A bout of long-term unemployment can trigger trauma and uncertainty. Some have equated the emotional fallout with that of a divorce or the death of a loved one.

But Alan Moore, founder of Serenity Financial Consulting in Milwaukee sees potential opportunities for smart retirement planning moves.

"If properly managed, I believe this time can be one of the most beneficial periods in my clients' career(s)," he says.

Following are three ways to turn the sour lemons of job loss into the sweet lemonade of financial security in retirement.

Certified Financial Planner professional Clark Kendall, founder of Kendall Capital, has watched many clients struggle with employment income issues over the last decade.

"First it was the IT people who went through an economic fallout, then real estate people, then bankers," says Kendall, whose firm is based in Rockville, Md. "It's been kind of like a rolling recession."

However, people usually overcome hard times and thrive again in the future, he says. His message to hardworking, out-of-work taxpayers is upbeat: "Your income's falling off, your tax rates are falling off -- let's take advantage of that," he says.

Converting a traditional individual retirement account to a Roth IRA is one of the best ways to plant financial seeds that will bloom in later years, Kendall says.

Small-business owners sometimes use this strategy if they anticipate little or no taxable income in the venture's first several years, Kendall says. Each year, the entrepreneur converts tax-deferred retirement savings earned earlier in his or her career to a Roth IRA.

The entrepreneur pays "a little bit of taxes, maybe at 5%" on the converted retirement savings once deductions and write-offs are figured in, Kendall says.

Read this article:
Turn Job-Loss Lemons into Retirement Lemonade