6 things early retirees do differently- By Kelley Holland

Most people are not trust fund babies, but that doesn't mean retiring early is out of the picture.

Far from it, actually, according to newly released data from Allianz Life's 2014 LoveFamilyMoney study. Americans planning to retire early share several traits, but coming from a life of privilege is not among them.
"You don't have to be born lucky with money as you start out in order to retire early," said Katie Libbe, vice president of consumer insights at Allianz Life. "The people that plan to retire early did just that. They made it a priority. They made it a plan."

Having children also did not appear to affect people's plans to retire early, even though raising a child to age 18 costs close to a quarter of a million dollars. Some 87 percent of those intending to retire early had children, in line with those not ready to stop working.

Allianz Life commissioned the January 2014 survey of 4,500 people with incomes of more than $50,000, and it has since released several sets of findings. In this batch, 25.9 percent of the respondents said they intend to retire before age 65.
The average retirement age has barely budged for a decade, according to the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College, and in 2013 stood at 64 for men and 62 for women. Meanwhile, participation in the labor force for people over age 65 has been increasing for years, and stood at 22.1 percent for men and 13.8 percent for women in 2010, up from 17.7 percent for men and 9.4 percent for women in 2000.

But that doesn't mean early retirement is out of the question. Here are six of the most common behaviors Allianz Life found that early retirees share:

Have happy marriages. Early retirees tended to describe themselves as in sync with their spouse. Some 76 percent of these people were married, compared to 68 percent of the people who never planned to retire, and they were also more likely to be in their first marriage. And 90 percent of early retirees found it at least somewhat easy to talk about money with a spouse or significant other, well above the 77 percent of people planning to never retire.

Allianz Life's data are in line with findings in an earlier study for the National Institutes of Health that found a happy marriage played a clear role in a decision to retire early. "After traditional economic factors, marital satisfaction actually turned out to be the strongest predictor of retirement timing," the researchers wrote.

 

Radius Images | Getty Images. New data show that people who retire early share common behaviors and  …

Appreciate what they have. People planning to retire early were significantly more likely to describe themselves as wealthy or financially comfortable, but that depends on their perspective, Libbe said. "One person might be able to live on $50,000 a year and consider themselves affluent, versus another couple that needs $200,000 a year."

Follow their parents' example. The would-be early retirers in the Allianz Life survey were more likely to compare their financial situation to their parents', with 21 percent of them doing so, compared to 14 percent of those not planning to retire. They also tended to emulate their parents' money behaviors.

Teach their kids about money. Only 14 percent of people planning to retire early taught their children about money and finances, but that was well above the 6 percent of people not planning to retire who did so.

Keep calm and carry on. Having a fairly calm financial life also seems to encourage people to plan early retirement. Some 46 percent of those people said they had not experienced financial hardship as an adult, versus just 31 percent of those planning to stay in the workforce.

Worry about an early death. On the downside, early retirees were more likely than other workers to worry about dying young. Only 47 percent of them worried about running out of money in retirement, but 53 percent worried that they would not live long after they retired. (Among people who planned to not retire or wait until age 65 or later, at least 53 percent worried about outliving their money.)

Worries about dying young may be valid for some people planning to retire early, but the good news is that leaving the workforce won't hasten the process. Researchers at the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales studied the effect of early retirement on life expectancy and found that "retirement age in itself has no significant effect on subsequent mortality."

Culled from CNBC

EVOLVING A HAPPY AND FUN FILLED RETIREMENT-Odunze Reginald C

Image credited to espanational.wordpress.com

Having a happy and fun filled retirement is a function of good health, enough and adequate pension pot, a good housing and conducive environment and a happy and endearing family.

But the most critical of all these parameters is that of enough pension pot as other factors revolved round it.

People becomes comfortable in life, if they inherit billions and if they win a lottery, but not all people will have these two smiling to them, as inheritance and lottery are not easy to come by.

