FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Louisville, KY—July 19, 2016—Images of what retirement looks like abound, along with news reports of a retirement crisis in which the majority of Americans don’t have enough saved to retire. “The images of a lifestyle driven by lots of money attained with complex investments are both very seductive and pretty hard to relate to for most of us,” said Carla Dearing, CEO of SUM180, an online financial planning service designed to make financial planning simple and affordable.
“Most likely for most of us, life in retirement isn’t going to look a whole lot different from our life before retirement. So that’s the life you’ll need to fund—not the one with the private jet, and sumptuously landscaped manse with Adirondack chairs dotting the grounds and a view of the ocean. Since that’s not the lifestyle most of us are preparing for, most of us will need about 80% of what our annual costs are right before we retire,” Carla continued.
“The good news is that there are lots of ways to generate the income necessary to fund the lifestyle before the retirement—and they don’t require a raft of complex investments. Yes, income is required and some of it can come from an investment portfolio, but there are other sources, too,” said Carla.
Following are some tried and true, and some possibly new ways to generate income during retirement:
Rental income of all types is a great contributor to your annual income. Imagine if that same women converted her basement into a one bedroom apartment and rented it to her nephew for $600/month—that’s a total of $7,200/year. Or, rather than renting a portion of her home’s interior, this woman realizes she can gain income from some land behind her house by renting it as pasture for the horse stable next door. With three horses at $150/horse/month, that’s $5,400/year.
The sharing economy—also known as the shareconomy or collaborative consumption—is the term used to describe peer-to-peer-based sharing of access to goods and services. What you need to know is that it provides a host of new sources for income. Among popular services are Airbnb, Uber, Lyft, TaskRabbit and DogVacay.
Asset sales are a way to supplement income within a given year. For example, my dad sold his Harley to my nephew last year. He opted to take monthly payments of $200 until it was paid off; netting him a total of $2,400 for the year. Another example is selling your Hummel collection on eBay and then, when the cabinet is empty, selling it on Craigslist. Typically these aren’t recurring sources of income, but don’t discount creativity. I learned of an insurance agent who shops at Walmart on Black Friday and then sells the items he bought at a deep discount for 4x their original price on eBay.
“Those unaware of how flexible designing income strategies for retirement can be are not alone. Search ‘funding my retirement’ and you’ll see lists of financial instruments, like annuities, repeated page after page. I’m really excited about the many creative retirement funding solutions I’ve learned about from the SUM180 community,” Carla concluded.
About SUM180
SUM180 is an online financial planning service designed to make financial planning simple and affordable, and, as such, provides a radical alternative to current financial advisory offerings.
Specifically, SUM180 is differentiated in the following ways:
- SUM180 meets individuals where they are. SUM180 plans are personalized to help individuals wherever they are right now on their financial journey; whether they’re just beginning, starting over or well on their way.
- SUM180 plans are simple. Clients need only focus on just three of their most important next steps at any given time. This approach is empowering for most, but especially for those who have been “tuned out” of their financial picture for a period of time.
- SUM180 doesn’t try to give clients a degree in finance. SUM180 clients don’t need to become financial experts to meet their financial goals. SUM180 provides the tools they need, without overwhelming them with the details they don’t need.
- SUM180 offers a community for users, unfiltered. SUM180’s community forum allows users to support one another in their plans.
- SUM180 serves; never sells. Earning and keeping client trust is SUM180’s highest priority. SUM180 never makes money based on the advice provided.
Additional information about SUM180 may be found at https://sum180.com/.
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