Want to retire?

Fabulous, honey.

Well, retirement isn't just about money.

It's about freedom, security, and finally being able to live life on your terms.

Unfortunately, though, only about 35% of LGBTQ Americans over the age of 45 say that they feel very confident about having enough money in retirement.

So this is Queer Money, episode 584, and today I'm going to share with you nine essential money moves that will help you retire fabulously with all aspects of your life without a financial hangover.

So let's dive in.

So the first one here is ditch that debt drama or the potential for it.

Carrying debt into retirement can cause you to have a lot of stress later on in retirement.

And the reason for this is because you're going to have to pull more money out of your retirement savings to pay down this debt, whether that debt is high interest rate debt like credit cards.

As a matter of fact, LGBTQ Americans on average have about 16% more credit card debt than the general population, or if it's other debt like mortgage debt, that those kinds of debts will cause you to have some financial potential financial insecurity.

And that is not something you want to carry into retirement.

So the first thing here is to prioritize paying down that debt, especially that high interest rate debt on those credit cards, because that will open up more of your money for your budget later on.

The second thing here is to build your Bitch I'm Fine fund.

Now, this is a fund that basically would cover anywhere from about 12 to 24%, I'm sorry, 12 to 24 months of your living expenses.

And you want to have this money either in cash if it's in your retirement accounts, or in a high yield savings if it's non invested money.

And the whole reason for this is this will give you peace of mind.

It especially helps you when you see the market going up and down.

We know that right now a lot of people who are dealing with what is going on in the market because of what the Orange poop has decided to do and all the things that he is proposing is causing the market to tumble.

A lot of people are feeling insecure, especially individuals who either just retired or, or looking to withdraw money from their retirement.

So this is an especially important thing for individuals who don't have kids, for gay people in the queer community who don't have children that we may be able to fall back on in times of need.

We don't have that familial safety net.

The third thing here is to start Holland, while you're still Ballin'and.

Basically what that means is anytime you would need to make a big expense in the first couple of years of retirement, try to move those to a time period where you're actually still earning money before you retire.

Things like if you want to get a new car for the first five to 10 years of your retirement, or if you know that in the next couple of years the roof on your house might need to be replaced, or say you want to have dental work done so your smile is more beautiful.

All of those kinds of things are things that may cause you to spend a lot of money in retirement.

And it's a lot better to do those kinds of things when you have a source of income to pay for them so that you don't have to dip into your retirement savings to pay for those kinds of things.

The fourth thing here is to start budgeting like a boss.

And then you want to make sure you take this for a test run.

So what this really means is at least six to 12 months prior to retiring, you want to get really comfortable with what you think you would need to live off of when you're retiring in retirement.

The amount of money that you would be able to to spend in retirement on a monthly, quarterly, or annual basis.

Look at what that really looks like.

How does it feel to live on that amount of money?

For some folks, to be honest, it might feel kind of scary.

They might find that they're what they think that they will be able to live off of in retirement is far less than what they're actually able to.

So get used to understanding how much money is coming in and where it's going, when it goes, it's going out.

And the whole reason for doing this 6 to 12 months in advance is because you want to give that timeframe for you to get comfortable and understanding and making tweaks so that your budget isn't something that ends up scaring you in retirement.

The fifth thing is to slay your Social Security strategy.

So this really focuses on when it is the.

When is the best time for you to start taking Social Security.

For a lot of LGBTQ folks, especially gay men, we are not married and we don't have children.

And for that reason, we don't have that kind of financial support for later years in our life.

So it's probably a good idea to think about maybe taking Social Security a little bit later, pushing it more towards that 70 year age to start taking rather than the 62 to 67 timeframe.

And remember that for every year that you delay Taking Social Security after 67, you're going to see an 8% increase in the payout.

So this is really a great way for you to kind of extend the amount of money and increase the amount of money you're going to have in those later years.

It's also really good to do if you have already some sort of foundational base that you're going to be drawing from when you're in retirement.

