5 Ways to Immediately Reduce Your Expenses as You Enter Retirement

As you approach retirement, one of the most crucial challenges is maximizing your savings. And you can do that by cutting down on expenses as you near your golden years.

Here are some tips.

24/7 Wall St. Insights

• You can save money by switching to lower-cost subscription services
• Delaying Social Security payments can maximize your benefits.
• To give your retirement portfolio a boost, you could consider investing in dividend stocks. For some pointers, check out our exclusive report: 2 Dividend Legends to Hold Forever.

Reduce subscription costs

You’re probably already paying too much for subscriptions like content streaming services. But you can save by shopping around for cheaper or free alternatives.

There are dozens of free ad-supported apps that allow you to stream movies and TV shows. You can also take advantage of promotional periods in which providers may offer their premium services for free for a period of anywhere from a week to three or more months.

If you’re not sure where to start, here’s a checklist of the kinds of monthly payments you could replace with cheaper or free alternatives.

• Movie/TV streaming
• Music streaming
• Shipping services
• Wholesale club memberships
• Gym memberships
• Phone plans
• Cable plans

And if you find you’re not using some of these often or at all, it could help to just cancel.

Seek senior discounts

Different retailers, supermarkets, movie theaters and plenty of other places around the country offer discounts to people of a certain age.

Plus, the same subscription services you are paying for now like shipping and phone plans may offer their own senior discounts.

So be sure to shop around.

Travel during off-peak times

If going on vacation, you could save by traveling during off-peak times. Plane, train, bus, and hotel prices can dip outside of the weekend. This can also apply to concert venues, movie theaters, resorts and more.

And be sure to take advantage of any senior discounts available where you are traveling to.

Invest your HSA

During retirement, one of the costliest expenses you could face is healthcare costs. In fact, a 65-year-old retiring today could spend $165,000 on health care in retirement, according to a study by Fidelity Investments.

But you can sock away money for healthcare expenses by saving in a health savings account (HSA).

An HSA is a distinct savings account that offers these tax benefits.

• Tax-deductible contributions
• Tax-free growth on earnings
• Tax-free withdrawals on qualified healthcare expenses

You can open an HSA through many banks, credit unions, and brokerages like Fidelity or Schwab.

And many providers would allow you to invest your HSA dollars in various securities like stocks, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, and bonds.

And after you turn 65, you can withdraw money from your HSA to cover non-medical expenses without penalty. But you’d still pay ordinary income tax on these.

The potential downside to this option, however, is you need to be enrolled in a high-deductible health plan (HDHP) to qualify for an HSA.

Delay Social Security

You can begin claiming Social Security as early as age 62. But if your financial and living situation allows, consider delaying Social Security benefits until you reach age 70.

Your Social Security payments would increase up to 8% for every year you delay after your full-retirement age until you reach 70.

Full-retirement age is generally around 66 (67 if you were born after 1960.)

Why this matters

You’ve worked hard your entire life, so you deserve a comfortable retirement. But it is possible to outlive your retirement savings. However, there are a few simple ways to cut your expenses as you near retirement, so you can make the most out of your nest egg and enjoy your Golden Years.

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