10 Things You Should Do 6 Months Before Retirement

In the final months leading up to your target retirement date, you may wind up juggling a lot of balls. There's the social aspect of this looming transition to consider, as many people will seek to put a neat bow on the professional relationships they've fostered throughout their decades in the workforce. However, there are also a great many crucial financial decisions to make when the number of months before your retirement hits the single digits.

There are the obvious planning and strategy tasks to explore, such as reevaluating your budget to account for your changing income sources and deciding on when to start taking Social Security distributions. There are also important legal and logistical tasks to complete, like updating your will and other relevant legal documents and filing the forms you need to receive benefits. These key tasks are best tackled before you hit the retirement threshold, allowing you to coast into the life of leisure with much greater effect. More to the point, by taking care of these steps before you retire, you'll enter this next phase of life on stronger footing. Making a checklist of all the loose ends you'll need to tie up while you're still working can be a strong bellwether of your actual preparedness for leaving the workforce and enjoying a successful retirement.

Shortly before you retire, spend some time thinking about your existing budgetary needs and the changes that lie around the corner. Retirees tend to need slightly less on a monthly basis to cover their lifestyle costs than people still toiling in the workforce. Experts suggest that shooting to be able to live on between 70% and 80% of your pre-retirement budget is a good rule of thumb, but everyone has their own unique needs. Some retirees will have spent their working years making frugal decisions in order to saturate their retirement accounts with enough money to live large for the rest of their lives. Others may need to scale back even further to accommodate an underfunded retirement savings account.

It's worth noting that some expenses fall away once you retire. For instance, Clever's analysis of data from both the federal government and private research institutions found that the average worker spends around $8,500 per year just getting to and from work. To test your retirement readiness, it can be helpful to try living on the budget you anticipate adopting once you leave the workforce. In the six months before you plan to retire, paring away routine expenses in order to live on this reduced budget for a while can deliver direct, experience-led feedback on how you will fare with these economic choices. If the money you have available is not enough to support your needs, it may be a sign that delaying your retirement may be a good idea.

American workers should target a date somewhere in their 30s to set up their Social Security account. Doing this will give you an in-depth snapshot of where your Social Security math stands at around the same point in your career when you secure eligibility to receive benefit payments in the future. It's also a good idea to revisit this on a rolling basis throughout your career to ensure that there are no mistakes in the calculation and to explore your options as you move through your working life. As you near your retirement date, reevaluating where things stand can help you make better decisions about what to do with your Social Security choices.

All eligible recipients gain access to this line of funding upon turning 62. You can start taking Social Security benefits while you're still employed, or you can wait until 70 to begin drawing checks. The longer you wait, the more you will receive in benefits from the federal government each month. There's a lot to consider regarding this decision, such as how long you expect to live and how much you anticipate receiving from Social Security each year. It's also important to remember that the date you plan to retire doesn't have to be the same day you start claiming Social Security payments. Everyone's circumstances will come with their own unique collection of challenges and advantages, and no two Social Security decisions are the same.

When you start deriving your income primarily from investments rather than salary checks, you gain access to far more personal control over many aspects of your financial life. A saver who has diligently utilized a range of tax-advantaged opportunities ahead of retirement will have the ability to chop and change where they draw funds from during any given tax year. Distributions from a Roth IRA come without any tax, while traditional IRA drawdowns and other distributions — such as those from a pension — are usually treated like standard salary payments during tax season.

Setting yourself up to have a blend of assets across the spectrum can be a great way to plan your finances, as this provides a wealth of options for customizing and limiting your tax liability in retirement. Ahead of your retirement, you can start to evaluate how much money you should draw from each individual account type in your portfolio to retain the highest volume of capital in your accounts with each passing tax year. With this in mind, it might seem like the only valuable approach is to use a Roth IRA throughout your savings journey. However, doing this will mean you'll miss out on valuable opportunities to reduce your taxable income during your highest earning years. During both the savings and drawdown phases of your retirement plan, you can't afford to wing it and pay more than you need to in taxes.

Many workers will have utilized a range of different retirement savings accounts throughout their adventure in the workforce. The 401(k), for instance, is generally a tool made available by your employer. When you move to a new job, you'll often initiate a new 401(k) account through the benefits portal your employer makes available. This can leave a trail of forgotten accounts in your wake, silently accumulating wealth in the background as you continue to make use of employer match opportunities in a new account alongside other saving strategies.

The Economic Innovation Group found in 2024 that roughly 58% of the American workforce has access to this savings tool through their workplace. Meanwhile, Landbase reports that the average worker changes jobs every 3.9 years, with 12 total changes over the course of a typical career. So, it's certainly possible to assemble numerous 401(k) accounts, and Gallup reports that 59% of U.S. adults use some form of retirement savings plan as of 2025. If you own a peppering of different accounts upon the precipice of your retirement, it can be wise to consolidate these funds under one roof. Utilizing fewer accounts makes managing the investments simpler, and it can also help you detect and defeat potential fraud issues that have plagued retirees' financial accounts in recent years. Rolling these old funds into an IRA is simple, and it gives you better control over the collective pool of your retirement capital.

Carrying high-interest credit card debt and other expensive repayment obligations into retirement can be detrimental to your long-term financial health. Even so, AARP reports that credit card debt remains the most common debt people bring into retirement. Not all lending products carry the same intense negative energy, but credit card debt is an overwhelmingly negative influence. These bills are excessively expensive to carry, so people of all age groups and stages of life should work toward aggressive repayment on these kinds of loans. But once you're within striking distance of retirement, it's time to get deadly serious about eliminating this obligation.

