According to a Career Builder survey of over-60 workers who have decided to delay retirement, 72% say that the reason is financial. They do not feel they have enough money to support themselves if they stop working.

Also, 27% of business personnel managers report being approached by older workers who want to delay a scheduled retirement.

Reality hurts.

Source: Over 70% of workers delaying retirement cite money woes.

So what does one do to overcome this “too broke to retire” problem? For many, it’s a matter of making up for lost time.

Forbes published a recent article on what to do if you are over-50 and a late starter on retirement saving. The advice is typical and not ground-breaking. It applies also to folks who are older and need ways to save to generate more retirement income.

Having a specific savings goal is important in these situations. Just thinking “I have to wait – I need more money” is not particularly helpful or motivating. It’s actually depressing.

I would first estimate how much more retirement income you need. (See my article on a Simple Way to Determine Retirement Readiness. FYI – this article was a featured selection in the “Best of the Best in Money and Personal Finance #12.“)

As a simple example, let’s assume that you are 62 years old and have created a retirement spending plan. From that, you estimate you will need to find an additional $800 in monthly income to comfortably retire.

Instead of retiring and taking Social Security at age 62 as you had originally planned, you decide to wait until age 66, your full retirement age.  That alone could add another $500 to your monthly income, all from Social Security.

What about the other $300 monthly income shortfall  - where will that come from? How much more savings do you need to provide that?

At current rates, a 66 year-old can purchase an immediate annuity providing $300 in monthly income for life for a lump sum cost of about $45,000. (I’m not saying that you must buy an annuity. Rather, this is an easy way to establish a realistic savings goal.)

To accumulate $45,000 in four years, run the numbers through a simple savings goal calculator. In our simple example, and assuming a 4% return, you would need to find an additional $880 in monthly savings to reach your retirement income goal. That may not be easy to do but it at least gives you a target to shoot for.

There are other options to a delayed retirement forced by financial problems. One of those options is a phased retirement, perhaps including taking a different job with less stress and greater contentment.

The key is doing something. Floundering around or giving up completely – as so many boomers seem to have done – will make things worse.

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We are in Las Vegas with family for a few days of fun. It’s a combined birthday celebration for our three sons. We have been here twice before as a family, when our children were not old enough to drink or gamble. Vegas was more family-oriented then.

We are having a different kind of fun now. We all know that Las Vegas is hurting economically. Many believe it will recover as a destination for conventioneers and high rollers.

I have my doubts if Vegas will recapture its appeal as a retirement location for the middle classes. There are several reasons for this belief, based on personal experience and observation.

First, most of the appeal for a retiree in Las Vegas used to be the “wow” factor, i.e., a mecca of fun and entertainment. The problem is that this fun and entertainment requires spending that is as frivolous as you can find.

Boomers and retirees have learned hard lessons in recent years about what frivolous spending can do to a retirement plan. I doubt that all of those lessons will be forgotten. I know that the appeal of gambling is decreased for me. I just don’t enjoy it as much as I used to.

Second, the condo boom that attracted many boomers and retirees has gone beyond boom – it has blown up. Many thousands of condos have been built. They are all over and near the Strip. The problem is that the Strip is now a terrible place to live. Condo sales have tanked.

There is virtually no infrastructure on or near the Strip to support a household. For example, you can’t find a grocery store in walking distance. We are staying in a timeshare on the Strip. The only place to get groceries is at a drug store, at greatly inflated prices.

This means having to get in your car to do almost anything except gamble. That wouldn’t be so so bad except that the traffic in Las Vegas is just horrible, much worse that it used to be. The monorails that have been built on the Strip were designed to funnel traffic into casinos, not move people efficiently.

My guess is that everything that is done in Las Vegas is primarily intended to benefit the gambling industry. The needs of people who work or have retired here  are way down the list of priorities.

Even the visitors to Las Vegas are treated as a captive audience. So many attractions in the hotels that were free in our previous visits are now costly extras. It’s a huge turn-off and not a good way to re-build the appeal of the city to regular folks.

We will probably visit Las Vegas again but I doubt I will ever think about this city – as I once did – as a retirement destination.

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By “stock theory”, I mean a simple thought process for deciding if you should hold or sell a stock or mutual fund that you might own as an investment. The  analysis is this: Knowing what you know about the stock and its current price, would you buy the stock today? If the answer is “no”, then there is very little (if any) logic in holding the stock. You should sell it.

