The years before retirement are especially important for making decisions about our spending habits, investments, and other financial issues. Where do we begin? In this video, founder of Wealth Logic and financial advisor Allan Roth, gives us some pointers on being wise when creating our retirement plan. Enjoy the show!

Your retirement party is not the event that should trigger your first thoughts of becoming financially secure throughout your later years. Hopefully, this is something that has been planned and calculated for years.

Fortunately, for working women over the age of 60, it’s never too late to begin making good decisions and putting wise practices into place for securing your future.

Living Beneath (not Within) Your Means

The first key Allan shares with us is to live beneath your means, not simply within them. What does this mean? What does this look like? For starters, it’s important to look at your income and your cost of living and decide how much you’re spending that you really don’t need to be.

Allan says that one of the biggest steps you can take to efficiently live beneath your means is to buy a safe, reliable car and keep it for ten years rather than buying an elite, more expensive car and replacing it every two years.

Tightening the Reigns of Your Spending Habits

When preparing for retirement, the second key to consider is getting control over your spending. Delaying gratification and spending only what you need to spend will help you create good spending habits for your years in retirement. While you are working, you have the opportunity to keep earning, but once you have retired you only continue to spend. Taking control of these habits while you’re still working is the key to having a successful budget after you retire.

Investing Should be Boring

Allan says, “If you are investing right, it should be very boring.” While it may feel adventurous or exciting to follow the hottest trends in the current market, it’s a risk that most retirees and future retirees cannot afford.

In Allan’s words:

The smart thing to do is buying, for instance, a fund that owns every US stock or a fund that owns every international stock, at the lowest cost. This way you avoid all the media hype and speculation about what’s going to do better when markets tank. Sticking to that asset allocation and going against the herd, then you have to buy more stocks, etc. It’s very boring, but it works.

Hiring a Humble Advisor

While it is always nice to work with someone who is confident in their skill and ability, selecting a financial that boasts of knowing more than the market can be a huge mistake. There is no system in place to monitor an advisor’s past performance, so finding an advisor that comes across as honest, humble, and is willing to admit to his mistakes is important.

Are you nervous about retirement? Or are you excited? What steps have you considered or have already taken? Would you be willing to hire a financial advisor? Please join the conversation!