Wondering How to Secure Your Retirement? Here’s Your Guide to Financial Stability

 In today's episode, we're going to talk about financial stability and why it's so crucial to retirement. But financial stability isn't just crucial to retirement, it's crucial to everybody who has money and wants to feel secure. So before I dive into the specifics of this episode, I just want to share what financial stability means. Now if you've heard emergency fund, this is a little bit in that. I like to take it a step further and really it is being in a position That if anything were to happen or most anything were to happen. you have the funds to cover it. You're not taking on debt, you're not extra stressed or worried, and you know the steps you need to take that put you in such a better position even if it exceeds what you have saved. You know better what you can do and how you can support yourself. The reason I wanted to share this topic was one of my recent clients, as she began to work with me, she was sharing that a co worker I had shared with her she was going to have to put off her retirement by at least a year due to storm damage from a recent tropical storm. As she was sharing this, I could tell she was worried for herself. And, you know, concerned, uncertainties, all of those in that sense. I shared with her that my program taught how to build financial stability. How to be prepared for a situation similar to this. Now, we don't know if we're going to be, quote, victims of a tropical storm. We don't know if, you know, certain things are going to happen, and we just need to prepare better. I remember back when my father had heart bypass. And, you know, they say, okay, he'll spend a day or two in ICU, then two or three days in the hospital, he go home, he'll, it'll be fine. He ended up spending the six days in ICU. His body was struggling to recover for whatever reason. And I thought to myself, I don't have to worry about how my parents are going to pay this medical bill. ICU is not cheap. It's a situation that happened and overextended due to him and his health or whatever reasons. And I only got to worry about him and hoping he would get better. Not that second additional worry about how are they going to pay for it. This is going to just wreck him. I knew that. And that also taught me the importance of financial stability. As you think about financial stability, Think of how it can eliminate the stresses of these emergency events. It won't completely wipe out everything, but we can definitely eliminate one major factor. We can eliminate ongoing stress of, you know, if we have to end up taking out debt to cover this. , a lot of individuals aren't exactly sure what financial stability is, but they have heard of. Emergency funds. So this has probably been you and you have an emergency fund, but all too likely you're dipping into that often. You're not clear, like, when you should be dipping into that. That was me. I felt like emergency fund, the very, you know, if you Google that, it's going to tell you, you know, 3 to 6 or 6 to 12 months of expenses due to job loss. Okay, those both of those situations I shared with you at the beginning of the episode had nothing to do with job loss. I can see that there's a disconnect in why we need to have emergency funds and how to define them to make it easier for us to be able to dip in it or to not be able to dip into it. I have many clients come and they're say, I try to do savings, but then I need it. And there is a two fold for that, which I will jump into in a minute. I want to talk about emergency savings. I found a survey some statistics from a survey Forbes did. And they said 38 percent of responding people for the survey had 1, 000 to 2, 000 saved for emergencies. So that's 38%. While 18 percent had no savings at all. So 56%, you add those two percentages together, they're not prepared for an emergency. I mean, they're not prepared for a large emergency. One to 2, 000 is great, but what are you going to do? 37 percent of Americans can't afford an unexpected expense over 400. And then 34 percent say they couldn't cover a 1, 000 emergency without taking on debt. Thinking about that, what are your insurance deductibles? We're going to dive into that just a little bit. So they also shared that when people have had a financial emergency in the past six months, the most common expenses were car repairs, home repairs, and medical bills. Not job loss. Not job loss. Now, if you're in an industry that has that, I, yes, you need to be, you know, covering that, supporting that, but that's just one area. That is one area that does not financially cover you for all of the situations. The last statistics in 2022, 28 percent of adults went without some form of medical care because they couldn't afford it. And it's interesting that this ties into the largest worry of individuals as they approach retirement. They're worried about running out of their savings, and the biggest worry is that medical will deplete this. So what do you do? The best stance you can take, the best situation you can set yourself up for, is to create financial stability. Create stability to support possibilities of things happening, and I'm not saying being a Debbie Downer, and I'm not saying you have to have a