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You have worked hard for most of your adult life and the day has come that you will retire and enjoy the freedom of your golden years.

You might take up a hobby, volunteer, or just enjoy working in your garden and socializing with your friends.

If you have been planning ahead and contributing to your retirement fund, you will likely have a nest egg built up which will help you support yourself once you leave your job.

However, it is important to keep your expenses down when you are retired so that your spending won’t outgrow your savings.

If you can reduce your outgoing costs during your retirement years, you can stretch out your savings fund for longer and not have to worry about running out of money.

Here are a few ways that you can reduce your expenses during your retirement:

Earthquakes, windstorms, rain damage, flooding, falling trees, vandalism, burglary… there are many things which could possibly happen to cause damage to your home.

This is why homeowner’s insurance is important, so that you can be protected in these unfortunate events.

However, home insurance doesn’t have to be as expensive as you might think.

There are a few ways that you can reduce the cost of this insurance and protect your home for less.

If you are expecting a large tax refund this year, what will you do with it?

It might be tempting to spend this large windfall on shopping, eating out and other fun things.

However, a tax refund is also an opportunity to gain some financial headway and set you up in a better situation for the future.

Here are a few smart ways to use your tax refund this year:

If you are like most other average Americans you will have a list of bills that you have to pay every month, such as rent, cable, internet, cell phone, water, electricity and much more. If you were to list each of these monthly expenses in order of importance, which would be number one?

The answer is none, because there is one payment you need to make which is even more important than all of these and that is to yourself. The bill of “You” should be the first payment you make before you make any of your other payments. You can pay this bill by contributing a certain amount of your paycheck into your savings account.

Do you find that every January, you stare at your credit card bill and your bank balance in horror, shocked at how much money you spent in December on presents, holiday treats, decorations, special outings and more?

The holidays can be a very expensive time of year, and many people tend to get carried away and sentence themselves to a January of barely scraping by. However, if you plan ahead for next Christmas, you will be able to buy all of the presents you need without even batting an eye or seeing your bank balance dip even once. How can you do this?

It’s not how much money you earn that will make you rich; rather it is your spending habits. How aware are you of what you spend on a daily basis? Do you ever think you have a certain amount of money in your account and then realize that you have a lot less? Noticing how much you spend can be the first step to learning how to manage your money better.

Here are three useful tips for becoming more aware of what you are spending:

Do you gulp with fear every time you approach the checkout at the supermarket?

Do you end up spending a huge amount on grocery shopping every week, yet only coming home with a few bags of items?

It is possible to cut down your grocery bill drastically; you just need to know how to outsmart the supermarket and get more for your dollar.