It’s like I just realized I was 51, soon to be 52, or something. Happy Tuesday! For the next little bit Tuesdays will be dedicated to topics about retiring. This post may contain affiliate links.
I will be 52 in August. While I worked full time and then some up until I had my first child, I have only worked part time since then. Now my youngest will be graduating next year and it is time to start thinking about things beyond child rearing, and homemaking. This blog, through Health Coaching, is intended to hopefully carry me into my Golden Years with a few paying customers and decrease the burden of bedside nursing on an older body. I need to start to invest more in advertising, promoting, and or other ways of making money blogging for that to work. I probably am one of those personalities that will never fully retire. I have to be busy and have a purpose. I love nursing. It is the only job I have ever had since the age of 17. While I can keep myself busy doing other things, busy work is not really a purpose to me, so I will probably always work some. But, that doesn’t change the fact that retirement years will be upon me soon enough.
If you are in your 50’s and you have not yet started to think about, or save for retirement now is definitely the time. But, what if you have not been planning all along and now you are afraid you will retire with no money. I would say a lot of people are in this situation. Gone are the days of having a pension with a company your work for your whole life. You may have an employer that offers a 401k and they may even add some money into it too. So, if you are old enough to remember back in the 90’s when Health Care became a for profit industry and a money making boom, you may have also noticed that is when companies started to do away with a pension option and steered more towards having a 401k. Why? Well for one thing you could assume it saved them a ton of money for many reasons. But, in the bigger picture it made the Stock Market a whole lot of money with a whole new brand of investors. Most 401k’s have some kind of investment in the Stock Market. You can of course opt out of that, but it hopefully helps you add to your 401k not wipe it out. If youOf are in your 50’s and just joining a 401k be sure and read your options carefully, and ask questions. You will want to be in the lowest risk option which may not make you as much money, but usually means you won’t wipe out the whole value in a crash either.
What if you have none of that, and have not set aside money either? Hopefully, you will qualify for Social Security and there are people who live on just Social Security. Now you won’t be skiing in Aspen, or buying a new boat, most likely but if done right you can manage. Did you know the average SS payment is only 1500 dollars a month. Think about your debt and bills and could you live on that?
My husband and I have dedicated this year to spending down our debt. We have been somewhat successful, but of course the central air had to die and had to be replaced. But, because we had paid down other debts we have the money to cover this debt without having to kill ourselves working more. I am sure we will carry this into the next year, as paying off our mortgage is a big goal.
Health of course is always a concern. The cost of Health Care is exorbitant especially as we age. With Kidney Disease I do worry about medical bills that may come in the future. That is why I have tried so hard to reduce my risk for my Kidney Disease getting worse, or complications from it. Just the cost of pain medicine for Chronic Pain can be extremely costly. They don’t mention this in the video below, but to me alleviating unnecessary medical bills by making healthier lifestyle changes should be included as a way to help retire with no money.
Of course learning to cook, cutting your food budget, and never wasting food are all things that will help you retire with no money saved.
The video below is very short and will help give you some ideas to help you if think you will be retiring with no money. You can also read this article here.
If you would like to learn more about my 30 day Health Coaching Plan, just click here. If you join my mailing list you will qualify for a 25% off coupon for Memorial Day on my day coaching plan. Just enter your email below and you will receive the newsletter with the coupon code over the weekend.
Living Life With CKD 