I don't want to give out all of my personal information here, but I am a teacher (single), just a few years away from retirement. As you may know, a teacher retirement only pays 50-60%, at best, of the average of your top 5 yearly salaries. Sadly, I have not saved any extra for retirement. I have a car note and 25 years left on a pretty good size mortgage. I don't think I can stand to be in education more than the four years I have left, although I would do much better if I did hang in there a while. Should I seek financial counseling? I don't have a lot of money to spend on one. I have thought of getting a second career since I will be under 60 when I retire. I have just been thinking about this a lot lately. Any insight and advice would be so appreciated.
CKH
@ckh5941: Sadly, it's a little late to be planning for retirement now. Your statement "I have not saved any extra for retirement" simply means that you will have to live on the 50-60% retirement pay. You need to work out a budget and see if you can live on that 50-60% pay. If you can't trim your budget to fit within that income, I don't see how you can retire in a few years. Since working longer will increase your 50-60% retirement pay, you may have to work until either your budget decreases and/or your pay increases. It is truly unfortunate that so many people fail to plan for retirement until they are a few years away.  Good luck to you.
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