Now let’s apply that same theory to clutter. Take a look around your house, your garage, and your attic. Identify an object that is taking up space. (Anything that takes up space needs to be a discard target for a downsizing baby boomer.) Now ask yourself these questions about that object:

1. What would that object cost you to buy today, at current prices?

2. Knowing what you know about the current condition of the object and its usefulness to you, would you purchase it today, at today’s price?

If the answer to question 2 is “no” then that object needs to be gone from your house.

Note that these questions are mostly applicable to stuff that is performing no function in your life other than to take up space. The problem is that we analyze the “keep or discard” question with reference to how much the object cost or was worth when you acquired it. For example, if there is an old computer printer sitting unused in a spare room that you once paid $200 for, you may be reluctant to part with it for fear of “wasting” your $200. But then ask yourself if you would buy that same printer today – for even $100 – and then stick it in that room, unused.

Of course the answer is “no.”

So if you wouldn’t buy it today, why would you keep it?

Try it. It’s simple but it works, I promise.

Source: The Stock Theory of Decluttering | SimpleProductivityBlog.com.

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According to the survey, only 38% of married couples make decisions together about their retirement finances.   In the survey, 42% don’t agree on the type of lifestyle they expect to live after retiring. To me, the most amazing statistic is that 82% of married couples do not agree on any retirement basic: retirement age, working in retirement, or retirement.

This helps explain, then, why fewer than 11% of married couples have created the most fundamental part of a retirement plan: a retirement income plan.

Can you imagine the stress that can be created in a relationship between baby boomers if the couple cannot even agree on when each spouse should retire?

The changes in retirement sentiment from 2007 to 2009 are also significant. Consider these findings from the survey:

• Married couples are more out of sync about the wife’s retirement age: 40% of couples don’t agree in 2009 vs. 30% in 2007.
• Nearly double the couples expect both spouses to work in retirement: 20% in 2009 vs. 12% in 2007.
• Fewer couples expect to have a comfortable retirement: 56% in 2009 down from 63% in 2007.

Source: Fidelity Retirement Study

These findings are disturbing. If a married couple do not enter their final pre-retirement years with a joint vision and plan for making retirement happen, how can it happen in a way that will result in contentment for both of them? If a husband and wife move or lurch) toward retirement along separate paths, is it possible to achieve retirement success as a married couple?

What should a married couple do to create a joint retirement vision? This CNN/Money article has some suggestions: How retired couples can plan on spending their savings One of the suggestions is something I have written about previously: Attending a retirement seminar or workshop.

The starting point needs to be identifying the areas of agreement or disagreement and working on them. To do this, I would review the questions asked in the Fidelity Retirement Survey with your spouse and talk about the answers you each would give.  I would specifically ask yourself if you know what your spouse is thinking about retirement finances and lifestyle, then compare answers. That should give you an agenda to work on.

Find a joint retirement vision, sooner rather than later. Good luck.

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On the subject of parents, kids, and inheritances, I found a short article from CNN/Money fascinating in its simple message: If you want to inherit, treat your parents nicely.

The scary part of having elderly parents with money is that they will waste it away. The examples stated in the article are classic, including an elderly father lavishing expensive gifts on a gold-digger girlfriend. Fortunately, I don’t have those problems but I know others who do. We hate to see that kind of behavior in our family members, inheritance or not.

The authors’ research confirms a logical conclusion with a double-payoff. Children who treat their parents well (as we all should strive to do) thereby motivate their parents to want to leave the kids something at death. One consequence of this motivation is that the parents are less inclined to spend their money in meaningless or wasteful ways while they are alive. Bingo – everyone wins.

I’m not suggesting that treating your parents well should be financially motivated. Don’t even bother with that strategy. Just be a caring family member. The simple things are what matter – call and visit! Maintain those family bonds through communication. That way, elderly parents won’t be looking in the wrong places for attention, and then throwing their money in those wrong places.

Here’s another suggestion: send a link to this article to your own kids. Plant the seed for the future!

Source: Get your parents to stop spending your inheritance.

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Cable and satellite television costs are high on the list cost reduction targets. After much analysis of where home entertainment technology is headed, I determined that our focus should be on broadband technology, not dedicated cable or satellite subscription content. The broadband technology can be used for remote office work home activities and to access multimedia content, directly from the content providers. At the same time, we wanted to continue to use our large screen televisions to watch the entertainment and sports content that we enjoy.

The solution was to acquire a small form-factor computer that was relatively inexpensive but had features that would allow it to be configured as a home theater PC. The small form factor was important so that we could physically move the box from one house to another and connect it to our TV wherever we happened to be – here, at the lake, or eventually at our condo at Long Branch Lakes.

