5 ways to rebuild your retirement savings
Have you raided your 401(k) or other retirement funds to wipe out credit card debt, pay your kid’s college tuition or cover some large, unexpected expense? If so, you’re not alone.
According to research from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, 27% of U.S. workers have taken some form of loan, early withdrawal or hardship distribution from an IRA, 401(k) or similar plan.
But if you’re now looking at your retirement balances and realizing that it’s not enough, take heart in knowing that all is not lost.
You can rebuild your retirement nest egg. Here are five ways to get started.
1. Save more aggressively
To turbo-charge your retirement assets, begin by ramping up your savings, starting with your employer-sponsored retirement plan, such as a 401(k) or a 403(b) plan.
For 2017, the maximum employee 401(k) contribution you can make is $18,000. That limit gets bumped up to $18,500 in
2018. Plus, if you’re age 50 or older, you can make an extra
$6,000 “catch up” contribution into your 401(k). So for 2018, older workers can stash away a total of $24,500.
Contributing to your workplace retirement plan can also generate matching contributions your employer — a perk that helps you more quickly rebuild retirement savings.
2. Downsize your housing
According to 2017 report from Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, one-third of all Americans — nearly 39 million U.S. households — can’t afford their housing, including 19 million households that pay 50% or more of their income to put a roof over their heads.
A good rule of thumb is to spend no more than 30% of your income on a mortgage or rent. So another way to free up cash for retirement savings is to lower your housing costs. For homeowners, downsizing to a smaller property can reduce your mortgage, slash your property taxes and cut your utility costs too, since bigger residences typically cost more to cool and heat.
3. Move to a cheaper location
Living in major U.S. cities or on the East or West Coasts is generally far more expensive than living in, say, the South or the Midwest. Consider moving to a cheaper location.
4. Work longer
It may not seem ideal, but working longer has two huge benefits: It gives you more time to amass a retirement nest egg, and it boosts your Social Security benefits.
Although you can currently receive Social Security at age 62, for every year you delay taking Social Security up to age 70, your benefits increase annually by 8%. So working longer can greatly augment your retirement security.
Even if you’re older, “you can find profitable, fulfilling work after (age) 50,” says Kerry Hannon, jobs expert for AARP and the author of Great Jobs for Everyone 50+.
5. Say no more often
If you’ve been sacrificing your own retirement savings because you’re supporting family members with cash or “loans,” it’s time to end that cycle. ‘’ Women tend to take care of themselves last,” Hannon says. “They’ll save for their child’s education before they save for their retirement.”
Changing these habits may require a mind shift. But when you’re playing catch-up with your retirement savings, you have to put yourself first — once and for all.
Lynnette Khalfani-Cox is a personal finance expert and cofounder of AskTheMoneyCoach.com and Money Coach University. She is the author of 12 money-management books, including the New York Times bestseller Zero Debt. Follow her on Twitter at @themoneycoach.