3 Ways to Make Sure You're On Track to Retirement

Welcome back to the episode. Today we are talking about being on track for retirement and three potential gaps you may have in your current plan. If you've been around for a while, you've heard me say, I believe there's too much focus on just the money, just the number, just that dollar, you know, amount to be able to retire. And with this gaps can be left unaddressed due to this hyper focus. It's. It is good to have enough money, but yet that is where we are getting our disbelief that we can retire, that we can even make it possible, because we're only focused on one, although big, part of retirement. Just like life, money is important, but it's not the center of everything. We do what we can and that is the saying that's going to lead us into retirement. I want you to think how many times have you heard someone Former coworker, family friend, you know, maybe even your friend or a parent. And maybe after a year of retirement, they say they're not happy. They're bored out of their mind. They don't feel like they have a purpose in life anymore. They don't know why they're waking up every morning. And without saying the exact words, they're craving their old life back. I don't want this to be you. There are ways to prep yourself. To shift and then once you get there to pivot and know how to find your happiness, find your success, and what that looks like. As I was beginning to retire, you know, I had told my husband probably about two and a half years prior, I don't know how soon, I'll let you know, but I'm getting there. As I got there, I'm like, okay, the time is here. And I've talked about that before. Choosing a day, choosing a month, is a little bit more difficult than most people put out there. But anyways, that's another story. But as I was thinking about it, I really wanted to just revel in the enjoyment of my freedom, enjoyment of not having to be to work at, you know, seven in the morning, eight in the morning, four or five days a week, whatever that looked like. As I was looking for time or activities to fill that time, I knew I needed to plan for about four to six hours a day. I began going over all of the ideas. What can I do? What do I want to do? What sounds fun? And if you, again, have been here for a while, you know, I am an avid reader. I love reading. And so that was my desire to spend more time in the morning. Slow down in the morning. spend my time doing what I love doing. I'm not a late night reader. I don't stay up overnight reading. I am all about the morning. If it's a good book, I will wake up early and spend a lot of my time, and that's where I knew I wanted my desire to be. So, as I am going through all of these ideas of how I can make You know, spend four to six hours every single day. And one of those thoughts was I could go volunteer at the school and help kids learn how to read. It's my passion. I feel like that would come through. And then I realized they're going to need you at a certain time of day. And you may not be ready for it at that time of day. And so not having that control of the time was why I did not choose that. Going back to my desire, my feeling, what I wanted from retirement. One of the gaps is the lack of a clear retirement vision. And as I've said before, it's more than just that big thing that you want to do. Travel, you know, play golf go be with your grandkids more. There's a little bit more to that. And so really understanding who you are at the level of waking up every day retired, what do you want it to feel like? What do you want it to look like? And most people just think, I'll figure it out when I get there. I'm going to enjoy my time off. I'm going to enjoy the fact that I don't have a job that is, you know, ready and saying, this is the time you need to be here. And you just think things will fall into place. And this is not true. Why do I know this is not true? I put myself through school while I was working a full time job. It took me about six years no summers off. I think I'd had one summer off. But as I finished, it was the summer quarter. And so all of September after having been in school for, you know, six years, I would go to work, have school, weekends were also homework. I just didn't do anything in September. Nothing, I was a veg, I went to work every day, I had my family, but the, that time that was taking school time, I was just, I realized I wasn't happy, I didn't feel like I had a purpose, you know, and so that right there was just, to me, it, a reflection of what would happen if you head into retirement with that same idea. I'll just, I'll just enjoy my time off. So really have an idea. It's okay to enjoy the time off. It's okay to put off the plans that you want to do, but I think headed into retirement, you need to have a plan of what you would really love to do. As you're looking at this vision, you've got to think about. The first 10 or 15 years and how that's going to maybe look different from the next 10 or 15. How is aging going to affect lifestyle changes? Your health, your activity levels. So really getting out there and maybe doing what you want early on. And then making a change and what does that change look like? However, that's not going to be a hard and fast rule. I spent some time volunteering at a senior citizen center. To qualify for this center, which I'm sure most of them are very similar, you just had to be 60 years old. That was the youngest. I was like, that's not really senior citizen to myself, and there weren't a lot of them around that age. Mostly if they came at that age, it's because their parent was there and they're coming along. But the real, maybe the more common, was 70 to 75. These young, I helped with, bingo, there was this group of ladies, they were probably about that, still very vibrant. They were so fun to chat with. They had a good time. They were friends outside of just this activity. And then just beyond that group sat another lady that I was so happy to meet. She was the other end of this age at the Senior Citizen Center. She was 102. Her name was May. She was still there. She could still play bingo by herself. She still had some clarity. She got around the center without a cane or a walker. you know, that's the thing is we can think we're going to go downhill, but we don't always know. Make sure you have a vision, you have a clarity, you have, you know, your desires. And kind of get somewhat a gist of that phases, those different phases and what that's going to look like. Okay, the second gap, it kind of ties into, into the first, is underestimating the financial impact your goals and hobbies will have. Now when you are spending time creating that vision, if you listen to the last episode, I talk about how to do that, how to start, how to continue to refine. But as you get to that point where you, you really kind of know, you've got to look at the financial impact, goals, hobbies, whatever that looks like, and understand with these activities, how long term are they going to be, how sustainable can you