Do you feel like you’ve been limiting your financial choices in retirement? Even baby boomers with large nest eggs worry about draining their savings. Thankfully, it’s possible to stay relatively frugal while making the most of your golden years. You can find great advice on making your savings work for you on the REAP blog! Furthermore, these tips can help you manage your funds well without limiting your opportunities in retirement.
Refinance Your Home
You don’t necessarily need to sell your home and downsize in order to tap into your equity. Instead, you could explore refinancing as an option. In fact, by refinancing, you may be able to secure a better rate and terms than your current mortgage. Since interest rates are quite low, you can refinance in order to reduce your monthly mortgage payment, which will free up cash for other investments or activities.
As a retiree, you’re especially cognizant of the need to be smart with the wallet. As you seek ways to improve your financial outlook, choose a personal finance app that incorporates a transaction API, a feature that allows you to stay up to date with all your accounts by receiving notifications when new transactions occur. With it, you’ll be able to see 24 months of transaction history, helping you see and then eliminate wasteful spending.
Reallocate Your Portfolio
Before you change anything about your spending habits, consider meeting with a financial advisor to properly allocate your portfolio and gain peace of mind. By working with a financial advisor, you can outline a realistic budget for this chapter of your life and figure out where you can afford to spend a little more for extra comfort and convenience. You’ll be able to prepare for potential emergencies with low-risk investments while creating some wiggle room in your budget. Senior Advisor recommends asking your senior friends for referrals to good advisors and ensuring that your potential advisor holds an official fiduciary title before meeting with them.
Plan Road Trips
If you always envisioned yourself traveling in retirement, but you’re a little hesitant to shell out the money for expensive plane tickets or cruises, consider planning road trips to interesting nearby destinations instead. However, you don’t have to write off air travel just because of the costs – instead, you can spend some extra time looking for great flight deals before booking a trip. You might be surprised by how cheap it can be to travel in the off-season!
Host Dinner Parties
Perhaps you consider yourself a foodie, but you’d prefer not to spend too much money on going out to eat. If you want to dine well without going to restaurants all of the time, put some effort into improving your cooking skills. By perfecting your cooking techniques, purchasing higher-quality ingredients from the farmer’s market, and experimenting with new recipes, you can enjoy restaurant-quality meals at home!
If you do enjoy the social aspect of dining out, you can recreate the experience at home by inviting your friends over for dinner parties. You might inspire your friends to host parties more often at their own homes!
Create a Home Hobby Space
You don’t have to spend lots of money on expensive hobbies in retirement – instead, you can enjoy your favorite hobbies at home! By creating a home hobby space, you’ll be able to save money in the long run, spend more time on your favorite activities, and get better at the skills you’re invested in.
For instance, if you love doing arts and crafts, NewHomeSource recommends setting up storage spaces for your supplies, getting a table with plenty of room for creative projects, and displaying your work on the walls to stay inspired! Alternatively, if you want to spend more time exercising, you could set up a yoga room or home gym with equipment from your favorite fitness brands.
Making smart financial choices during retirement is paramount. But you do not have to restrict your spending to the point where you cannot enjoy your free time. With these tips, you’ll be able to fund new adventures in retirement without worrying about your financial future!
Ready to take charge on retirement planning? Check out the resources available from REAP! Read the blog today for tips on managing your money during your golden years, and reach out for more info! (855) 904-REAP
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