Almost everyone who has ever looked into saving money for retirement has heard about 401k plans, IRA accounts, and other traditional investment opportunities. However, there are other retirement income solutions that can help you reach your goals for the years after you leave the workforce. In fact, because of a new residential zoning updates, people who are retiring now have investment options that others before them never had.
Many people are choosing to build separate, secondary houses on the same property as their primary houses. These new houses are known as accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and are often being used to generate rental income that can help homeowners out with their retirement funds later in life. However, this is just one type of alternate retirement investment option that people are looking at as they realize the traditional funds aren’t always going to be enough.
ADUs – Retirement Income Solutions for Older Americans:
If you’re reaching age 50 or older, you might suddenly wake up some day and realize you don’t have enough money to fund your retirement in the manner that will keep you in your current lifestyle. This is not uncommon, as many people of the Baby Boomer Generation did not focus on saving money. Instead, they lived each day as it came and didn’t worry about the future. Well, now the future is here and they aren’t ready for it.
ADUs can offer an almost-instant income stream for older Americans, if they have the property available for one to be built. These secondary houses are essentially smaller versions of a single-family home. They have working kitchens and livable spaces, and can include amenities such as radiant heating, solar panels, wheelchair-accessible doorways and halls, and just about anything else you can imagine. In some cases, people who build ADUs will have family members living in the unit, but more often, these small houses will be rented out, earning the owners additional money every month.
The money received from rent on these properties can then be funneled into a self-directed IRA, where you can dictate how the funds are invested. If you do this, however, the ADU can only be used strictly as a rental. Your family members cannot be living in the house, even if they are paying rent. If you have a 401k, you can take out a loan to help you build an ADU that will eventually be paid back once your house begins generating a profit. ADUs are retirement income solutions that can allow older Americans to downsize, as they move into the ADU and rent their larger house out instead.
Non-Traditional Investments:
In addition to ADUs, there are other alternate income solutions that can help you build your retirement savings. Essentially, non-traditional investments are assets other than stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other more conservative funds. If you are on the younger side of life, you can consider some of these assets as part of your entire investment portfolio because over time, they are likely to increase in value. Some of these non-traditional investments include coins (but only gold, silver, and platinum), digital and intellectual property, and real estate.
The difference between these types of investments and ADUs is that ADUs is beneficial for older Americans, while these other non-traditional investments are best reserved for younger people who have a long time before their retirement age approaches. There is no single retirement income solution that will guarantee your financial future, but if you make some strategic investments, you will be able to continue your lifestyle well into your golden years.
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