Creating A Plan On How To Retire At 60

By | July 19, 2019

Everyone should be creating a plan on how to retire at 60 even if it seems impossible. With the right plan retiring at 60 is NOT a fantasy but a realistic doable operation. It does require setting boundaries and certain spending limits. But it is never too late to get your money working for you.

Creating a plan on how to retire at 60

By creating a plan now the possibilities of success are almost guaranteed. Ideally, a nest egg of $1 million dollars will be saved in retirement accounts to fund retirement. The interest earned on a nest egg of this size will never be depleted, as long as the principal is never touched (withdrawn). This article brings forth some steps to take to get to the position that retirement is something to look forward to, instead of dreading.

Eliminate Financial Debt

Let’s be realistic for a moment. Most people have never lived in a life that wasn’t burden with a large amount of debt. It has become normal to always have a car payment, credit card payments, or even student loan payments. You don’t have to live like this. It is time to take a stand and say enough is enough. When you reach the point that you are sick and tired of being sick and tired of never having the money to do the things you want to do, then and only then, will you be ready to break the cycle of living paycheck to paycheck.

The New York Federal Reserve recently reported the household consumer debt rose by $124 billion to reach $13.67 trillion in the first quarter of 2019. This is an increase of .9 percent, which is an indication that many people haven’t grasp the fundamental of living on less than they make.

Consumer Household Debt

The fastest way to wealth is through the income that a person earns. If this same person is living debt-free, that is, not giving their money away to the banks or credit card companies, then investing their income for retirement is easy. By using the rule of “72”, a retirement account earning 10% annual return will double every seven years.

If this retirement account has $250,000 in only 28 years it will have grown to 1 Million! This is all possible through compound interest.

Just think for a moment how much money you could save if you didn’t have any debt payments to make? The money would accumulate and grow very quickly. I know for a fact that it is possible because in my younger years I lived it.

Let me tell you a little story about my failure in understanding the value of saving for my future.

Back when I was a teenager and started my first job my father gave me some extremely valuable financial advice. He told me to save 10% of every paycheck I ever earned. If I did this religiously and invested that money and not ever touched the money, he said that it would grow to well over a million dollars – long before I ever reached retirement age!

In 1972, I was earning minimum wage salary of $1.90 per hour. My thinking was how could saving 19 cents every hour I worked add up to any significant amount of money? Of course, being all of 17 years old I knew more. Or back then I thought I knew more. The key was not in the amount saved but in the discipline to save from every paycheck. This one piece of advice could have made me very wealthy!

Needless to say, I regret that I did not practice this small little investment wisdom. Life would have been much different from what it is today.

Moving on several years later I had the opportunity of buying my first house. I was a single father of two children. When I moved into my house I only had a stereo, some albums, a guitar, an old car, and some clothes. My family gave me an old TV, a love seat, and a bed. I used a cardboard box to double for a coffee table and ironing board. From there, piece by piece, I eventually filled the house.

Living the dream

Every item that I purchased for my house I used cash. I would put the item on layaway and make payments or do without. I was probably the last person living in Dallas to purchase a four-channel VCR. But the point was I didn’t have a lot of stuff, but the stuff I had I owned. I didn’t know it at the time but I was living the dream. I was living debt-free!

I saved money from every paycheck and bought my vehicles with cash. I never had a car payment like everyone else I knew. I paid my child support payments every month for the opportunity to fly my children home to stay with me for the summer. All the traveling expenses were all paid for, yes, you guessed it, in cash.

I saw many opportunities go by because I didn’t have the cash to buy. I thought if I had a credit card, I could take advantage of the opportunity, make small monthly payments for a spell, and life would be better. This infatuation was the beginning of the end to my debt-free lifestyle.

Once I had a credit card, I told myself that it would only be used for emergencies. But I learned that your mind has a way of tricking you when you desire something very much, but can’t afford. Up to this point, I had been a very good manager of money. Since I wasn’t making any payments to anyone, I had all this money left over every paycheck.

I had a house full of furniture, an old car, tools, and no debt other than the house mortgage. I bought my house (A HUD home) for $65000 in 1990. I sold that house in 2003 for $135000 when my wife and I relocated to Louisiana (Where my wife was originally from). When we moved, because of the financial debt we had accumulated, we only had $45,000 in cash, $10,000 in credit card debt, and two car payments totaling $795 each month.

I told you my story which gives two examples of living debt-free (before credit cards) and living paycheck to paycheck (after credit cards). Of the two different lifestyles, I’m sure that you would agree the debt-free lifestyle is better. Why wouldn’t it be? The cost of living today is going through the roof and I see no end in sight in the near future. This makes living simple, living free, that much more important.

Unless you get your debt under control or better – paid completely off – it will be difficult to retire at 60.

