60 Years Old and Nothing Saved for Retirement - Top 12 Recommendations

what should you do if you are over 55 and have little or nothing Sav for retirement in this video I will give you my top 12 recommendations welcome to another episode of the financial fast lane my name is Lane Martinson today we are talking about what you can do if you are getting a late start if you are over 50 or maybe over 55 maybe you're already in your 60s and you have little or nothing Sav for retirement I am going to give you 12 specific things you can do um or you should at least

consider first know that you are not alone and that it is never too late many people approaching retirement age find themselves in this situation wondering where the time went so don't be too hard on yourself in the beginning of your career you were young just trying to get by and make ends meet maybe you started a family bought your first house you raised kids and maybe even helped them with college now you find yourself 50 something or 60 something wondering where the time went and you find yourself with little or nothing safe for retirement of

course starting early is better than starting late but you can make up for lost ground I recognize everyone's situation is unique and what works for one person may not work for another for a host of reasons but the purpose of this video is to give you some practical ideas and strategies to consider ideas that can make a very big difference to you in your golden retirement years number two take inventory of your situation identify your timeline evaluate all the possibilities for example if you are 55 in good health you have 10 years before you are

65 and 15 years before 70 you can accomplish a lot in 15 years or 10 years or even 5 years but you've got to be focused and you've got to have a real plan of action your greatest asset is your ability to earn an income if you have an income or the ability to earn an income that is your Golden Goose it's not about how much you earn it's what you keep that matters you would be surprised with how many people with high incomes even super high incomes that have very little or nothing saved on

the flip side you'd be surprised with how many people with very modest or lower incomes have a surprisingly sizable amount of money set aside for retirement as a financial planner I see both ends of the spectrum and everything in between when we earn more the natural tendency is to spend more a great quote from George clayon that which each of us calls our necessary expenses we'll always grow to equal our incomes unless we protest to the contrary you cannot effectively protest without a plan and without a clear goal recommendation number three is to know your

numbers you need to know where your money is going you need to know your cash inflow and your outflow the income and the expenses it's called a budget the word budget is not a very popular word many people feel like following a budget is difficult if that is you I would suggest that you change the way you think of a budget even give it a different name if that helps keep it simple in its simplest form it is a knowing where your money is going and B controlling where your money is going you cannot manage

that what you do not measure a budget does not hold you back it sets you free recommendation number four is complete a 30-day spending audit make a commitment to track all of your spending for 30 days or for or for the next full month I mean track every penny you can simply do it with a piece of paper don't over complicate it or if you'd like you can download a spending audit spreadsheet that we created it's a it's a very simple powerful tool an Excel spreadsheet that we designed just for this purpose it's a free

down download and there is a link in the description below on how to get that recommendation number five is to keep more of your own money when you have Clarity on how much income is coming in and where it is going every month you will be empowered to make some changes imagine with me for a minute what would be like if you were able to keep all of your income or in other words if you had no expenses at all every month I know that that's not at all realistic but just do the math if

you could save and wisely invest all of your income every month for the next 5 10 or 15 years how much of a nest egg could you accumulate it would be a significant amount of money even with a modest income right recommendation number six is to get creative and think outside the box let me share with you a personal story my wife ter and I met in college we were or college students but the lack of money did not prevent us from getting married and we did not want to wait long before we started our

family we didn't know how we were going to make ends meet and we knew it would be challenging but we wanted and were determined to face life's challenges whatever they may be together a few years later I was still trying to finish up my schooling and I was working full-time we were renting an apartment and we very much wanted to save to buy our first house we took an inventory of our income and expenses saving any money seemed almost impossible this is where we started to get creative our biggest expense was rent the rent payment

every month we started to think of ways we could possibly live for at least one year without a rent payment moving in with parents with a wife and two small children at this point was not a viable option for us at the time but we were determined to find a way to drastically lower our expenses so we started brainstorming my wife had previously volunteered at a Care Center she is very nurturing and she loved to visit and care for elderly people I had the thought I wonder how many elderly people there are in our city

that are living in their home alone but have reached a point where they need assisted living and would love to have a live-in assisted care provider then I wondered if we could find someone that would be okay if the care provider came with a husband and two small children we had never heard of anyone doing anything like that before um but we decided to test the waters and to see if there were any takers of course this was back before the internet and so we ran an ad in the classified section of the local newspaper

we were surprised to receive about half a dozen calls of people looking for live-in Care providers for their aging parents we had more than one solid offer um we met with the first interested family we fell in love with them and and they fell in love with us it was an elderly man in his 90s he had recovered from a stroke but had some paralysis and some limitations he was a very kind sweet man that absolutely loved children he lived in a two-story home his adult children offered us room and board we had the full

