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AARP financial ambassador Jean Chatzky has a plan for making your savings last

The Comprehensive Guide to an Early Retirement

Column: How to protect your nest egg in volatile times | Reuters

Once that highest interest rate debt is retired, move onto the next highest. Ideally, you'd be mortgage-free by now. But if that's not possible, or if you need to tap your home equity for living expenses, options exist. Reverse mortgages are marketed heavily to older homeowners eligibility begins at age 62 ; they convert a piece of home equity into cash or a line of credit. The payout is tied to your life expectancy, so older homeowners can expect more, and the money can be taken as a lump sum, drawn on like a home equity loan, or received in monthly sums that can last as long as you or your spouse lives in the house.

But reverse mortgages are complex, are laden with fees and won't allow you to tap all of your equity, and the interest rate can be 1 to 1.

He can get a new year loan at 3 percent and save a bundle. Or, he can get a year term and cut his monthly payments down to open up even more cash flow. Refinancing has its own issues: You'd be extending your debt, and if you're not drawing a strong enough income the bank may not be willing to work with you.

If you have 10 years or less left on your loan, "it may not be worth the hassle," says Gumbinger. Entering retirement opens up a new universe of saving options, big and small. For example, selling your car — and ridding yourself of the insurance and maintenance charges that come with it — can be a great source of cash. Downsize your cache of belongings, if you haven't already: List that mid-century bedroom set or your comic book collection on eBay or Craigslist. About 60 percent of people say they'll work in retirement , according to CareerBuilder. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that only 32 percent of men and 19 percent of women actually do.

Career coach Nancy Collamer recommends targeting temporary positions. The International Guide Academy offers training at bepaidtotravel.

Or be an inn sitter: As an inn sitter, you relieve the people who own the place and want to get away. This sounds morbid, but if you're not in good health and have a life insurance policy that's difficult to maintain, you could sell the policy, sometimes for more than the cash value, says Stephen Rothschild of the LIFE Foundation. This is not a transaction to do yourself, Rothschild notes. Find a professional adviser through the Life Insurance Settlement Association lisa.

AARP financial ambassador Jean Chatzky has a plan for making your savings last

Nor is it something you should do without exploring other options, like borrowing against your policy or collecting accelerated death benefits, which you might do if you have less than 24 months to live. Rebalance your assets at least once a year when you're in retirement, so that you have the appropriate amount in stocks, bonds and cash as well as all of their subcategories for your age and risk tolerance. Because should the market take a major tumble, you have little time to make up what you've lost.

If you are reading this and berating yourself for never rebalancing, it's time to punt. Put your money into a fund that will rebalance your account for you — a target date retirement fund. Converting 20 to 25 percent of your assets into an immediate annuity provides a fixed income stream for the rest of your life and your spouse's, if you structure it that way , insuring yourself from the risk of outliving your money.

Take Charge of Your Money at 70+

Your return is higher in your 70s than earlier, says financial planner Bill Losey, author of Retire in a Weekend , "because the older you are, the shorter your life expectancy, the higher your payout. Got great genes and fear running out of money after age 85? You can hedge your bets with longevity insurance, a kind of deferred annuity that kicks in at an advanced age typically Then you'll start receiving monthly sums. Longevity policies are far cheaper than immediate annuities, and many retirement experts promote them as a defense against outliving your savings.

But if you pass away early, the money's gone. If haven't already, talk to your kids or other heirs about your financial picture, says Maryland financial adviser Tim Maurer.

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If you've had your head down, it's time to pick it up, while you have time. A will, durable powers of attorney that allow others to make medical and financial decisions for you, and a living will should be in place.

The Comprehensive Guide to an Early Retirement

Suddenly, you have Monday through Friday free. You can go out for a real meal rather than eating lunch at your desk, hop on the train and go see the grandkids, play a round of golf. And the money vanishes.

So track your spending , even if you never had to before. A lavish start to your retirement can mean there's not enough nest egg left to grow to carry you through to the end. Downsizing to a smaller, less expensive home is "the most powerfully positive thing that someone can do to improve their retirement situation," says planner Tim Maurer. This doesn't have to mean relocating across the country. Trading a high-tax school district for one nearby with lower taxes can make a substantial difference.

If you're willing to go a few hours away — say from San Francisco, where the cost-of-living index is a sky-high , to Carson City, Nev.

Maybe you first bought life insurance when you had a baby. Now that baby has a baby of her own. Do you still need the coverage?

Smart Savings

Keep in mind that portfolio tweaks in brokerage accounts can cost you in fees as well as taxes, so the approach is to make changes in IRAs and k s that can be done free of capital gains taxes. Please leave your comment below. If you work with a financial adviser, ask if they use Riskalyze, an online service. Both parents and grown kids are more comfortable talking to an adviser about money than to each other, according to a Fidelity study. At an interest rate of Career coach Nancy Collamer recommends targeting temporary positions. That estimate includes mortgage, property tax, insurance, and utility and maintenance costs.

If you work with a financial adviser, ask if they use Riskalyze, an online service. That is one tool that can help you envision the dollar loss you would have incurred in your portfolio in the last downturn as well as the time needed to recover. Keep in mind that portfolio tweaks in brokerage accounts can cost you in fees as well as taxes, so the approach is to make changes in IRAs and k s that can be done free of capital gains taxes.

You typically do not pay capital gains taxes in tax-deferred accounts like IRAs and k s, although you may have to pay fees for professional advice.

Column: How to protect your nest egg in volatile times | Reuters

Financial advisers typically suggest that people keep money out of stocks if it will be needed within five years to pay for something like college, a house down payment, or retirement. As logical as rebalancing sounds, people still have a hard time springing into action. Sanford, for example, knew well before this week that he needed to tweak his portfolio because his son is in college and his savings are almost entirely in stocks. With retirement about seven years away, Sanford is worried about his nest egg as well as his health.

If you have a k , for example, simply stop putting new money into stock funds. With each paycheck, route that money into bond funds and money market funds.