How to Retire Alone

There’s many different variables to retirement planning, potentially one of them that some people consider or maybe top of mind for many is how do you retirement by yourself? What if you’re single? Widowed? Divorced? One of those situations, you know what does retirement planning look like that? And so I spent a little time and did a little bit of research and went out there and found and according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 65% or men and 58% of women, ages 55-66 are married. So that means the difference, right, is not. So there’s a vast majority, actually that’s not true, not vast, but a large chunk of the population out there is in that situation. You’re going to be retired by yourself. And so retirement planning is unique for every circumstance. But specifically if you fall into this situation, you’re going to want to look at some specific things to make sure you’re planned appropriately. One of them, like everybody, a budget. You know what is your particular budget and how is that going to chance heading into retirement? You know,while you’re working is there any sort of things your work expenses are picking up? Or maybe there’s going to be some expenses that fall off. But looking specifically at that budget and then also at those things that you want to do in retirement. What are some additional expenses you’re going to pick up? Cash flow, you know for retiring alone, you know you’re just going to have one Social Security and maybe one pension or however you’ve positioned yourself. But how is that going to play? Extra, look at how to you know take Social Security. Many different ways to take it from a timing perspective. You know, sometimes from an individual perspective. Maybe there’s a bigger sense of delay to try to grow that benefit potentially in your circumstance. So having a really strong look at cash flow and how that’s not only going to impact you today, but long-term. Taxation, you know we talk a lot about that from planning and all that perspective. But that single tax payer bracket can be brutal in some circumstances. And looking at that very specifically and seeing how that impacts you, once again not day, but also looking down the road when Social Security kicks in. What about required minimum distributions and how may that impact you over the term of your retirement and your needs and stuff like that. Health insurance, obviously depending upon the age you retire, are you of Medicare age yet or pre-Medicare? How does that impact on the marketplace with income limits and subsidies and all those various aspects? You know figuring out how to maybe position things to take best advantage to that. And then long-term care. You know not having a partner there to be able to maybe assist with some of those daily tasks if you become ill or needed. What does that look like? Do you have appropriate protections in place? Financially are you able to handle things? So when you think about retirement, it’s a joyous time typically and there’s a lot of exciting things. But having a plan in place for every particular circumstance and for those of you that maybe retiring alone and by yourself for whatever reason, you know we’d love to talk to you and let us help you plan to retire well.