Let's talk about if you need to retire but you haven't saved enough. You know if retirement age is approaching quickly and you haven't saved much or maybe it's passed you by and you're thinking you know, what am I doing here, I don't have enough saved, I can't retire, there are going to be options for you. Number one, is to contact the Social Security Administration. Go to SSA.gov and discover for yourself what the benefits might be if you did enter into retirement. You know if you're past retirement age then you're going to have benefits available to you and the longer you wait, the greater those benefits will be. So consider how long you can wait and find out for yourself what reward might be waiting for you if you do put retirement off a year or two. It could be significant and might be something you'd want to consider. The second thing you should do is pay off as much debt as possible. Let's face it right now if you have debts like maybe credit cards and car payments, each month you make those payments, that's money wasted and lost. If you pay those accounts off, at least you'd have a little extra money every month to supplement your retirement income and you can do this a lot easier than you might think. Simply take your debts, list them in smallest balance to largest balance and focus on paying those off as quickly as possible. You might even be able to pay off your mortgage in three to four years, you know depending on your situation which leads me to my final point or final option is if you do have a mortgage and you're 62 or older, you might qualify for a reverse mortgage. A reverse mortgage could be a great way to supplement your retirement income when you haven't really saved that much because you've been investing into that mortgage by way of payments for decades and a reverse mortgage is a way to draw out that investment, draw out whatever potential equity you have by way of getting payments every month and not lose possession of your home and not have to make payments on the house. So I suggest that you contact several mortgage brokers in your area who do reverse mortgages, maybe even ask around with friends and family, see if anyone can refer you to someone that they highly recommend and check with The Better Business Bureau to make sure they're highly rated because reverse mortgages are very very, well they're involved and the process can be a little bit complex but it may be very well worth it if you find yourself approaching retirement age without much saved for it. So quickly, let's recap, number one, go to the Social Security Administration, SSA.gov and find out what benefits are available to you and what those benefits could be if you wait a year or two, number two, pay off as much debt as you possibly can to free up that cash flow to help supplement your retirement years and number three, explore the possibility of a reverse mortgage because that could help significantly on a monthly basis to supplement your retirement income when you haven't saved that much and retirement is just around the corner.
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