Are you a woman looking forward to retiring early and living a life of abundance in your old age? Then below are ten early retirement tips for women. Many schools of thought believe that women generally have a higher life expectancy rate than men. This means that women are likely to live longer than their male counterparts and therefore need to plan for retirement even more seriously than men.
Sadly, studies have shown that women are generally lacking in this aspect. The numbers of women who have saved enough for retirement are lower than the men. And if you ask me, I will say this is understandable. This is due the fact that most women are usually caught up in a lot of activities that make it difficult for them to work as much as men and that ultimately leads to a reduction in saving power.
Why Women Spend Less Time Planning for Retirement
For instance, women have to go through the pregnancy and child bearing stages and as the kids grow up, the burden of raising the kids daily falls more on the women than the men. I wouldn’t agree with the argument which suggests that women are weaker than men and cannot work as much as men.
That is mostly untrue because we have continued to see woman who have proven this to be a mere fallacy in different aspects of life such as sports, technology, management and what have you. So, women are not weak or lazy but women are saddled with more responsibilities in the home than men.
Think of a situation where you have to wake up by 5 am, make breakfast, prepare the kids for school and maybe drive them down to school too, clean the house, make lunch, pick up the kids from school, help them with home work, chat with them and make sure they are fine as you make dinner, grocery shopping, prepare them for bed…..the woman is almost like a walking robot.
Another reason why women may not be able to save as much as men for retirement is: “fashion.” The world is so fashion conscious these days, it’s almost like a competition and no woman wants to be left behind. Something as basic as a handbag could go for $1000 and it’s not uncommon to see women fall over themselves just to get the latest fashion items. Let’s not even talk about cosmetics and age-defying procedures.
Well, there’s nothing wrong with enjoying life while you can, after all, you only live once. You should enjoy life as much as you can but not at the expense of saving for retirement. The number of years you spend in retirement may be just as much as the number of years you spent working if not more.
Let’s say you started working at age 25 and you retired at age 60 and you expect to live up to the ripe old age of 90; which means you will spend 35 years working and 30 years in retirement. Need i say more about why it is important for you to have a strong financial plan for retirement?
Why You Should Retire Early as a Woman
As a woman, it’s always better to retire early especially if you have kids. This would give you enough time to be involved in the developmental stages of your kids life and asides that, it is believed that women start to really age from age 40. Combine the stress of working to the natural aging process; that equals faster aging.
Now think of a situation where you didn’t have to work at that age and while other women your age are sweating it out at board meetings and conferences, you are at the spa enjoying a relaxing week. That sounds like every woman’s dream and it isn’t that difficult to achieve if you follow these top 10 early retirement tips for women which i have put together for you for every woman to use as a guide.
Top 10 Powerful Early Retirement Advice and Tips for Women
1. Draft a retirement plan
Like you already know, the first step to succeeding at anything in life is planning. You must have a solid retirement plan in place. First, you must ask yourself when you really want to retire and how much you need to have in your retirement savings account before you throw in the towel.
A popular method used to figure out how much you need to have before you retire is to calculate 60percent of your current income and multiply it by the number of years you hope to spend in retirement. This is because it is generally estimated that you would need at least 60percent of your monthly income for each month you spend in retirement. Now that you know how much you need, you should decide on how much you have already saved and how much more you need to save.
2. Create a financial budget
Since you already know how much you need to save for retirement, creating a budget that would help you achieve your goals shouldn’t be difficult. You should ensure that you have a weekly budget, a monthly budget and a yearly budget with clear details on how you are going to spend your income and how you will save as well.
3. Talk to an expert
Sometimes, it’s really not easy to walk this road alone. It is advisable for you to look for a reputable financial adviser who would hold your hands throughout the journey and point you in the right direction. A financial adviser would be able to give you good advice on how to save and invest and also tell you which stocks to invest in and which ones to avoid.
4. Start saving
The whole point of what we have been discussing is savings. The extent to which you will enjoy your retirement depends on how much you can save towards it. The more you save, the safer you are, so start spending less and saving more. Instead of buying that designer bag that will cost you $1,000, why not go for something equally durable but cheaper?
5. Invest, please
Of course you won’t be keeping all of that money you have been saving in a piggy bank. You shouldn’t even keep it in your bank account because the temptation to spend it might be too strong for you; so instead of keeping it stashed somewhere, invest in stocks, bonds, and 401(k), just make sure you invest and make sure it’s a tax-deferred investment.
6. Clear the debts
This is a very important step towards retirement. You have to clear off every debt and stop piling more.
7. Liquidate unwanted Assets
These assets may be shoes you no longer use, or jewelries you have lost taste for, old furniture, clothes, cars, just sell off everything you are not currently using and may never have need for and invest the funds instead. If your house is too big with a lot of space you don’t use, you need a smaller house; sell it off and move to a smaller home or consider renting out some of that space.
8. Multiple streams of income are important
The best gift you can ever give yourself is creating multiple streams of income. Now, i don’t mean you should keep multiple jobs and work off your socks like a horse.
What i mean is that you while you keep that day job, use some of your talents to bring more money in and also let your investments roll in some income too. If you are a good writer, write a book and sell, if you love cooking, how about being a part-time caterer?
9. Cut down on your expenses
This just summarizes what we have been discussing since; spend less, save more.
10. Take care of your body
One major problem that could ruin all your retirement plans even after you must have done a good job of saving enough for it is bad health. A sudden terminal disease or illness could gulp down all of your retirement savings within few months, so to prevent this from happening; start taking very good care of your body now.