Preparing for Unexpected Early Retirement: What You Need to Know

Written by Jeff Helms

The financial world is complex and constantly changing. Those changes can impact our clients and their plans for the future. As the firms founder and Managing Partner, making sense of these changes is my job. We try to simplify communication on market dynamics to make it meaningful and useful for our clients.

August 7, 2015

Most of us have a pretty good idea about when we’d like to retire, but expectations don’t always equal reality. In fact, according to a recent study by Voya, 60% of current retirees responded that they did not retire when they originally planned to. To be safe, then, it’s a good idea for you to take a step back and analyze your current retirement plan, making changes as needed to ensure that you’re financially prepared in the event that you, too, have to retire early.

Possible Reasons for an Unexpected Retirement

Of course, you may be wondering, “why would I need to retire early?” And you might be surprised at just how many unexpected life events can pop up that give you essentially no choice but to do so. For example, you could suffer from a health ailment that prevents you from working. Perhaps your spouse becomes ill and you have to stay at home to care for him or her on a full-time basis. Or, you could lose your job unexpectedly and have a hard time finding further full-time employment. These are just a few of the most common reasons for an unexpected early retirement that you should never rule out.

Start Paying Down Debts as Much as Possible

One of the best ways to go about preparing for the possibility of an early retirement is to pay down as much debt as possible. It’s never too early to start doing so, and even if you can’t eliminate all of your debt by the time you retire, putting some extra money towards it now will give you greater peace of mind down the road—especially if you find yourself in a situation where you are forced to retire early. This way, you’ll be able to allocate more of your retirement savings to your costs of living, rather than having to use it to pay off decades-old debt.

Work With a Reputable Financial Planner

It helps to have other backup plans in place in the event that you need to retire early. Meeting with a financial planner is a great way to begin preparing for the unexpected now. A retirement planning expert from First Coast Wealth Advisors can sit down with you to review how you can prepare for a possible early retirement without depleting your retirement savings in the process. Specifically, we can work out a retirement plan that’s based off a monthly retirement income rather than the traditional projected nest egg figure—a much more realistic way to plan for retirement when you want to account for the possibility of it happening early.

Are you concerned about whether or not your current retirement plan has you covered in the event of an unexpected early retirement? If so, then we encourage you to contact us at First Coast Wealth Advisors so we can schedule a consultation. From there, we can help you achieve the peace of mind you’re seeking when it comes to your retirement.