How to Maintain Your Lifestyle into Retirement

 If you learn to live intentionally today, this transition is going to be seamless.

If you're wondering how to maintain your retirement lifestyle without sacrificing what you love, this podcast episode is for you. 

You're enjoying life and the thought of preparing for retirement has you feeling that you will have to give up everything. Planning for lifestyle changes now actually saves you from stress, money struggles, and disappointment later. The problem isn't your spending, it's unclear priorities. When you don't know which parts of your lifestyle truly matter most, your money drifts toward everything instead of what's meaningful.

What You’ll Learn In This Episode:

✅ How to maintain your lifestyle now and into retirement 

✅ Why unclear priorities cause worry and overspending 

✅ How value-based budgeting supports your vision when planning for retirement

✅ The secret to making your retirement transition seamless

Unedited Podcast Transcription For This Episode

Click HERE for Full Transcript of Episode

Welcome to the Wealthy After 40 podcast, where I help you enjoy your money now and later. And this topic we are diving into specifically that I have heard more times than not. When you know people are on calls with me or they come to work with me as a client, very, very beginning, they're like, I don't want to give up my lifestyle. And if you've been around a while, you know, I'm not about rigid budgets. I don't have a template. We don't set out and do this. But when I hear this, and if this is something you're saying, I'm asking you, what is your lifestyle? Tell me more about that. And a lot of times they're like, well, I just having fun and I'm happy. And when we get down to it, they have no clue about where their money is going. They're wrapping this more in the fear of losing that feeling, but they cannot define that feeling to money. So I want to reiterate to you that planning for lifestyle changes now saves you stress, money, and disappointment later. But really it's not about changes, it's about really leaning into what is it that you enjoy. What, when I say, okay, you don't want to not live your lifestyle, what is that? So lifestyle means you know, the things you enjoy and the level of living that supports you best. So you can think about it in a couple of different ways. Just specifically things that bring you joy and or things that elevate your basic living. Now we all need a roof over our head, food on the table and car with fuel in it to go to work, ? That's basic living. And some people are even struggling with just that. But anything else is where you start forming your lifestyle, where you start adding your personality, if I must say. You're going to find a gamer spending on gaming. You're going to find a reader spending on reading. You're going to find somebody who gardens spending their money on gardening. That is lifestyle. So getting clear. On these specifics, what does lifestyle mean to you? Not just, oh, the way I'm living, and it feels so good. When you talk about money, you have to be specific. Why getting specific allows you to say yes and no easier. It allows you to understand where your money is going and what makes you feel good about it, and when you head into retirement, you know exactly what is going with you. Okay, so let's specifically talk about how can I get clear on this lifestyle thing then, because I'm like, I just love living the way, I love living, so let me help you get, you know, more defined, more leaning into what you really value with your money. And this is an example of value-based budgeting that I do in my coaching. We do several exercises to help you lean in. I am not a financial coach who believes in rigid budgets, I don't say you can't spend your money because you've got debt. We work through more of a value based, alright? So there are three core pieces of lifestyle. So as you're thinking, yep, I don't wanna give up my lifestyle, I want you to listen to these closely and these are gonna help you identify better what that means. Now, we've already talked about basic living. These are all elevated living. The first area is experiences. You may have heard somebody say, I don't buy my kids gifts and things. I give them experiences. This is that. So you're looking at trips, events, or even just simple pleasures, eating out, hosting family dinners, spontaneous weekends away, these are all just experiences I. This might be having you feel happy and is part of your lifestyle, but be specific. What is it in these experiences that you're like, this is what I do, this is me. This is, I don't wanna say identity because I don't want it to take on that role, but it is when somebody says, what do you love your spend your money on? Is it one of these? Area number two is comforts. The level of convenience or ease that makes your life flow, you might experience this more as working, especially as somebody who's running a household. One of those comforts will be a house cleaning service, or maybe you're that individual who loves a nice car. My brother-in-law, every five years, he gets him a brand new car. This is his lifestyle. That's not for me. It can also be your favorite streaming subscriptions. I