This is Optimal Finance Daily Episode 1902, your retirement checklist by Mike Baloo of

Eggstack.com, and I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

Now let's get right to it and continue optimizing your life.

Your retirement checklist by Mike Baloo of Eggstack.com

As you approach retirement, it's important to take inventory to make certain all of the

necessary arrangements are made.

Once you make the big leap, it's too late for a do-over.

You need a checklist and what follows is a good start.

Pay off debt.

The best case scenario is to be debt-free when you enter retirement.

Debt is a necessary evil when you're young and first starting out, but by the time

you retire, you should have outgrown it.

Loan payments are not something retirees should be dealing with.

The biggest favor you will ever do yourself is to get a 15-year mortgage.

You pay off your mortgage in half the time, but the payments are not twice as much.

If you already have a 30-year mortgage, you can achieve the same result by paying it off

at the higher 15-year rate.

Paying is a little like traveling to Mars.

Another component to being debt-free is to put car payments in the rear-view mirror.

When you pay off the vehicle that you currently own, keep making car payments only make them

to yourself.

You can put the money in a savings account, and over time you will accumulate enough to

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