care costs would be exorbitant. Therefore, you do have to pay out of pocket for health insurance. How are you planning to do that if you’ve retired early?

5. You Don’t Maximize Your Retirement Benefits

If you take early retirement then you may not make as much money post-retirement as you could have. For example, if you have a job that pays a pension, the pension amount might be significantly lower if you retire early. Likewise, if you start access Social Security early (“early” currently means age 62) then you won’t get as much as if you’d waited. So, you start using the money sooner and yet you’re getting less of it than you could have. Waiting to retire could be well worth it.

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401K Drawbacks: Don’t Forget That Money Is Taxed When You Use It

401k drawbacks

More and more people are focused on growing their 401K retirement savings. That’s a great thing. You need to have money when you retire. You want to have a diverse array of retirement income options. Maxing out your 401k contributions is a wise thing to do. However, there are 401K drawbacks. You shouldn’t forget about those as you plan for your future.

401K Money Is Taxed When You Withdraw It

People frequently seem to forget that one of the biggest 401K drawbacks is that you have to pay taxes on that money. You don’t pay taxes when you deposit it. People love that part. In fact, contributing to your 401K plan is a great tax benefit when you’re still working.

However, when you reach your retirement and start using that money, you’ll have to pay taxes. That can be a huge shock if you haven’t planned for it in advance. The money is taxed as though relative to your income. Therefore, if you’ve done a great job of setting yourself up with a high level of retirement income, you could find that you have to pay more than a third of your 401K withdrawal money to taxes.

On the plus side, if you’re in a lower income bracket post-retirement than you were before you retired, then you may have set yourself up for some success. You’ll still need to pay taxes on that money, of course, but the hit might not be as big as it would have been if you didn’t set that money aside. There are clearly pros and cons.

Plan Ahead for Withdrawing Your 401K Money

The big question isn’t whether or not to set aside money in your 401K. If you have the option, the benefits outweigh 401K drawbacks. The issue is that you simply have to plan ahead. Make sure that you’re fully aware of how much money you’re going to have to pay to taxes when the time comes.

The biggest problem is if you fail to think about taxes when you mentally plan for your retirement years. If you just look at what’s in your 401K and assume that’s how much money you’ll have when you retire then you’re going to be in for a shock. Make sure that you’re thinking realistically about how you’ll use that money each year and what amount of it will go to taxes.

Other Tips for Minimizing 401K Drawbacks

You might want to look now to see if you should have a Roth 401K instead of or in addition to your traditional 401K. That money gets taxed ahead of time, which means that you won’t have to worry about paying taxes on it once you’re in retirement. If you have the ability to maximize contributions to both types of accounts now then you’ll set yourself up well for financial success in retirement.

Then, once you’re in retirement, make sure that you use the Roth 401K money first. Or for that matter, use any money that isn’t taxable in retirement. You want to withdraw as little money as possible that will require you to pay taxes. Pay attention to your tax bracket and the impact that withdrawals will have on that. As long as you plan in advance, you can minimize 401K drawbacks and make the most of your money.

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Think Your Credit Score Doesn’t Matter in Retirement? Think Again.

credit score

You have battled with your credit score your whole life. You wanted a good score so that you can could get the best loans, especially for your home mortgage. Finally, you’ve reached retirement, and you have it in mind that you can rest easy. You have your mortgage, you are done taking out loans for education, so you don’t have to think about your credit score any more right? Wrong. Your credit score still maters in retirement.

You Need to Watch Your Money Carefully in Retirement

Unless you happen to retire with extreme wealth at your disposal, you need to be frugal after retirement. You need to budget. After all, you don’t have the kind of income coming in that you once did. You aren’t going to get raises and other windfalls. You have to make do with what you have.

Therefore, it’s really important that you watch your money carefully. If you have bad credit, then you put yourself at risk. What if something happens and you need to refinance your home? Or what if you need to take out an emergency loan? So many things can go awry in life. Medical expenses, natural disasters, the needs of adult children … you just might need to get credit or a loan again even after you’ve retired.

If you don’t have good credit, then you’re going to end up with a loan that has terrible terms (if you can get a loan at all). A bad credit score means you’ll have a higher interest rate, which in turns means that you’ll have higher monthly repayment bills. If you’re trying to budget in retirement then you can’t afford to waste money on those exorbitant fees. If you maintain a good credit score in retirement then you don’t have to worry about that so much.

You Probably Have More Bills in Retirement Than You Anticipated

People like to paint a rosy picture of retirement. You’ve worked hard your entire life, so now you can rest. You can take the money that you set aside and enjoy your sunset years. However, this financially lovely picture simply isn’t the reality for many Americans reaching retirement age today.

Baby boomers who have retired or about to retire have much higher bills than they might have expected. In fact, many still owe on their homes, either due to an original mortgage or to refinancing over the years. Additionally, older people increasingly have high levels of credit card debt to their names. Some people even still have student loan debt when they retire!

If you have these types of outstanding debt, then you really need to make sure that you have a good credit score in retirement. You should work to improve the score as much as possible. You can do that through debt repayment, increased credit lines, disputing incorrect credit report information, etc. Once you have boosted your score as much as possible, you can then use that good credit score to get a great rate on a consolidation loan. This will allow you to repay that debt as quickly as possible so that it doesn’t hang over you throughout your entire retirement.

Plus more and more Americans retire but then start a post-retirement business of their own. If you’d like to start a new business, then you might need a business loan. If you have a good credit score in retirement, it’ll be significantly easier to get that loan.

So, yes, your credit score matters in retirement.

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