10 Great Tips For Managing Money In Retirement

That was a good article - thanks Diva! We've done most of what it suggested and I think #9 is the most important. I have at least one friend who, as they retired, packed up to move near their one married son. Once they got there, they started house hunting. Turns out, he wanted 5 acres in the woods and she expected to be downtown near the theater, library and other cultural offerings. They finally compromised, and (to my personal horror) ended up in a large home in an "executive" neighborhood. It looks so sterile and more of a burden than something fun. It took them both by surprise!

I also liked #2 - Creation of Income. My DH had spent his life working hard to make enough for his family. (I worked too when I was able) I managed the funds and I knew that after years of carefully saving and investing, that I would have a hard time withdrawing those same funds to live on. Thus we created several annuities. I know they have a bad rap but it is so much easier for me to be able to "turn one on" and anticipate an steady income stream. (psst - after 5 years retired, we have yet to have to start one and most of them "lock in" when the market is high) I keep track of what we have and our income projections on a large spreadsheet. (our Prudential Financial Guy LOVES that - he too can see where we stand)

Tax implications of withdrawals is my biggest challenge but we'll do what we need to, when we get there, I guess. But, like Gary O - so far so good here too!
Thanks again.
 

Some are not relevant to me, e.g., home equity.

Others don't apply. For example, some of my pension is income dependent. A poor person in Canada is better off retiring and collecting the pension.

I know people who were penalized for having retirement savings plans. That money was deducted from their pensions.

I'm very careful with money. I constantly review my habits, plans, and priorities. I think that's all I can really do.
 

6. Wait as Long as Possible to Start Social Security​

The differences in lifetime value between starting Social Security at age 62 and delaying until 67 or later can be hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I started the Canadian equivalent of social security at age 62 instead of 66 (?) as I was worried that I MIGHT NOT LIVE TO 66.
 
I think a couple should start doing their retirement planning well before they retire - we started in our late 40's and I'm sorry we didn't start ten years earlier than that, LOL. A retirement plan is tricky because so many assumptions need to be made, so the tip of "Keep Planning" is very relevant.

We did quite a bit of "starts and stops" when we first started planning, but kept at it. We were helped by professional advice from Spouse's state retirement fund, which began offering retirement planning sessions. We took every one of them we could; one course we took three times, because different instructors stress different information.

That's where we learned about Social Security, Medicare, long term care insurance, annuities, taxes, etc. We incorporated that into our planning, but even so, quite a bit was still a guess when we finally took early retirement.

But it all worked out (thankfully!). We estimated high on all costs, and planned for ill health and/or old age. We used Spouse's pension as our base income - if we could live on that alone, our portfolio, SocSec, and home would be our inflation protection.

Taking the time to test so many scenarios beforehand enabled us to retire as planned even as the Great Recession hit the economy in 2010. Fortunately, Spouse's pension has a COLA. I took SocSec at 66; Spouse hasn't taken his yet as he will get hit with the dreaded WEP penalty of a full 60%. He'll only get 40% of his normal benefit because his pension is considered a 'government pension' (it's actually a multi-county agency, but classified as equivalent to state government).

At 65 I received three very modest pension checks, no COLA and unassignable, from employers I had vested with. All of these additions are not large, but during the long period of low/no inflation we have gained enough that this year's high inflation is not damaging to us.

We use an independent CFP firm as our financial adviser and meet with them regularly. I handled our investments for decades, but taxes on withdrawing distributions and dealing with dividends, plus an RMD on an inherited IRA, was not what I wanted to do with my retirement time. So we gave our accounts to the CFP firm and have been very happy with the results.

I'm still the point person for the firm as I enjoy 'the business of finance'. The CFP firm manages our accounts with taxes in mind, so I can just hand the Year End info off to our tax accountant.

With the COLA increase in SocSec and S's pension benefit, I do have to talk to our CPA about maybe withholding more taxes. Otherwise, we may come up too short next year and I don't want to be penalized. That happened once before and it's a real OUCH!

The IRS always gets its 'pound of flesh', LOL.
 
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NorthernLight said:
Some are not relevant to me, e.g., home equity.

Others don't apply. For example, some of my pension is income dependent. A poor person in Canada is better off retiring and collecting the pension.

I know people who were penalized for having retirement savings plans. That money was deducted from their pensions.
Click to expand...
same thing happens here..
 

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