The Retirement Exercise That Changed My Life (And My Clients')

Welcome to the episode. And before we dive into this episode, I want to celebrate my client who was feeling bad about spending. Oh man, the doom and gloom when she first jumped on a call with me was very much there. I could almost see it through the screen and. Just talking to her about it is the first thing she said, but she was able to break through, and she's able to not think about spending as good or bad. She thinks about spending now at the point of it happening, and it's not a good or bad, but it's a shift in, how is this supporting me and serving me? If you have been feeling this way, or have any other shame or guilt around your finances, be sure to book that free retirement vision session with me. This, we can talk about your retirement vision, but we can also talk about other things money. It's a 30 minute call. We can dive into what your next step is to help you break free from whatever's holding you back. And just to note, my prices will be rising January of 2025. However, if you book a call before the end of the year, you will get access to 2024 pricing through January 15th. An extra 15 days to prepare, think about it, get your, sometimes people think they need to get their finances in order, but making that investment can be a huge change. Today's episode is all about my why. And what I'm hoping is to help you understand why you need to create your why. When I first started in business, I really didn't understand that and it took a while to work through it. you know, if you're somebody that you're like, I'm not sure what you mean and what is all of that I'm hoping this will kind of demonstrate, you know, the two different things that I've got going on and help you create your why. And I'll explain why that why is so important. When I began, My initial journey, I had a moment where I realized I had about 13 years to get stuff in order if I wanted to have that door open to retirement. That was my first aha moment in realizing that, man, that could happen in 13 years if I truly wanted to. I would have been 48. But, I began thinking about that, and I was one who was always worried about being the cog in the wheel. And as I say that, it comes from two different perspectives. Being stuck and feeling like I can't leave a job. There's times that things change and our jobs are not that great anymore. We're ready for something new. Or we start losing our momentum as an individual because of age. And watching other co workers fall into this quote trap. Nothing bad against them. I wanted to have my option open. I did not want to be stuck having to go to work because there was no other way. I did not want to be stuck for others to be able to step into and have advancement, you know, that ability. There's a lot of times you have higher ups and they're just sitting there. They're stuck, they're stagnant, and it's really hard on the other coworkers. I did not want to be that. So essentially that was my way. Fast forward from that time to 15 years and I was able to retire at the age of 50. I had created that door to be open for me. I went through it. I prepared for it. That is why I'm a financial coach because I had just, man, reached the, you know, big goal, my big dream. I'm like, this feels so good. I want other people to feel the same way about whatever their dream was. And so as I began working together with other individuals, you know, I've helped people Get out of debt. You know, that was their dream and goal at the time. And we really broke them free so they could start moving ahead. I helped another client to be able to purchase her home to then be able to go on into, you know, investment properties and build her retirement plan. I worked with another client who wanted to get her personal finances in order as a pro as an entrepreneur so that she could work really hard as doing that and be able to cut back with her husband having to work so hard. There were a lot of things going on and I loved it all. However, as I was working in it, I began to see some gaps. See some gaps, hear some gaps, and I'm just like, wow, this is not good. And the biggest gap I saw. Was individuals focused on just money for retirement? Now, yes, you need to worry about money in retirement. However, That is a hard thing to do. I have to save a million dollars or two million dollars or whatever your number is. That doesn't, that doesn't give any desire to want to do something to really amass that and be patient and, you know, stick to your financial journey. And I realized that a lot of individuals were stuck thinking, I'll retire at 65. I'm like, why is that number there? And then, you know, I'll retire when I get social security or I'll retire when I get Medicare. Like those are some statements that are holding you back. This is something that people just do. And by doing that, you're just, you're just going about it. And then you enter retirement and you're bored. You have no purpose. There's no enjoyment here. Like, what did you build? You didn't build anything. So being able to create your why for retirement, it's a second phase. Life is not over. Life is not over until it's over. I saw this gap and I believe financials are great in growing your money, but I wanted to be able to serve in creating that dream and desire. That's pillar one of mine. We define, we define what retirement is going to be for you. Why? Well, when I defined what I wanted to do, you know, in 13 plus years, the motivation, the desire to do things differently came very easy. It's a long road. It can be a long road, but having the desire to want to reach it made doing some of those harder things in that moment a lot easier. Being able to, instead of just saving that dollar amount, define what it is that you want for retirement. That's my pillar one. Pillar two, we organize your current finances. And it's more than a budget. It's more than, you know, tracking or creating that cash flow where money is moving, supporting you in all of the right places. But you get to learn who you are, what you enjoy about money. Just like my client who got over that feeling bad about spending