Expenses That Can Eat into Your Retirement Savings

It is frustrating when you spend your life adding to your retirement savings only to watch it slowly drain away. Retirement for most retirees usually means living on a fixed income. Nevertheless, you should not be worried if you are spending within reason. But there are expenses that may threaten your financial well-being in retirement. The following are some costs to monitor.

The first expense to watch is your debt. Debt is another monthly bill to worry about and can get worse when you make the minimum payment. During your working years, make this debt a priority. Minimize this debt by paying off your debt starting with the debt having the highest interest rate. You can also allocate a percentage of any bonuses you receive towards paying this debt.

A second expense that can eat into your retirement savings is health care costs. This can be true even if you have insurance. For example, your insurance could have high deductibles, or you could need care your insurance does not cover. Retirement planning may have taken these contingencies into account, but if not, health care expenses could “eat up” much of your retirement savings.

A third expense that can eat into your retirement savings is care-giving. Sometimes, retirees have living parents who deplete their retirement savings and rely on their children. Some retirees have their adult children back home with them because of the child’s mismanaged money or rotten luck. Remember, you cannot control how other people (including children or parents) manage their money. However, you can have a say in the financial support you provide them. Adult children can pay rent to you and help reduce the financial burden on you in other ways.

A fourth expense that can eat into retirement savings is taxes. You can minimize your taxes by being aware of your contributions and withdrawals from your retirement accounts. These retirement accounts reduce taxable income when you contribute to them but require tax payment when you withdraw. During retirement, know your tax bracket and monitor how much you withdraw from which type of investment account. You can have money in different accounts, but the account that will give you a larger tax break should be your favorite option.

This article was originally published on MatthewLittlemore.net

The Main Differences Between A Manager and a Leader

Overseeing a set of employees is a massive task that can be very difficult. An organization often has strict policies and procedures in place and employees are expected to abide by these at all costs. Organizations hire managers to ensure that these policies are followed and that employees do their jobs efficiently. However, being a manager does not necessarily mean that this person is a leader. Here are some of the main differences between the two.

Short Term vs. Long Term Tasks

Leaders in the workforce are attentive to the future goals of employees as well as the organization as a whole. They care about where the organization is headed and focus primarily on how to evolve employees to reach those future goals. They are interested in employees’ wellbeing and wish to develop skills and abilities within each employee. Managers, however, are more focused on short-term problems such as solving day to day issues that arise, dealing with conflict among employees, and reprimanding employees who are not doing a respectable job.

The Status Quo Vs. Innovation

Leaders desire to come up with creative solutions to problems using processes that the organization has never used before. They seek to find answers that make the flow of the organization run better and they anticipate future problems that may arise while working to find a better path for the organization. Managers, however, desire to keep the organization as is without much disruption. They work to maintain how the organization is already running.

Minimizing Risk Vs. Risk-Taking

A manager seeks to minimize risk within the workforce as much as possible. They are given a task to manage a set of employees and they train employees to follow rules and policies set by the organization. Leaders, on the other hand, take more risks in hopes that greater outcomes will come of it. They want employees to use their creative minds and seek to find better ways to do things. Leaders see success as being attainable beyond its current state while managers see success as keeping things just the way they are. Managers play it safe.

Responsibility Vs. Accomplishment

When asked what one does for a living, how they portray this to others shows whether they are a leader or a manager. A leader describes their job in terms of what they want to accomplish not only on a day to day basis but for the future as well. A manager describes their job based on who and what they oversee on a daily basis.

People often confuse managers and leaders thinking that they are one and the same. However, a person can be a manager but not a leader if they are more focused on the short-term, daily issues that arise and focus more on ensuring employees are following rules rather than working on developing them for future endeavors. Leaders seek creativity and innovation in the workplace while managers want things to remain the same.

This article was originally published on MatthewLittlemore.com