Early Retirement: Are you Ready to Make the Move?

Retiring at any age requires a great deal of planning and effort, and this is even more true if you plan to start enjoying your retired years more quickly. In retirement, you no longer receive the benefit of a regular paycheck to live on, but you still have some living expenses to pay for. In addition, when you retire early, you may not even have access to your retirement funds or Social Security payments. Clearly, you need to cover all of your bases if you plan to start living the good life of a retiree before you reach retirement age. By considering these important points, you can more easily to determine if you are ready to make the move. 

Are Your Debts Paid Off?

Before you can retire, you need to review your current budget to ensure that you can pay for all of your living expenses without a paycheck. You can drastically reduce the amount of money you need to live on when you eliminate your debt. It is best to pay off all of your outstanding credit card balances, car loans, and other debts if possible. Many individuals often find it best to pay off their home mortgage before retiring early, even if this means that they must work an extra year or two in order to accomplish this goal. After all, think how much more comfortably you will be able to live without having to pay a large mortgage payment every month.

Do You Have a Source of Income?

In addition to eliminating your debts and reducing your monthly expenses as much as possible, it is important to consider how you will pay for your recurring expenses. After all, even after you pay off your debts, you will still have to pay for food, gas, insurance, utilities, and other recurring expenses. When you retire early, you will often not have access to typical sources of retirement income, such as IRA distributions or Social Security checks. Therefore, you need to think about ways that you can generate passive income, and this may include through real estate investments, dividends, annuities, and other sources of income. 

Are Your Accounts Funded?

The fact is you can prepare a great budget, and you can cover all of your expenses with passive income sources. However, you also need to ensure your accounts are fully funded before you retire. You may not be able to save as much money in retirement as you do in your working years, though you may still be counting on having a fully funded retirement account when you reach retirement age. You may also need access to an emergency savings account to draw from in urgent situations. Your financial health is important to consider before you retire. 

Have You Thoroughly Prepared for the Future?

It can be difficult to account for factors like changing health status, inflation, economic crises that impact your portfolio, and other factors. The last thing you may want is to head back to work a few years after you retire because you run out of money. You should consider how you can better prepare for events that likely will occur at some point. For example, inflation will inevitably be a factor, and there are inflation calculators and sites like Creditguard.org you can use to better plan for the future. You can also supplement your health insurance with long term care coverage. Finally, ensuring your income stream will increase over time, rather than remain stagnant can also be beneficial.

Preparing for retirement can be challenging, but you need to take extra steps if you plan to retire early. Consider each of these points carefully to ensure you make the best decision about your finances. 

Spruce up your Bathroom Remodels with Some Easy To-Do Tips and Stay on a Budget

English: Bathroom Refacing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I have been living in my home for 20 plus years. The kids have all grown and left, my wife and I never did any remodeling all these years except for some repainting and flooring. Now we are thinking the time is right. 

One of the the places we are considering to make over are the bathrooms. They are old and look it. A little tile here and new fixtures there, I think should do the trick. It looks like its going to be an involved process but that's OK, we are ready for some changes.

Many home owners do not want to have a major remodel and really, most don't need one. Just some improvements here and there will quickly change the entire appearance of a bathroom. I have listed a few easy projects that can be done over a weekend

It's Time to Repaint

When your existing cabinets have great storage space, good lines, as well as tough build quality, restore the appearance with a fresh layer of paint. You must sand the gloss off a recently repainted cupboard as well as repair any kind of damages with wood filler, and after that use a layer of sealer.

English: Black and white tiles bathroom (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Try Some New Accessories

Include something brand-new in your powder room area, but not to pricey. Try some brand-new pieces, such as an impressive mirror, chrome accent racks, as well as towel bars. Some wainscoting on the wall too can help, it can resemble white repainted handmade board. Also repaint the top one-half of the wall surfaces a different shade for an accent.

Enhance your Storage Compartments

Include pullout racks to deep closets to keep items in order and also readable. Improve the cupboard insides too, when it comes to these gliding drawers areas, they assist you to keep organized and away from reaching around at night or losing even more of your precious things.

Complement Your Shower Tile

Affordable white area floor tiles enhance the appearance and also are a cost effective way to complement a shower border. Many showers could also do with a good tile grout cleaning. Over time grout can discolor, fall out and cause leaks. 

You could flavor up the appearance of your shower and put a band of accent ceramic tiles, you could utilize smooth black ceramic tiles that aesthetically connect the shower to the vanity location.

Change the Light Fixtures

You should take out an outdated light fixture for something that's attractive and also brand-new, you'll view your shower in an entire new light. Glass lamps, as well as a layered sheet glass, enhances the appearance and shows the bathroom in a new light .

Ideal To-Do's to Make any type of Bathroom Remodel Spectacular

• Order a new High-Style Vanity
• Transform an existing furniture piece into a vanity. Minimize costly cabinets by drilling an opening in the cabinet or top for a drop-in sink as well as tap.
• Obtain suggestions for doing over your washroom.
• Update a Medicine Cabinet.
• Use Megasealed for your tile repairs.
• Think of ways to use your medication cabinet for more organization.

Best Tip

Change the counter top, find the right counter top that has beauty and also enhances the bathroom over all. For inexpensive alternatives, think about preformed laminate, or visit the factory for a remnant piece of granite for a counter top, and save some money.

