Retirement Realities: Retirement Potholes

BOSTON (CBS) - The potholes of life have a way of messing up the best laid plans for a comfortable retirement.

Can you plan for these? Some of them you can plan for and some you can avoid. And some you will have no control over.

1. Inflation: You may be living on a fixed income in retirement and it becomes very hard to maintain your life style as the cost of the goods and services you use increase. Some retirees do have to choose between meds or groceries.
2. Illness and disability: You can do some planning by making sure you have enough dollars saved for retirement and have good health care insurance. And, of course, take good care of yourself.
3. Death of a spouse: Average age of widowhood in the United States is 57. A death often may leave the surviving spouse ill equipped financially to maintain a comfortable retirement.
4. Divorce: There are now more Americans 50 and older who are divorced than widowed. If you are now flying solo there may not be a lot of time to increase your retirement savings. 1 in four people over 50 gets divorced every year.
5. Children & grandchildren: Our children are like boomerangs, they come home and sometimes they come back with kids of their own. And sometimes they leave without taking their kids with them. According to AARP,11% of grandparents are raising their grandkids and one in six are full-time care takers of the grandkids.
6. Elderly relatives: Our parents are living longer and may require our help.
7. Running out of money: Spend some time with a financial planner working on how you are going to withdraw the money from your retirement accounts. You want your money to last as long as you do.
8. Alcohol and drug abuse: Both drugs and alcohol are readily available to the retiree and they have the money to support their addictions.
9. Credit card abuse: The greatest increase in personal bankruptcy is occurring among retirees.

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You can hear Dee Lee's expert financial advice on WBZ NewsRadio 1030 each weekday at 1:55 p.m., 3:55 p.m., and 7:55 p.m.

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