Retirement is getting more and more expensive. Furthermore, the lives that retirees want to live continue to get more expensive. With that, retirees are finding ways to supplement their nest eggs beyond a 401(k) or IRA. Below are six ways retirees are bringing extra money to supersize their retirement funds.
Sell Your home
If you’ve been in your home for a long time, you probably have a considerable amount of equity built up in it. While it can be difficult to sell a home that you’ve gotten to be so comfortable in, it might be one of the best things you can do for your retirement fund. A real estate agent can help you perform a market assessment and decide whether it’s worth selling your home or staying put is a better idea.
Depending on where you live and the housing market, you have the potential to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars from the equity you’ve established. This can go a long way to creating an extra cushion in your retirement fund. Additionally, after you’ve sold your home, you can downsize to something smaller. A smaller home will usually bring with it a smaller mortgage payment or even none at all if you were able to use the equity from your home to buy it.
Keep in mind that you’ll spend much more time at home during retirement than while you were working so your utility bills in your home will be higher because you’ll be using your own restroom and probably have your television on more. By downsizing, you can actually save on utilities com-pared to what you would pay in a larger home.
Get a Reverse Mortgage
As previously mentioned before, your home can be a great way to supplement your retirement fund. However, it’s understandable if you don’t want to move out of the home you love. Rather than selling your home, take out a reverse mortgage. This allows you to keep your home while enjoying the funds that come with the equity.
Although a reverse mortgage can be a fast and easy way to get a lump sum of cash, there are strict requirements that must be met that include a minimum age of 62, the home is your primary resi-dence, and others. Use a reverse mortgage calculator by All Reverse Mortgage to find out more information about interest rates and qualifications.
Start a Business
You don’t have to grind every single day to run a small business. This is especially true if you’re not reliant on the profits of the business to meet your everyday needs. You can casually operate a small business during your retirement to bring in extra money. This can include things like selling photos that you take during your retirement travels or other art that you’ve created. You could even put simple designs on t-shirts and sell them through a company that drop ships for you. Yes, running a business sounds especially stressful and time-consuming, but it doesn’t have to be if you keep it simple.
Become a Landlord
If you’re an empty nester and choose not to downsize your home, renting out a room or portion of your home can be a great way to bring in extra money each month. A basement is an especially easy way to rent out space in your home. If it doesn’t have one already, you can easily add a separate entrance and it’s as if your tenants have their very own apartment.
Invest in Dividend Stocks
Not everyone is comfortable with playing the stock market. This is understandable as you can lose your entire investment if a company goes under. Despite the stereotypical gamble, dividend stocks are typically available from well-established companies that distribute stock market earnings back to those who own shares, which provides you with peace of mind in investing.
Cash Out a Life Insurance Policy
Life insurance policyholders can get the funds from their policy before they die. This is the case with whole life, variable life, and universal life insurance plans. Term life insurance plans, on the other hand, do not allow this. There is no financial benefit unless you die during the term of the policy.
As is the case with most pre-mature financial disbursals, there are likely to be tax ramifications. Taxes are a result of the cash value of your account gets tax-deferred growth over time. Speak with your life insurance policyholder to find out if you qualify for a cash disbursal with your life insurance policy.
Seek Advice Beforehand
Before you make any major financial decision, it’s a good idea to speak with a professional financial advisor to find out where your retirement fund stands. You could be better off than you think and not need to supplement your nest egg at all.
Author’s Bio
Yunas Chaudhry is a super-connector with AYC Web Solutions who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, Photography, branding and networking. He fre-quently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses his efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry stainless steel tongue scraper and competition.
