Can We Retire Sooner Than Planned?

0:00What if you or your spouse are ready to retire sooner than expected, but you're unsure if you can afford it. Today's episode, I'll walk you through what you need to consider and how to figure out if it is a possibility. 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. I'm your host, Dailene 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.

0:41If 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. Welcome to the episode. I'm Dalene Higgins, CEO of Elevate Finances, helping women and couples over 45 go from financial uncertainty to complete clarity and control with your retirement planning. Today's episode, we're talking about the need or the want of retiring sooner. And to clarify, I'm not meaning retire today or retire immediately.

1:31I found myself in a very similar situation with my husband. Work was just not healthy or a well place for him to be in many different ways. Many couples experience the same situation where one person is either emotionally or physically done with their job. I'm sure you can relate. There are things that just become very, very stressful, very, very demanding, and they're just not well for us. And to have this person say, can I retire sooner? And if you are the one who manages the day-to-day finances, you really want to say yes. You really want to say yes. But in the back of your mind, you're not sure if you'll be able to afford it.

2:28That it's just like, ah. And you know the weight of and the challenges with what is going on. But on the backside, you're like, I just don't know how I can make this work. I want you to, after this episode, go listen to episode 125, where I talk about what if you're closer to retirement than you think. In addition to this episode, we're going to work together to help this possibility, because now it's a possibility. We've brought it to fruition. We've asked the question, and we want to make it as big and great as possible. The closer we learn, the more we learn. It just becomes a very big possibility.

3:18But like I said, you're like, I'm just not sure how we would be able to make this work. We need all of our income to survive. There's the weeks or the months where the spending just seems like boom, boom, boom, boom with all the things happening. You're fine. You make it, but it takes all your money. Other times you're like, yeah, I don't need all my money. And you're kind of in this flip-flop. So you're like, I just don't know. I would love to tell you yes, but I'm just not sure. That uncertainty. To help you start exploring if this is a possibility. We're going to start with that. I have three questions for you to answer.

4:10The first question is I want you to think what expenses will go away when you stop working. We've talked about this a little bit before, but what expenses are tied to the idea of you working or the actual, you know, that you're working. You're going to have a commute if you're not remote. That's not only fuel, it's wear and tear on the car. If you're going into office, it might be a certain, you know, dress standard. Are you going to wear that day to day? You know, some of those things that are tied to our careers, to our employment, to the places we're at. What is that that's coming out of your pocket to make that happen that will no longer be?

5:01The second question is what is a benefit from the employer that is important to your finances that you will definitely need to replace? And the first one, the most common one everybody thinks of is health insurance. Yes. We need to identify if there's anything else. You know, life insurance. Is there any benefits that you want to keep that they give you? Explore what those are. And if they are important to your finances, important to you being able to, you know, assert the risk, you know, offset that risk of things, which is what health insurance is, then we need to find out what the cost is. a cost of that is going to be to replace that.

5:53Now, if you're both working, it might be the other spouse has another option for health insurance. There's definitely a lot to explore. The third question is for the individual retiring, will this be a full retirement, partial retirement, you know, just a break, or is this like a career pivot? And why is this important. Well, you're not going to need to replace 100 % of that income. And understanding that will help you really get to what is the true cost of this person retiring? What is that true cost that remains after all of these adjustments, all of these additions, making sure that you're exploring the holistic picture of it and just what is that true cost?

6:52Going back, reflecting with my husband and ready to retire, he's like, I'll just go back to work after. I'll find another place. Well, emotionally, I was like, I don't want you to be tied to something that's not good. We've already done that. I don't want to enter back into that. And he really had a desire to just work very flexible, part-time, maybe even seasonal. He was talking about all the places that he could and wanted to explore working. That's why it's important for you to understand what the person's retirement picture is going to look like. As he's sharing this and as I'm thinking, I don't want you to be tied to a job that is not good.

7:37I want to make sure that we are going to be okay, that we can cover what the true expense is going to be when you retire. Now, the biggest contributor to me knowing this was going to happen and be the option, we can take that option. I've talked about that before. It was my budget. My budget helped me know that we would be okay. So numbers, they don't have feelings. We bring the feelings to the numbers. We bring the fears. We bring the beliefs. So really, when you start looking at it, you've just got to look at it for what it is. My budget said, yep, he can take the leap. He can take the jump.

