Retirement Income Can Be Increased
Saving for retirement was on my mind from my first day of work. I mean that literally and in every sense of the word. I didn’t like to work, and I couldn’t wait for the day that I didn’t have to. I’m not lazy. I just didn’t enjoy being told what to do. I found out that there are a lot of people who hated work almost as much as I did but they delayed their retirement because they feared running out of money. What most people don't realize is that your retirement income can be increased even after you completed your last day of work. What you enter retirement with as a monthly payment from investments, social security or a pension doesn’t have to be the maximum amount you will earn. Cost of living adjustments to social security and pensions happen all the time but that’s not going to have a big impact on your lifestyle. There are things that you can do to improve your standard of living by cutting costs or increasing your income.
Retirement has been better than I ever expected and I look forward to every day because, after decades of working for someone else, I can finally do what I want to do and there are an awful lot of things that I enjoy doing. I feel sorry for people who don’t see the possibilities that retirement provides. Too many people complain about not having enough money to do the things they want. While I am very sensitive to the fact that retirement usually means a “fixed” income, the fact is that there are things you can do to improve your situation. Cutting costs in retirement should be an ongoing exercise and should be a part of your retirement budget process. At least once a year you should review where your money is going and analyze those costs to see if they can be reduced or eliminated altogether. You can start with your cable bill. Too many people pay for things they don’t use. Do you need all the channels you’re paying for? Review all of your bills to see if you’re paying for things that you don’t need and periodically look around for better rates when it comes home and auto insurance, maintenance contracts and even magazine subscriptions. Taking the time to review where every dollar goes can significantly improve your lifestyle. Your retirement income can be increased by paying less money out each month. It’s simple to do but is often overlooked by most seniors.
If money is still an issue after this audit of your budget don’t be discouraged because there are other ways that your retirement income can be increased. While the possibility of getting a retirement job is always there, I would lean more towards starting a little retirement business. There are many things you can do to generate an income and one of biggest sources of “found money” might be in your attic or basement. After decades of living, if you’re like most people you probably have some valuable collectibles (some might refer to it as junk) sitting around collecting dust. Chances are that you have something that another person might pay a lot of money for. In the old days you might have had a garage sale but, in today’s world, you have access to a global marketplace. The internet gives access to billions of people and some of them might be very interested in what is sitting somewhere in your home. This is a very real business for some retirees. There are many places on the internet where you can offer things for sale just as you might have done or seen in a garage sale or antique store. Don’t throw anything away without browsing through the internet for what people are selling those items for. My wife was about to take some old Christmas ornaments down to the thrift store in town before she happened to do a search to see if there was any interest at all in these items. Were they even worth taking to the thrift store. Needless to say, she never made it to the store. Five hundred dollars later, after just two weeks’ time, she could now call herself an internet merchant. She was amazed at what was for sale on different websites. From old newspapers and coins to the glasses that were give-aways at Arby’s or McDonald’s. People were buying these things up at a brisk rate and paying for them to be shipped as well. There’s a whole world out there that you may not have thought about before. Keep in mind that your retirement income can be increased with just a little bit of work that you might find very enjoyable.
Your retirement income can be increased just by selling items from your basement!
Indeed, many retirees are flocking to the internet to start a little business and, in my estimation, that’s a very smart thing to do because starting a website has become a very lucrative pastime. Why get a job and get paid by the hour when you can do something once and reap the benefits for years. If money is tight, your retirement income can be increased with a very enjoyable business related to one of your interests or hobbies. This website started out as a hobby. I did it for the enjoyment of learning something new and feeding my desire to write with a purpose about one of my favorite subjects: retirement. Did I think I had the skill to do this? No, but I wanted to learn something that I thought would be very challenging. After all, we’re supposed to do things that will challenge us mentally as we age. The fact is that it wasn’t hard at all. If you can write an e-mail, you have all the skills you need to start a website because there’s one company that explains everything in such a way that even I was able to have a website up and running in a matter of days. Six years later, I’m still enjoying this immensely. It’s not work and it’s not like my job where upper management was always telling me what I had to do. I decide what to write about and I choose when to do it. I would be doing this no matter what but, when you add the fact that it’s possible to make some money with this process, then you have a win-win situation that I think every retiree (or anyone who’s saving for retirement) should consider. I probably should have started this well before my retirement date but I’m very happy to have discovered this little business when I did.
When you look at what to do with your time in retirement, the possibilities are endless and exploring each of those activities can be the joy of a lifetime. But there’s nothing wrong if you can find a way to generate a little extra cash from any of those activities. Your retirement income can be increased very easily in ways that didn’t exist ten or twenty years ago. Writing about your travels or providing advice or expertise about an activity that you love to do is one possibility you might want to consider as you make the most of every day of your retirement. In fact, I actually think it increases the pleasure because you almost get to do things twice. Yes, we cruised through the Greek isles but then I got to write about it and relive those experiences when I recommended things to do while you’re there. I’m sure you have a passion that you like to talk about. Why not give a website a try? Go out and make it happen. It’s time to Enjoy Retired Life!
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