Today we live in a society that is built around instant gratification. If you want something, buy it now, pay for it later. Why do you think there are so many banks today? Because loaning money is very profitable. Unfortunately, the poor are more susceptible to these financial vultures because of the pressures of providing for their families and the low wages that they are earning. They were never taught how to manage money, so they become the victims. Soon, they enter a world of misery because they will never be able to earn enough to get out of debt.

As I said earlier you don’t have to live like this. There is a better way. But it means that in order to be debt-free a person must not borrow money. The Bible says the borrower is slave to the lender.

Start building a plan to retire at 60 by following these tips on avoiding a debt-filled lifestyle. These can be easily added to creating a successful retirement plan. Some tips below on how to purchase things today without borrowing money.

  • Instead of buying a car, use Uber, city bus, or bicycle for transportation.
  • When buying a car, never buy new, and never borrow money. Pay in cash. Buy a used car, never newer than two years old. By not financing you are not obligated to carry full coverage insurance, which is very expensive. On an old car, liability insurance is adequate.
  • Try to live on 80% of your salary. Pay the first 10% tithe to the church and the second 10% to yourself (in savings). If you don’t tithe with a church, apply the first 10% to pay off debt.
  • When purchasing a home, have a large down payment, (20%), make sure the payment is not more than 1/4 of your take-home salary and is financed on a 15-year fixed interest mortgage.
  • Do not use credit cards regardless of the perks, use debit cards instead.
  • Don’t eat out at fast food establishments, cook meals at home and bring with you to work.

Create A Passive Income Stream

The first part of this retirement plan above is to avoid debt like the plaque so that your income can build wealth. This next part will help solidify the income with more income. The faster you can pay off debt the faster your money will grow. By earning extra income from a side hustle you can grow your wealth at a much faster rate.

A passive income stream is like building something once but continually earning commissions from. It is an income stream that you can earn revenue while you are sleeping, or working, or while on vacation. Having a website is just one example of creating a passive income stream.

The best thing about a passive income stream is that anybody can do it, men and women of all ages, employed or retired, all it takes is a desire to earn an income working from home – that’s it!

Back in early 2000, I read a book, Multiple Streams of Internet Income, written by Robert Allen, in which the author described having several websites with each website producing a little income. If one stream of income dries up, the other income streams continue to flow, hence, you never completely lose income.

Affiliate marketing allows a person to do exactly that. Build a niche website in one niche market and get it producing income, then rinse and repeat. Build another niche website in a different niche, get it producing income, then rinse and repeat. There is no limit on the number of websites a person can create. So technically there is no limit on the income that one can earn.

If you would like to know more about how you can benefit from having an affiliate marketing site under your control, then you will want to read this post, How To Earn Passive Income Working From Home

Taking advantage of the online opportunities in affiliate marketing is very easy to get started with minimal costs involved. In fact, you can get started for FREE today by clicking the button below.

join wealthy affiliate

 

Working From Home Opportunities

If you Google the search term in parenthesis, “working from home opportunities”, you will discover many articles describing all the opportunities available to anyone with a computer. See image below

Google search

It can be difficult to actually find a website that has legitimate working opportunities for the average person. If you are seeking a way to make extra money so that you can get out of debt then why not become a website owner and start with affiliate marketing? Affiliate marketing is the easiest form of earning commissions without the hassle factor of selling your own products.

Every big brand selling today has an affiliate program that you can join for free and help market their product. Almost all blog websites have some sort of affiliate product or service they are endorsing. The reason they are all doing this is that it is profitable. It works.

The benefits of affiliate marketing are

  • No inventory of products
  • Fixed costs
  • Work from home
  • Easy to find customers
  • Unlimited income potential
  • Earn passive income while you sleep
  • Easy to get started for minimal investment

The only disadvantage is it is work to get a platform built such as a website to start marketing a product. By using Social Media, however, you can actually get started for almost free. Open a YouTube Channel and start creating videos of affiliate products. Once you have a platform in place, the joy of marketing begins and earning potential grows.

This is the next part of the overall plan to retire at 60 by creating an income-producing online business to either supplement your income with extra income or replace Social Security benefits or both. Oh yes, you can do both.

How To Start A Business At Home

This last section is the final step in creating a plan to retire at 60 – or even sooner, by having an income-producing online business. Working from home means you don’t have to worry about traffic or traveling to work. You can start whenever you want, stop whenever you want, work in your preferred attire, work from bed or in the kitchen.

You can even work while your sleeping because a website never sleeps. It is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It never misses work due to an illness or calls in sick.

The best way to get started a business at home is to decide what kind of business would you like to do? Most people say to start a business that you enjoy the most. Something that you are very good at or really have a passion for.

