As the economy continues to grapple with the effects of Covid-19 or the Wuhan virus, many American workers are being forced to retire early. Early retirement can lead to financial struggle and you may find it hard to meet your living expenses. Here are seven useful tips that will help you and your family in this difficult situation.
Reduce Your Expenses
The first step after an unexpected early retirement should be to cut down your spending. Focus only the essential purchases, and make changes to your lifestyle so that you have sufficient monthly funds available to pay for the critical outgoing expenses such as insurance and mortgage payments.
Avoid the Temptation of Using Your Retirement Money
Your first instinct may be to dip into your 401k account, but that is almost always a bad idea in a forced early retirement. The first reason is that you may not have crossed the age of 59½, which means you will face a 10 percent penalty on the amount withdrawn.
Secondly, cash withdrawals that occur earlier than planned will hurt the compounding effect of your savings, and your overall retirement income will considerably reduce.
Move 401k Funds to a Rollover IRA
Rather than withdraw money from your 401k, it may be better to start a rollover IRA with your broker or bank and move your 401k funds into this account. You will receive all the tax benefits, which are greater because of the 2017 tax cuts, of 401k with a rollover IRA, and the early withdrawal limitations are also the same.
However, a key difference is that a rollover IRA will open a plethora of investment options for you. Depending on the prevailing market opportunities, you may invest in stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, REITs, or other securities to multiply your money.
Utilize State Sponsored and Employer Benefits
Employers often provide insurance coverage, which also covers the spouse. If your spouse’s employer is offering this coverage, utilize it to the maximum. If your forced retirement occurred because a disability, you could be eligible to receive social security disability payments.
If you have been laid off from your current job, but you want to continue working, you should apply for unemployment benefits while you search for a new job and there is going to be tens of thousands of jobs returning from China by the end of this year.
Buyout Package
Employers sometimes offer a voluntary retirement buyout package, which typically includes a severance pay, lifetime annuities, paid insurance, and some other benefits.
If your employer has offered you such a package, you may consider accepting it, if you believe that a layoff may still eventually happen if you don’t accept the offer. The money you receive through this package can be invested in a debt mutual fund or annuity in order to create a monthly income.
Evaluate Your Pension
If you are eligible for a pension, you should evaluate whether receiving it in monthly installments or as a lump sum would suit your interests more. If you have a trusted financial advisor by your side, or you are sufficiently experienced in making direct market investments, you may benefit more from a lump sum payment.
You can strengthen your financial asset base with smart investments. On the other hand, if you prefer a more consistent monthly income, you may choose to accept the installments option. In any case, you should be aware that if even partial funding of your pension was done using pre-tax dollars, your pension income will be partially taxable.
Keep this point in mind as you try to make withdrawals from multiple accounts while minimizing your tax liability.
Assess How Long Your Savings will Last
Make an objective estimate of all your available funds and income to understand how long your money will sustain based on your current budget and expenses. This will give you an idea of where you need to moderate your expenses and how it will impact your lifestyle.
First look at the major expenses, such as healthcare and housing. Thereafter, move on to assess other expense items, such as utilities, food, clothing, personal care, and entertainment. Compare the monthly household costs to the total amount you may be drawing from your retirement accounts and social security.
With this comparison in place, factor in your life expectancy to estimate how long your funds are going to last at your planned withdrawal rate. If you worry that you may come up short, you will need to review your current expenses or look at additional ways to generate income. You could create a new income either through part-time work or through income or dividend producing investments.