keep them, you know, from not only money, but also as your energy or your health may decline. It's important to also put. Lifestyle right alongside of the financial impact and how that's going to work and really getting into the ability of sustaining that when you use a formula as most people do. financial planners do, and I'm not saying it's wrong, but once you know what it is you want to do, you've got to know that you have the funds there. This is how you kind of bring those two pieces together, and it's not just a one number. It's not just a, you're gonna live on, you know, this much expenses for the rest of your life. That's giving you a baseline. Really, you've got to start exploring, see what's, what you're able to do, and how you can close that gap. I was on a plane flight home and I met a woman. Her dad was 94. He still loved to travel. And so he paid for his travel, but because of his age, you know, he was still all there, but his body was not quite as healthy. you know, energetic as maybe in his 70s. He would pay for a family to either meet him at the destination to help him, you know, care and be there for him and provide the support for him and his wife. And being able to do that at the age of 95 or 94, and if that's something you want to do, you've got to understand that longevity. What is that impact going to be over 20, 30 years and start really Exploring that, making sense. I think it's important for us as we head into retirement, as we are creating that vision, to kind of think of an idea of a balance of free, and paid activities in retirement. You know, and when I say, you know, pay, there's, there's a range still within that. Make sure you explore a variety so that you can, number one, keep yourself busy, keep yourself happy but also that you financially can sustain it. The final gap for today, and this is a gap that most individuals even have prior to retirement. But I believe in retirements, it's an elevated level of importance. This is the inadequate cash savings. We're told to invest, we're told to put into our retirement accounts, but if you have not created enough cash, liquid cash savings to support your financial stability, that right there can deplete those retirement accounts very quickly. what am I talking about when I say financial stability? Again, it's home repairs, car repairs, medical emergencies. You know, looking to be able to support your hobbies. Those types of things. What do I mean by that? These are things like home repairs, car repairs, medical emergencies. You may not be driving your car a lot. Maybe somebody else is driving it with you in it as you can't drive anymore, but you still have a car that you're going to need to repair, maintain, keep up. Same with the home you're living in. You've got to be able to, replace that, furnace in the winter when it goes out. And having this cash savings. Ensures that we can do that, ensures that we're ready to take care of, those things that could possibly go wrong, kind of like an insurance at the home level, at the low level, we are not going to go to insurance for our furnace or our A. C. we really need to make sure we have our own insurance fund. That, to me, is what an emergency fund is. If you've heard me say I don't love that term, I do like to, you know, detail what it could be for. In retirement, we still have a home. In retirement, we may still have a car. There are these things that we need to provide and take care of, but we also need to be able to continue to fill those buckets back up. This is also a huge part of our retirement budget. Being able to not only have that cash savings, but to be able to continue to build it back up for a next thing that's going to go quote wrong. These cash savings will help us stay In the dream and the visions that we want, if we are not creating the stability and we are loving to travel and something happens. And so now we have to take away from our travel fund. We have to take away from our hobby fund. These are just as crucial to plan for as all of the other activities. We want to keep ourselves protected and our environment happy and healthy so that we can now have a successful retirement as well. As I said, those are the three common gaps I'm talking about today. And you know, the biggest one I still believe is that vision, having clarity around what that looks like, then getting into the weeds, into the nitty gritty almost. As we are closing up this episode, Do you have questions about these specific gaps? Maybe you're thinking your situation is unique and it definitely could be, and I didn't quite answer it in the very general answer I gave. You can get your question answered specifically in an episode just like this over on my new private podcast. It's called The Retirement Vault. The link to subscribe is in the notes below. There's also a lot more information about it if you click that link. It does not automatically subscribe you. It lets you know what you're going to find. And after you subscribe, you will receive a link to submit your question or questions. And those questions will be answered in the next episode on that private podcast. Episodes will be releasing every first and third Friday beginning November. This is a subscription private podcast, 7 a month. You will also find the Retired Inspired Podcast Series. This is a three episode series already in there for you to binge that will help you determine your retirement readiness. Tips about creating your vision, how you can correlate that specifically to your budgeting. And how you can determine your financial number from those two activities instead of just a general formula. This series will give you the retirement clarity you need now and help you create a happy and successful retirement. If you're listening to this episode months after November of 2024, you're able to binge all of the episodes that are in there. But what is so exciting about this is I get to serve you in a different capacity. You have a specific question. It doesn't have to be related to anything you found on this podcast. Maybe you're like, I wish you would cover this. I wish you would cover this. That is your area where you can submit your questions, ask me anything, and I will, you know, answer it on a podcast episode just like this. In about 15 20 minutes, we'll hopefully solve your specific question. It's anonymous, I will not share your name remember that link is down in the show notes. Go check it out and learn a little bit more about it. Going back to the topic of the episodes, remember that you probably cannot solve all of your gaps. Or you may not even see them. But it's important to start spending time looking for those bigger ones. As you close that gap, you ensure more success. You will minimize the impact those gaps can have on your retirement success. I hope you were able to get something from today's episode, and I'm excited to serve everybody who joins my new private podcast in a different way, more, you know, personalized way. Please join me over there. And if not, I'll see you next week.