3 Tips To Make Up For Lost Time With Your Retirement

This is part of a sponsored collaboration with Prudential and DiMe media. However, all opinions expressed are my own.

Wow! I thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a brand ambassador for Prudential at Hispanicize.  The Prudential team is an amazing group of people, especially the Vice President of Consumer Strategy & Key Initiatives, Dorinda Walker.  She shared a unique story about every single Prudential ambassador during the welcome reception, it was so inspiring.

I came to Hispanicize eager to learn more about Prudential’s ABC’s of Retirement Savings Plans and Social Security.  As a mompreneur, I wanted to dive deeper into creating a comfortable life for my 70-year-old self and share my key learnings with you.

During the DiMe Summit, I enjoyed the main stage presentation of The Great Girlfriends talking with DiMe Co-Founders Angela and Piera about the importance of fiscal responsibility, planning, and balance in business.  I also perused the Prudential lounge, documented my financial goals and took a stand for my financial success.

In addition to being an ambassador for Prudential at Hispanicize, they are also the presenting partner of my Motivated Mom Tour.  So when they needed to fill a space for an interview, Dorinda invited me to be a guest on a Facebook Live interview with Gaby Natale. It was so much fun, I believe it helped me overcome my fear of Facebook Live.  Take a look!

For any of you who’s ever had a good coach, you know how valuable that person is in your life. Well, my coach is a million times more special, so THIS MOMENT was monumental to me. It was by far, the best part of the event. I had a “fireside chat” with Elayna and shared our financial experiences and what we wanted our overall take-a-way to be from Prudential that we would share with moms.  Afterwards, we participated in a friendly game of #Prupárate, (Prudential’s form of Jeopardy) with Claudia.

The most impactful session for me was the “Financial Empowerment within the Latino Community” presented by Prudential and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.  The information was particularly important because the issues among Hispanics and finances, aren’t much different from those among African Americans.  I could relate to the barriers that Hispanics face when creating financial wellness.  Check out the video from the session live at Hispanicize – please excuse the sideways view…it only lasts for a few minutes, before I figured it out. LOL!

 

My husband and I are taking control of our financial life, and making huge adjustments to live simply.  One of the main reasons for this is one, a peace of mind; but the other is to allow me to live out my life’s purpose and not have to worry about money. 

This session helped me understand the steps I needed to take in order to better prepare for my retirement.  Delvin spoke about Prudential’s recently released a whitepaper entitle “Solutions for Improving Your Financial Wellness” where they are providing tips and how-tos on retirement among other financial related topics.

It takes time to take control of your retirement. We’re often encouraged to start planning early because building your retirement takes time.  If you’ve started late don’t worry, you can catch up. Here are a few tips from Prudential to start making up for lost time. 

1. Max out your retirement account.

This simply means to fully fund your account, contribute to the max if you can.  Take advantage of employer contributions, tax breaks and investment growth.

I know as mompreneurs it may be tough for us to contribute to a 401K, I was thinking initially that I couldn’t afford it. But I honestly feel that I can’t afford not to.  My husband and I are cutting back, trimming the fat from our expenses so that we can better prepare for our future.  We’ve decided that we are going to contribute more to savings and retirement, and less to eating out and entertainment. It’s never too late to live your best life.

2. Use your life insurance to create generational wealth.

Talk to a financial advisor about a properly structured life insurance policy that accumulates cash value over time. Having access to your cash will help you systematically grow wealth regardless of market conditions.

This piece of information was the absolute best tip ever.  I had never thought of life insurance as a strategy for generational wealth. I could not wait to get home and share this with my husband.   We are in the process of changing our life insurance policies, and doing business with Prudential.  Now we know what we need to do to propel our decision to take control of our financial life today!

3. Develop an income strategy for retirement: 

Financial language is a barrier for some.  Conveying the message for financial planning can be difficult, which in turn limits our ability to take full advantage of income strategies for retirement. Great income strategies for retirement are saving accounts, IRA’s or annuity’s.

I did not grow up hearing a lot about retirement. My grandfather ensured that my grandmother was well taken care of, but I did not know how.  Therefore, when I joined corporate America, I did not maximize my opportunity to invest in my retirement and get the employer contribution.  Thankfully, my husband is very knowledgeable and is helping me understand the importance, while working with me to create an income strategy for retirement.

A large majority of Hispanics and African Americans have no retirement accounts.  Creating a plan of action, setting goals for your future is the best way to ensure that you are taking action to care for your 70-year-old self.

Studies show that 52% households believe they are “at risk” of not being able to maintain their lifestyle in retirement.  As moms, we drive a lot of the decisions in our home. We prepare the grocery lists, select the brand of laundry detergent, and decide which pediatric dentist our child will see.  Let’s add building our retirement to the list.

Are you ready to build and grow your retirement plan? Taking control of your financial life and wellness is about adopting behaviors that help us achieve the fundamentals of financial security. I like the sound of that…financial security, let’s create it together!  Tell us how you are planning to better save towards your retirement below, we want to hear from you!

 

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