Does Marrying Someone with Bad Credit Affect Your Credit Score?

There are ways to avoid letting your spouse’s credit history from affecting your own, and the best way of doing so is understanding how marriage affects your credit score.

In Ontario, the act of getting married on its own won’t change your records or your spouse’s, and once married you and your spouse will continue to have individual credit scores.

What is Bad credit ?

Bad credit is the failure to keep up with your credit agreements and the inability to get approved for new credit. This means you haven't paid your past dues on time. When you have bad credit, lenders are afraid of lending,as you may fall behind on any loan or credit card you're given. This will result for your application for credit to get rejected. The credit score is a good indicator to identify good credit and bad credit. If your credit score is below 620, then it is said that you have bad credit.

Joint Financial Decisions Matter

After marriage, some couples find that it makes sense to assume liability for their spouse’s debt either partially or entirely. Assuming debt changes your financial standing, which creditors will take into account when financing loans. Applying for debt as a couple is a serious decision because if your spouse was unable to make payments on their loans on time in the past, they may also struggle to do so in the future. Debt in arrears and overdue credit cards on loans made as a couple will affect you and your spouse’s credit score.

Giving Creditors Access to Your Spouse’s Credit History

Your creditors will not have access to your spouse’s credit history unless you add your spouse to your financial accounts. Your history will not automatically be merged with your partner’s credit history, however, creditors will look to see your partner’s ability to repay loans. If your spouse has a good credit score, that will tip the balance in your favour while the opposite is true of a spouse with a bad credit score.

Should you Share Your Finances with Your Spouse?

It may advisable to keep your financial accounts separate, especially on accounts where you are the one who uses it most. Even granting user authorization to your spouse allows your creditor to see your partner’s credit history.

If you’re unable to keep your finances separate, be prepared to have your history affect your spouse’s and vice versa. For example, when jointly applying for a credit card, the person with the lower credit score will raise the interest rate on your credit. In the case where both partners have a poor credit history, your application may not be approved at all.

Filing for Bankruptcy

If your spouse is unable to repay their debt, bankruptcy may be their best option. As long as their loans were made separate from you, most likely you aren't liable and in addition, your credit score won’t be affected. Before making the decision, it’s best to consult a professional bankruptcy trustee who will walk you through the important things to consider, such as finances, credit scores, repayment schedules, and plans to regain financial health.

Tips for Dealing with Bad Credit

● Taking your spouse’s last name will not erase your credit history, which is tied their Social Insurance Number

● For repairing bad credit, applying for a loan jointly can raise your spouse’s credit score. Another option would be to fix your credit score individually through prudent borrowing and repayment habits

● Always make your minimum payments! Even if you’re not making large payments to rid your debt, it’s crucial you make minimum payments as to not put yourself in larger debt than necessary

Venetia Rose has been a freelance writer and blogger. She loves to share and keep herself updated with the latest tips in financial consulting. Her interests are cooking, photography, craft and painting. Follow her on Face book https://www.facebook.com/laksh.venetia

Life Insurance Options for Older People

Life insurance is and will always be an important consideration for people of all ages, financial statues, the young and old and, single or married. It offers people feel the security and reassurance that their family members will be covered in an unfortunate event. This is something that probably is higher on the agenda for older people who wish to ensure that their spouse or dependants will be provided in the event of their death. Many companies now offer specific polices which are geared towards older people although the types of cover offered may vary. Different types of cover catered for different needs. This is why it is crucial to have a research around before you buy any type of insurance.

Whole Life Plans

This type of plan has no fixed end date and lasts until the policyholder dies. Then, as long as the payments for the plan have been kept up to date, a lump sum payment will be made to the policyholder's estate.

The main benefit of taking out a whole life policy is the fact that it has no fixed term. It is also possible to ensure that your estate can use the lump sum which is paid to cover any inheritance tax that may be incurred. This is done by putting the lump sum in trust and a specialist tax advisor will be able to provide detailed guidance on this issue.

There are several disadvantages to older people taking out a whole life policy. The payments must be carried on so that the policy does not lapse and this financial commitment may be difficult for people of an advanced age. Also the need for a high level of life insurance may decrease over time as dependents reach maturity and the need to provide for them lessens. Possibly the biggest disadvantage is that the payments for a whole term policy are often considerably higher than for a fixed term life insurance policy.

Fixed Term Plans

This type of life insurance policy runs for a set period, which is often about 25 years. If the policyholder dies within that period then a lump sum payment is made to the estate. However, if the policyholder dies after the policy has expired, even if it is only one day later, then no payment at all is made. Policyholders receive no return on their payments when the plan finishes.

The main advantage of a fixed term life insurance plan is the cost. The monthly payment will normally be quite low. It is also good if the policyholder is only looking to provide cover for dependents up to a certain point in their lives such as children completing university.

The disadvantage of taking out a fixed term life insurance policy is that it is impossible to plan exactly what will happen during the period of time that the policy will run and a longer-term policy may turn out to have been more suitable.

Whether you are interested in covering either yourself or a family member it is important to research on what is offered in the market. There are many different types of insurance policies and some may tick a few of the requirements boxes but not all. It is important to ask a person who deals with these issues before applying or purchasing a specific cover. Generally, an older person considering taking out a life insurance policy would be better opting for a fixed term plan unless they have genuine concerns over inheritance tax. If this is the case then it would be advisable to seek specialist advice before making a decision.