And you don't necessarily need to take Social Security.

So this is looking at your savings.

The sixth thing here is to make Uncle Sam work for you rather than taking from you.

And this is all around tax strategy, right?

This is really when it's really important to think about, okay, do I have a Roth account?

What about my 401k accounts?

What about when is the best time or when is the bet?

Where is the best for money for me to pull from so that I can reduce the amount of money I have to pay in taxes?

Especially for those of you who may be thinking about Roth conversions, and that is moving from money from a 401k that is not a Roth over to a Roth or a Roth retirement account.

Doing that is a taxable event and you'll have to pay the taxes on that.

But then once it's in the Roth, you don't have to take that money out if you don't want to.

And you also can take it out without having to pay taxes, because you paid the taxes when you did the conversion.

So get really comfortable with this idea of learning how to manage your money for tax efficiency so that you pay less in taxes, which can extend the time that you have with the money you have in retirement.

This is something that's probably really important to talk to a financial advisor or a financial planner about.

There are some really smart tax strategies.

So if you do have a sizable amount of money for in retirement, work with a financial planner who can help understand or help you understand when is the best time to pull this money out.

The seventh thing here is to become your consolidation queen.

Now, what this really basically means is gather all those retirement accounts and bring them into one manageable or too manageable places for a lot of folks.

We hopped around in our careers and we may have a 401k at this company and a 401k at that company.

Or we have maybe they it was rolled over into a brokerage account at one institution and this rolled over into a brokerage account at another institution.

So when you have all of your information in front of you in as few places as possible.

It's really easy to get a better picture as to what you have, what your options are.

The other thing is that this can really be helpful because it helps you understand what options you have.

If you have a Roth, if you have a pension, if you have a 401k, if you have a 403b, what are the rules?

What are the requirements?

What are the options you have for drawing on all of those?

The eighth thing here is to don't let your health care become a horror story.

If you plan on retiring before 65, you will need to come up with some sort of healthcare on your own.

So things like the Affordable Care Marketplace or COBRA are options for you.

Look at what is going to be most cost effective for you, depending on your age and where you're at in retirement.

And then remember, as you approach the age of 65, you're going to want to start to shop around for things like Medicaid and Medicare.

There's Medigap and Medicare Advantage.

Both of those allow you to kind of close the gap between what you're going to get from the government, which looks like it might be shrinking right now based on what's happening with those and what it is that you truly need for your health care.

And we know that this is a big issue for LGBTQ folks.

Health care is a very important one.

One of the things to remember here is that a lot of LGBTQ centers, especially the larger ones, have resources to help you navigate Medicare.

So take a look at those.

And our last final thing here is to retire with to something rather than from something.

And really the idea here is if you don't know what you want to do in retirement, you're likely to spend more money than you actually have or have set aside.

And that is because we kind of wander around aimlessly.

We know that when we're bored, we say, okay, I'm going to go out to eat or I'm going to go do this form of entertainment.

If you have a plan for hobbies, maybe part time work, volunteering, all of those kinds of creative and fun things to do.

If you have a plan you can actually look at which ones of these can I do that allow me to stay in line with my budget.

And that really allows you to say, I'm not just quitting a job, quitting my career, I'm actually moving on to something much more exciting.

So in closing, don't think of retirement as a finish line.

Think of it as your launch pad.

If you're a gay person who's over the age of 45.

Right now is a really important time to start understanding and navigating the systems that will help you retire more fabulously.

And that's why it's important to take these matters into your own hands.

Things like paying down your debt, paying for those big expenses in advance, making sure your money is prepared in a way that you can take advantage of tax advantage opportunities, as well as ways to pay less taxes and extend the amount of money that you have invested so it can grow even more.

So tell us in the comments here, what are some of your big goals from retirement?

What do you really want to do?

I know for John and me, it's all about the freedom, things like travel, being able to spend time volunteering in the way that we want.

So I'd love to hear from you what your thoughts are.

And remember, stay fabulous.