would even say, what about a mill subscription? Making your life easier, that's what this area is. And area number three is connections. So being able to spend money. That give you connections to certain people and communities, this could be family gatherings, this could be season passes to a sporting event, to a playhouse, or doing hobbies with friends, putting you in areas where there's connections. So your lifestyle is made up of. Things within those areas. This is, like I said, elevated from basic living. This is where you need to really get clear on what actually matters most to you. If you don't, your spending can easily drift toward anything and everything, and this obviously will cause some hardships, some. You know, lack of feeling good, that worry about overspending, it's really important to be clear on lifestyle. Now what if you have family, kids, great, get them some input, but it is you who has control over the money, it is you who has to navigate Income equals expenses. Let them do their own thing when they get older. Show them how responsible can be. All right, so after you kind of define your lifestyle and when you think about planning for retirement, the goal isn't to downsize your joy, your joy at all. It's to get as crystal clear about these things. So maybe these three areas have certain things now. But in retirement, you're like, no, that's not gonna be it. So then define those three things in retirement, having that understanding and be like, well, this one will go away because of and in retirement I'm gonna replace it with this. Being able to get crystal clear anchor to these pieces. Let you manage the other ones very simplistically, if you don't have time for them, if you don't have money for them, they can go by the wayside and you're not heartbroken. But really, are you somebody that's leaning into, when I head into retirement, I'm not gonna have as much, I'm not gonna have the same things. And so you're avoiding the planning. Really, we've got to take care of who we are. Now up to retirement and into retirement. And if you learn to live intentionally today, this transition is going to be seamless. You're not gonna have the hiccups, you're not gonna have the relearning. You are going to be able to just flow right into retirement, flow right into the lifestyle. Or maintaining what you've already got, but it is yours to choose. We've really got to figure that out. And remember that just because we are going to plan doesn't mean it's a time for restriction, that it's a time for giving up. It is actually a time for learning who you are. So as you think about your own lifestyle. What are those things that truly bring you joy? Think about Marie Kondo. I've talked about her before on this podcast, but it's been a while. What things bring you joy? So think about, you know, one to three things. And if you are willing and you want to know my number one thing or my one and a half that I spend on for joy, leave me an audio message on SpeakPipe and. You'll have to do an email so I can respond back to you. There. Link is down in the show notes or come and join me on Instagram and just say, Hey, these are my things I identified and I, I just want to hear more about you, about what comforts you want to keep in your life, how I can support you in being able to do that. And if you haven't yet, I would love for you to download my retirement ready quiz. You can find that at Elevate Finances us Quiz. There's many questions on there, but take time. When you have time. It's going to give you a customized, as customized as pot as possible for being automatic a customized. These are your next steps, but the bonuses you get to join my email family, and on those weekly emails, we dig deeper into aligning your money, what that looks like with day-to-day life. I share my experiences in there. I share what clients have gone through so that you can start defining what lifestyle you want now and into retirement. All right, so your homework, I don't normally give homework. I don't know why I said that, but I want you to list out your 1, 2, 3 core pieces of your lifestyle. Remember, we could go overboard, but I really want you to hone down to. You know, the really strong ones, the, the ones that bring you so much joy. I think that's just such a great word, but that bring you so much content happiness that I always ask my clients what are, and this is the first question, as we onboard, what are the first three things that you are like, I do not wanna give these up and anchoring to those. Keeps you moving forward. And it's not saying that you have to give up everything else. It's that you have Devi, you've defined your anchors, and they're gonna carry you forward. They're going to help you reach your goals. Make sure that once you've de defined those. That you are truly spending your money on those and not letting it go to other things, other, you know, fear of missing out, whatever it is, so that you can stay anchored in who you are with money and that you can do that now and into retirement. Thanks for tuning in next week. I'm so excited to share why I became a financial coach and how that helps you get to retirement quicker.

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