Money Matters

#MoneyMasterClass Recap–Week 26

Preparing for Retirement

There are a number of considerations when someone is looking at retirement. My retirement is going to be many years down the road, but I have seen my parents adjust to newly retired lives over the last few years.

Gail looked at two aspects of retirement this week: Time and Money.

Your Retirement Budget

All That Free Time

Gail gave a reminder that adjusting to a big change like retirement will take time. As you adjust, she recommends not making huge life changes as your perspective may change in that first year off of work.

Changes in Relationships

Moral of this part of the week: People change. And with those changes come changes in financial situations and agreements.

Steps to Take

Hard Conversations

This part of the week hits home for me as I was in a financially harmful relationship years ago. For me, I felt held hostage in the relationship because my partner had racked up tens of thousands of dollars of debt in my name. I was fearful of the repercussions of walking away with all of that debt being my responsibility.

If anyone is in a similar situation, or is just weighed down by debt in general, I encourage you to talk to a credit counsellor. There are a number of free resources out there and people that can walk you through your options. It’s just a conversation and you don’t have to take any of the steps, but for me the information empowered me. While it was a tough go for a few years, I was able to experience freedom from not only the debt but also the relationship.

If you’re looking into places for help, these are two websites to start with. The first is where I went to ask question those years ago and the second has been hosting the Money Master Class Resources.
https://www.nomoredebts.org/
https://www.hoyes.com/

New to the Money Master Class? There’s still time to get started!
Check out this Twitter Archive to see all of Gail Vaz-Oxlade’s #MoneyMasterClass tweets from the start.
Find the resources, spreadsheets, and quizzes here: Money Master Class
Check out my weekly recaps to get caught up.
Start here with the Money Master Class Intro and Week One Recap

Check out Gail Vaz Oxlade’s books here:*

Money Rules
Debt Free Forever
CEO of Everything
Money Smart Kids

4 Comments

  • aimsysantics

    These are really useful tips, even if you are not near retirement age, you can still put some of the advice to hand for the future. My prents have been retired for about 2 years now, and it was definitley a learning curve for them.

    Thanks for sharing!

    Aimsy xoxo

    • A Sustainably Simple Life

      I agree! It’s good to start thinking about these things early to prepare for the future.

      Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

  • glowsteady

    This was a really interesting read, I think we hear questions about if you’re financially prepared for retirement and managing that large sum well but I’ve never stopped to think about the potential savings from not buying work clothes or commuting. We were quite worried about my gran on a social level when she retired because a lot of her contacts were work friends and she was suddenly going to have a lot of time to fill without them x

    Sophie

    • A Sustainably Simple Life

      All of that free time can be challenging! My dad ended up getting a fun part-time job to fill the time and my mom has found a volunteer position. That was a great way to meet people too because, like you say, as losing those work contacts can be tough.

      Thanks for stopping by! 🙂

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