5 Tips for Saving for Retirement Without Sacrificing Joy

0:00If saving for retirement feels like one big question mark, you're going to want to stay tuned into this episode. In the last episode, we talked about how to start saving, and today we're going to talk about how to save enough. Some of these tips might sound familiar, but I promise a few will surprise you. So before you keep searching for the perfect plan, let's get practical, grounded, and moving forward. Are you ready to take action? Let's dive in. Welcome to the Wealthy After 40 podcast, the show for Gen X women and couples who are ready to ditch financial stress and feel confident about retirement.

0:40I'm your host, Daylene Higgins, financial and retirement coach, helping Gen Xers master their money and create a personalized retirement plan so they can stop spinning their wheels and step boldly into their dream retirement. If you're feeling behind, don't worry. Continue listening to this podcast, as well as be sure to grab your free guide, 5 Must Do Steps to Start Retirement Planning Now at elevatefinances.us backslash must do. And remember, let's make retirement possible together.

1:17Welcome to the episode. Before we dive in, I just want to remind you, last episode, we discussed how to start saving for retirement or for anything really. And that episode was for anyone who is struggling either to get started or staying consistent. It never hurts to go back to the basics to help you build the foundation stronger because if that is laid into place, your action steps from today's episode will help you find more momentum more quickly, right? But nothing is an overnight success. As you add these tips I'm going to share with you in this episode to help you save enough for retirement.

2:01I'm going to share some you've probably heard before, but I hope and maybe can guarantee some of them you may have not. And if you have heard them, hopefully I will share them in a way that makes sense to you or is speaking to you in a different way than what you've heard before. Why do we need to save for retirement or how to save enough for retirement? the first thing you need to remember is that saving for retirement will not and cannot be an overnight success. The minute you quit looking for a quick fix or that one thing that will get you there in a short amount of time, and I've heard people say this, but you've got to get past that.

2:49And once you do, you will feel more settled and you will find yourself actually making progress, actually having success with the savings. You've got to live in the moment. Like I said in last episode, this is a long game. There is no instant gratification. Just like with health, we have got to find the wins and those celebrations at every little point. If you continue to search and search and search, this will only delay you in taking action. After listening to today's episode, I want you to promise me one thing, that you will take at least one action from either episode to help you get into that consistent saving mindset.

3:40And once you get those into place, go search for something else. Go search for something else. In my story, I share that that was like my step number eight, I believe, where I continued to learn and I continued to refine what I was already doing. It was gaining more knowledge, but don't gain knowledge if you're not putting anything into, you know, into action. A reminder from last episode, learning to save is crucial for your financial health. It's the one skill most of us neglect and is the one skill that should be cultured until it is one of our best habits with money. Why is this important for retirement?

4:28Well, first off, exactly what we're discussing today, it will help you save enough for retirement. But second, when you reach retirement, it's still very important that you know how to save. It's crucial for your financial health. Learning that skill will just transfer into retirement because in retirement, you will still have those irregular and unexpected expenses. Money, life doesn't necessarily change. It's just our trading time for the money is the only thing that's changing. The more we can learn on this side, the better off we will be on that side. And I know that's another fear. A lot of people are worried about having enough, running out of money.

5:16Get this side of life, right? This side working, figure it out. And I promise you retirement will be easier. learning to set aside money for all of the things that you can anticipate those irregular and unexpected expenses will protect your retirement lifestyle having the money ready for those quote emergencies won't take away from what you're desiring to do it is very crucial to build your savings in such a way that it will support you know support you in maintaining that lifestyle. All right, how can you save enough for retirement? I'm going to share five ways, five tips to help you save for retirement, save more for retirement, however you want to look at this.

