How to Find More Money During Retirement

Retirement is a time most of us look forward to. We’ve worked hard our entire lives, and now it’s time to enjoy your later years. However, with retirement comes a loss of income. Even if you’ve saved up over the years, you may find that you wish you had a little more money to do some other things – like travel more or help your kids.

If this sounds like you, here are just a few ways that you can find some more money during retirement and make your financial situation a little better.

Get a Part Time Job

First, just because your career is over doesn’t mean you have to stop working entirely. Many retirees choose to get a part time job, not only because it provides some additional income, but because it gives them something to do each day. Think about what skills you’ve picked up over the years and how you can use them going forward. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find something that you enjoy doing, and you’ll have some extra money coming in each month.

To get started, here are some popular jobs among retirees to consider.

Move to a Cheaper Area

Now that you’re older, you may not need to live in the same house. Your kids are all adults and moved on and your large house is now too big. To save yourself some money, you could move to a cheaper area. Look for a place that fits the right number of people, and that has lower taxes. Places with high taxes typically have better school districts, but this isn’t something you need to worry about any more. So, find some place with lower taxes, and keep the savings to yourself.

Get a Reverse Mortgage

If you want to stay in your home, consider getting a reverse mortgage. A reverse mortgage is when you use part of your home’s equity to get cash payments each month. They’re usually taken out by retirees who are planning to stay in their homes, want a little extra money, but can still afford to maintain their home.

There’s a lot that goes into getting a reverse mortgage, and you don’t want to rush into the decision. Luckily, there are tools out there that can assist you. For instance, ARLO (All Reverse Loan Optimizer) can help to answer many of your questions. To get started, the ARLO pros and cons answered can be found here.

Change Your Social Security Strategy

Next, think about how you’re handling your social security. You’ve paid into your whole life, and now it’s time to collect. However, if you push back the payments by a few years, you’re entitled to larger sums when you do start to collect. You’ll have to weigh the advantages of getting larger payments down the line with deferring your payments to a later date. While larger sums are nice, you don’t want to push them too far down the line and miss out on money you’ve earned.

Change Your Investment Strategies

If you’ve invested any of your money, you should examine what you’re still doing. In many cases you may be paying too many fees that you don’t need to. Your investments are simpler now that you’ve retired, and as a result you don’t need the same investment strategy. Talk to a financial advisor if you’re unsure, and look for ways to cut back on the expenses related to your investments.

Cut Back on Large Expenses

Finally, now that your older, you may not need some of the large expenses you’ve had for most of your life. For instance, some retired couples are able to get by with one car rather than two. Simply scaling back to one car could save you thousands of dollars each year on payments and insurance. Look at what you currently spend the most money on, then see if there is a way you can either eliminate this expense, or at least scale it back.

Enjoying Your Retirement

In order you truly enjoy the retirement you’ve earned, you need to have enough money to get buy. If you’ve been planning for this for most of your adult life, you should be in pretty good shape. However, if you want to have just a little more money, there are plenty of ways to go about this. Start by scaling back your expenses to fit your new lifestyle, consider getting some part-time work, then look at your other financial options. If you can do all of this you should have no trouble finding more money during your retirement.