Welcome back!
In my last posting I discussed about whether you are ready or not to retire. If you are then CONGRATULATION! - all's well and good. If not, don't despair as this is not the end of the world and there are options for you to consider that you can do something about it. And in this posting I'm going to share with you what some of those options are. So enjoy!
Phasing Your Retirement
If you have an income gap to fill in for your retirement (which is the shortfall in income that you need for retirement and what you're capable of achieving when you retire), one way to do it is to phase your retirement. In other words, consider continue working for a few more years, rather than stop working altogether when you reach retirement age. You'll be pleasantly surprised how much working for an additional 2 or 3 years will do to your all important retirement nest egg - which might add up a tidy sum of several hundred thousand dollars to it (Your retirement nest egg will benefit from the addition of those extra years of savings into it while delaying its withdrawal - which is only possible when you still have income coming in). What you're actually doing here is to sacrifice and trade off the first few years of your retirement years by still being in employment for a more meaningful and better retirement later.
So if you prefer this option, discuss with your employer for you to continue working for a few more years. Employers are now more accommodating and you may continue to use your skills, expertise and not forgetting your maturity and experiences to contribute to the organization in exchange for a few more years of income. In fact you may be doing your employer a great favor as more employers nowadays are facing difficulty in finding replacement workers, especially for executive positions and jobs that require years of training. You gain by still being gainfully employed and your employer gains by foregoing the need for increasing training costs for new workers, which in turn translate into better bottom line for the company. A win-win situation for both parties for sure!
What if your employer isn't keen to extend your service? Then, its time to move on and find yourself another employer. And you might find better luck in the health care, teaching, consulting, retails, small businesses as well as customer services as these sectors of employment are known to be more willing to accept senior employees and that include retirees. After all with modern advancement in medicine and health care an average man of 70 years old of today is still considered young and can still contribute and be productive to his/her employer.
Also, rather than stop working completely or continue with full time employment for a few years, you can also do part time job. You'll appreciate how much that extra income will do to your retirement nest egg. Nowadays, many seniors take part-time jobs after retiring, not only to keep busy but also to earn money on the side. Others modify their schedules to keep their jobs, but at a reduced level of involvement.
For some people a sudden transition from a working environment to a non-working life during retirement may pose an emotional burden, which can do more harm than good. This is usually associated with attachment to holding a job for all of one's working life so much so that when one is released from a job, feelings of doubts about one's self worth and capability creep in.
For these people, it is wise to take his/her time to be fully retired(read phased retirement). And by engaging in some form of part time job at the beginning stage of one's retirement years not only raise one's standard of retirement living a notch up later, it also come with an added advantage of giving these potential negative emotions time to dissipate or to subside as one goes longer past retirement age. So as you can see, not only retirement financial planning is important, you should take care of your emotional retirement planning as well.
Use Your Skills, Expertise & Past Experience To Generate Income
Your expertise, skills and work experiences are your valuable assets that can be very profitable to you. Why not use it to your advantage and earn some retirement dollars. You can become consultant in areas where you have the necessary expertise and experience and can start earning your fees by advising others. In the same way you can go into teaching or coaching others based on your skills and experiences acquired while working.
Turn Your Hobby Into Income Producing Venture
If you have a hobby you can turn that too into income for your retirement. You can turn these hobbies and passions into money making hobbies or passions by selling your works or start charging people for services. Two examples of hobbies where you can turn them into money making past-times or ventures (whatever you prefer to call them) are photography and painting. I'm only giving you two examples here, but I'm sure there are many more you can think of.
If you have a passion for writing that could be another source of income for you. You can become a copywriter and write sales copy for advertisers and others from on-line and / or off-line businesses. And there is no better place than the Internet where you can trade your writing skill for money. You can find numerous sites in the Internet, where you can submit your writings and be paid for them. Writers are needed to write products reviews, articles for ezines and by website owners who outsource their jobs to others like you. You can also write your own blogs and monetize it to earn money. Or you can become a ghostwriter and write ebooks and articles for other people. Other related jobs which can bring you money include proof reading assignments and by becoming virtual assistant to other site owners. I hope you can see what I'm trying to show you here. That you are only scratching the surface. The opportunities are unlimited - the sky is virtually the limit here. What you need is a little creativity and imagination and you'll soon be on your way to a profitable second employment - which not only give you the money you need but the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment as well.
Indulge In Profitable Business
If you have been wanting to go into a small business of your own but did not have the chance as you were working prior to your retirement, here's the chance for you to pursue that ambition and make it happen. While there are both on line and off line businesses that you can choose, I would rather recommend an on line business due to its twin appeal of ease of starting and its requirement for only a small investment/capital outlay. With the Internet, starting an on line business is a breeze as you only need a computer and an Internet connection to get started.
There you have got it all - some of the options that are open for you to consider to fill in the gap of income that you require and income that you have.
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