Debt Relief for Aspiring Retirees

Once you reach a certain age, people try to cheer you up about aging. You are only as old as you feel. 50 is the new 40. Life gets better as you get older. The truth is, though, that getting old these days is a different experience from what our parents lived through. The social safety net is eroding. A generation ago, the sandwich generation was about caregiving responsibilities; it was about potty training your children while making sure that your parents had enrolled in a Medicare plan with affordable premiums. Today, financial stress rules the day, even in relatively prosperous states like Pennsylvania. Being a member of the sandwich generation means withdrawing money from your retirement account, assuming that you are lucky enough to have one, to keep the bills paid in your house where your adult children have moved back in, while floating your parents a few dollars so they can afford to buy peanut butter crackers from the snack machine at the nursing home where they are Medicaid beneficiaries. The upcoming generation of seniors may never be able to afford to retire. If your financial situation could be worse, but a little bit of debt relief could mean that you do not have to remain in the workforce until you drop dead, contact a Philadelphia debt relief lawyer.

Your Debt Repayment Bucket List

When you are trying to repay your debts, it helps to focus on one debt at a time. For example, economists encourage you to follow the debt avalanche method, where you start by paying all your extra money, whatever is left over after monthly bills and monthly minimum payments on debts, toward your debt with the highest interest rate. This way, you save money on interest over time; this is known as the debt avalanche method. The easiest method to follow, however, is the debt snowball method, where you start with the debt with the lowest remaining balance; this way, you see your debts getting smaller and going away quickly.

If you are over 50, though, you should focus on the debts that will be the most burdensome to you if they follow you into retirement. The retirement dream means living in a paid off house and driving a paid off car; in a perfect world, it doesn’t matter if your house and car are old, because you are, too. You should also prioritize paying off your credit card debt, since, if you are on a fixed income, owing hundreds of dollars every month on minimum payments on a maxed-out credit card puts a sizable dent in your already meager budget. There is little harm in settling your credit card debt for a lesser amount if this will make it go away, since you are not planning to borrow large amounts in the near future.

Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com About Getting Out of Your Debt

A Philadelphia consumer law attorney can help if you are deeply in debt but still holding onto hope that you will one day be able to retire.  Contact CONSUMERLAWPA.com to set up a free, confidential consultation.

Source:

msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/i-m-a-retired-boomer-3-debts-you-should-prioritize-paying-off-before-retirement/ar-