8:28And then once, you know, because I was like, you can't get a job until I know that we're going to be okay, because I don't want you to be tied to something that was just as bad is what we left. Why would I have us do that? Then the actual doing it after the decision was made, it was my budget that confirmed we were okay. Now I know that sounds like a big leap and you're like, how can you do that? The clarity with your numbers is where you increase your belief. and if you have dialed in your budget, we've talked about budgets are only estimates, but if you have been working with your budget for a while, dialed it in, you are not going to be that far off.

9:17Even anticipating expense reductions and expense additions that we've talked about, those are going to be the new things. Those are where you're going to have your play, But overall, income equals expenses is your budget. And as long as it's equal or greater, you're going to be okay. How do you do what I did? How do you begin creating the possibility in your mind? Because we've got to remove that idea of I need all of my money to live. We don't have enough. You know, the first thing you're going to want to do is know what it costs to run your household. Meaning, what are your groceries, your fuel, your bills, your entertainment?

10:13What do you need to sustain your life every single month? The second thing you're going to do is you're going to make the adjustments we talked about above. removing work expenses or reductions, either complete removal or, you know, just a reduction. This is going to be fuel, clothes, if there's any other memberships that you were paying for that had to be because of work. And then you're going to add in any new costs that you will need to cover. Remember, we're finding out what the true cost is. So add in those new costs, You've got an estimate from somebody on the phone. You've started exploring these things.

11:03And now what you're going to do, you have a new expense number. You're going to subtract your income because it's only one of you retiring right now. Subtract your income. And then what is left is what you need to replace. Instead of thinking, oh, it's all of it. Maybe your spouse is the higher wage earner. maybe you're not working and that could look differently, but I'm talking when both spouses are working and one is ready to leave. This will help you get to what you need to replace. And then you begin exploring that as to, is that possible? Do I have enough saved? What does that look like?

11:49If it's going to be just a partial retirement, remember if it's only going to be for a few months, then maybe savings is going to cover you. It is all of these what-if scenarios. This is what I help clients put together in the retirement roadmap session. So you have a desire, you want to explore it, creating your current budget and a retirement budget for you. Then we talk about the what-ifs. Earlier, I said we weren't talking about retiring today. But what if you wanted 10 years, but we really want to shoot for five? We can answer what that looks like in the what if scenarios. Helping you see what you're living on, what you would be living on, and really helping you understand that you only need to replace the true cost, not 100 % of the income.

12:47We need to remember that we need to run the numbers and not let fear run the story. Again, like I said, numbers don't have emotions. We bring the emotions to them. That is where we need to let go, remove that, and just look at the numbers. And again, like I said, that is what we do in the retirement roadmap session. But to get there, if you're interested in exploring the possibilities and the options, you need to book a free confidence kickstart call. Do that at elevatefinances.us backslash kickstart. During the 30 minutes, we'll talk about the possibilities. We'll talk about creating the option or options.

13:33Hopefully we have more than one. And I'll also determine if you're a good fit for my retirement roadmap session. To be able to look at those what-if scenarios, I need to have some more information from you. And it's going to take longer than the 30 minutes, but we can get a good pulse on what's going, how you're feeling. Get over that fear of, I have to have all that money. Whatever is holding you back, we will resolve in that 30 minutes. because once you see your numbers and once you see that possibility, you can move from wishing or hoping to knowing. And that's what changes everything. Seeing those numbers, seeing the what ifs, knowing what you need to do to make that what if actually happen, it's just powerful.

14:29It's just powerful. All right. Let's quickly recap what we've talked about. If you're thinking about retiring sooner, you need to start with what income needs to be replaced, not how much does that person make. And there's a difference. And you've got to dial that in. You've got to get an understanding of what it takes to run your household and why. We need to know the why. Again, book your free confidence kickstart call and I'll help you know what's possible. It's all about possibilities today and what to do next. I hope this brought some clarity to you. I hope it brought some excitement because being able to retire, you know, sooner than what was on our mind, sometimes we just go with what is the standard or what we think other people are doing or what is expected of us.

15:25But it's really, really helpful to actually explore your possibility. I hope you'll book that call if that interests you. And if not, we'll see you next episode.

15:39Thank 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 GenXers. 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.