MSNMoney’s 8 Money Moves for the 50-Something Crowd

Once you hit the big 5-0 you should (hopefully) be in your peak earning years, most of your kids should be out of the house, so you may have more money to put away for retirement but you don’t have much time. If you can make some crucial decisions you stand a better chance of retiring comfortably.

Here is a summary of MSNMoney’s 8 Steps to get yourself into better financial shape:

Reconsider your career

The longer you can work (especially past 65) the less you will need to save. If you have a job you love it will help.

Put retirement on the front burner

Make sure you are putting as much money as possible away. Sure there are other obligations, but they must be secondary.

Accelerate debt repayment

It will help if you don’t have mortgage and car payments to make out of your savings.

Get your kids off the dole

They need to be on their own - for your sake and theirs

Review your life insurance needs

If the kids are out of college, the mortgage is paid off and your spouse doesn’t need your income to survive, you may no longer need insurance (except for possible estate planning purposes).

Review your other insurance

Adequate disability insurance, liability insurance, and possibly Long-term care insurance should all be tended to.

Schedule all those medical checkups

Yes - guys too! Especially since if something is found and treated early your chances of survival are much greater.

Join the AARP

This last one I am not to sure about. Not sure what discounts are available for insurance, travel, entertainment, shopping, etc to make it worth it.