Retire Debt FREE!

Retirement. We dream about it, whether it is five years or 15 years away. We fantasize about the day when we march into the boss's office and declare that we are retiring in one month and plan to take off to Bora Bora to unwind from decades of stress and office politics. Retirement can indeed be the "golden years," if you are not bogged down with money issues such as keeping current on mortgage payments, affording medical insurance, buying a car, taking vacations, enjoying golf, enrolling in continuing education, etc. Retirement means that you will need less money because expenses such as professional attire, lunch, weekly parking and commuting gas will be gone. However these expenses will be replaced with other expenses. It is estimated that the average American will need 70% of the income that they earned during their peak earning years for retirement. In other words, if you make $50,000 per year when you are nearing retirement then you will need approximately $35,000 per year as a retiree. This may seem like a lot of money but consider these facts: Medical Expenses. Your medical expenses will be higher since you are older. In addition, since you are not working, you may have to foot the entire bill yourself. To give you some idea of your medical expenses per month, a family of two on a Kaiser Permanente plan with a copay of $10 - $20 will be around $1050 per month. This is a nice chunk of change. Leisure Expenses. Now that you have all the time in the world, you will want to do something nice for yourself. Your leisurely activities such as golf, vacations, and shopping will take up a bigger portion of your budget. You may also want to go back to school and take that Astronomy or photography class that you always wanted to take. During you working years your monthly expenses looked something like this: