Why Your Retirement Number Should Be Personalized
episode
Wealthy After 40: Retirement Planning and Budgeting for Gen X
14 min
1 speaker
5 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why do Gen Xers still feel uncertain about retirement despite years of saving?
Hey there, and welcome to Wealthy After 40. I'm Dailene Higgins, your podcast host and financial coach. If you're a Gen X woman or couple who's worried about retirement, maybe you feel like you're starting late or don't have enough saved, you're in the right place. This show is all about ditching the financial stress and creating a retirement plan that works for your life now and later. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let's figure this out together.
Picture this. It's Friday evening. You just got home. It's six o'clock. You've worked all week. You're tired. Dinner still needs to happen. Maybe you're scrolling your phone while the TV plays in the background and somewhere in your mind you think, I don't know if I can do another 10 years of this. Not because you hate your job, but you're tired and you've been working for a long time. And And even though you're saving, you've been contributing to retirement for years, you still think, is it going to be enough? Am I doing enough? And because you don't know the answer, you push the thought aside. And honestly, the weekend swallows up the worry because weekends are amazing weekends. Weekends are great. And so you repeat this again on Friday, Friday evening.
So if you're in your 40s or 50s, chances are you've been doing responsible things. Now, again, it may not be perfect, but you've been contributing to yourself. your 401, or a retirement plan of some sort.
How does generic retirement advice and calculators fail to answer 'Am I on track?'
You've tried to save more. You're trying to save as much as you can. Now you've listened to podcasts, calculators, you've talked to coworkers, and maybe you've attended HR retirement meetings. But despite all of the information you're taking in, you still don't feel confident. You haven't found your answer of, is this enough? And it's because saving without a strategy creates anxiety. You can still save every month and still have no idea if you're on track because the strategy is actually to know how much you actually need. So most women that I talk to They are trying hard to figure this out. That's how we end up here. That's how you ended up finding me. And you've consumed a lot of information, but everything you're hearing is generic, especially those statements that someone says you need $2 million or another person says at least a million.
And then the online calculator gave you a completely different answer. And suddenly retirement... not only feels overwhelming, but impossible. So you either panic or avoid it. Hiding from it takes away that worry, that nag that you'll never be able to do it. And so honestly, you just surrender and tell yourself, I guess I'll just work longer. But the issue isn't a lack of information. The issue is that none of it is personalized to you. This was the exact story of a client who had come to me with that fear. I'm not on track. I don't know that I need to make changes so I can get there. She was still trying. That's the way most of my clients are. I'm being told one thing, but I want to make it happen. As we sat down, we reviewed all of her numbers.
We put them in the formula I've given you multiple times on this podcast. And I said, you know what, according to what you're spending and these calculations, you are on track. There was such a huge gap from the retirement online calculator to what we actually formulated. And if you remember me talking about this formula is used heavily and has been for years in that FIRE community. She quickly went from panicked to relieved to excited because for the first time she could see the path. not what somebody else had said, but her path, what numbers actually pertained to her. So if you're telling yourself, I still have time, I know I do, and you're still trying to find that piece of clarity, you are right.
And clarity is what you need because it buys you options later. The earlier or the quicker you understand your numbers, the more choices you create.
How can knowing your personal numbers turn panic into a clear retirement path?
I've talked about decisions, money decisions on this podcast before. Part of my framework, knowing how to make decisions when things happen or how to work around to make best decisions that are affecting now and later.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
Why do Gen Xers still feel uncertain about retirement despite years of saving?
0:05–1:55
2
How does generic retirement advice and calculators fail to answer 'Am I on track?'
1:55–5:22
3
How can knowing your personal numbers turn panic into a clear retirement path?
5:22–9:16
4
What options can clarity about your retirement numbers create for work and lifestyle?
9:16–13:25
5
Why is self-knowledge over 40 more valuable than generic calculators for planning retirement?
13:25–13:55
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from Wealthy After 40: Retirement Planning and Budgeting for Gen X
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4 Signs of Quiet Financial Stress That Delay Retirement
Why Do You Fear Retirement? The Answer Might Surprise You