Saving for Retirement at 40? Budgeting Isn’t Enough

0:00If you feel like you're late to the retirement game and don't have much saved, you're not looking at a simple balancing act anymore. You're on a mission and every dollar is an opportunity to improve your situation. Today, we're covering the method to use when starting late and saving for retirement or trying to speed up retirement savings without feeling restricted. 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, 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.

0:51If you're feeling behind, don't worry. Continue listening to this podcast, as well as be sure to grab your free guide, Five Must Do Steps to Start Retirement Planning Now. at elevatefinances.us backslash must do. And remember, let's make retirement possible together. As I said in the intro, if you're feeling late to having enough money saved, get started late for many different reasons, it's really time to look at how you're handling your money. It's not just a balancing act anymore. And you're on a mission to look at every dollar as an opportunity to grow your retirement savings. But it's not the time for you to feel hopeless or abandon your efforts.

1:48It is the time to get serious. And that's what I'm going to help you dive in today. You can't balance now and later the same way someone with$500 ,000 in retirement savings can. If you have less, you want to stick around, keep on listening, and I will guide you through what you need to do to increase savings without aches and pains. Most people think the problem is just, I need to save more. So in an attempt, and this is probably you, you just throw money at savings. And then you find yourself with, quote, money problems. You don't have enough to pay the bills, or there's a lot of shuffling our money, or you're dipping into your emergency savings, if you have some, or reaching for that credit card because you don't.

2:41This causes an imbalance with your cash, with your money, and creates problems. But the real issue with that is lack of clarity, lack of understanding where your money is going and how much you truly need, i.e. how much money you truly have available for savings. Clients after working with me in session one find anywhere from$400 to$800 of savings each month. That range depends on how much you're making, but they didn't know that the savings was there. I helped them find the savings using my aligned money method inside the Retirement Roadmap session. If you're ready to increase savings and you want an outcome similar to my clients, book your free call at elevatefinances.us backslash connection to learn more.

3:37We'll chat about what is the next best move for you. So if you're still buying everything that brings a little joy, but you're feeling panicked about retirement, you're spending like somebody who has margin, who has extra, but really you just need to spend. I'm not going to say it's time to stop spending, but you need to spend like somebody with purpose. And that's what I'm going to help you create today. If you're behind, it's time to view every dollar as an opportunity. It's not just a dollar, it's an opportunity. And every dollar you earn is an opportunity to grow your savings and get you closer to retirement.

4:24It's time to lose the words where it's just this much or it's only this much. As any amount and all amounts quickly add up and help you move closer to retirement. It's not about no spending. I don't believe in that if you stuck around here for a while. it's intentional spending. Aligning your spending with your goals and values opens up your opportunities more easily. This is how you lose the, I don't want to feel restricted, but you find savings that can help you move closer to retirement. What can you do? I'm going to give you four action steps to begin seeing your money differently and start saving more.

5:18All right, step one. I want you to take some time, and you might want to do this over two to three days. I want you to write down every expense you have. What is the expense? That is it. Just list them down. Don't edit it. Just get it all out. Don't have any thoughts about it. I know there's a lot of shame and guilt around spending, especially with women or people knowing they should quote be saving more, but I want you to just write it down. And I say take two to three days because if you have not been tracking, you're going to not remember everything at one fell swoop. I want you to spend a little bit of time, you know, thinking about, well, where do I spend?

6:03And in those two to three days, you're going to spend money and it's also going to help you be aware. All right, you've got that list down. You've exhausted. You might have missed something and that's okay. Step two, we're going to group each expense into a group A, which is basic necessities and group B, which is discretionary and enjoyment items. Going back to group A, Basic necessities are things that give us shelter, warmth, so our utilities, make sure we have enough for food, and fuel or transportation. If you have a car payment, that's going to be in there as well, because that's how you get to work.

6:43That's how you get around. That's how you are able to earn the money that you're earning. Everything else goes into group B, which is discretionary. Now, discretionary means we can choose how much to spend or not. Now, I want you to listen. I said food in group A, but why do so many people lean into their grocery budget to find savings? It's not where I want you to go. Group B is discretionary. It's the items you spend for joy. And again, I don't want you to, I don't want you to be like, oh, I shouldn't be spending this. I just want classifications. For those in group B, this is step three. There are two things I want you to do.