Inheritance depends on the wealth acquired by your parents and most importantly their ability to bequeath such to you, I have read, seen, where family members are schemed off their inheritance because of one factor or the other, by their immediate and extended family members, may be because they are minors as the time the bread winner dies. As there is unwritten maxim that the family of the deceased has been before the coming of the wives and children of the deceased, it becomes also devastating when the family dies interstate.  There are instances when the deceased has been known to have bequeathed his will to charity.

As for lottery it depends on probability, a highly one for that matter, the probability is of high intense for lottery players, as it is even observed that those that win are those play sparingly, for the habitual player, it becomes increasingly difficult to win. And the probability that in a population of 2 million people, that likes gambling , the probability  of one winning will be one over 2 million. That is very high.

Since we cannot all win lottery nor inherit billions as inheritance, it becomes pertinent to plan for our pension, and the critical part of planning for pension will usher in the idea of increasing your pension pot.

How then do use plan and increase your pension pot, the first is increasing your pension pot by doing additional voluntary contribution

The second is starting early to save, starting early to save increases your pension pot

Not withdrawing from the scheme reduces the incidents of taxes and other factor that impact negatively on your pension.

These 3 factors are the keys to increasing your pension pot, and will definitely impact on your well being as research has shown that people tend to be happy when they hit a particular pension pot.

Reginaldodunze.blogspot.com

How Retirees Can Prepare for Those Unexpected Financial Emergencies-By Juliette Fairley

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Retirees can be especially vulnerable to sudden financial troubles and expenses -- anything from unexpected bills for auto or home repairs, legal proceedings, or hospitalizations, to equity-draining issues like stock market downturns, thefts, rising taxes or even inflation.
And seniors recognize that risk: An unexpected financial emergency was the greatest money worry among those polled by a 2015 Northwestern Mutual Planning and Progress study. Another top concern was long-term health care.

"Longevity risk is a key consideration to plan for," said Rebekah Barsch, vice president of planning and sales at Northwestern Mutual. "We are all living longer and will potentially need some type of care later in life."
Long-term care insurance offers both lifestyle protection and asset protection for longevity, but not every financial emergency can be prevented with insurance.
Stock sell-offs, for example, are a hard-to-predict circumstance that require judicious investors to have some kind of hedge.
"Losing an important source of income in retirement can create significant problems," said Greg De Jong, certified financial planner and financial advisor with Savant Capital Management in Naperville, Ill.  However, he says, "leaving substantial amounts in low-yielding bank deposits because it lets you sleep well at night may no longer be a smart approach."
"The right annuity can provide principal protection and protection of prior gains while safeguarding a client's assets from market downturns," said Kyle O'Dell, president with Secure Wealth Strategies in Englewood, Colorado.
A broker or financial adviser can help investors determine which low-cost annuity is right for their financial situation.
"With this type of product, the client needs to understand that they probably won't receive the full upside of the market when things are going well, but they can certainly protect themselves from a correction in the market," said O'Dell.
Although retirees often fall into lower tax brackets as their income declines, tax rates rarely stay the same -- and neither does inflation.
"The biggest complaint I hear from current retirees is paying too much in taxes," O'Dell said. "Just in the last couple of years, we have seen the capital gains rate increase from 15% to 20% with a Medicare tax added on top of it."
To protect themselves from the possibility of rising tax rates, pre-retirees can squirrel away money in investment vehicles such as Roth IRAs, from which disbursements are tax-free.
"When you have money in places that are tax-free, you can manage your tax bracket to an extent during retirement," said O'Dell. "Inflation is the silent killer, and if we see high inflation periods again, retirees could have a tough time keeping up with paying for food and health care needs."
Retirees can also stash their money in investment vehicles that are defensively managed, such as ETFs, bonds and mutual funds, to further guard against inflation. "These types of investments should help clients keep up with and hopefully outpace inflation in the long run," said O'Dell.

Culled from the street