One Simple Step To Help You Plan For Your Retirement
“ Priorities are the building blocks of a retirement ready plan. One solved priority, creates momentum for the next. “
When you think about retirement planning, do you feel pressured to give up the things you enjoy today so you can save for the future? That’s a false choice. You don’t have to live with restrictions to create security for tomorrow.
In this episode, I’ll show you how to bring balance to your money so you can enjoy life now while still building your retirement dreams. By the end of today’s conversation, you’ll know how to structure your spending and saving in a way that feels sustainable, purposeful, and aligned with what matters most to you.
What You’ll Learn
✅ Why “all or nothing” thinking keeps you stuck with money and retirement planning
✅ How to create simple rules for balancing debt payoff, saving, and spending
✅ The truth about why over-saving or over-spending leads to burnout
✅ Three steps to implement the “now and later” philosophy with your money
✅ How to use systems (not willpower) to stay consistent
Unedited Transcript for This Podcast Episode
Click HERE for Full Transcript of Episode
Welcome to the episode. I wanna start out by sharing that one of the main philosophies I teach my clients is balance. This comes in multiple areas and different ways. But where it is needed, I help clients structure this philosophy with what I call rules. Now, I know rules sound restrictive, but they're really powerful. For example, if you are looking to pay off debt and save for retirement, I would help coach you through creating a rule for this. We dive into, you know, looking at the overall impact and what your ultimate desire is for both of the goals. You know, how quickly you know, do you want it, do you wanna, you know, explore it? Are you behind in certain areas? Is it overwhelming? Whatever it is. But when I say a rule. This comes as a percentage. If you're looking to pay off debt and save for retirement, it can be a 50 50 or a 25 75. But like I said, it depends on your goals and the overall impact this 50 50, 25, 75 would have. So exploring those opportunities and then understanding that you have the power in doing that, and it's not. A one and done. We can say, I'm gonna do 50 50 until this point and then I'm gonna do 25 75. Or heck, you know, percentages are 85, 15, or 90 10. It just depends. But I wanna say there is not one rule or one statement that I would give about saving and debt or spending and saving other than you need to balance now and later. So let's get nostalgic for just a moment. Do you remember those candies from our generation child years? Those now and later? I was chatting with my coach and we were, you know, I'm like, oh, I like to help people balance their money now and later. And I'm like, oh, those candies, you know? And she's like, is that what they're called? And I'm like, I'm pretty sure. So I Google them. They still have a website. But what I loved was their statement, their motto on there. Chew now and chase your later. And I thought, yes, this is so fitting for the all overall strategy that I use this now and later. Enjoy your now and chase your later. Chase your future. You've gotta find that balance. You've gotta think about it in that way. So hopefully you remember those candies, whether you loved them or hate them, there is a lot that you have now, and then you had the enjoyment for a little bit longer. Let's shift into thinking about planning for retirement. A scarcity mind or restrictive mindset will tell you you have to save every extra dollar for retirement. That's probably not true, and it really just depends. But even if you find that you haven't saved a lot of money, money, there still isn't a reason. That you couldn't enjoy any of your money now. We do. That's what I get from clients all the time, but I work hard now and I do, you know, I deserve a reward. And I'm like, yes, yes you do. However, what is the impact if all of that is happening now and we're not looking at the later, so, you know, we've got to shift and get out of that scarcity mindset of I need it now, or I've gotta save everything for the future. If you are thinking that once you focus on planning for retirement, it will mean that you have to deprive yourself. This thought will prevent you from taking even the smallest step closer to retirement. This belief has you avoiding doing anything that is taking away from now because you think the exchange is one of sacrifice. I am here to tell you it doesn't need to be that way or feel that way. You honestly can enjoy now while creating something amazing for later. So again, remember the motto of the now and later, chew now and chase your later. Why is balance so important? Without balance, there is nothing guiding you. You know, for enjoyment, for self-satisfaction, and really you find yourself overspending and then regretting it without balance, you might be over saving. Right now everything is going to saving and it's leaning to burnout and or finding some rebellion spending. One situation or the other is going to leave you, lead you to overspending if you can't narrow in that balance. Think about that now and later. Just that self-satisfaction of I saved this money so that I can enjoy my trip in two years or whatever it is. Self-satisfaction to save money for retirement because I have such an amazing vision and I'm gonna bring it to pass. Sustainable retirement planning comes from aligning the joy today, you do deserve to get rewarded for working hard, but also for the security you're building for tomorrow. Okay, let me say that again. Sustainable retirement