Even with a significant income, debt can make you feel as if you’re trapped with few places to go. Fortunately, and depending on where the debt came from, there are several strategies to manage and eliminate it prior to retirement. Taking the time to do so can simplify your finances and allow you to make the most of your savings and income during a new life stage.
It’s helpful to begin this process during your working life when you’re bringing in regular income from your job. To make this happen, take the time to create a plan and stick to it so that you’re debt-free in retirement. Get started by reviewing our checklist for financial freedom before you retire.
Prioritizing Your Efforts During Your Career for a Debt-Free Retirement
Preparing for a debt-free retirement uses the same strategies as eliminating your debt at any other stage in your career. Debt.com discusses several of these strategies, giving special attention to prioritizing your highest-interest debts. A first step is to take full stock of how much money you actually owe and determine which debts you want to pay back first. The following list starts with the most urgent debts and goes through to the lowest-priority debts.
Usurious Debts
Any debts with interest rates of 25% or higher, such as payday loans and high-interest credit cards, can eat up a large portion of your income as the interest accrues. Prioritize these debts by eliminating them or rolling them into lower-priority debts. Yahoo! Finance highlights the risks of these debts, such as their likelihood to keep you in a debt spiral that could potentially end in bankruptcy.
Standard Credit Cards
Many credit cards have more reasonable interest rates but can still limit your financial freedom. APRs that range anywhere from 16% to 25% can still reduce your monthly income and slow down the rate at which you can pay off your debts. Try to pay these debts off as quickly as possible.
Unsecured Loans
Debt consolidation and personal loans are typically more affordable forms of debt than credit cards, as you have set payments and can even pay in advance. These interest rates tend to be in the 10–16% range, but they can be higher or lower, depending on your credit score. If you have an unsecured personal loan with an interest rate around the 20% range, then consider it like a credit card debt and prioritize it over other kinds of debt. If you can take several credit cards and consolidate them into a personal loan with a reasonable interest rate, you can make significant progress toward being debt-free.
Secured Loans and Student Loans
These loans generally have lower interest rates because they’re backed either by a lien on a car or by the protection against bankruptcy that the government grants to student loan creditors. When you have higher-priority forms of debt, pay the minimum that you need to on your student loans, auto loans, and other forms of secured debt in the meantime.
Mortgages
Being one of the most secure forms of debt, mortgages are generally the lowest priority. You may want to pay down your principal if you’re in an FHA loan to refinance to a conventional mortgage and reduce your insurance payments. However, you can generally pay the standard mortgage payment without extra as long as you have any other kind of debt.
As mentioned, any way that you can move debt down the line in terms of lowering interest rates is a good thing. For example, you can save money by transferring balances from high-interest cards to low-interest cards, by consolidating credit card debt into a personal loan, or by absorbing a large personal loan into your mortgage by refinancing your home. Any of these moves can reduce your interest payments and can help you pay off your debts faster.
Your Checklist for Financial Freedom in Retirement
Once you’ve figured out what your debts are and where they fall on the prioritization list, your strategy essentially writes itself. To be truly prepared for a debt-free retirement, see if you’re on schedule to complete the following items:
- Eliminate all credit card balances and pay off any new balances in full each month.
- If you have a car, ensure that it’s fully paid off and properly insured.
- If you own your home, ensure that your mortgage is fully paid off.
- Build up enough savings in your retirement and other accounts to ensure financial security.
These things are easier said than done, but taking a clear look at your financial situation now can help you truly enjoy your retirement.
Resource Links
“How to Refinance an FHA Loan” via Chase
“Prioritizing Debt: Deciding Which Debt to Pay Off First” via Debt.com
“Why Payday Loans Are Dangerous” via Yahoo! Finance