Retired and trying to figure out your finances? Here’s some advice from the book “How to Love Your Retirement” (Hundreds of Heads Books, www.hundredsofheads.com, 13.95), straight from people who’ve done it.
“It was really important to be financially independent when I retired. I didn’t want to worry about working. I didn’t want to worry if my hobby made an income. For instance, photography is something I’m interested in, and if income comes from it, fine; but that’s only in the back of my head. If it doesn’t, then it continues as my hobby.”
— Gary Smith, San Antonio, Texas; retired for 1 year
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“When we started to plan for retirement, my husband and I sat down with a financial planner to see what our situation looked like. It’s a good idea to have an expert look at your assets and financial situation objectively. Another good idea is to update your wills and create directives. No one wants to do these things, but they are important. It eases the burden, and you can then focus on just enjoying yourselves.”
— Louise Warner, New Philadelphia, Ohio; retired for 5 years
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“You most likely have very conservative investments that pay next to no interest. Our daughter came to us and needed a large chunk of money to renovate a house. She guaranteed us a rate of return that was modest, but still more than the next-to-nothing interest we were earning in our safe accounts. Now, I would only recommend this if you absolutely know your kids are trustworthy—and even then we wrote up official documents just in case—but in our case it worked out wonderfully for all parties. My daughter got the money cheaper than from a bank (and let’s face it, the bank didn’t want to loan her that much anyway), and we got all of our money back with better interest than we were earning.”
— Mary C., Tucson, Ariz.
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“To deal with your HMO, get a doctor who is really good at writing letters. My husband’s oncologist saved us over $8,000 on medications this way.”
— Dona, New York
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“Money should be spent on things you want to do. If you play golf and do it passionately, spend your money there. Every human being has a chance to do something that makes him happy.”
— Richard Bing, M.D., Pasadena, Calif.; retired for 3 years
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“We have a rule that any money we make after retirement is our own to spend as we like. Neither of us is accountable to the other. Our income from Social Security, investments, and pensions is joint money, whose spending we decide together.”
— Joseph Emil Vucinovich, Redmond, Wash.; retired for 7 years
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“It’s hard to tell how much money you’ll need to retire. It’s like making a bet on how long you’ll live, which is a little spooky. It’s also been hard to let go of the part of me that wants to make money. I’ve spent so much of my life thinking about making money, to just let that go is not in my nature. I appease myself with eBay. I find things at thrift stores and estate sales and sell them on eBay. It’s not much money, hardly any, really, but it appeases the breadwinner in me.”
— R.R., Charleston, W.Va.; retired for 1 year
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“Get your cost-of-living estimates and then double them. We thought we’d worked out everything about the cost of retirement. We went through all of our bills for 10 years, we got a new roof and a new car, our house was paid for. But everything goes up over time, and your income doesn’t.”
— Anonymous, Petaluma, Calif.; retired for 13 years
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“You can’t live on Social Security. It’s like $16,000 a year, and you really can’t enjoy yourself, or even do a lot of things you’re used to, for $16,000. Late in my working life, I had tried to make different investments in stocks and bonds. In the end, it turned out to be a good thing.”
— Sonya, Brooklyn, N.Y.; retired for 10 years
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“My wife ended up being hospitalized for several months, and I didn’t know where I was going to get the money to pay the bills. I found out that you can take money out of your IRA early to pay for some of that stuff without penalty. It saved me a lot of hand-wringing trying to figure out where I was going to get the money.”
— Dennis Russo, Woodworth, Ohio; retired for 4 years
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“About six months before I retired, I knew I was going to be in the market soon for a new car. I decided to buy it while I was still working instead of waiting until I was officially retired. It’s much easier to get financing for a major purchase like a car while you can still list an employer on the application. It always looks good to have a job when you are trying to borrow money.”
— Shannon Leitwiler, Keezletown, Va.; retired for 1 year
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© 2006, Hundreds of Heads Books, Inc.