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Making It All Add Up

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Making It All Add Up

If your current portfolio isn’t generating the type of return you’ll need for your retirement, consider the following.

Things To Know

  • Separate your needs from your wants.
  • Reevaluate your situation every three to five years.

Rethink your retirement lifestyle

Separate your needs from your wants. One way to save big: Lower your housing costs. Moving from a $300,000 home to a $200,000 home not only means more cash in your pocket but probably lower upkeep expenses too.

If retirement is far enough away, get more aggressive

Trade some of your bond funds for conservative equity funds, or swap high-dividend stock funds for growth types.

Put off retirement, or work part-time

People of full retirement age (this varies based on the year you were born) can receive their full Social Security benefits, no matter what their earnings are. Even if you begin receiving Social Security before reaching full retirement age, you can earn up to a certain amount and still receive benefits.

Save more now so you can spend more later

This is hard. It’s also common sense. Americans have shockingly low savings rates, shockingly high debt, and an alarming tendency to overspend.

Don’t forget to reevaluate your situation every three to five years

Review periodically!