The trouble with retiring is that you never get a day off afterward.
Retirement is no joke. A retirement fund must sustain your post-working life for as long as you live.
But retirement is also not a one-size-fits-all situation. While it’s an positive life goal to attain, retirement has several harsh realities attached to it.
Your healthcare is your problem
The cost of personal health care expenses is usually never considered when calculating a retirement fund.
Why? Because the cost of health care during retirement would probably exceed the fund itself. The older we get, the more likely the human body breaks down or becomes ravaged by disease.
The average retired couple will have to pay over $400,000 in out-of-pocket for their health care expenses.
Invest in a health savings account (HSA) early. An HSA reduces your tax obligation and is tax-free if you only withdraw from it for medical reasons.
You may feel adrift
It is difficult for most retirees to go from decades of an intense work-life routine to a full stop without any psychological consequences.
Over a third of retirees become depressed during the early stages of retirement. A vocation is an identity.
So, what one does become after they stop working is important.
Strategize your post-retirement life and activities before retiring.
Outliving your retirement
The average human being will live to the age of 72, although the average female usually outlives the average male.
So, if you retire at 63, which is the average retirement age, your retirement money must last at least a decade or more.
Calculate your retirement fund as a supplement to Social Security, Medicare, and part-time work to optimize it.
Otherwise, you could outlive it and reenter the workforce in your 70s or 80s.
Debt
According to the Social Security Administration, the average retiree will carry over at least $120,000 in debts into retirement.
Eradicate debts before retiring. Your retirement savings could be wasted paying off your debts and putting you back to work.
Inflation and the cost of living
As the cost of living and inflation continually increases, the buying power of retirement dollars continually declines.
The Social Security Administration regularly increases its payments via its cost of living adjustment increases.
However, the so-called COLA increases are not extra money in your pocket. COLA increases are approved so that benefits keep pace with inflation and cost-of-living increases.
