There are a lot of important questions to ask yourself when you are starting to think about retirement:

• What will your retirement income be made up of?
• Approximately how much will your retirement income be each month?
• What will you do with your time?
• What bills will need to be paid off in order to live comfortably?

Questions regarding finances really should be addressed, if not answered long before retirement, especially when there are debt concerns.

Priority should be given to clearing any open balances on loans and well as to reduce debt on credit cards. In Oshawa, Ontario many people are reporting the top three ways they have been working towards clearing up these debts is by budgeting, refinancing options and shopping smarter.

Figuring if one or all of these suggestions will work for you means looking at the advantages and disadvantages of each:

Advantages of Creating a Budget:

Budgets are pretty easy to make and there are plenty of free tools and educational assistance to help. The Government of Canada, in partnership with the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada offers a wealth of information, especially where retirement is concerned. You can access this information here.

Budgets can help give you a clear snapshot of previous spending habits in order to show you how you can adjust to start paying off debt.

Budgets enable you to see how you will need to adjust for retirement living. For example, you may no longer need the same budget for transportation costs that you did while you were working. Budgets also give you something to work for as far as goals. As mentioned above, one of the important questions revolving around retirement concerns what you will do with your time. Creating a budget is a great opportunity to see what your golden years may look like. Do you want to travel, or have a special hobby you’d like to concentrate on? How about volunteering?

The Disadvantage of Creating a Budget:

The only real disadvantage of creating a budget lies within the ability to sustain it. Consistently sticking to a budget can be a big challenge. Adjusting your spending habits, especially if you need to make drastic cuts in order to start paying off debt may become frustrating very quickly, which may lead you to abandon the whole thing.

The Advantages of Financing

Depending on the type of financing you choose, there are two excellent options to consider in order to quickly clear up outstanding loan balances and reduce debt on credit cards. In Oshawa, Ontario you can consider refinancing your mortgage, or a reverse mortgage. These two products are very different from one another but a top mortgage professional can make suggestions for the best option for you based on the details of your situation. Each product also offers other advantages that your mortgage professional will be happy to tell you about.

The Disadvantages of Financing:

Again, depending on what financial product will work best for your situation, each will come with some considerations. For example mortgage refinancing will mean you will need to go through the steps to requalify and reverse mortgages may have a slightly higher interest rate.

The Advantages of Shopping Smarter:

Shopping smarter is a great way to both cut costs and save money, especially when the goal is to pay off debt to get ready for retirement.

Shopping smarter is also a great habit to cultivate for the retirement year. There are many promotional offers to be found depending on where and when you shop; coupons, buy-one-get-one offers and major retail holidays like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Boxing Day all offer savings and extra value to make your money work harder.

The Disadvantages of Shopping Smarter:

Having to actively look for deals can be time consuming and exhausting. Having to do price comparisons to confirm that you are actually getting the best deal is also tiresome.

However, there is a way to get the best of all worlds and get rewarded for it too. Shop2Save is an online discount savings program where, with the savings available, make sticking to a budget easy. Moreover, because they guarantee the best volume discounts there’s no need to hunt for deals, they will be right at your fingertips. And, Shop2Save services members with top financing professionals Dominion Lending Centres for mortgages, mortgage refinancing and reverse mortgages. If that wasn’t enough incentive to check it out, the Shop2Save loyalty program rewards 45% real cashback just for shopping. And, should you decide to pursue a financing option you will also earn loyalty rewards!

For retirement planning it is important to find ways to reduce debt on credit cards. In Oshawa, Ontario Shop2Save can help!