If You’re Stressed About Retirement, Suze Orman Says to Do These 3 Things

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Here are some great ways to cope with retirement worries. 

In a recent video, financial expert Suze Orman answered a question from a listener who was stressed about their lack of retirement savings. Orman offered three pieces of advice that can have a meaningful impact on anyone’s financial security in retirement, regardless of their income level. Here’s what they were.

1. Live below your means

Orman says that the first step in getting your retirement savings on track is to figure out how to live below your means. In other words, if you’re spending every penny you earn, there won’t be anything left to save in retirement accounts.

Creating a budget could be a smart step to make this happen. Figure out how much you earn and where that money should be allocated each month. There are some excellent budgeting templates online, and there are also some excellent budgeting apps that can help you do this. Aim to build retirement savings right into your budget, and treat it like a necessary expense. Better yet, make it automatic. Set up an automatic transfer every payday that contributes your budgeted amount to a retirement account like an IRA.

2. Buy needs, not wants

This goes along with the first piece of advice, but can be an essential component of living within your means. As Orman explains it, “A need is food from a grocery store. A want is food from a restaurant.”

One exercise I often suggest is to print out the past couple months of your bank and credit card statements. Go through them line by line with a highlighter, and highlight any expenses that could be considered “wants.” You might be surprised by how much money is flowing out of your checking account that doesn’t need to be.

3. Get pleasure from saving

I get it. Spending money on things you want can be fun. But Orman suggests that in order to be a successful retirement saver, it’s important to learn how to get pleasure from saving and investing, just as you do from spending.

This can take many forms. For example, one of the reasons I’ve saved so much for retirement is that I truly enjoy following the stock market and investing in businesses I believe in. It can also be enjoyable to set short-term savings goals (such as setting aside $1,000 in an IRA within the next few months) and achieving them. Maybe you can take pleasure from finding ways to trim “wants” from your expenses and redirecting that money into your retirement savings instead.

Is it good advice?

This is definitely great advice for the millions of Americans who are behind on their retirement savings and might be stressed about it. And while these three tasks are more effective the earlier you implement them in your financial life, it’s never too late to have a meaningful impact by making some changes.

Of course, every situation is different. For example, you might not need to cut out all of your spending on “wants” to be able to save enough for retirement if you can find enough room in your budget. But the point is to start thinking about retirement saving not only as a “need,” but as something that can end up being just as enjoyable as spending money.

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The Ascent does not cover all offers on the market. Editorial content from The Ascent is separate from The Motley Fool editorial content and is created by a different analyst team.Matthew Frankel, CFP® has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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