crystal ball, but there are definitely areas within our lives where we can start setting money aside for when things happen. I already mentioned three of them. Car repairs, home repairs, and medical bills. Within those three, somebody's car repair fund is going to be different from somebody else's, especially if you have a newer car, an older car, one car, three cars, ? There's a lot of different things to add into and figure that, but if you have some form of savings for car repairs, That is one step in the right direction. Same with home repairs. Maybe you're renting. There's still going to be a little bit to cover, but not in the same regard as somebody who owns their home. And we all probably have medical bills to some extent or another, and being prepared for that is huge. Understanding how to then have the capability to pay for any one of those things is huge. When I say financial stability, Essentially, I mean, you need liquid savings. Liquid savings is money you can access within one or two days without losing the value of that money, ? We're not talking in investments of any sort to help support you in a quick turn of events. Or maybe it's not even a quick turn of events, it's just a situation as you're transitioning through life, as you're transitioning through retirement. My most recent transition, relocating, I realized the importance of having more liquid savings than I did. And I had a pretty good amount set aside. But through that transition, I was like, dang, I needed more. I needed more. So don't go with a base. Go higher than you think you can. Start with a base, ? That's the achievable way of reaching these goals, is having a base, and then push yourself because you're going to need it. ? Financial stability means saving money in key areas for support when something does happen. And as I say that, and as an individual. Looking at retirement in the next 5, 10, 15 years. Don't let life events derail your retirement. Be sure to set money aside for these key areas. If you're unsure where to start, this is a strategy I teach inside both my 90 day program and my membership. Now if you've been listening, you know my membership is new. Doors are opening September 23rd. We'll walk you through, it includes this, it supports you, the difference between the membership and my coaching program within this realm is that, you know, a little higher touch, customization, personalization, support for different key areas in your life. However. Even having said that, membership will set you up on a great path of knowing what you need to cover and how that's going to work. And then when something that you haven't, quote, anticipated happens, you still know how to take care of it and then how to put back those funds. That is the stability part. Being able to Create that stability and continue that stability as you're going to use it. We all know our car is going to break down. We all know we're going to have to repair the house at some point or another. Being able to tie that need, tie that level of support into your cash flow strategy is huge. And having the stability built before retirement will help ensure an easier transition. For As well as the knowledge to continue building this into retirement. Just because we retire, emergencies don't end. In fact, they may occur more often just because of age. Things are happening more. Our homes are a little bit older, you know, things happen. But being prepared is key. And being prepared with money, stability. Stability will support not only those headed to retirement, but anybody. Anybody. I know that the level of debt out there for the majority of individuals comes from this, this part of money. Not being prepared, not being able to handle those irregular expenses, but this time we are talking about beyond that. If you're somebody that is worried about your savings running out in retirement, this is where you need to put some focus to. Now, you still need to save for retirement. Yes, you've got to invest for the long term. That is not my lane, other than I can help you find savings to give to your financial advisor, but really building the stability so that when something does happen on the home front, you're able to quickly have that money, take care of it, have a strategy. that works for you as opposed to being, you know, turning to your credit, having to take out a loan, having to get a HELOC, whatever measures you have thought or done before, this will set you up. If this strategy is of any interest to you, be sure to check out my membership. There's a link to the sales page down in the show notes. There's also a link to my 90 day program. If you're wanting higher touch, quicker results, both of those will support the financial stability. I believe this area is key. It has protected my family. It has protected me individually. I love having that reserve of money to support changes in life. Sometimes we are thinking we're going down one path, something happens, or maybe something doesn't happen, but there's a different desire. This will help you be able to pivot without worry, making a better plan and supporting you into achieving your financial goals in the future. I thank you for listening, and Please reach out if you have any questions and we'll see you next week.