When planning for possible retirement, you have a lot of things to think about. There is the matter of financing your active retirement years, and there are some additional expenses that could arise during your twilight years.
Accumulating necessary resources can be challenging for many individuals. Social Security income is quite limited. Sometimes there are no easy answers. Full retirement can be elusive.
Many people are deciding to continue to work even after they become eligible for their full Social Security benefits. This is often out of financial need, but you should consider the possibility of future physical limitations if you are expecting to work for the rest of your life.
Aging Takes Its Toll
When you are a younger adult and see someone older than you having difficulty getting around, you may have a hard time truly empathizing with this individual. It seems like a condition that would never apply to you.
In fact, this person may have been an All-American football player in college. The woman across the street walking with a cane may have run twenty marathons. Aging takes its toll, and the older people who are experiencing physical limitations may have been quite capable earlier in their lives.
When evaluating your financial goals and earning capabilities, take the possibility of diminished physical abilities into account.
Depending on what you do for a living there may come a time when you no longer can withstand the physical demands. It is important to be aware of this when you are budgeting for the latter stages of your life.
We are not overstating the obvious here. Everyone understands you probably will not be able to lay bricks for 10 hours a day when you are 85. What we are referring to are physical difficulties that may start to present themselves when you are in your 50s or 60s.
The suggestion is to be practical about what you may be able to expect as you get older. If you want to, or need to, work well into your senior years you may want to aim toward acquiring a skill or developing a business that does not require a great deal of physical exertion.
This is something to think about when you are considering the eventualities of aging. To develop a comprehensive long-term financial plan, you may want to discuss everything with a licensed retirement planning attorney.
Should you be interested in doing so you can simply contact our firm at (405) 843-6100 to request a free consultation.
Since founding Parman & Easterday in 1985, Larry has led over 1,000 free, community-service education programs and helped more than 10,000 Oklahoma families go from putting off their estate plan to getting it done. His goal for every client is the same: to become the person their family calls "the one who took care of everything."
Larry is the author of three books: The Straight Shooter's Guide to Estate Planning; Estate Planning Basics; and Guiding Those Left Behind in Oklahoma. He served as Oklahoma's Secretary of State and Secretary of Commerce, and his firm is the only member of the American Academy of Estate Planning Attorneys in the state.
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