Pay off your mortgage. The benchmark interest rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage has dipped as low as 5.17 percent, according to Freddie Mac. If you're getting a significantly higher return in the stock market (very doubtful right now), it might make sense to keep your mortgage going into retirement. But if you're not an investment wizard or don't want to take the risk, start prepaying your mortgage principal as you approach retirement. "You get an absolutely safe return by paying off your mortgage," Kotlikoff says. "If you have a 7 percent mortgage and 3 percent deflation right now, that means that you are paying 10 percent on your mortgage. Every dollar you pay [down on your mortgage principal] now is giving you a 10 percent real return."
Bump up your contributions. Face it. Without a traditional pension, the only paths to a secure retirement are to save more, cut expenses, or both. That's not easy to do when immediate expenses are demanding a portion of your paycheck before it even clears the bank. If you do manage to get a raise next year, consider diverting it to your retirement account. Says Pond: "The only sure way to create wealth is to save regularly and to regularly increase the amount of money you're saving, or live beneath your means."
Karen Perkins of OH @ Feb 13, 2009 18:24:34 PM
Aida Garcia of CA @ Jan 19, 2009 13:44:36 PM
John Eckberg of MN @ Jan 13, 2009 17:16:21 PM