Retiring from working life is often a difficult transitional phase for many adults. You’ve spent your entire life working hard to support your family and you’ve finally reached the point where you can begin to slow down and enjoy the comforts of getting older.
Depending on your finances, if you have the money you might enjoy living in a luxury setting like the one provided at this website thehenrydenver. Or maybe you’re finally ready to go back to school to get your doctorate and apartments near MSU Denver might be a better fit.
No matter what, you’re going to have to figure out a few things now that you are no longer working a full-time job. How are you going to spend your days? Will you volunteer? Get a part-time job? And even more important, how are you going to spend your money wisely so that it lasts for the rest of your life?
We’ll briefly touch upon these subjects and more so stick around to learn the best ways to spend your retirement money while living in Denver.
Tip #1: Understand Your Expenses
Most retirees need to stay healthy and stick to a budget. The best way to get started when figuring out your budget is to know and understand your expenses. Without knowing this information, it’s going to be impossible to determine how much money you can comfortably afford to spend each month.
So, take a moment to write down all of your regular expenses. And if you’re having trouble coming up with them, walk around your apartment or house and things will begin to come to you.
Examples of expenses that many people pay each month include rent/mortgage, homeowners insurance, health insurance, car insurance, car payments, food, utilities, credit card payments, entertainment, clothing, cable and Internet, and anything else you can think of.
Now that you know your regular monthly bills, you need to find out how much you pay for these things every month, make a list and write everything down or put them in an Excel spreadsheet, a Word document, in the cloud, or wherever it is most convenient to track.
Tip #2: Determine Your Income
Just because you’re retired doesn’t mean you aren’t going to generate income every month because you certainly will. But you most likely understand this already.
What you need to know is how much income you’re going to generate at this point now that you are officially retired. Some areas where retirees earn an income include Social Security, pensions, part-time jobs, investments, rental income, freelancing, babysitting, pet sitting, or other avenues of income generation.
Just like with your expenses, you need to write down or add all of your income sources to a spreadsheet to keep track of them all. Having this information in front of you will make it possible to determine how much money you can spend comfortably each month without going over your retirement budget.
Tip #3: Using Your Savings to Supplement Your Income in Retirement
Those retirees who are particularly frugal might not need to use their savings to supplement their income. But if you’re like the average person, you are now making a lot less money and you’ll need to start spending your savings in order to afford to live the life you want to live.
So, determine how much extra money you’ll need by subtracting your income from your expenses. As an example, if you subtract your income from your expenses and learn that you still need an additional $200 per month to pay your bills, you’ll have to take that money from your savings account. Or you can re-examine your life and make changes to eliminate the need for this additional money.
Final Thoughts
Figuring out how much you can spend in retirement isn’t mind-numbingly difficult. The hard part for many is seeing that they’ll have to cut back in some areas in order to live comfortably in retirement. But on the other hand, if you have the money you should definitely enjoy it because you worked hard your whole life and you deserve to experience all of the good things that life has to offer. You’ve earned it so enjoy it, my friend.
