Personal Finance After 50 For Dummies Cheat Sheet

You work hard for your money, and you should get to use your savings in your later years. In order to enjoy an enjoyable and stress-free retirement, you need to make the most of your finances and retirement planning. You can get on the right track by determining the appropriate age to retire, becoming familiar with Medicare, and understanding your pension and how it’s protected.

© 2025 Eric Tyson and Bob Carlson. All rights reserved.

The age you can retire and the benefits you receive

As you know, your age has a lot to do with when you can retire. If you retire at or later than your full retirement age for Social Security benefits, you’ll make the most of your benefits. Planning to maximize your benefits helps you to enjoy your golden years.

The following table summarizes the age at which you may retire and begin full Social Security benefits. It also shows the reduction in those benefits (including for your spouse) if you desire partial benefits at age 62. This information is useful when you’re crunching numbers and trying to determine by what age you may be able to retire.

If you were born on January 1, you’ll be treated as if you were born the previous year. If you were born on the first of the month, the benefit is figured as if your birthday was in the previous month. You must be at least 62 for the entire month to receive benefits. The percentages in the preceding table are approximate due to rounding. The maximum benefit for the spouse is 50 percent of the benefit the worker would receive at full retirement age. The percent reduction for the spouse should be applied after the automatic 50 percent reduction.

Medicare: Your link to health care during retirement

Medicare is the primary program used to finance health care for retired Americans age 65 and older. It covers hospitalization and some basic medical services during your golden years. The good news: Almost anyone can join Medicare at age 65.

Upon joining, each beneficiary pays a monthly premium along with deductibles and copayments. Medicare pays the rest of the covered health care services. Many medical services aren’t covered, however.

The biggest gap in coverage for retirees is for long-term care. Medicare generally only pays for brief stays at long-term care facilities that are for rehabilitation or recovery after an illness, surgery, or injury. It pays only about 15 percent of nursing home expenses nationwide and even lower percentages of the cost of assisted living and home health care.

As a prospective retiree, you should plan ahead for the possibility of needing nursing home care, assisted living, or home health care.

The four parts of Medicare are

What is my pension protection?

As you enter retirement, you may be fortunate enough to have a pension from your employer. If you have vested pension benefits (that is, benefits you have already earned based on your years of employment service), you may worry about losing those benefits if the company were to fail while you were sailing through your golden years.

Rest assured that employer pensions are backed by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), an independent government agency. The following table shows the 2025 annual and monthly maximum PBGC benefit guarantees for retirees from age 75 to 45. The maximum amount is lower for benefits commencing at younger ages, reflecting the fact that younger retirees receive more monthly pension checks over a longer expected remaining life span. The maximum amount is higher for benefits commencing at older ages, reflecting the fact that older retirees receive fewer monthly pension checks over their expected remaining life spans.

PBGC Maximum Monthly Guarantees for 2025