Saving for your retirement can take a long time. Additionally, it’s important to track your progress as you go. No one wants to reach retirement age and suddenly realize you can’t afford to retire. That’s why it’s essential to hit these common retirement milestones when you hit 50. By this time, you should be well on your way to reaching your retirement goals.
Retirement Milestones
Savings
This is a pretty basic milestone, but it’s still incredibly important. By the time you reach your 50’s, you should know how much you need to support yourself during retirement. If you have made it this far and don’t know how much you will need, now is a good time to calculate it. Though, keep in mind you will only have a decade or so to make up the difference.
Even if you know how much you will need and have been saving, it’s a good time to recalculate your costs just to be sure. You might find out you need to save more than you previously calculated. Use a retirement calculator to determine how much you will need.
A Long-Term Care Plan
Long-term care is likely the most expensive retirement cost you will face. There are a few ways to prepare for it, but we believe Confident Living is one of your best bets. Confident Living is a long-term care payment program that helps you mitigate the cost of long-term care when you get older. With Confident Living, you will be given a personal Care Coordinator that will assist you in the development of your custom plan.
The average cost of staying in a senior community is about $7,000 a month for a semi-private room. Additionally, the average person needs long-term care for about three years. That’s a big price tag on your long-term health. In fact, the total cost would be around $250,000 per person. It’s also important to remember that Medicare doesn’t cover long-term care, so those expenses will need to come out of your pocket. So, you can see it is wise to be prepared long before care is needed. Now is the time to double and triple-check your savings and start planning for care when you are healthy.
Know Your Retirement Age
Full retirement age, or FRA, is the age you must reach before claiming your standard Social Security benefit or your primary insurance amount (PIA). The PIA is the amount you can expect to be given based on your inflation-adjusted average wages earned. These are the wages you have earned throughout your working career.
Roughly 64% of retirees claim that Social Security benefits are their primary source of income in retirement. Because it will affect how much you receive in retirement, the age at which you retire is very important.
The earlier you file for benefits, the less you will end up receiving each month. The earliest you can claim benefits is 62, but that will result in a permanent reduction. If you delay benefits until you are 70, you will receive a delayed credit which results in higher monthly benefits.
Saving for retirement may be one of the hardest things a person can do. However, a little planning and a few goals can make all the difference. By checking these retirement milestones off your list, you’ll be well on your way to financial security in retirement.
With all the senior living options today, researching each of them can be exhausting. To help, we have created your FREE Your Options for Future Care to get you started.
Confident Living is a continuing care at home membership program, focused on helping you remain active and independent as you age in your own home. We serve the greater Cincinnati area. For more information, contact us online or call (513) 719-3522.