you know the full basement to ourselves including all utilities paid and my wife was able to do the shopping and prepare his meals and provide the needed care and they also paid her $600 per month additional the commitment was for a minimum of one year and a little before the year was complete Grandpa Joe as we lovingly called him passed away in my wife's arms when I was away at work this experience was a miracle to us on many levels we were able to drastically reduce our expenses and even increase our income after one year

we had saved enough for a down payment and we bought our first house let me tell you another creative out of the- box story of a couple aged 61 they had very little say for retirement but but the husband's job was going well and his income was really at the highest level of his entire career they got creative and created an aggressive plan that would allow them to reduce their expenses by nearly 70% for 3 years they sold their large home with the plan to downsize to something less expensive to maintain they actually moved in

with their adult daughter who was working part-time and struggling to go to school and taking care of her 2-year-old son they offered to rent a bedroom from her share utility expenses and provide care for their grandson for this three-year period until their daughter graduated college their plan helped their daughter immensely it saved her from paying for child care and they were able to save 70% of their income over a three-year period this was a big win for both parties after 3 years they bought a comfortable one level condo with very low maintenance costs recommendation seven

is to work longer for decades the age of 65 has been the arbitrary assumed age retirement why is that in the past this was what Social Security designated as the full retirement age um and 65 is the age when you can become eligible for Medicare but I believe it's outdated we live significantly longer nowadays and 70 is the new 65 we really do live longer and the odds that you or your spouse will live into your 90s and Beyond is statistically High higher than many people think you should plan to live to 100 because many

of you will I know many people in their 70s still working some because they need the income others because they simply enjoy working it's also not uncommon for a person to retire only to get bored and to go back to work even if only part-time if you're really tired of your job then maybe you could retire from that one and find a completely different type of job something that you would enjoy better maybe you could start a side hustle a small business of some sort there are many opportunities out there and in future episodes of

the financial fast lane I plan to explore many of the possibili ities that you could consider which is another reason why you may want to consider subscribing to this channel if you have not recommendation number eight delay starting Social Security benefits if you work longer you are able to delay Social Security benefits longer this can increase the size of your future Social Security benefits in a couple of ways one is you'll have a longer and better earnings history they use your best 35 years and so every year that you work um can make a big

difference also when you delay Social Security benefits Beyond full retirement age you also can earn drc's or delayed retirement credits the size of your Social Security benefits can be much larger when you do this U but you really need to have a good Social Security strategy to better understand how Social Security delayed retirement credits work and for a customized Social Security strategy personalized for you you can go to Social Security lane.com for more information recommendation number nine is to improve your physical and mental health a seditary lifestyle leads to disease and disease brings with it

huge financial costs getting physically and mentally fit may be the most important thing you can do for your retirement truly when you are fit you will have more energy you will enhance your ability to work longer and to earn longer the benefits of exercise and eating healthy are huge recommendation number 10 is to have faith faith in yourself faith in your future and most importantly faith in God great and amazing things can be accomplished although it may feel overwhelming and even impossible nothing is impossible you are more capable than you think you are stronger than

you think you are more creative than you think and you can do hard things you can't overcome any challenge when you put your mind to it I love this quote from Ella wheeler Wilcox there is no chance no Destiny no fate that can circumvent or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined soul I would encourage you to memorize that quote and recite it every day maybe put it on your refrigerator door or on your bathroom mirror so you can see it every day there is no chance no Destiny no fate that can circumvent

or hinder or control the firm resolve of a determined Soul recommendation 11 is to never stop learning you got to be informed read good books if you have never read the richest man in Babylon by George Clon I would start there you may want to read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill these are motivational and inspiring books but also you need to learn about the best ways to save and invest your money there are important Tax Strategies when it comes to actually saving should you fund IRAs Roth IRAs 401ks what about catchup contributions and

I have other videos that go into that but when you save you want to save um in the most tax efficient way possible and you want of course want to be wise in all of your Investments now I have put links to some of the books that I recommend in the description below and finally recommendation 12 is don't overlook a heckum strategy a heckum is a home equity conversion mortgage it is a type of reverse mortgage you need to know that the laws have changed and there are new types of reverse mortgages that have more

options and more flexibility if you have about 50% equity in your home and you are at least age 62 you could put an end to your mortgage payments just think about how that would feel no more mortgage payments you may also be able to establish a tax-free stream of income to supplement your retirement income I can't take the time in this video to go into all the details um but you could learn more from my book in chapter 9 specifically I outlined the advantages of the heckum but this one strategy could be a complete Game

Cher for you in your retirement if you're interested in my book it's available on Amazon the book is titled the holistic retirement planning Revolution you can also just um go to Amazon and search on my name Lane Martinson and you will find the book there's also a direct link in the description below so there you have it my top 12 recommendations if you are over 55 and have nothing save for retirement if you found any part of this video beneficial I would love to know please add a comment comment uh down below let me know

what stood out to you and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode of the financial fast lane [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]