6:07And if you're looking for more strategies or to dive deeper into the strategies I shared last episode and this episode, book a Clarity Connection call during the month of August and you will receive a bonus video training called The Fastest Way to Build Savings. Head over to elevatefinances.us backslash connection and book that call today. Tip number one, know your specific target goal. Just amassing savings without really knowing what the end goal is, is kind of difficult to go, okay, I got to keep saving how much, how long. To know your specific target goal, this is your FI number. This is covered in episode 116.

6:58And if you're looking for support in creating this number or a range, as I talked about, you know, a couple episodes, a couple episodes ago about a range with dates, I can also help you define that in the retirement roadmap session with a range on the FI number. So knowing your annual expenses that are estimated for retirement and multiply them by 25 basically gives you that FI number. Once you know this number, you now have an end goal. You now know what you're working towards. It kind of gives that specific to it. It's not, you know, just saving and hoping it's enough and then one day asking somebody.

7:42And it's also not going to a random calculator that really doesn't take in your financial situation. Now, the more clear, the more clarity you have on your situation, the better this number will be. You're going to want to continue to shape this number and recalculate this number, but it gives you the finish line. That's where you're going to reach for. That's what you're, you know, working towards. And then break that down into mini goals and celebrate along the way. Because, you know, it's going to be a while. Set yourself those mini goals within to get yourself, you know, closer and closer and closer to that end goal.

8:23Honestly, once you achieve one, you're going to want to achieve another. And I know that sounds silly, but it's not. Once we find we can do something, we'll keep going. And, you know, things seem to work out better. Tip number two, you need to find extra money. I know you've heard this before, but without sacrificing what you love, without sacrificing what joy and happiness with your money. It's not about cutting the eating out or the lattes or those things. It's about understanding your spending patterns. And these patterns can be monthly, seasonally, or annually. You know, learning about all of that through the seasons, how your expenses are going to ebb and flow will help you understand what, quote, extra money is there.

9:21What you enjoy spending on when and where it really defines and can free up, you know,$50 to$100 without that stress of, well, you can't do this and you can't do that. That will save you$100. Let it happen naturally. Let it happen naturally. And I help my clients find their initial savings bucket in the very first session inside that retirement roadmap session. And then with additional coaching, we explore these spending patterns and we actually lay out a plan for how the savings is going to be applied, where it's going to fit into your priority and get you saving for what you truly, truly, truly want.

10:07Saving doesn't have to mean doing without or sacrificing everything. You've just got to prioritize with joy and purpose and you will get there quicker and happier. Tip number three. This one, unless you attended my boot camp I had in June, those individuals have heard this, but you need to dig into what fees are you paying for your investment portfolio? What does it cost you? If you have a portfolio that is heavily managed, meaning somebody's keeping track of, you know, rebalancing that, you know, if it comes out of order. If you don't know what I'm talking about, that's fine. That's why we have them.

10:52But you may be paying upwards of 2 % a month. If you're making a return of 10%, you are only receiving 8%. And then you need to reduce that for inflation. Fees do matter. Here's a place you can explore having a greater impact on how much money you keep without having to go and look into your budget or your bank account. You can go and explore with your HR or with whoever is servicing it and just say, what are the fees for all of my options of investing? And explore that and learn that and understand what the return is, how that affects and how much of your money are you going to keep in the end.

11:43Last episode, we talked about how to get started and being consistent. Tip number four, now it's time to challenge yourself. If you remember in the last episode, we talked about making sure you were serious, getting serious, starting small. This tip, I want you to push yourself to the limit. Now, if you've been here for a while, or you've gone back and found it in my episodes, I talk about my savings challenge on occasion. It's what I used to grow my savings rate from, I think I was around 10 % up to 22%. Yes, it was not overnight. That was my ultimate journey. But I was amazed by the fact that if you increase your contribution by 1 % every month until you're looking at your budget and going, I got to pause.

