Planning For Retirement | Options for a Stay at Home Mother

I’ve partnered with Genworth Financial to bring you these helpful tips to help prepare for retirement. (All thoughts are my own)

At what age do you start thinking about planning for retirement?

When I was working full time, had a 401K and no kids, retirement saving was in full force. Now that I am a stay at home mother, of two children, and living with one income in our family, retirement is something that gets placed on the back burner.

My husband has a retirement plant at work, however – working from home, I don’t have a retirement plan in full force any long and that worries me.

I came across an article that was directed to the Baby Boomers who will be retiring in 2013, in the article listed seven tips to ensure a successful retire in this day.

While I’m not looking to retire today, these are great tips to think about now.

It’s vital that a stay at home mom prepares themselves for retirement. Here are a few ways that you can do that.

  • Most stay at home moms have started in the workforce and have a 401k set up with their old employer. Take the money from your 401k and roll it into an IRA, it’s not a good idea to leave the money behind and if you withdrawal the money, there are penalties.
  • Increase your spouse’s contributions – Be careful with this option as this will only work if you are your spouse are together through retirement.
  • Open a Spousal IRA – With this option, your husband can contribute up to $5,500 per year to either a traditional or Roth IRA in your name. To qualify for this option, you must file jointly.
  • Open a solo 401K – This could be an option if you are operating a home based business or have self employment income.

planning for retirement

It’s never too late to start saving money for retirement, the earlier that you start saving – the more time your money has to grow.

This can be a hard subject to think about, if you have questions about where to start or if you need a little guidance, Genworth Financial would be a great place to start.

After thinking more about my retirement, better planning for my retirement has been placed on my bucket list for this year.

What steps are you taking to plan for your retirement?

10 thoughts on “Planning For Retirement | Options for a Stay at Home Mother

  • June 7, 2013 at 5:47 pm
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    I never thought about what stay at home moms can do to plan for retirement. Luckily I work part time so I am able to keep a 401K.

  • June 7, 2013 at 11:43 am
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    Sound tips! It’s easy to just think retirement is too far away to worry about.

  • June 7, 2013 at 12:29 am
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    I didn’t think about rolling my 401k into an IRA. I need to look into that

  • June 5, 2013 at 6:54 pm
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    My husband and I are almost out of debt. As soon as that happens we will be able to start contributing more to our retirement. WE both work and plan on doing that until God tells us one of us should stay home. Thanks for the tips about an IRA!

  • June 4, 2013 at 1:53 pm
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    Great tips, thanks. I’m considering staying home in the future, and what to do with my nice retirement package has been an issue!

  • May 31, 2013 at 6:11 pm
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    Thank you for these tips! We’ll be increasing my husband’s 401k contributions and rolling mine over into a Roth IRA.

  • May 29, 2013 at 10:30 pm
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    oi! i haven’t started planning for retirement yet! i hadn’t heard of the spousal ira.. that could be an idea for us! really my ‘plan’ thus far was just to put some money in savings every month, but that hasn’t happened yet! :) thanks for the great ideas!

  • May 24, 2013 at 7:13 pm
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    We all need to start thinking and planning for our retirement years. An IRA is a great way to start.

  • May 24, 2013 at 11:00 am
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    this is something that my husband and i have been talking about too. its a lot of planning for something that’s so hard to imagine! we have to consider my husbands work hazards as well as retirement might be forced early due to injury! who knows. scary stuff. better to have a plan then be surprised and panic!

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