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Almost everyone would love to retire early, but remember, both the big picture and the fine details of your financial and emotional states are important to consider when assessing your readiness for early retirement. Here’s what to take into account when deciding to retire early.

1. Are you emotionally ready to quit working?You may dream of retiring long before a traditional 60-something retirement age, but be careful about making that leap too soon. In retirement, every day is Saturday. What are you planning on doing that will continue to allow you to enjoy your life, allow you to stay active mentally, emotionally and spiritually? If you’re not emotionally ready to quit working, you may not be ready to retire.

2. Can you live on your retirement budget?Needing to be financially ready is a no-brainer. Expenses may drop in retirement, but not as much as you might think. That’s why crafting a post-retirement budget and living off that budget for six months before you retire can help you decide whether your budget is realistic and whether you can stick with it. If you can’t do this for six months without raiding savings or tapping credit cards to live, you are not ready yet.

To put that post-retirement budget together, you need to understand what your cash flow will be like after retire-ment. How much money do you need every month, including the quarterly and annual expenses, the unexpect-ed and hidden expenses? It’s important to factor inflation into your budget. Fifteen or 20 years of inflation can

really eat into savings and increase expenses.

3. Do you have reliable health insurance?Because Medicare doesn’t kick in until age 65 and health insurance costs are rising faster than inflation,

it’s important to have a reliable, consistent source of health insurance. Obamacare may be an option for you, but that coverage has an uncertain future. For many would-be early retirees, affordable coverage is

most likely to come from a former employer.

Having adequate health insurance and other insurance coverage including life, disability and long-term care is a factor in whether you can retire early. A policy with low deductibles and copays

that covers prescriptions, doctor visits, hospitalization, dental and vision will help keep out-of-pocket expenses as low as possible.

4. Are your children financially independent?Kids, especially in their college years, are expensive. To retire with children who are

still financially dependent, there needs to be enough savings to cover college expenses. Are there children with special needs who may be living in the

household or perhaps on their own who will continue to be an ex-pense? What about parents with similar needs?

6Signs that you are

ready to Retire Early

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NewsCommunity

February 2017 issue

What’s New at WCCU?1/16- Closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day;

2/20- Closed for President’s Day;3/18-3/19- Credit Union High School Basketball

Championships- At the URI Ryan Center3/27- WCCU Annual Meeting-

tickets on sale at all offices now- $10

Article adapted from www.msn.com- Amy E. Buttell 1/6/17

Happy Anniversary and thank you for your hard work:5 years- Jill Sposato, MSR/MemFS Assistant

10 years- Joanne Bilotta, GL Reconciliation Acct.

Article continued from Pg 1.

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5. Your debts are (nearly) paid offOne big sign that you are not ready to retire early: You still owe money to creditors. Paying debt from a retirement budget cuts into what you can spend in retirement on doing the fun things that you’ve waited years to do, not to mention paying for necessary items such as utilities, taxes, food and home maintenance.

One guideline for early retirement includes whether your home is paid off. If it is not, then retirement is not on the radar screen. Second, do you have debt? If yes, then you are probably not ready to retire.

6. Your portfolio can withstand lossesBecause everyone’s standard of living is different, there’s no magic amount that automatically qualifies you for early retirement. But a portfolio that is large and diversified by asset class can protect you in bad markets. If it’s composed of different types of tax-deferred and tax-free assets, your portfolio is more likely to throw off enough income to sus-tain a long retirement than one that isn’t.

*Annual Percentage Rate (APR) as of 2/1/2017. Monthly payments per $1000 borrowed would depend on number of months chosen for car loan, for example: 60 months at $17.51. Use our loan calculators on our website to calculate yours. Rate shown is for New-Used Car Loans 2012 or newer, and is for members with an “A” credit score of 720 or above and an “active” checking account (“Active” checking is 6 trans-actions or more per month and direct deposit). If the above requirements are not met, discount will not apply. Add .50% to rate if account does not meet “active” checking requirements. Refinancing for new loans only. Rates subject to

change. Other rates and terms available. Federally insured by NCUA.

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March 10- WCCU ScholarshipsWCCU’ Scholarship program awards $4,000 in

college scholarships to youth in our community. WCCU also participates in the Cooperative Credit Union League

Scholarship ($500). Membership is required to apply. See our website for more details.

One gauge of whether you are ready to retire is the amount you have saved as a multiple of your income. It is estimated that you should save at least 10 times your pre-retirement in-come by age 67 to ensure a secure retirement. If you want to retire earlier than that, you should probably shoot for more.

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Representatives are registered, securities are sold, and investment advisory services offered through CUNA Brokerage Services, Inc. (CBSI), member FINRA/SIPC, a registered broker/dealer and investment advisor, 2000 Heritage Way, Waverly, Iowa 50677, toll-free (866) 512-6109. Nondeposit investment and insurance products are not federally insured, involve investment risk, may lose value and are not obligations of or guaranteed by the financial institution. CBSI is under contract with the financial institution, through the financial services program, to make securities available to members. CBSI-1369057.1-1215-0119. ©CUNA Mutual Group

Wayne Lagasse- VP of Wealth Management(401) 596-7000, ext. 2112 wayne.lagasse@cunamutual.com