As is the case with some other financial markers, if you are unable to completely shed your credit card balances before hitting your targeted retirement date, it may be worthwhile to delay your exit from the workplace. Adding just a few more months of frugal budgeting alongside intense repayment prioritization can seriously increase the financial freedom you enjoy once you give up your salary and start drawing on your savings accounts. While paying down lending products in general can be a good idea, you can often deprioritize paying off anything with less than a 6% interest rate if necessary. These lower-interest debts are often considered "good" and demand less urgency than other outstanding balances. Carrying these into retirement isn't necessarily going to add tremendous stress to your life, but other expensive products certainly will.

As important as it is to avoid carrying heavy amounts of debt into retirement, those rapidly heading toward their retirement date might actually want to consider taking out a new loan before totally flipping that switch if they're already aware of a big incoming expense. Retirees do still have access to lending products, but the process of securing a loan can be a lot more complicated once you stop working as it's harder for lenders to fully assess your financial situation. With your salary intact, you exist, on paper, as a steady prospective borrower. Even if your plans for the very near future involve retiring and fundamentally transforming your budgetary math, presenting yourself as a typical worker to a potential creditor can keep things simple.

At this point, applying for a home equity line of credit (HELOC) or a personal loan that isn't tied to your home can be valuable if big spending needs appear to be looming in your future. Similarly, if you're considering buying a new vehicle for your retirement years, locking in a financing product for the purchase will likely be much more straightforward before you retire. In short, the loan approval process can be faster and simpler if you remain a typical working adult at the time of your application.

People who already live with chronic illnesses and other conditions that predispose them to ongoing healthcare requirements have a slightly clearer path to managing one particular aspect of the retirement transition. Those without consistent healthcare demands often underestimate the impact that this element of their financial life has once they stop working. This can be a particular hindrance for those who retire before turning 65, as most people in that age group aren't eligible for Medicare. However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that even seniors between 65 and 74 — who are eligible for Medicare — still spend around $6,500 per year on healthcare costs (via RBC Wealth Management). Unbiased offers some additional context with its analysis of BLS data, noting that retirees across the board tend to spend roughly 15% of their total budget on medical expenses annually.

For many, leaving their job also means giving up their health insurance. Without a proper plan in place to account for this change, the out-of-pocket costs you face could seriously derail your retirement finances. Considering medical debt is one of the largest drivers of bankruptcy in the U.S., forming a cohesive plan for covering these needs is essential.

Retirees who will leave the workforce on or after their 65th birthday have access to Medicare coverage right away. Rather than bridging the gap with private insurance, enrolling in Medicare as soon as possible provides the opportunity to lock in the program's quality coverage and enjoy Medicare's free healthcare benefits. But Medicare premiums are calculated based on income figures from two years prior to the present. This means that many new retirees may end up facing a substantial monthly premium upon their enrollment in the program — especially if they earned enough that an income-related monthly adjustment amount (IRMAA) gets added to their bill. However, if you're in a position where your retirement income will be significantly lower than the amount you made while you were still working, there is a readjustment tool taxpayers and Medicare users can utilize.

The SSA-44 form is an appeal tool Medicare recipients can submit to try recalculating their IRMAA. "Work stoppage" as a valid life-changing event that the Social Security Administration may consider reason enough to reevaluate your financial circumstances as they relate to your Medicare surcharge costs. The form is fairly straightforward, and applying for relief comes with no downside: You'll either get denied and have to pay the premium costs already outlined in your Medicare documentation, or you'll successfully have the charges lowered. The form is eight pages in total with plenty of instructions, making it a quick and possibly hefty cost-saving tool.

Estate planning is a constantly evolving task. Even though you may not own a significant portfolio of assets when you first start working, some people recommend writing a basic will when you turn 18 and then updating it periodically as changes occur in your life. As you grow into your senior years, it's important to reevaluate this tool. If you were remarried, for example, you'll likely want to add your current spouse as the beneficiary for things like your home if ownership documentation is a little murky. Another avenue worth exploring is the use of tools like a quitclaim deed. Instead of leaving your home to a loved one who might not automatically gain ownership rights, you can add them as an additional owner without going through the lengthy process typically required during title changes.

Other important estate planning tasks involve contracts that aren't enforceable by wills. Life insurance policies, specifically, feature legal documentation that isn't subjected to allocation details specified in your will. Whoever is named as the beneficiary on the contract is the person entitled to the payout. If you want to change this as your circumstances shift, you'll need to make an alteration to the contract itself.

Having an emergency fund available allows you to fall back on cash assets if disaster strikes. If you get in a car accident, suddenly need to repair a broken window in your home, or wind up facing a medical emergency, pulling cash out of an emergency savings reserve allows you to quickly handle the financial aspects of these stressful situations so that you can remain entirely focused on getting back on track. This tool is also crucial for workers who have lost their jobs. Despite the obvious practicality that comes with emergency savings, Bankrate found in 2026 that 24% of Americans have no emergency funds at all. Meanwhile, Empower reports that the median emergency fund in the U.S. stands at $500. Older Americans tend to have more in cash reserves according to Empower's 2025 data, but even baby boomers generally underfund their emergency savings with an average value of $2,000.

For retirees, an emergency fund is more than just a stopgap to cover spending surprises, it's a moat to weather the storm of a market downturn. Otherwise, you may need to sell out of positions to cover day-to-day expenses, severely degrading your total savings value. As a point of reference, the average bear market lasts 9.6 months, according to Hartford Funds. However, according to AARP, experts recommend retirees build an emergency fund that could cover as far as 18 to 24 months of routine expenses. The months ahead of your retirement offer the last, best opportunity to bulk up this cash reserve, making this a natural fit among your final financial priorities.