Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Money Moves For Your Fifties

8 money moves you must make at 50 by Liz Pulliam Weston of MSN.com shares eight areas to consider at fifty when planning for retirement. I group the recommendations into five main areas:
  1. Think about the dream job. Retirement if a great time to do what has been a passion, interest or dream. However, Liz warns that one should put significant retirement funds at risk to achieve the dream.


  2. Make retirement a top priority. Continue to put money in retirement savings and begin to understand future costs, such as health coverage. This includes reducing financial support for adult children, if necessary


  3. Get to zero debt. It is good to target for zero debt by retirement. Having no debt will significantly reduce one's monthly fixed expenses.


  4. Have adequate insurance. I consider insurance a necessity to protect our wealth against the risk of financial disaster. I have health, liability, property and long term care. While working, I also carried life and disability and I no longer carry these two since retiring in my forties.


  5. Stay healthy. On average, healthier people are wealthier. Several studies have shown a positive correlation between state of health and amount of wealth. The University of Michigan published a study about this relationship in 1996. Yahoo! recently published an article on a new study by the British Medical Journal that reconfirmed the findings.

Overall, I agree these are important areas on which to focus. Putting effort against these areas in my thirties and forties helped us to achieve early retirement in our forties early retirement in our forties.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2007 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

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