62 Without Retirement Savings? Here’s Your Playbook

By age 62, you may be ready to count down until your retirement kicks off. And if you’ve got a nice amount of money saved, you may be feeling confident about your senior years.

But what if you’ve reached the age of 62 and you haven’t managed to cobble together any sort of retirement nest egg? Your first inclination may be to panic, but that won’t do you any good. Instead, take these steps to better your financial situation.

1. Don’t stop working just yet

A lot of people decide to stop working once they turn 62. But if you don’t have money saved for retirement, you may want to pledge to keep at it a bit longer.

If you’re lacking in savings, you’ll probably end up extremely reliant on Social Security in retirement. But you should know that claiming benefits at 62 will mean reducing them substantially — for life.

If you’re 62 now, it means your full retirement age for Social Security purposes is 67. Claiming benefits at 62 will result in a roughly 30% reduction to those monthly checks, which is a hit you can’t afford in the absence of having a nest egg.

In fact, in this situation, you may want to try to work beyond age 67. If you delay Social Security past that point, your benefits will get boosted by 8% for each year you wait, up until you turn 70.

It’s not so easy to retire on only Social Security. But it gets a lot easier when your benefits are boosted for life.

2. Consider some lifestyle changes

You may be able to sustain your current lifestyle based on the paycheck you get from work. But if you don’t have retirement savings by 62, even if you manage to sock away a bit of money in the coming years, it may not amount to a very large sum.

That’s why now’s the time to start cutting costs and conserving funds. If you’re able to downside your home, you might reduce your housing costs significantly. And if there are other cuts you can make, you may find that you’re able to better manage on mostly a Social Security check once your career ends.

3. Talk to a financial advisor

If you’re 62 without savings for retirement and you don’t see yourself working too many more years, it’s important to talk to a financial advisor. Someone in that position can review your finances with you and help you make the most of your remaining time in the workforce.

A financial advisor might also be able to set you up with the right investments for whatever small amount of money you do manage to amass in the coming years. The right portfolio could provide a modest amount of supplemental income so you’re not just living on what Social Security pays you each month.

It’s certainly not optimal to get to 62 without having put together some savings for the future. But if you’re willing to keep working a bit longer and trim your spending, you may find that you’re able to manage financially, even if retiring a millionaire clearly isn’t in the cards.

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