Planning For Retirement

Planning for retirement is more than dreaming of the day when you get to sleep in on Monday morning and not having to commute to work.  The idea is to plan for a successful retirement.  This means having the financial security to enjoy your new found free time by spoiling the grandchildren, vacations to tropical locations or gardening.

What a lot of people don’t anticipate when they retire is just how much things will change financially.  Here are some questions to ask yourself when you plan for life after work:

• How much will your income drop when you are relying only on your pension income?
• What household expenses are going to change?  While you may eat out less, the heat and hydro may go up since you are home more often.
• How much debt will you have when you retire?  It used to be the goal was to retire debt free.  In the current economy that is less likely to happen.  You need to look at your monthly debt payments, the interest being paid and how long it will take to pay it off.
• Will you take a part-time job after retiring?  If the answer is yes, it should be because you want to keep working rather than you need to work to pay the bills.

What we see in our business is an increase in people in their senior years with a debt load too great to manage.  If all you can manage is the minimum monthly payments, then you are likely paying only interest and the debt will never go away.   Some think the answer to consolidate their debt into a new loan.  This ends up being debt being paid by debt.

A licensed trustee in bankruptcy isn’t only about filing a bankruptcy.  We are looking at various solutions to fit your situation that may not even require our services.  The common solution we see is a Consumer Proposal .  This option allows someone to take their debt and legally reduce it down to one monthly payment that is based upon their budget not upon how much debt they have.  Any unpaid debt is then eliminated once the proposal is complete.  If you are worried about your plan to retire including too much debt, contact a licensed trustee for a free consultation or see our website at www.mnpdebt.ca.  

This article was published in the Saturday, June 28, 2014 edition of The Hamilton Spectator.