12:39And then you kind of sit with that much money that you have. You've eked out, you know, probably three, four, maybe even five percent. But if you think about one percent, it's really not a lot. It does amass to be a lot, but you're not going to fill the pinch very quickly. So I'm challenging you to increase your contribution amount 1 % starting this month and every month to follow until you feel like the household doesn't have, you know, quite the buffer, the boundaries that you like. And then just pause for six to nine months and then remember to come back. What you're going to want to do is you're going to want to calculate your savings rate.

13:28This is total monthly savings divided by your gross pay. This is your starting savings percent. This is another way to measure how much you're saving. Even when you're putting into those sinking funds that seem to disappear often, but we need to have those, we can look at our savings rate and know we're saving 10 % every month. The totality on this side is like, oh, it's slow growing, but oh my gosh, I've gone from 5 % to 10 % in just six months. that it's such a good way to see the progress you are making and trying to have on your savings. Tip number five, the last one I have for you today, is I want you to start thinking today how much of your next pay raise, hoping you do have one coming.

14:21I know not everybody does, but you can do this with one-time monies as well. But I want you to decide today, before anything like this happens, how much of that you will be putting towards savings. Of your raise, are you going to commit 50 % to savings or 25 % to savings? Write it down. And then when that event happens, you're not caught up in that, oh, I could do this or I could do that or, you know, getting lost in that work, you still have 75 or 50 % of it that will support you in your, you know, spending and your budgets and growing that way. But make sure you don't neglect how it's going to support your savings.

15:08You get a promotion, you have a raise, you change jobs and it comes with a higher pay. Be ready with this idea in mind before that happens. leaning into other saving strategies instead of just cutting expenses will empower you and motivate you and I believe instead of telling you where to cut or what feels like a lot you already know this I will just help you explore those thoughts and help you see how they fit in your goal best Sometimes we just want somebody to discuss this with us in a way that makes sense. If you want to solve the problem, if you need to save enough for retirement, my coaching program does exactly that.

15:59We start with the retirement roadmap session. And in that session, as I said earlier, we will define your FI number. We will find your initial savings bucket amount. And I will also help you map a savings strategy to, number one, build stability and grow your retirement savings. We'll solve all of those irregular and unregular expenses and also help your retirement account to grow. So if that interests you, book a free call. Again, that's at elevatefinances.us backslash connection. and let's discuss how the Retirement Roadmap session and my Aligned Money Method can help you build savings. And remember, for the month of August, if you book your call during this month, you will receive a bonus free video training called The Fastest Way to Build Savings.

16:57I'm gonna go deeper into strategies, explain a little bit more, and give you some extra ones that we have not covered in these two last episodes. To summarize the episode, there are five tips I gave you today. You're ultimately looking for how much you need for financial freedom, having that end goal, tip one, right? Then freeing up as much money. And again, if you remember last episode, it doesn't matter the size of that, but free up some extra money by exploring your expenses without the mentality of I need to cut or else. We get stuck in this, I've got to make it happen. So I'm going to cut this, cut that, and then we're not happy and we can't stay consistent.

17:49Explore how much you're truly paying in portfolio fees. You will be surprised. You will be surprised. And if you book a call and get that video. I'm gonna explain more about how to do that, why you should do that and different reasons for different packages that you're investing in with your employer can make a difference. And then make sure you are challenging yourself to grow your savings rate in the next three months by a minimum of 3%. You will amaze yourself if you can go past that, but at least a minimum. And last, make a rule for how you will contribute part of your next pay raise, promotion raise, whatever it is, to your retirement savings.

18:38I hope you found this episode helpful. I thank you for listening, and I hope you'll join me in the next episode.

18:49Thank you for spending this time with me. If you're not already following the show, be sure to hit subscribe so you don't miss what's coming next. And I'd love to stay connected with you between episodes. So come join me inside my Facebook community, Retirement Ready Hub for Gen Xers. It's where we're having real conversations about money, sharing wins, working through challenges, and building a clear path toward retirement. And remember, retirement isn't just a dream, it's a plan, and you get to make it possible.

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