7:32I want you to add the dollar amounts to group B. How much are you spending monthly? Wild guess if you're not sure, maybe take a little bit of time to find out. But really, this is where you're going to add the dollars that are going to create the opportunities. then what I want you to do is I want you to rank them from one to ten one being I just love this when I buy this for me it just makes me happy and it's my reward for working all of those things and going in order to ten which is I really don't know why I buy this and I want you to list from one to ten. Now what I want you to do is as you're looking at the list and you've added the dollar amounts to it, I want you to find where the halfway point is.

8:28Start from the bottom and go up. Because if we say you've got to look at every single one for the top of the bottom, that's not true. We've already ranked these in what really rewards us and what we are like, yeah, I could probably do without. Start with that very last item on the list. And I want you to ask yourself, can I pause this? Right? Can I pause the purchase of this to see how I feel about it? Am I missing it? You know, anything like this, or you know what, I'm going to not spend half of it and kind of reducing that amount. As we think about pausing and reducing, eventually we can lean into elimination, but I don't want you to eliminate anything right now.

9:18I had a client and after our first session, they are tasked with making a list of all of their things as part of our money routine that we're building. And she comes back and she says, I removed three expenses because you know I can do them in a better way. And it was that realization of her true spending cost that was allowing her to shift and find more money for savings. There's another way to actually see, you know, that it's not about just doing away with it. That is not where we go. But I want you to think about and think about how she phrased it. I could do this purchase better. There's a lot of ways to explore how we're spending our money.

10:01And step four, I want you to, as you're pausing and reducing, calculate your total savings. Right there, you have got some savings, some additional money that you can turn to either your emergency funds or your retirement savings. I would love for you to email me. Email address is hello at elevatefinances.us. And let me know if you did this process and how it was for you. What did you find? How did you feel? Where do you need more support? What wasn't quite clear? Where can I clarify? Send me an email. Hello at elevatefinances.us. All right, so to quickly review those steps, step one, list every expense.

10:53Step two, group them into necessities versus wants. Wants are discretionary and enjoyment. Those are the terms I use there. Step three is to rank your enjoyment spending. spending, 10 to 1, most joy, most joy at the top, least joy at the bottom, and then add your dollar amounts. Go to at least halfway on the list. Explore these with that pause, reduce, eliminate. Just see what you're feeling, what you're thinking, how you're seeing your money differently. That's the true takeaway from this episode is doing this exercise, how is it helping you see your spending differently. No shame, no guilt. That's not allowed here.

11:39All right, I received the following testimonial from a client. She says, so glad I did my workup with you. I went from paycheck to paycheck and making minimum payments on my credit cards to paying off$5 ,000 of debt and saving$2 ,500 in three months. And it's definitely helped me curb my non-essential junk spending. The results for her came through my Aligned Money Method. In there, there's a strategic savings system that helps you define what gets funded first. Meaning, is it going to go to emergency funds? Is it for quick cash? Or are you going to retirement savings? She did this to apply to her debt that was growing month over month.

12:29That was a reason she reached out. So it's a savings system that helps you determine your mix, meaning do I put some in emergency funds or some in retirement savings or a combination of both? And really, if you come visit the Aligned Money Method, I can help you answer that question. One of the reasons savings feels so frustrating isn't that you're doing it wrong. It's that your money likely isn't aligned to what matters to you. And when your budget doesn't reflect what you want, your goals, or your values, it can feel restrictive and unsustainable. In my Aligned Money Method, we walk through four powerful phases that help you budget with intention, save with clarity, and manage that money with simplicity for success.

13:27It all starts with a financial reality checkup inside my Retirement Roadmap session. This episode gave you the tools to identify savings, but if you're ready to create a system that builds your savings and fuels your retirement, let's go deeper together. In your session, we'll audit your spending together so you know exactly where your money is going, build a budget based on your values and lifestyle, restructure spending to unlock faster savings, and most importantly, give you the confidence to take action with a clear plan. If you're ready for results like that, Book your free call at elevatefinances.us backslash connection, and let's determine together if the retirement roadmap session is the next best move for you.

14:22If you've been wondering how to catch up on retirement savings or just how to make real progress, it's more than a simple balancing act between enjoying now and saving for later. When you're starting late or trying to accelerate your savings, clarity is your best tool. Every expense needs a purpose. Every expense is an opportunity for more. We talked about how to list and evaluate your expenses, identify what truly brings you joy, and redirect the rest toward saving with intention. You don't have to give up everything. Just get honest about what matters most right now. And the best part, once you gain clarity and start making decisions with purpose, retirement starts to feel not just possible, but exciting.

15:17I hope this episode was helpful. Thank you for listening and be sure to tune into the next episode.

15:27Thank 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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