Mistake 6: Not Creating a Retirement Budget
More than 40 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 put away for retirement, a study found. The percentage was not much lower for soon-to-be-retiring baby boomers, with almost 33 percent saying they have less than $10,000 saved for retirement. Even if you feel comfortable with your nest egg, you should sit down and calculate how long your savings actually will last.
Why This Is a Mistake
No matter how confident you are that you are in a good place financially to retire, it’s important to actually take time to do the math to make sure that everything will really add up.
A great first step for those approaching retirement is to establish a budget for desired retirement lifestyles. Where will you live? What will you do? How much will it take to fund your lifestyle each month? Do you have the financial resources to support this lifestyle?
If not, you will need to rethink your retirement. Perhaps you need to go back to work or scale back on activities. A budget helps you get a handle on where you are and if you will be fine financially in retirement.