planning comes from aligning both the joy today and the security tomorrow. How do you begin implementing this now and later philosophy? First, you need to identify your priorities, really thinking about what means the most to you. First off, let's, let's talk about what do you love spending on right now? You know, truly what brings you enjoyment in the now and make that it's not a list, it's not an exhaustive list, but what are the one or two things that you spend your money on that you get so much enjoyment out of it? You know, you're like, man, that was so good. Kind of like a good massage, man, that was worth that money. You know? What is it for you that does those things? You know? And we do need to limit ourselves. One or two things. Within reason. Maybe if you still have kids, you know, maybe it's three things with that, because including family is important and having that, if you have listened to my journey, or I even talked about it in a recent episode that, you know, our short term focus was anything recreational, meaning we went camping on four-wheeling and you know, we bought property. We had a camp trailer that was for family. That was what we enjoyed to do. And so ours was the one thing. However, my daughter loved her sports, so that was another thing. Being able to find that balance but not overdue. Alright, number two, you've got to focus on that now and the future. You need to direct most of your money towards what matters now and your retirement future. And I think a lot of clients that I work with, they're stuck on that, you know, putting off until the future because they're not quite sure what that vision looks like. Well, I wanna retire when I'm 65, or I wanna retire in 10 years. That's not enough. That's not enough. And I'm not diving into that here as I've done several episodes. So head over to episode 98, or episode or both one 20. And those will help you dive in deeper about how to create this dream, this vision, and understand, get an excited about it, just that creating that enjoyment for the future comes with envisioning it, with dreaming about it, with building it right now. If you've listened to those and you're like still not clear on, you know, what that vision could be or what you're trying to, you know, dial into, jump on a clarity connection call and let's help you, you know, gain that clarity around your retirement vision. Maybe there's something that you've got, you're stuck or you haven't thought about. That's what a coach is all about, is helping you open up and thinking about other things. Head over to Elevate Finances us. Slash connection and schedule that 45 minute call. Let's jump on there. Let's define that for you. Let's get you excited about that vision. All right, number three is you need to use systems and not willpower. I read a book, it's been a little bit ago, it was called Willpower, so you can look it up if you want. And basically this author said, there is no such thing as Will Willpower. And after reading that and thinking of it that way, I'm like, oh man, I don't need to just create this willpower, he's like, you need to learn the skills and the habits that work for you. Yeah, that's the key is finding something that syncs with you that is easy, but gives you the same results as something else. Your system is going to be a money management system. Inside of this is your budget, the tracking against that budget, your syncing funds and automations. That will help you keep balance without overthinking. Systems can do a lot of the heavy lifting. You've just gotta get it set up right and be able to support you. I worked with a client who was budgeting, but it wasn't working for her. She was lacking the other pieces of that system, so helping her set up her system, she was able in 90 days to save $7,500. She put 5,000 to savings, 2,500 to pay off debt because while working together, we also created a rule for her, that now and later, and being able, she knew what her focuses were and she knew what her priorities were, so, just bringing in the rest of the system gave her the power to be able to. You know, create this momentum. If you want similar results, I invite you to check out the retirement roadmap session. In that session, I can help you define your priorities, create some rules if you need, and provide a budget to get you going. If that is of interest, again head over to Elevate Finances US slash connection for a free call, and let's chat about what that will look fi like for you to go check out this session. It's also on Elevate Finances us slash roadmap. Go read. What we cover in that, how long it is the cost of it, it's all right there. But again, jump on that free call if you have questions. To recap the episode, being able to save enough for retirement doesn't come through sacrificing your enjoyment today. It comes from learning how to balance the now and later through priorities. Focuses and systems. I hope this episode was supportive in helping you expand your mindset around money, and that it's not an all or nothing, that it can be a variety of different leverages to help you build what you need and what you want. The biggest thing that I've seen out there was an individual who said. I wished I would've known. Retirement was not an age, but was a number. If you have been stuck on that age thing for a while, lean into that number. Let's see what that can do for you, and let's get you moving to an awesome, wonderful retirement. Thank you for tuning into the episode. Please leave a review or share with a friend. I would surely appreciate it. We'll see you next episode.
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