How to Make Your Retirement Last in Kansas City

Retirement is supposed to be a time to relax and spend more time with family. However, with the rising cost of living, making retirement savings last can seem harder than ever. What you thought would be more than enough for retirement might feel less than you originally thought.

You’re not the only one feeling the pressure of rising costs. We’ll explore practical tips to help you stretch your retirement savings further so you don’t have to worry about inflation eating into your retirement nest egg. Luckily, Kansas City is a great place to retire – especially if you’re trying to make your retirement dollars stretch further than before.

Assessing Your Financial Situation

You’ll want to begin by carefully evaluating your retirement savings accounts, such as 401(k)s, IRAs, and pensions (if this applies). You also need to consider potential Social Security benefits to understand the foundation of your retirement income. It’s also important to be clear about your goals.

Unfortunately, we can’t have everything we want, so you may need to do some prioritizing. Dig deep to uncover what’s most important to you. By determining your retirement savings and income sources first, then prioritizing your goals, you’ll have an easier time making the tough decisions needed to make things work.

Calculating Monthly Expenses and Understanding Cashflow

You’ll need to understand your monthly expenses, including essential costs like housing, healthcare, groceries, and discretionary spending. This will enable you to craft a realistic and sustainable cash flow plan (budget) for your retirement needs.

In other words, we need to understand money coming in and going out.

Identifying Expenses Which Can be Reduced

You’ll need to track your spending habits and identify areas where you can cut back if needed. You should try to avoid cutting spending on things you find important, but it may be helpful to cut out things that don’t matter to you as much. The old adage, a penny saved is a penny earned rings true.

Money-saving Strategies for Everyday Expenses

Smart money-saving strategies, such as using coupons and shopping during sales for groceries can make a significant impact. You could save thousands throughout your retirement in just a few minutes each morning over coffee.

Even something as simple as reducing how far you drive each week can help you stretch your budget further and make every dollar count. You can unlock substantial long-term savings by making small yet impactful changes in daily spending habits. Just saving $10 per week over 20 years will save you $10,400 and help keep those funds investing and earning for you instead.

Taking Advantage of Senior Discounts in Kansas City

Kansas City's community spirit extends to its generous senior discounts and local offers. Check out these awesome discounts retirees can take advantage of! With an abundance of local businesses and establishments showing their appreciation, you’ll be able to enjoy more while preserving your hard-earned savings for the road ahead.

Downsizing Your Home

Downsizing in retirement offers numerous advantages, from reducing housing expenses and maintenance burdens to freeing up additional funds. If you’re considering downsizing at some point in retirement, it might make sense to do this sooner rather than later. Just the savings on property taxes alone could be a huge benefit.

Embracing a smaller, cozier living space may allow you to create a more manageable one as you age.  You can still keep a space for entertaining guests and hosting family gatherings. However, you might not need to pay for heating and air conditioning for many empty rooms that are unused.

Exploring Part-Time Employment Opportunities

Engaging in part-time employment opportunities could provide an additional income stream. This also offers a chance for you to remain socially active. Staying mentally stimulated while contributing your valuable expertise to the workforce can be a benefit both financially and emotionally.

In Kansas City, you can find many suitable part-time positions to fit your interests and skills, ranging from consulting to customer service positions. You’ll probably want to try to strike the perfect balance between work and leisure.

Embracing Part-Time Work for Financial and Social Benefits

Beyond the financial perks, part-time work offers an excellent opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals, build new friendships, and maintain an active social life. Fostering a sense of purpose and fulfillment during their golden years.

The best part-time opportunities will be the ones that combine tasks you’d gladly do for fun, which you can also get paid for. Activities like woodworking, sewing, or writing can bring a great part-time income. It doesn’t take much extra income to combat the effects of inflation and keep your retirement accounts looking healthy.

Maximizing Social Security and Pension Benefits

Maximizing your Social Security withdrawal strategy considers your full retirement age, the right time to claim, and potential spousal or survivor benefits. Even minor changes can make a significant impact on your overall retirement income.

Understanding all your pension options and payout choices will help you make informed decisions about whether you take a lump sum from your pension or take annuity payments instead. You’ll also need to align your pension strategy with other income sources.

Investing Wisely

Investing wisely requires assessing how much risk you’re comfortable with (risk tolerance), investment goals, and life expectancy to build a diversified portfolio for your unique financial circumstances.

By developing a disciplined long-term investment strategy, you can maximize returns in a properly diversified portfolio without taking too much risk. A common mistake retirees make is being afraid to keep their money invested. This can have dire consequences throughout your retirement.

By striking the right balance between potential growth and risk management, you can create an investment portfolio to adapt to changing market conditions, support your goals, and buffer against the unknown.

Saving on Taxes in Retirement

Another important way to stretch your retirement income is to employ tax-saving strategies in retirement. You want to pay all the taxes you’re required to, but there’s no sense in giving money to the government for no reason. With key strategies like Roth conversions, you might be surprised how much you’ll save over retirement.

Although some tax strategies may sound intimidating, you don’t have to research and implement everything yourself. Creating a well-developed retirement tax strategy is one area where outside expertise can make a difference.

Seeking Financial Advice from Professionals in Kansas City

You can benefit significantly from seeking financial advice from professionals like those in the Kansas City Financial Advisors Network (we’re only a little biased). A financial planner who understands you can look at your entire financial life and provide personalized retirement planning, tailored investment strategies, and address all your financial goals and concerns.

Working with a financial planner can be invaluable. There are many attempts to show the percentage value of working with a financial planner versus on your own. However, this misses the point.

A good financial planner can help you achieve better returns, but more importantly, they can manage expectations and help you sleep well knowing everything is covered. You really can’t put a price on peace of mind.

More Enjoying, Less Worrying

We hope some of these ideas for stretching your retirement are helpful to you. Many times, you’ll find a combination of strategies will be best. A little change, compounded over time, can make a major difference. You may not need to make drastic changes to meet your goals.

As you enter retirement, remember the magic lies in the journey itself. The legacy you build, the connections you foster, and the memories you create are the true treasures of life. We want you to confidently step into retirement and build a brighter tomorrow filled with fulfillment and joy in Kansas City.