4 Things You Should Ditch When You Retire

If you are planning to retire in the next few years, you may have visited a financial planner, and if you did, the financial planner probably tried to sell you all kinds of financial products.  A little voice in your head probably told you that you don’t need any of the things the financial planner wanted you to buy, and that little voice was right.  The bad news is that you probably also don’t need a lot of the things you already have, whether these things are possessions or financial habits.  Sometimes the path to being able to retire consists of getting rid of stuff instead of choosing something to buy.  These are four things that retirees are better off without.  An Orlando estate planning lawyer can help you focus on the future, which will make it easier to move past your old habits.

Your Storage Unit and Everything in It

Decluttering makes estate planning and preparing for retirement much easier.  If you have stuff lying around that you didn’t need while you were working, you definitely won’t need it when you retire.  Anything that is so tangential to your everyday life that it is in a storage unit needs to go, as does much of the clutter in your house.  Ditch the fancy dishes and dinner napkins, the VHS tapes, and the toys from your children’s childhood.

A Life Insurance Policy

Life insurance policies are dirt cheap when you are in your 30s, and when your children are minors, the idea of not owning a life insurance policy is terrifying.  If you are old enough to retire, you are past the age where owning a life insurance policy makes financial sense.  Your retirement savings will help your family a lot more than the life insurance you can buy in your 60s will.

A Home Mortgage

If any of the stuff in your storage unit is valuable, you should sell it and use the money toward paying off your home mortgage.  Owning a house unencumbered by mortgage debt is one of the biggest causes of a feeling of financial stability among retired people, regardless of their retirement income or the value of the home.

More Than One Car Per Couple

Having two cars makes sense for dual-income couples, especially if their workplaces are opposite directions from home, and especially if they are also sharing the responsibilities of transporting their children to after-school activities.  After retirement, it makes sense for many couples to have just one car.  You can go places together, and you can go places one at a time; you no longer have to worry about the crazy commutes.

Something You Do Need: An Estate Plan

No matter how much you downsize your clutter and your expenses, you still need an estate plan.  An estate planning lawyer can help you build one.

Contact Us Today for Help

An estate planning lawyer can help you simplify your life as you approach retirement.  Contact Gierach and Gierach, P.A. for a consultation.

Source:

moneytalksnews.com/slideshows/things-retirees-should-do-away-with/