| By :
Marilyn Katz
Many Americans have had to accept reduced incomes in the last few years. Some people adjust well, but others find that they struggle. Could you live with less money? Statistics can be misleading and confusing, but more people live on $30,000 a year than you think! The US likes to publish a a statistic that the median family income is almost $50,000. This is a number that we tend to associate with being middle class. But you need to remember back to your high school math class. The median is the number you get when you throw out the top and bottom half. It is the number in the middle, but that is not the same as an average. Actually, $30k is not an average US household income. But it is the average when you throw out the top 10 percent of household incomes. But when you throw out the income figures for the wealthy, the number really gets a lot lower. The bottom ninety percent of us average a household income around $30k. This number is a little alarming for a varetiy of reasons. However, it should also be examined as a way to change our perspective about our lifestyle and our retirement planning. A lot of us are very concerned about our retirement plans. They had savings and assets. But the stock market went down. After that, house values were reduced. The savings and assets they counted on for a comfortable retirement have been reduced and lost value. We did make some bad mistakes. This means we have to be very careful to protect ourselves from now on! It is helpful to examine the lifestyles of other people who make do with less money. There are some common themes. Many have a passion which drives them and satisfies them. This passion does not cost them a lot of money, and sometimes it even helps generate an income. The do not need to fill the void with "stuff" because they have satisfaction from their hobby, work, or home life. While it is nice to think about being happy without material things, we know that we need to pay some bills. Another common practice of people who can live well on lower incomes is that they avoid debt and find comfortable housing that does not cost a lot of money. If you are trying to figure out how to retire on a lower income, these should be your priorities. You need to figure out how you can find affordable housing and manage your debt. A good credit score helps to. If you can raise your credit score, you will find that a lot of things are easier to do with less money. If you do need credit, it will be cheaper to get. Even some services, like auto insurance, are cheaper when you have great credit! We would all like to retire with a comfortable income. But there is no one magic income number that is right for everybody. If you can plan to retire well, the actual number will not matter as much.
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