retirement

Nearing retirement? Check your credit

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th-2A whole lot of people approach retirement with a serious misconception about credit scoring.

A recent study from TransUnion indicates that almost half of Baby Boomers think that credit scores don’t matter as much after age 70.

Guess what? They do.

Generally speaking, seniors aren’t applying for mortgages or refinancing existing ones in their eighth decades. But a low credit score affects insurance premiums, auto loan interest rates and, maybe, getting accepted for long-term care.

Folks edging toward retirement with moderate to poor credit – or no credit – need to think about how they might handle any financial surprises. Even if you think that Social Security plus pension/retirement plan will let you live a cash-only lifestyle, you’re better off owning and using credit cards.

Life does tend to throw curveballs. Suppose during retirement…

 

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I’ve been thinking about retirement.

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th-3A recent freelance experience suffused with mega-micromanagement left me teeth-grindingly irritated and wondering, “What if I just quit?”

Pipe dream, at least for now. I’m too young to collect Social Security and not quite far enough along in my personal retirement savings to stop contributing.

It’s not that I don’t like what I do. Writing is as natural as respiration. Even if I quit writing full-time I’d likely freelance here and there. Lately, though, I’m viewing time as more important than money, and resenting the hours spent on non-life-enriching stuff.

We now interrupt our regular broadcast to check our privilege: Plenty of people in the world don’t have the freedom even to consider such a choice. They work until they die, and with their last breaths apologize for not contributing more to the family and for costing so much money to bury.

I know that I am in a pretty benevolent place: I can work from home, the job is interesting and lets me help people, and I get to see DF for lunch every day.

Which brings me to the main reason I want to retire.

 

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Why I’m neglecting my Roth IRA.

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thFor the first time in seven years I’m shining on my contributions to a Roth IRA. The $6,500 that would have gone into that account will go into savings instead.

That doesn’t mean I’m ignoring retirement. I’m just changing the way I do it. The reason may not make 100 percent financial sense, but it will make me feel better.

Here’s why.

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What does it take to retire successfully?

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20140909-MoneyTips-Fincon-The retiree-screen Res (FINAL)Where I grew up, people worked for as long as possible and felt diminished by retirement. Now it’s seen as a second chance.

Some people still say they plan to spend their golden years improving their golf swings or lying around in hammocks, but increasingly retirement is becoming an opportunity to start over: trying a different type of work, learning a new skill, maybe even running off to join the Peace Corps.

If you’d like to learn more, tune in to the Retiree Next Door Tweetcast next Tuesday, Nov. 18. Co-hosted by MoneyTips.com and certified financial planner Jeff Rose, the one-hour event will answer common questions and any additional queries sent in by listeners.

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Toward a care-free retirement.

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20140909-MoneyTips-Fincon-The retiree-screen Res (FINAL) (This post is part of the “Retiree Next Door Movement,” created by MoneyTips.com. More than 70 personal finance bloggers committed to write about a single issue on the same day to raise awareness.)

When MoneyTips.com surveyed 510 retired and semi-retired persons about their financial habits, I was surprised that just 30 percent considered themselves “frugal” before retiring, whereas 67 percent said they spent “enough to live comfortably.”

Now that they’re not working or working a lot less, the numbers haven’t changed much: 65 percent live comfortably and 35 percent live frugally.

Those numbers should give hope to people who might fear they won’t have the resources to retire. That’s because terms like “comfortably” and “frugally” can mean just about anything you want them to mean.

 

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Should you drop collision coverage?

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thIf you’re thinking about ditching collision, don’t do it based on some imagined formula. Although most people drop it by the eighth year of ownership, there’s no hard-and-fast (fast and furious?) rule.

Or so I found out while researching “When to drop collision coverage – and risk it all” for Insurance.com.

You’re required to have collision until your auto loan is paid in full. It repairs or replaces your wheels when you’re hit by an uninsured driver or when you have an at-fault accident. (Damn you, black ice!)

Insurance.com analyzed data from half a million car insurance quotes and found that year eight is when the biggest number of owners bid adieu to collision. Some swear by “the 10 percent rule”: If the annual premium is 10 percent or more of the car’s value, better to bank those bucks against a replacement vehicle.

But it’s not always that simple. Collision coverage is another example of how those living on the margins pay more.

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Got retirement questions? Ask ’em.

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thKiplinger’s Personal Finance and the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors will co-sponsor “Jump-Start Your Retirement Plan Day,” an eight-hour online chat, on Thursday, June 5.

You can ask questions in advance or just follow along on Twitter as 20 money professionals offer their professional advice.

Free professional advice.

Now that I’ve got your attention, check out the touchy-but-necessary topics these money mavens will discuss:

  • Saving for retirement – 401(k)s, IRAs and Roth IRAs
  • Taxes and retirement – including but not limited to estate and gift taxes
  • Earning while retired – Social Security and income investing strategies, whether you’ve already stopped working or merely making plans
  • “Financial challenges” – paying down debt, investing, saving for your kids’ college

To that last I’d add “boomerangers,” i.e., kids who come back after schooling or because of personal economic downturns. About three in 10 young adults are bunking with Mom and Dad, but this isn’t always voluntary; almost 10 percent of grads between 21 and 25 are unemployed and 16.8 percent are underemployed, according to the Economic Policy Institute.

By comparison, back in 2007 those figures were just over 5 percent and 9.6 percent, respectively. Ouch.

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