8 Financial Moves Retirees Are Making With Their Money Today

Retirement isn’t ever a fiscal breather. Many retirees are balancing debt, mundane costs, healthcare needs and bequest goals astatine the aforesaid time. A caller study from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies shows however varied — and competing — these priorities tin be.

Here’s a look astatine each the things existent retirees are doing with their money, positive expert-backed steps to determine what to tackle first.

The Transamerica study recovered that retirees are directing funds crossed respective goals and needs, often astatine once:

• 41% are paying disconnected debt, including recognition paper indebtedness (28%), mortgages (20%), different user indebtedness (8%) and pupil loans (2%)

• 33% are building exigency savings

• 27% are conscionable capable to cover basal surviving expenses

• 27% are continuing to prevention for retirement

• 21% are creating an inheritance oregon fiscal legacy

• 20% are paying healthcare expenses

• 19% are saving for a large beingness acquisition oregon beingness event

• 16% are providing fiscal enactment for different household members, including children (8%), grandchildren (7%) oregon parents (1%)

Find Out: Here’s What Retirees Wasted the Most Money On successful 2025 — and How To Avoid It successful 2026

Read Next: 5 Clever Ways Retirees Are Earning Up To $1K per Month From Home

With truthful galore competing priorities, it’s captious for retirees to make a fiscal plan.

The archetypal precedence should ever beryllium to person a program for covering basal surviving expenses.

When it comes to indebtedness repayment, absorption connected high-interest debt, specified arsenic recognition paper debt.

“That’s going to beryllium a apical precedence to get that paid down due to the fact that that tin easy rotation retired of control,” said Catherine Collinson, CEO and president of the Transamerica Institute.

Structured debt, similar a fixed-rate mortgage, doesn’t request to beryllium prioritized arsenic highly. On the different hand, “if it’s an adjustable-rate owe that is going to reset successful the adjacent aboriginal to a higher rate, that’s thing that requires diligence and homework,” Collinson said.

Continuing to physique savings — including exigency savings and status savings — should beryllium the adjacent priority.

While retirees whitethorn privation to acceptable speech wealth for children and grandchildren — some present and arsenic an inheritance — this should beryllium debased connected the precedence list.

“Retirees person got to deliberation astir themselves first,” Collinson said. “Any indebtedness that they request could antagonistic immoderate payment of redeeming for a legacy.”

If you person indebtedness successful retirement, it’s important to get a wide representation of precisely however overmuch indebtedness you beryllium and what your sources of income are. Next, look for ways you tin trim expenses — astatine slightest temporarily — truthful you tin funnel much wealth into paying down debt. It’s besides worthy calling your lenders to inquire for immoderate assistance whitethorn beryllium available.