I finally found what I wanted – a Dell Zino HD unit – newly arrived and discounted at the Dell Outlet store. It was delivered yesterday. We immediately put our oldest son (an expert in home theater technology) to work configuring it. Although he is still tweaking some things, I am extremely pleased as to how it performs. Streaming content from the web – even HD content- through the HTPC box looks fantastic. I could not observe any quality difference between the cable content and the streamed content. We used the Boxee software media interface and it also worked well.  The Zino box looked fine on the TV stand – an inconspicuous 8″ x 8″ glossy black box.

This first test was using an Internet connection at full cable speeds. The next test will be at the lake, where we have a minimum speed DSL connection. Our son believes it should work OK for standard definition content but we may made need to upgrade our DSL speed to stream HD content. We shall see.

Because there is not a lot of free HD content online, we will probably investigate some subscription sources to find more, e.g ., Netflix.

This was a “spend money to save money” decision. By eliminating DVR and some cable and satellite channel subscriptions, our recurring costs will go down, providing a 6-12 month payback period on the cost of the HTPC.

Stay tuned for more on this cost reduction strategy.

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Asheville, NC remains the #1 town on the list with Sarasota, FL, Prescott, AZ, and Paris, TN continuing as # 2, #3, and #4. Here is the complete top 10:

1. Asheville, NC

2. Sarasota, FL

3. Prescott, AZ

4. Paris, TN

5. Austin, TX

6. Green Valley, AZ

7. Winston-Salem, NC

8. Beaufort, SC

9. San Diego, CA

10. Ft. Myers, FL

I find the Paris, TN ranking personally satisfying for two reasons. First, we presently live in Tennessee, a couple hours drive from Paris. Second, Paris is extremely popular in part due to its proximity to Kentucky Lake, Lake Barkley, and the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area. It just so happens that our lake house is directly on Lake Barkley (northeast of Paris, in Kentucky) and we can look (or boat) across the lake to the LBL Recreation Area! I can understand the appeal of this location.

The town on the list that surprises me a little is San Diego. It has beautiful weather no doubt but the taxes and traffic can be retirement mood killers.

Although the ranking method for these top retirement towns is unscientific, the publisher does provide helpful information about many of the towns and about the retirement communities near them. It’s a good resource for baby boomers who are exploring options for retirement destinations.

For more information about the top 100 list of best towns and cities for retirement, start at this page.

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I’ve written about many of them here. Retirement calculators are everywhere but mostly on websites where someone is trying to sell you something. Some are complicated, some are simple but based on flawed assumptions. If you are into “simple”, I have a suggestion for a way to determine if you are financially ready to retire.

First, when I say that my suggested retirement readiness assessment method is “simple”, I don’t necessarily mean “quick.” The first step may require a little effort on your part. So here it is:

Step 1: Create a Retirement Spending Plan

All this means is knowing with some degree of accuracy how much money you will need to spend each year when you are retired. You may already have done that math. If not, spend 30 -60 minutes creating a retirement spending plan. Use a budget spreadsheet. If you don’t have one, you can download a free budget spreadsheet from Google Docs. Be as accurate as you can without getting buried in details and pennies. Don’t worry about inflation at this step.

When you are done creating your retirement spending plan, make note of the total yearly spending number. You will need that later.

Estimated time to complete this step: 30-60 minutes.

Step 2: Estimate Your Annual Social Security Income

Find the paper copy of your annual Social Security retirement statement or use the online benefit estimator. Determine what your monthly benefit will be on the date that you retire. Multiply by twelve to obtain a yearly total. Write that number down.

Estimated time to complete this step: 5-10 minutes

Step 3: Total Your Retirement Nest Egg

In this step you add up the present dollar value of all of your investments and other assets that you can use for providing retirement income. These can include CDs, bonds, stocks, mutual funds, 401(k) and IRA account balances, etc. As one example of “other assets”, if you will be downsizing into a less expensive home, this may provide cash when you liquidate your equity. Write the total calculated number down, as you will use it in Step 4.

Estimated time to complete this step: 15 minutes.

Step 4: Annuitize Your Retirement Nest Egg

This is where, for sake of simplicity, we make an assumption: You will use all of your retirement nest egg to purchase an inflation-adjusted, immediate annuity. You won’t actually do this when you retire (although you could) but it gives you some idea of how much retirement income your nest egg can provide, if properly invested. Note that I specifically mentioned annuities that provide inflation adjusted income. This is important because you want your spending power to remain relatively steady throughout your retired life. Social Security has cost-of-living increases. You want your hypothetical income from your retirement nest egg to do the same.