money. Oh my gosh, that was huge. She, that was a heavy, heavy burden, but it was through that organization that we were able to get free from that. And boom, she was able to clear her head of that and make more progress. We explore, you get to know who you are with money. You know where your money's going. It's just easy. Okay, it takes a bit to get there, but it is easy. And then step three, we plan. We have a point A and a point Z, and then we create a plan of all those other letters in between. You know exactly what you need to do. Amassing that number that financial advisor told you. But there's other things you can do as well to get that going. And once we've done that, and you lay it out and you see what you need to do, you'll probably go, okay, that's not that bad. Enter pillar number four, acceleration strategies. If we have defined your why and got you organized where you're feeling really good with your money, we'll reach into those acceleration strategies to hopefully help you shave off two or three years. But if we have not created your why, if we have not defined your dream, you're not going to want to do that., being able to create your why is so important, and that is why I made a shift. It's probably late summer. That I made the shift into helping people plan their retirement more than just getting their money organized. Now, I've worked with clients who have enough money for retirement and they're trying to figure out how to keep themselves on track, definitely, we do that, but there's still more. There's still more. Your action steps in today's episode. I want you to create your why. I know it's hard. I've been there. That's why I like to use the words dream and desires. And I want you to ask yourself this question. Why would you want to retire today? It's not some future, end date. But why would you want to retire today? What do you desire to do? When you're thinking about going to work Sunday night, and you have to wake up on that Monday morning, why would What is it that you're like, Oh my gosh, I wish I could just go do X, Y, and Z. You fill in those blanks. Maybe for the weekend you were doing a hobby, but now you have to put it on the shelf because you've got work, you've got other commitments, and who knows how long that hobby is going to sit on the shelf and you really enjoy that, whatever it is. Mine is reading. There can be, you know, sewing. I know a lot of, a lot of individuals who like to sew quilts and make, you know, those great things and that becomes their quote, universe. This is where they meet people and they get to have relationships. Then I want you to think about your family, your friends, your co workers even. What relationships have been minimized due to your lack of time? Oh my gosh, getting up, going to work every day. I did it for 32 years. I did it longer than that. But the 32 years that I did, that I put in to be able to get my pension, and while I say 9 to 5, it wasn't always a 9 to 5. Some days they were requiring me to work a 7 to 6. Nurses, I don't know how you do it. I hated it. I know if there's a different level pace. Energy, all of that, you can do a longer shift and that is probably wise, but like that's a lot of time. Even eight hours a day because you think about drive time. You've got your lunch in there. You've got your time. You're planning for work. Your time that you're putting in, it's more than eight hours. What relationships, and even a relationship with yourself, has been minimized due to the lack of time? Then, remember the first question I asked you, why would you want to retire today? I want you to think about who is going to be there with you in retirement. Is there a special friend, family, somebody who lives far away and now it's time to either be able to travel to them a whole lot more often, or you're going to be able to relocate and be close to them. But who is going to be there with you in retirement? There's a lot more to start thinking about at the beginning step of planning for retirement. And I want you to be able to really spend some time thinking about this because if you create, I want to say it this way, if you create a world, if you create a little dream, and you're like, yes, that is it. That is what I want. And I want it as soon as I can. You can do hard things. You can do amazing things because you know, you have to find exactly what that end goal is. How much better is it to think about retirement that way, as opposed to when do I get social security? When do I get Medicare? When do I, you know, all of those things. And those are important, but they don't come in and tell step three, I'm sorry. They do not. And they should not. If you're somebody that's in your late forties and your fifties. We have got to go into a why do you want to retire today? We have worked a long time. We've worked hard. We've held some careers. We've balanced the family, the home, everything, everything that's going on. Your action step is to create your why. And it might take some time. But I want you to dive into there and create, create, create. I want you to build your world. Maybe you're a reader like me, right now it's going to be a fiction world and you're going to think, Oh my gosh. Once you get to that point and you think there's no way this can happen, can you please book a free call with me? Book that retirement vision session. Share with me your why. And let's talk about creating an action plan. And let's get those limiting beliefs out of your head. So that you are strong, you are grounded, and you can make retirement happen. While I hated the create your why when I started business, I do like to share other words because everything's going to resonate differently. That's how I work with clients in coaching is there's a lot of different ways to teach the same thing or show the same thing. So your why, your dream, your desire, your vision, your world, Hopefully one of those words got you thinking, I want you to go build it. I want you to go build it. Thank you for being with me today. And I'm excited to continue to share my passion, my new why, and support you on reaching your goal of retirement. We'll see you next week.