What to Do if You Can't Meet Your Retirement Goal

As your retirement date approaches, you may begin to worry that you won't meet your retirement goal of saving a certain amount of money. If this situation happens to you, you have a choice to make: You can change your goal, or you can find another way to make it to your original goal.

One option is to live a more conservative lifestyle in retirement than you had originally planned. For instance, if you had planned on international travel, you may decide taking less expensive trips here in the US may satisfy your wanderlust. Reducing your living expenses, whether it's your home, vacations, cars, or eating and shopping habits that need to change, is one way to stick to your original targeted retirement date even though you may not have made it to your savings goal. You will probably choose this option if you need to retire for health reasons, or simply don't want to delay retirement any longer.

On the other hand, you may be willing to work a few more years in order to make it to your goal. This gives you more time to save money, and you can also shorten the length of time you have to live off of your retirement fund.

If you can delay retirement until you reach full retirement age (65 to 67, depending on your year of birth), you can earn a monthly Social Security check that is about 30 percent larger than it would be if you retired at 62. In fact, if you work beyond full retirement age, you can actually increase your monthly benefits once you do retire. Talk to your insurance professional or Social Security representative to see how your checks may differ depending upon the date you decide to retire.

Another way to keep your original retirement date is to take on a part-time job after you end your primary career. You can still enjoy plenty of travel and leisure time, while boosting your monthly income. The only problem with this plan is that it can be difficult to know how long you will enjoy good health. At some point you may need to quit your part time job, so keep that in mind. This isn't a good strategy to employ if you can't live off of your primary retirement income.

​14115 – 2015/2/13