To determine how much retirement income you can expect if you annuitize your retirement nest egg, use an annuity calculator. Vanguard has one of the best here. To make it simple, request the annual income number for a single life with no cancellation option. Be sure to check the “Fixed Income with Inflation Adjustments” box. Write down the annual income number that is generated from the calculator, using the lump sum dollar amount you determined in Step 3.

Estimated time to complete this step: 5-10 minutes

Step 5: Add Income and Compare to Spending

This step is simple arithmetic. Add the annual Social Security retirement benefit determined in Step 2 to the annual annuity income determined in Step 4. This represents your hypothetical annual retirement income that you can expect for your lifetime, adjusted for inflation.

Now compare that total income number with your annual retirement spending that you determined in Step 1. If the income number exceeds the spending number, you may be financially prepared to retire. If the spending number is larger than the income number, you may have some work to do.

Estimated time to complete this step:  5 minutes

Why This Simple Method Works

The two biggest financial concerns for retirees are outliving their income and inflation. This method takes these concerns into account by using income sources that you generally cannot outlive and that are adjusted for inflation. Because inflation adjustments are built into the income estimates, you can use existing spending levels for your spending plan.

Is this method perfect? No it’s not. For example, it may not take into account severe health problems requiring long term care or unusual expenses not accounted for in your spending plan. The correlation between annuity income and investment income from your retirement nest egg is not exact. But this method is simple, is logical, and is better than not knowing what to expect in the way of sustainable retirement income. It can certainly help add some realism to the “am I ready to retire” question.

Give it a try. Let me know what you think.

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Here’s the deal: Go To Retirement has been named a finalist for a Plutus Award in the “best personal finance blog for retirement” category.

If you would like to help put this blog on the winner’s podium, please take 20 seconds, visit the Plutus Award vote page, scroll about 2/3 down the page, and record your vote. Then please ask your friends to consider doing the same thing.

If I win, I will celebrate by giving away a few copies of my Failsafe Retirement System to some lucky readers so be sure to check back.

Thanks for your support!

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First, here are three important reasons why you can ignore the new rules:

1. You won’t carry a balance. Instead, your card balance will be paid in full each billing cycle. This means that you don’t care what the account interest rate is or will be because none of that interest will apply to you. Your card issuer may have increased the nominal interest rate on your card (or made it a variable rate) in anticipation of the new rules, but so what? Let the card companies make their money on the young and irresponsible cardholders, not on you. This also means that you can choose the card with the lowest (or zero) annual fee and best rewards program for you, disregarding the interest rate.

2. You won’t pay late. Because the new rules will make it somewhat harder for the card issuers to raise interest rates in the future, they will find other ways to make money from cardholders, including late fees. You won’t care about late fees because you have automated payment of your credit card balance every month, on time.

3. You won’t overcharge. The credit card companies may lower limits on your cards. You don’t care because you always stay well below your card limit. If your balance is close to your limit at the wrong time, your credit score could be negatively affected. Also under the new rules, the card companies can no longer automatically allow you to charge over the limit and then hit you with over-limit fees. You may opt into continuing this practice, but you won’t, because you won’t need to.

Three things to watch for in the new credit card rules:

1. New Annual Fees. Your bank may try to impose an annual fee on your previously “free” card, to compensate for their inability to make money in other ways. Don’t let them do it. Call and complain. You are a good customer and don’t deserve that treatment. If they persist, find another card. There will be competition for the best customers. That’s you. Let the bank make money from the transaction fees.

2. Sneaky account fees. Many industry watchers are predicting that banks will become more creative in imposing fees, such as a fee for not charging enough each month. Make sure you read everything that is sent to you and that is printed on your statement. Do not let the bank get away with these sneaky fees. Threaten to cancel your card and even move your banking business if necessary. The card-issuing bank makes money every time you swipe your card so don’t fall for any sneaky fees.

3. Lowered credit limits. This is another tactic that a bank might try, even on longstanding accounts. The important task for you is to be aware of it, so that you can be sure to stay well under the limit at all times.

The bottom line is that the new credit card rules were created to help people who carry balances. Those people are not you. You are thinking about and planning for retirement. Consumer debt is incompatible with a successful retirement. Even mortgage debt is a risk. Don’t you agree?

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