Planning with your spouse and work together to come up with a plan before you retire is important. It is important that you and your spouse share the same vision.
Fidelity Investments conducted a study last 2011 and have found out that most husbands and wives are not in accord about retirement. Study shows that 1 out of 3 couples disagreed or don’t know where they were going to live in retirement and 62% did not agree on their expected retirement ages.
Here are 5 topics you need to discuss with your spouse before retirement:
Timing of Retirement
Job enjoyment and financial needs are one of the many factors that can go into a decision about when to retire. However, the couple also need to consider the best method to maximize their Social Security benefits. Couples need to figure out together on how to get the most of their social security benefits because social security does not only pay benefits to a worker but also pays the benefits of the worker’s spouse. In order to get the best benefit, the husband can wait until his full retirement age to take benefits on his wife’s record. Doing it, he can get half of his wife’s full benefit. The husband can then wait until age 70 to file on his own work record. At that point, the wife can file a spousal benefit on his record. Each circumstance is different and couples should talk to a financial planner about the best strategy for them.
Finances
Both the husband and the wife need to understand their financial situation. A survey conducted by The Fidelity shows that wives were much less involved in retirement finances than their husbands. They should both need a clear understanding of their finances and whether they are working in the same vision.
Type of Lifestyle
Each one of us has a different lifestyle that we want when retire such as travelling, relaxing on the beach, volunteer on some events, etc. It is important to plan about your goals and dreams for retirement. You can start the process by creating individual wish lists and then comparing them.
Health Care
Make sure you and your spouse have adequate health care coverage either from Medicare or an employer-based plan. You also need to understand the rules regarding Medicare coverage.
Long-term Care
Unfortunately, most couples are going to need some type of long-term care for either one spouse or both spouses at some point. There are things you can do to make it easier on yourselves if this need arises.
Giro Attorneys at Law, LLC can help you select an appropriate person or entity to act as your trustee in the event you or your spouse cannot. We can also help you if you are the trustee of someone else’s trust and you are confused about how you carry out the duties and responsibilities of the office.
Call us today for help: our office can be reached at (201) 690-1642.
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