You’re in your 50’s hitting your stride in your career and earning potential.  What should you do to build financial security and prepare for that next big stage – retirement?

1. Fortify your emergency fund: Now is not the time to skimp on your emergency fund.  At this stage of life we recommend having 6 – 9 months of living expenses stashed away in a high interest bearing account.  Money to carry you through a job change, new roof on the house, or other major expense.

2. Pick up your savings: During these peak earning years you need to pick up your game in saving for retirement.  You’ve established your lifestyle, setting your trajectory towards retirement.  You should be saving and investing 15% or more of your gross income giving your retirement accounts a major boost and funding other long or intermediate goals (possibly increasing capacity for ministry, opportunities for family time, etc) … it’s not just about retirement assets.

3. Don’t rob retirement to fund college:  The kids are or will be going off to college.  We all want to give them the advantage of a college education – which has become quite expensive.  It may be too late to take advantage of various savings strategies.  There are, however, options for reducing the cost. Including shopping for schools within your budget, and there’s living at home or community college for 2 years.  Put a plan in place to know how you will pay for all 4 years of college. There are many options out there that will give your kids a good education without sacrificing a secure retirement.

4. Pay off all your debt: There’s nothing more liberating than being debt-free (OK, maybe you don’t pay off all of the mortgage, which is debt, but it sure feels different than credit card or auto debt).  Not having those debt payments gives you the money you need to help pay for college and save towards the future.

5. Make major purchases with cash:  No, we don’t mean with dollar bills.  Yes, we do mean purchases without using debt.  Buy that next car for cash – don’t lease it, which is just another form of financing, or use an auto loan.  Buy the new frig and laundry for cash.  Of course this means having reserves and savings beforehand. No debt means more spendable income each month for other things.

For the rest, now is not the time to ignore the basics there’s 4 basic principles, biblical principles that you can apply to your spending decisions; Spend less than you earn, avoid the burden of debt, build reserves and liquidity, think and plan long term.