Here’s the one truth we can no longer avoid:
Retirement is fast approaching for the youngest of the baby boomers, and yet many are still far from being ready for it.
Yes, many are at a loss at how to handle these issues. After all, the retirement concerns baby boomers face seem too impossible to address at this point. However, it is not as dreary as it may seem. There are still various ways in which baby boomers can address these concerns.
To start off, here’s one secret for you:
Delaying retirement can do wonders for your future.
By changing your perspective about the new situation, you become more flexible and effective in addressing retirement issues thrown your way.
Retirement Issues Baby Boomers Face (and How to Address Them)
Remember that it does not stop there. Overhauling your retirement plan at this point may seem impossible now, especially when you are this close to retirement. However, trust us when we say that you can do it; you just need the right strategies.
Let’s get started by getting to know the three questions many baby boomers are currently worried about. And then, let’s dive into the ways in which you can address these concerns and overhaul your retirement plans today:
1. How do I pay for long term care?
Let’s start with one of the biggest elephants in the room: long term care.
As you may know by now, long term care needs are not as easy to avoid as many of us initially thought. On top of that, the expenses that come with addressing those needs are substantial, to say the least.
Take for example the costs of homemaker services. From meal preparations to laundry, this service covers the day-to-day tasks that make your living environment safe and comfortable.
Today, the average daily rate for these services in the United States is $125. In a year, you may end up paying $45, 760 just for homemaker care. This amount can be significantly detrimental especially if you are living on limited retirement savings.
This brings us to one important question that baby boomers must answer now:
Should I purchase a long term care insurance policy?
Admittedly, there has been an ongoing debate about this. People understand that the costs are just too high to risk funding them out of pocket. However, they also see other options—their family members, for example—as cheaper alternatives to pricey insurance policies they might not even need.
However, remember that you do not purchase car insurance policies and hope that you get into a car crash. The same goes for long term care insurance.
You purchase it as a way to protect yourself and even your family members in the event that you face long term care needs. It is a comprehensive safety net that helps keep your assets intact if and when you find yourself facing long term care costs.
On top of that, you can rein in the estimate costs of these insurance policies. To learn more about the different ways you can control the costs, request a free quote for long term care insurance now. This will provide you with an overview of the prices and get you in-touch with an insurance specialist who can help you control the insurance expenses to a more affordable level.
Read: Retirees: How Will I Pay for Long Term Care Coverage Now?
2. How prepared am I and my spouse for retirement?
It is given that couples talk about their retirement plans. However, we would like to stress one important point that many often neglect until it’s too late:
Retirement planning with your spouse should involve more than just discussing where you want to live or how much income you may have.
For starters, you and your spouse need to have an uninterrupted discussion of your retirement expectations. For example, do you or your spouse see caregiving duties in the future? Do you have older relatives that might end up living with you in the near future?
Another point to consider is how you can both handle helping adult children on a fixed income. After all, did you know that retired parents give $6,800 a year on average to their adult children?
As you can imagine, this can pose problems to your financial stability during the latter years of retirement. This may be a potential concern between spouses because one might feel that they should continue to help their adult children while the other might think that it is time to stop.
Moreover, couples need to talk about when they plan to retire. While it may seem ideal and fun to retire at the same time, it can also cause friction in their relationship.
How? You may ask.
Well, imagine this: you and your spouse have been juggling careers, child-rearing, and day-to-day demands for decades. At most, you only spend time together for only a few hours in a day. Now imagine what it would be like when the busy schedules abruptly stop. You no longer have to go to work, and your children have all grown up and left. All of a sudden, you have so much time in your hands—and so does your spouse. At times, couples do not agree on how to spend it.
This is why it is important to have a clear understanding of each other’s view of retirement early on. Keep in mind that compromise is a necessary component in successfully retiring together.
Moreover, many retired couples have shared that they have had to relearn to be with each other after retirement. It is a complex adjustment process, so do not expect smooth sailing.
Read: Long Term Care Planning Essentials for Married Couples
3. How can I make my retirement money last?
Here’s one reason why retirement is so terrifying right now:
The odds of living a longer life are greater than ever. However, the cost of living has been increasing at a rapid rate that our finances are having trouble keeping up with it.
To make matters more worrisome, only 54% of baby boomers have retirement savings today—this is the lowest recorded in seven years. At this point, there is a high chance that we will outlive our retirement savings if we do not take active and strategic measures to prevent it from happening. The question now is this: what can we do to keep our financial stability intact?
There are many ways to secure your retirement and one way to do this is to start working again. Often, baby boomers see retirement as the time they get to enjoy, travel, and pursue new hobbies. However, retirement is changing, and you may want to change your perspective along with it.
Don’t get us wrong; these are all still possible. But baby boomers may want to incorporate earning an income into their list of activities during retirement.
Nowadays, baby boomers are contributing to various industries and earning a living for themselves. For example, retired teachers may consider starting a tutoring business in their community. A retired police officer may think of offering seminars on personal safety.
These can help them maintain the flexible schedule that they looked forward to prior to retirement and continue to replenish their finances at the same time.
Moreover, many older adults have also started taking an interest in work-from-home jobs which allow them to cut back on multiple expenses and earn more. According to FlexJobs, here are the top 5 industries that need work from home employees:
- Sales
- Medical & Health
- Customer Service
- Administrative
- Computer & IT
If you have previously worked in a different industry and wish to pursue something new, then you may get an idea of where to start from this list.
Read: Financial Spring Cleaning: 7 Proven Ways to Boost Your Retirement Savings
Proactive Planning and Living
Are you ready for another secret? Ready or not, here it is:
At the end of the day, your attitude toward addressing these retirement concerns can make or break your future.
These challenges can be overwhelming, and they can terrify you at times.—that’s okay. However, it should not stop you from preparing and taking active measures for your future. Take control of the situation instead of responding to problems after they happened.
Seek advice from an industry expert on how you can strategize retirement. Many would often think that this step is unnecessary. After all, why spend when you have all the resources you need online, right?
However, a one-on-one consultation where you get to list your unique concerns and goals to a person who knows how the industries move can save you so much money in the long run.
The odds are against you; there is no point in denying that now. But keep in mind that you can still regain control of your future. You, along with every baby boomer, have envisioned a retirement that is comfortable and stable. You can still make that happen if you take active steps in addressing the concerns that plague retirees today.
If you need help setting up a good retirement and long term care plan, please feel free to answer our long term care quiz or reach out to ALTCP. On top of sharing key information about securing stability during the golden years, we also provide one-on-one consultations about planning for long term care and retirement.
As early as now, you can already compare policies and prices by requesting instant long-term care insurance quote.