{"id":221915,"date":"2025-12-08T14:05:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221915\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T14:05:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T14:05:07","slug":"i-dont-want-to-live-month-to-month-im-a-retired-teacher-68-with-800k-saved-but-i-live-in-an-expensive-state-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/221915\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I don\u2019t want to live month to month.\u2019 I\u2019m a retired teacher, 68, with $800K saved, but I live in an expensive state. Help."},"content":{"rendered":"

Question: <\/strong>\u201cI am a 68-year-old retired teacher. I have $4,500 in fixed monthly income from Social Security and a pension. I have $400K in a brokerage account, $300K in an inheritance and $100K from my state retirement account. I have never had money as I was a single mom. I only had the opportunity to work for 15 years with a plan to save. I live in one of the most expensive states in the U.S. and the 47th worst for retirees. How can I make this money work for me? I am willing to work part-time which would generate $2,000 more a month but I don\u2019t want to live month to month. Is there anything obvious that I\u2019m not doing to make my financial life easier? Who can help me?\u201d<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>It seems like you\u2019ve saved well and are fortunate to have a high guaranteed monthly income. That said, pros say a financial planner could be a help to you. You can find one at CFP Board or NAPFA, or get matched with a financial adviser using this free tool <\/a>from our ad partner SmartAsset.<\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBased on the facts given, this is a good start, however it\u2019s not sufficient to address the full scope of retirement planning. Items such as budget based on desired lifestyle, planning for current state of health and how to adjust for future changes in health, current debts and other assets such as real estate or business interests are not given,\u201d says Jeffrey Stouffer, certified financial planner and finance expert at JustAnswer.<\/p>\n

One of the most important pieces of your retirement puzzle is how much income you need and how long you might be living in retirement, says certified financial planner at chartered financial analyst Jeremy Keil at Keil Financial Partners. \u201cYou have a combination of different tax-types within your investment accounts. You\u2019ll have a lot of options to decide which accounts to take money from and when, so you should be able to lower your lifetime taxes,\u201d says Keil.<\/p>\n

Your first step should be to look at your monthly expenses and determine how much income you need for the rest of retirement. \u201cDon\u2019t put pen to paper and build a budget from the ground up, instead, look at your checking account and credit card statements for the past 12 months to see what you\u2019re actually spending,\u201d says Keil.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On paper, your $4,500 a month in steady income plus nearly $800,000 in savings isn\u2019t small on paper, but the emotional side of managing everything can make it feel like you\u2019re living month-to-month, says Trevor Houston at ClearPath Wealth Strategies. \u201cFor a retiree in your shoes who lives in an expensive state, I\u2019d start by mapping our your essential expenses and seeing how much is already covered by Social Security and pension. From there, I\u2019d look at covering any remaining essential income gaps with a guaranteed income annuity which helps give you the baseline you can count on every single month,\u201d says Houston.<\/p>\n

With the rest of your assets, Houston says he\u2019d build a balanced portfolio designed to hedge against inflation and keep your money growing throughout retirement. \u201cThat blend gives you protection today and flexibility for tomorrow,\u201d says Houston.<\/p>\n

Additionally, there are increasingly creative ways to make more money. While renting out bedrooms to roommates is a common way to bring in income, Ryan Barone, co-founder and CEO of RentRedi says if you\u2019re short on space, renting out a garage or driveway for parking or finding spaces to rent out for storage such as an attic, basement, closet or shed will also bring in decent cash. \u201cIf you\u2019re living in an expensive state, it\u2019s more than likely that rental housing and other spaces like storage and parking rentals are at a premium. This means you can rent out spaces in your home to generate a decent amount of income. Using an app to manage the rentals will save you a lot of time, freeing you up to still pursue part-time work on top of that if you need or want to,\u201d says Barone.<\/p>\n

Do you need a financial adviser?<\/p>\n

You might want to work with a financial planner on an hourly or project basis to help you implement a financial plan and strategy that maximizes your savings and thoughtfully puts your money to work for you. Engaging with an hourly planner can be the most cost effective way to work with a pro, as they charge between $200 and $500 per hour and can tackle specific questions or projects without the pressure or price of an ongoing relationship. If a financial planning relationship isn\u2019t for you, you can also just have a one-time conversation with one to see if they\u2019re able to offer you any guidance that you can then implement yourself. That way, you\u2019re getting input from an outside source but you can manage your own portfolio while keeping advisory costs at a minimum.<\/p>\n

Look for a financial adviser who specializes in your situation. Our pros recommend you seek out a full service financial adviser that offers comprehensive planning. \u201cThere are three basic types of advisers: Commission-based advisers work for major warehouses. The compensation this adviser receives is based on the products sold, whether it\u2019s an insurance policy, mutual funds or managed accounts program,\u201d says Stouffer. \u201cOn the other end of the spectrum are fee-only advisers. This person is paid directly by the client for a comprehensive financial plan. Such engagements usually start with an initial fact finding to create the initial plan and then provide ongoing reviews to measure the plan against results. Between the two is a hybrid model [fee-based] which takes aspects from both methods. There are times when the commission approach for a one-time product sale may be appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n

To find an adviser who will educate you so you feel more confident in your money decisions, Keil recommends using the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors (NAPFA) or the Garrett Planning Network. You can also get matched with a financial adviser using this free tool<\/a> from our ad partner SmartAsset.<\/p>\n

\u201cInterview several advisers and if they say they have the magical product that solves all your problems, run away. If someone instead focuses on asking you questions about what you need and want, and spends their time telling you about their process and educating you, then you\u2019re in the right place,\u201d says Keil.<\/p>\n

When it comes to finding a pro to work with, Houston says one benefit of working with an adviser is avoiding pitfalls you may not see coming. \u201cThey can protect you from unnecessary risks and help you make the most of what you\u2019ve worked hard to build,\u201d says Houston.<\/p>\n

Have an issue with your financial planner or looking for a new one? Email questions or concerns to picks@marketwatch.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Questions edited for brevity and clarity. By emailing your questions to The Advicer, you agree to have them published anonymously on MarketWatch; they may appear anonymously in other media and platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Question: \u201cI am a 68-year-old retired teacher. I have $4,500 in fixed monthly income from Social Security and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[8139,85029,79,13782,41565,6567,2597,18,47522,18131,3334,19,41586,3442,41557,17,47521,234,235,9436,44285,2895,19363,26243],"class_list":{"0":"post-221915","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-banking","9":"tag-banking-credit","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-corporate","12":"tag-corporate-industrial-news","13":"tag-credit","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-eire","16":"tag-financial-investment-services","17":"tag-financial-services","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-ie","20":"tag-industrial-news","21":"tag-investing","22":"tag-investing-securities","23":"tag-ireland","24":"tag-mpsmartasset","25":"tag-personal-finance","26":"tag-personalfinance","27":"tag-political","28":"tag-political-general-news","29":"tag-retirement-planning","30":"tag-securities","31":"tag-synd"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115684332207105935","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}