Once you decide on what you would really like to do then you will need to take the next step. Will you be manufacturing your own products to sell or selling other people’s products? Depending on your answer will determine where to go next.

If you want to be an affiliate marketer then I recommend finding a supplier from the list I have here at, How To Earn Passive Income Working From Home, and scroll down to the affiliate programs to join for free. If you are wanting to have an eCommerce store then I recommend going straight to the wholesale manufacturer, where you can find here WorldWideBrands.

If you wish to create your own products, like informational products, then I suggest getting a WordPress Website, finding a host, and begin marketing your products. If you would like to get educated with skills and online marketing knowledge then you can join the Wealthy Affiliate University and join for free. They even furnish two free websites so that you can acquire the expertise in making money online.

Conclusion

Wanting to retire at 60 is no longer just a pipe dream. It is attainable for the average person regardless of your economic situation. All it takes is a plan and put it into action. The steps that this article explains are

  • Eliminate Financial Debt
  • Create a passive income stream
  • Build and maintain an income-producing business at home.

I hope that you have found this information helpful to you to begin your journey in creating a plan to retire at 60 – or even earlier. If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions I ask that you please leave a comment on this page. Your question may help someone else in need, which I look forward to answering.

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8 thoughts on “Creating A Plan On How To Retire At 60

  1. Dave Sweney

    Creating a plan to retire at age 60 is excellent advice and if you start early, does not cut into your lifestyle that much. Unfortunately, it seems that most of us have life events that get in the way of the best-laid plans and when you are getting closer to that age, you realize you are not going to reach that goal unless you take some steps.

    Getting out of debt and living on less than the cash you may be earning (and saving the rest) is one way if you have time. Most people find there is not enough time to save that $1 million dollar savings nest egg, so they have to look for alternatives. 

    This is where your suggestion comes into play and it is a good one. If you are like most people, the money you should have in savings is not there. If you can build a small work from home business that you can do with the spare time you have as a retiree, you can add to your income without too much stress and even gain a lot over that income while doing so.

    As a retiree myself, I know that most die early unless they stay engaged with life and somehow stay active and contributing in some manner. Why not start an affiliate marketing business, get that engagement, earn some money from home, and live better as a retiree? The Wealthy Affiliate platform will teach you how to get started with this and it is well worth the investment of time, money and effort.  

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Yes, Dave, you are so right. It is never too late to earn money from the Internet. I’m doing it now with affiliate marketing and once I get debt-free all the money I make can help supplement my retirement. Good luck to you, Dave.

      Reply
  2. RoDarrick

    Excellent information you have condensed into this article and I must say it is a golden nugget. Just like you, I had a very bad savings habit though partly to the fact that my parents never taught me how to save. I only live from paycheck to another until I decided on a change and since then, I have been living pretty well and out of debt. Thanks for introducing affiliate marketing, it is such a great way to make passive income and I’ve been using it as a supplement to my monthly income and hopefully, by the time of my retirement from work, I would’ve saved up enough to grant me a hitch-free retirement time.

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      I am glad to see, Ro, that you have taken my recommendation to earn passive income to supplement your income. Now that you are living debt-free, if you save 15% of your monthly salary into a 401 K or even better, a Roth IRA, you’ll have plenty of money in retirement.

      Reply
  3. Derek

    Hello Ken,

    The idea of living a debt free life is very appealing albeit a little late for me. I would certainly recommend the abolition of credit cards as they can bring you down quicker than anything.

    Yes, I have credit cards but I always pay them off in full every month. But like you, I never used to when I was younger. I dread to think how much money I have given to the credit card industry in interest payments. But of course, we all know better when we are young.

    I did use credit for my last vehicle which I bought new, but that was because I was getting a higher rate of interest on the money I had saved that I was paying on the loan. So I used it to my benefit. These deals are very hard to find and only come up on rare occasions.

    I think pointing out how much savings you could have by the time you retire is an excellent way of getting the point across.

    Derek

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Yes, Derek, you are right. We know so much when we were young. Saving just ten percent of every paycheck for 30 years and anyone can retire with 1 million in the bank. If I knew then what I know now, life would be so sweet.

      Reply
  4. Harber

    Thank you for sharing, Kenneth Merrick

    Everyone has to retire one day. To lead a happy life after retirement it’s very important to make a plan for the future. I think this is a great article since it is all about creating a plan to make life better. I found the eliminate financial debt very conclusive to creating a path to financial freedom. There are so many great ideas about how to save money & why it is necessary. Not only how to save money but how to make extra money working from home. I like this concept very much. It is a social awareness type article so everyone should know about this

    Reply
    1. Kenneth Merrick Post author

      Thank you, Harber, for reading my article. You can take control of your money and start living the life you were meant to live – debt-free and retire with dignity. If I can do it, so can you.

      Reply

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