Financial Planning in Your 50s

Financial Planning in Your 50s 

It's time to get serious if you haven't already because retirement is now getting closer. Many people who haven't previously planned for retirement are waking up to the fact that it's now or never. If you have been doing financial planning since your thirties or before, you may have accumulated some serious wealth in your retirement funds.  

You want to review your plan, contributing more to your retirement plan if need be. It's important to do retirement planning so that you can estimate to see if you're contributing enough to your plan so that you can hopefully retire when you want to. If you're fifty and over your maximum IRA contribution for 2019 and 2020 is $7000 as opposed to $6000 for those under 50. Also you can contribute an additional $6000 to your 401(k), 403(b), 457 or TSP retirement plan if you're 50 or over in 2019 and an additional $6500 in 2020 (see www.irs.gov). 

Evaluate your desired lifestyle in retirement and decide how you're going to fund that. 

Now is a good time to consider purchasing long term care insurance if you haven't already done so. Do it while you're healthy if possible. The older you are and the less healthy you are the more expensive the insurance. If you wait too long to purchase it, you may not be able to afford it. 

It may not be wise to take on more debt at this time in your life. Do you really want to take on a larger home with a bigger mortgage and more upkeep at this point?   

With people living longer, people are also working longer. You may find yourself working past age 65, which is no longer the magic retirement age. You have to think about long term planning for the future. In a way in your 50s you're still a youngster. You have to plan on living 30 years or longer and possibly spending 20 or more years in retirement. You don't want to outlive your money. You may have 35 years of market swings, inflation and economic cycles. As you get older you may want to make your investments more conservative, but don't make them too conservative. You will still need growth in your portfolio to keep up with inflation. 

Think about your legacy planning.  To whom do you want to leave your wealth and how are you going to accomplish that? Update wills and beneficiaries. Do you want to consider trust services? 

Let's make a plan or update yours. Financial planning in your 50s is critical. 

"The information contained herein is based on sources I believe reliable but is not considered all-inclusive. Opinions are my current opinions only and are subject to change without notice."