www.www.worldexecutivesdigest.com | This Is How You Can Manage Your Retirement Debt: The Best Tips | There are certain things you should know when it comes to retiring with debt. Check out our guide here to learn how to manage retirement debt.
When you’ll turn 62 (average age of retirement in the United States), you’ll hang up your spurs and head for retirement.
After a lifetime in toil, you want to take a well-deserved rest and enjoy the finer things in life. Well, at least this is the retirement dream for most people.
Here’s the thing, though. You’ll only achieve this dream if you’ve your financial ducks in a row. If you didn’t save enough or if you’re in debt, this might as well be a pipe dream. Retirement debt can be a real pain.
The good news? You can still manage the debt and live the retirement life of your dreams.
Keep reading to learn how to pull it off.
How Much Do You Owe?
While we would all love to retire without debt, this isn’t often the case. Most people who’re heading for retirement usually have mortgage balances, credit card balances, and even auto loans.
If you don’t have any retirement income, or if your retirement income isn’t enough to enable you to keep repaying these loans, you can easily fall into bankruptcy. This is why the first step to managing retirement debt is to have a good picture of how much you owe.
Write down all your debts along with the outstanding balances, interest rate charged on each, and the minimum monthly repayments.
When you sum up the balances, you’ll have a good idea of the amount of money you owe.
Develop a Debt Repayment Plan
There’s only one easy way out of retirement debt, and that’s to pay up what you owe.
You need to develop a repayment plan that suits your finances.
There are a couple of debt repayment approaches you could take, but none beats debt consolidation. Under this method, you’ll take out a consolidation loan from a lender and use the money to pay off the consolidated loans. The result is you will have one loan, typically carrying a lower interest than the weighted average of all your loans.
Debt consolidation isn’t a simple process, though. You ought to know how to pick a good lender and enhance your chances of qualifying. Consider getting help from this service.
Get the Input of Retirement Advisor
If you aren’t a personal finance expert, there’s only so much you can do to manage your retirement debt. Especially if you’re in a lot of debt, it’s advisable to seek the advice of an expert.
This professional will audit your finances and develop a debt repayment strategy that suits you. If need be, they can negotiate alternative repayment plans with some of your lenders.
In extreme cases, the advisor can recommend that you file for bankruptcy. Some of your retirement debts can be discharged after your bankruptcy filing is approved.
Retirement Debt Shouldn’t Give You Sleepless Nights
You had enough sleepless nights during your workdays. In retirement, you should be sleeping soundly. Unfortunately, this won’t be the case if you’re struggling with retirement debt. With this guide, though, you’re now in a better position to manage your debt.
Keep reading our blog for more tips on retirement and personal finance.
