{"id":9723,"date":"2016-07-12T07:00:43","date_gmt":"2016-07-12T12:00:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/?p=9723"},"modified":"2016-07-12T09:48:35","modified_gmt":"2016-07-12T14:48:35","slug":"when-should-you-retire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/d30braiqprupoq.cloudfront.net\/blog\/2016\/07\/when-should-you-retire\/","title":{"rendered":"When Should You Retire?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>When Should You Retire?<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-9773\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2016\/07\/When-Should-You-Retire--350x293.jpg\" alt=\"When Should You Retire?\" width=\"350\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2016\/07\/When-Should-You-Retire--350x293.jpg 350w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2016\/07\/When-Should-You-Retire--768x644.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com\/img.prod.aplaceformom.com\/main\/uploads\/sa-blog\/2016\/07\/When-Should-You-Retire-.jpg 940w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><\/h1>\n<p>We all spend a lot of time looking forward to retirement. If it were entirely up to you, you\u2019d probably retire yesterday. As it is, you have to do the proper calculations and figure out when you can actually <em>afford<\/em> to retire.<\/p>\n<h2>Analyze Your Current Cost of Living<\/h2>\n<p>The first step to determining the best age to retire is to figure out how much you typically spend in a month now. If you keep a monthly budget, then you\u2019re probably already set on this step. If not, then do a thorough analysis of your credit card bills and bank statements to figure out:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The average amount you spend in a month<\/li>\n<li>The most you\u2019ve spent in a month in the last year \u2013 and what accounted for the difference<\/li>\n<li>Which of your expenses in the past year were necessary (e.g. rent, food, health care) and which were optional (e.g. entertainment, shopping, travel)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You have to understand your current baseline before you can predict possible changes to it.<\/p>\n<h2>Account for Changes to Your Cost of Living After Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>Your monthly budget now doesn\u2019t necessarily equal your <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/how-to-build-a-monthly-budget-for-retirement\/\">retirement monthly budget<\/a><\/strong>. Some of the changes to your regular spending will be easy to predict. If you spend money buying coffee on your way to work every day, you can probably subtract that cost from your predicted retirement budget (but then add in a little for the cost of making coffee at home). The amount you spend on gas or public transportation should decrease if you\u2019re cutting a daily commute out of your life.<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, you should anticipate some increases in spending that are hard to guess at. Aging tends to go hand in hand with increased health issues, so you should expect your health care costs to increase, especially if you need to move into assisted living or a nursing home at some point. If you make the choice to age in place, you\u2019ll need to invest in home modifications.<\/p>\n<p>Looking more on the bright side, if you\u2019ve always dreamed of travel or other potentially expensive hobbies during retirement, then you need to account for that in your budget as well.<\/p>\n<p>Work out the costs you know will increase or decrease and leave yourself some wiggle room for all the expenses you won\u2019t be able to anticipate.<\/p>\n<h2>Do the Math<\/h2>\n<p>Now that you\u2019ve gotten a handle (at least generally) on what to expect your expenses to be month by month during retirement, you need to do the calculations to figure out how that number relates to your income and savings.<\/p>\n<p>Keep in mind as you do this that you\u2019ll <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2016\/05\/what-are-delayed-retirement-benefits\/\">get more from social security<\/a><\/strong> if you wait to apply until a few years after you first become eligible. If you can manage to live on your savings and retirement accounts for the first few years of retirement, then you\u2019ll be better off for it.<\/p>\n<p>You can get some help with doing all the calculations by using a retirement calculator on the internet, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.calcxml.com\/do\/ret31?ctry=ca\">like this one<\/a><\/strong>, but don\u2019t be over reliant on those numbers as a lot of them require guesswork \u2013 for example, you can\u2019t know for sure what inflation or your investment return will be.<\/p>\n<h2>Consider Talking to a Financial Advisor<\/h2>\n<p>This stuff is complicated and if you\u2019re not sure about the math or worried about not making the best decision, there\u2019s no reason not to get some help. Look for a trustworthy <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.senioradvisor.com\/blog\/2014\/08\/how-to-find-a-senior-financial-advisor\/\">financial advisor<\/a><\/strong> in your area. It\u2019s their job to specifically consider questions like when to retire, so they can help you work out the details and make sure you\u2019re not forgetting anything important.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When Should You Retire? We all spend a lot of time looking forward to retirement. If it were entirely up to you, you\u2019d probably retire yesterday. As it is, you have to do the proper calculations and figure out when you can actually afford to retire. Analyze Your Current Cost of Living The first step to determining the best age [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,162],"tags":[40],"class_list":{"0":"post-9723","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-families-caregivers","7":"category-retirement-planning","8":"tag-retirement"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When Should You Retire? - SeniorAdvisor.com Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Should You Retire? The answer&#039;s different for everyone. 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