Here's how you can navigate the financial implications of retiring later in a nursing career.

I find it helpful when working with nurses to create a custom financial plan to address how they invest as they near their retirement. This includes understanding how to build a paycheck when they retire. What could their Social Security benefit be? What about a pension if they have one? Working longer may increase both their Social Security and Pension. Or maybe it allows them to continue to fund retirement accounts to supplement those income sources. Some clients desire to be debt-free before retiring so working will continue to allow them to work on that goal. Also, what do potential taxes look like? When can we address that? Continuing to work may also allow them to stay on employer healthcare coverage.

Before retiring it's important to understand how much your and your spouse's Social Security benefit is. Do you have a pension and what are the potential income payouts based on different survivorship options? These will help us understand how to build a paycheck versus potential living expenses with inflation. If you want to work part-time as many nurses do, you may not want to claim Social Security yet. Social Security does limit how much earned income you can have if it's before your Full Retirement Age. Many pension plans have different criteria used to calculate your pension benefit. For example, some may use your three highest earning years. You may be experiencing that now. Some also have higher benefits based on years of service.

Health Insurance is often times one of the biggest factors in when to retire. Retiring before age 65 (Medicare age), may mean you may need to secure health insurance until age 65. This can be very costly. COBRA insurance (continuing your employer coverage) can also be costly. Many nurses have good health plans through their employer and may be reluctant to retire because of that. If your own health is declining, you may want or need to retire. You worked all these years so that one day you could enjoy life without having all the stress and demands on you. If health is beginning to be a concern, you may want to retire to enjoy retirement while health allows you to.

It's important to understand that the way you invest in your 60s and 70s is different than it was in your 30s and 40s. The goal of investing while you worked was to accumulate. Market downturns happen but you didn't need to access those funds as your work paycheck funded your life. However, as you approach retirement your retirement risk profile may change. You will need to start looking at how you build a paycheck when you do retire. If you will need to draw income from your investments, you can't afford to take big market losses. On the flip side, you have to be careful if you have underfunded retirement that you do not become too conservative that it makes it difficult to eventually retire.

Retiring later may mean you may have to delay your plans. That could be travel, moving to a different climate, visiting family, etc. I usually explain to clients the different stages that occur in retirement. The Go-Go years are when you first retire and are motivated to get out of the house and travel. You are more active when you first retire. The next stage is the Slow-Go years where you start slowing down and may not travel as much or desire to leave the home as much. The No-Go years occur when you or your spouse begin to have health issues which may change what you are able to do. And finally the Solo years, when 1 spouse passes and the survivor is by themselves. Life is short so have a retirement living plan.