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It's human nature to assume that it will all work out before it's time to retire, but if nothing does, and your health condition means even part-time work is no longer viable, what can you do to get by?
Here are some scenarios.
You could downsize. That may not be such a bad thing if you're starting off in a two-story, three-bedroom house with a two-car garage. You'll have fewer options if you live in a studio apartment.
Think creatively: Buying a smaller house or becoming a renter may allow you to free up enough funds to fatten your bank account for a long time. If you live or move near public transportation, you might be able to sell your car. And if your household has two cars, you could sell one, especially if you're both retired.
"You'll save on insurance, gas, shop repairs and other related payments," says Katie Green, a Detroit-based counselor with GreenPath Debt Solutions, a nationwide nonprofit that helps consumers with debt and bankruptcy.
Tony Fiorillo, president of Asset Management Strategies Inc. in Fishers, Indiana, suggests moving to a lower-cost location. "This may be outside of the United States," he says. "Some parts of the world allow you to live like a king on your Social Security alone."
If you've run out of money, and you're up there in years, leaving the country is probably the last thing you want to do, but moving to another state with a lower cost of living might make sense, especially if you have family in the area. To put things in perspective on what you might save, Coldwell Banker Real Estate just released its annual home listing report, which looks at 2,000 cities and towns, and concluded that a home in the country's most expensive market, Los Altos, California, is 30 times more expensive than a similar home in the country's most affordable market, Cleveland.
You could move in with somebody. Like your children. Or your kids could move in with you, and sharing resources may help everyone.
"We're finding that families are having to lean on each other so much. You can't turn your family away," says Andrew Meadows, a producer of "Broken Eggs," a documentary about the looming retirement crisis, and a spokesman for The Online 401(k), which provides small businesses and individuals with 401(k) plans.
Also consider living with a friend or a fellow parishioner who could use a roommate, says Stella Nsong, a geriatric care manager in Painesville, Ohio, and author of the e-book, "Caregiver's Cliff Notes: 27 Things To Do When Your Parents Are Losing Their Independence."
Living with a housemate has its benefits, Nsong says. "It reduces the effects of social isolation. It enhances relationship building for the family. It lowers the cost of living for both of them, and it helps to give peace of mind to the adult children, especially for those who live far away," she says.
You could barter your skills for money. This is unpractical advice for many people. You may have been a skilled manager in your day, but that doesn't mean you'll be able to transfer those skills as a retiree. But every once in awhile, bartering works out, Nsong says, and it's worth considering.
Nsong says she recently had a client who was handy with tools and couldn't cover his rent. He wound up serving as an on-call custodian for a retirement community in exchange for accommodations and supportive services.
"It's been over a year, and he hasn't had to do anything in that role except change a light bulb in the middle of the night a few times," Nsong says. "This strategy has saved him over $8,000 a year."
Of course, since he will only get older, one can only hope he is socking away that $8,000 a year for later, when this arrangement no longer works out.
You'll probably have to make do with what you have. "Nobody wants to be the old cat lady in her apartment, where she's just feeding herself Spam and ramen noodles, but it happens," Meadows says.
If you are afraid of that scenario, fortunately, there are a lot of programs designed to help seniors stretch their meager dollars. Moore suggests checking out BenefitsCheckup.org, a national nonprofit that can help you find programs to help pay for food and medicine.
She also suggests going to N4a.org, the website for the National Association of Area Agencies on Aging. The site includes a searchable map where you can find the association's agencies in each state.
While you can probably imagine the worst, it probably won't be too dire if you're actively looking for solutions to your dilemma.
That's what Richard Reyes, an investor coach based in Maitland, Florida, suggests. "Although I've never had a client that has physically run out of money, I have met with many folks who were pretty close and wanted a miracle to be performed by me. Adjustments to their lives had to be made like selling their home and downsizing, renting, selling assets, adjusting expenses or all of the above," he says.
So if you have time but haven't saved much, you're right to panic. But if you're already retired or are about to retire, and the money isn't there, Reyes has a reassuring pep talk.
"It's not a great situation to be in, but it's not the worst situation to be in," Reyes says. "We live in a very generous country, and there are many resources in place to offer help. Sure, you may have to do with less, but a retiree has access to health care through Medicare. They'll still receive Social Security and/or their pension. They can access food stamps and other types of similar programs ... If you're going to run out of money, the U.S. is the best place."
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