Stretching your
retiree income (and there are
more)
We call it "Nudging the Budget". The goal
is to maintain your current lifestyle for less and make every retirement
dollar go further. All you need to do is nudge your budget a
little bit here and there--without totally eliminating things you
enjoy. The resulting savings, which can amount to hundreds of
dollars each month, can help pay for your monthly Medigap insurance --
or perhaps some little luxuries. Here are some ideas for you
to stretch your retirement income.
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1. Call
the Cable Company. If you have cable TV or satellite,
call your current provider and tell them you are considering
changing to a competing service. Then ask if they have a lower
cost plan. Trust us--they do. When we called and told our
cable company we were thinking about satellite, they reduced our
monthly fee by over 30%. We continued to get all the same
channels plus free HBO and Showtime, too. And this was not an
introductory rate. Our savings went to more tickets at the
local foreign movie theater. |
2. Talk About More Savings.
You can take the same approach with your phone company as you do with
your cable or satellite company. No doubt they will come up with a
lower cost package that gives you the same services you already have.
Be sure to confirm that it is not a short term introductory rate.
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3. By Land
or By Cell? Ask yourself: do you really need both a
landline and cell phone? According to the New York Times, close
to 20% of American households have abandoned the old landline
phones in their homes and only use cell phones. You can do the
math quickly to see how much you would save if you only used a
cell. And if you really do not use the phone much, there are
cell phone services that are dirt cheap --about $10 a
month. Major companies such as Verizon and ATT now offer
unadvertised, low cost deals on their websites. |
A Real Life Retirement:
Jane, a semi-retiree in
Southern Arizona, realized she was traveling far less
often so she took a different route. She cancelled her
unreliable cell phone service in favor of a landline and
reduced her monthly cost by $25. Over the course of a
year that one change saved her $300. Other people we
know have cancelled the home phone and bought a pre-paid
cell phone.
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More Budget Tips
here.
NOTE: All names
on this site have been changed to protect individual privacy.
The stories are real, the names are not.
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