Thursday, October 8, 2009

Retire in Style

By Quang Nguyen



During this economics downturn, many people are struggling just to live by. It's easy to read on the news that many people are considering working after retirement. However, there are a number of people are living it up and enjoying the best that retirement brings. These people are the one who save through their working years after years. It is estimated that in order to have a good time during retirement, you should save as much as 80% of your salary. And that is just for people who make under $100,000 a year. For others, who made around $250,000, they save as much as 88% of their salary toward retirement. The advice is that give yourself some cushion for the golden ages.

The average age for retirement is 65. However, many executives, professionals, and business owners retire at 60 or earlier. Some people who work for large organizations even get a better deal to retire in their mid-50s when the companies are looking for ways to downsizing. When you retire at age 65, the only benefit you get is the full benefit from Social Security, which is around $1,200 a month. For people who have saved and invested for their retirement, this money is sure nothing compare to many years in their early retirement.

So what options do you have when you get into the old people's world with money in your pocket? Well there is the continuing-care retirement community that you can check in. This amazing place offers gourmet restaurants, infinity pools, gyms, spas and concierges. Some even have cinema and putting green. The greatest luxury of it is health care for life. There are currently 1,800 continuing-care retirement community in the country, and right now is the best time to get into one. For the past couple years, applicants have to be on a long waiting list and some never actually get in. What is the cost you might ask. Well there is an up-front cost that ranges from $20,000 to $1 million, and it averages out to be $250,000. And this is just for getting in. Once you in, there's a monthly cost of around $2,750. You can also pay around $7,000 to $8,000 a month for the skilled nursing care. So assuming a person is going to live 15 years at the community, and spends around $2,000 for the monthly fee, it will be $360,000 plus the entrance fee. How can people afford this you might ask. Most sell their house for the entrance fee, and their saving for retirement works perfectly fine with the monthly fee.

Sources:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/08/pf/expert/retirement_incom.moneymag/index.htm

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1365/is_n3_v26/ai_17464077/?tag=content;col1

http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/12/retirement/Gengler_living_up_retirement.moneymag/index.htm?postversion=2009021304

2 comments:

  1. This is a testament to how continually saving up a lot of money from an early age will help one out in the future. Although one may have to suffer a little bit more early on, once one retires, he or she will be able to reap the benefits of his or her hard work. - Jonathan Tse

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  2. When people start their retirement plans, they will get more benefits than others.
    Shawn Gao

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