Why Knowing Your Numbers Fixes the Gen X Retirement Mindset

0:05Welcome 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, money coach and retirement strategist to help you gain clarity and confidence with your money by creating a spending plan that aligns with your financial goals and dreams so you can spend intentionally, save consistently, and feel at peace about your future. Join me every week to understand your money, simplify your decisions, and take intentional steps toward the life you want.

0:50when you think about retirement you get excited for a short moment because what starts coming up are ah what about getting my kids to college what about that home remodel what about all of the debt I need to pay off. Your mind immediately takes you into a downward spiral and you think, I just can't do all of that. So you don't do anything. The problem here isn't that you can't do it all. It's that you're first believing it has to be an all or nothing. This is a belief that you're saying, if I can't do it all, I can't do anything. And you make those claims without any facts. I see this with my clients as I begin to work with them.

1:40They're very intelligent, very capable. And as they begin the process, it doesn't go exactly how we described it should. And they're like, I can't do it. That's an all or nothing. They made progress, but they didn't reach the true result that they wanted. And guess what? That is going to take time. Number one, it's going to take time to reset that mindset. And number two, believe that small steps will get you further ahead than just sitting in this, I can't do all of that. So making again, making that claim without any facts, when what you need is a system that is going to help you see how those goals can be a possibility.

2:29A system that is going to guide you to working through each of those goals one at a time. Again, we don't let ourselves step back into that all or nothing mindset. And if you feel stuck in that mindset and you want to break free from that, I would love to have you book a money clarity call so that we can figure out number one, where's your money going and why do you keep thinking I can't do it all? And I'll help you find something that you can do to break free from that mindset. So going back to thinking about retirement and then your laundry list of goals. And again, I don't think your list is too long.

3:14You might have three and then retirement is four. But what I want you to do first, now you may not be a journaler, but that's the term I'm going to use here because I think it explains what I need you to do. So you don't have to technically write this down, but if you are a journaler, do. What I want you to do first is I want you to sit with each one of your goals individually. And I want you to think about why do you want to achieve that goal? What does it mean to you? kind of the importance of it, really sit with why do I want this goal? And then also how important is this goal to me? Give it some shape, give it some details so you can start seeing it.

4:02As you begin to do that, you might want to start pulling in some pieces because right now all your mind sees is a big goal. It's going to have a big number, but you haven't defined that number. but before you dive into the number you need to know why do you want this goal how important is this goal for you to achieve and then what does it start looking like what are those pieces as you begin defining defining the details in those pieces you're going to start seeing maybe where you can add some boundaries and what i mean by boundaries is i can do it if it stays under this or I can do it if it looks like this.

4:46And to give you an example, I want you to listen to episode 58. I did a guest episode with Steve Mullen, who shared how he thought about paying for his kids college that is going to give you you don't have to do it like Steve did, but it really opens up thinking about how that should look or how you should maybe approach it. And it doesn't mean that you should do exactly his or another one, but it just starts helping you see what boundaries and details can mean. All right, the next thing I want you to do is I want you to know your numbers. I really don't like that, but it is true. You need to understand where you're at.

5:28Now in this, there are two different views that I want you to start looking at. The first one is, if you don't have a budget, I really encourage you to make one because you need to know what are my expenses? Where is everything going? What does my debt look like? And what does my savings appease me? What do I potentially have for saving? I talk about how you can calculate that with a very simple bills, spending and a saving bucket, and then using that savings to create what you want. It's exactly what I do with my clients and really getting detailed in where's my money going? What does it look like?

6:09The next set of numbers that you need to look at is progress to retirement. Are you on track? How does it look? Do you really need to find more retirement savings? Would this expense compete with that? What does all of that look like? It's a whole encompassing. You have to look at the whole encompassing to be able to make the best decision for you. For example, my client, we began working, we did a quick strategy session the very beginning and helped her find out where her biggest hiccup was. And she did know where it was. It was in debt. And so we were diving into that, building her a system that stopped the debt from being created.

6:55And now as we've worked through that, that's beginning to evolve, still in the progress. We went to actually calculate her retirement progress using my retirement ready dashboard. I said, update everything that you have on there so that we can see if you need to tackle your retirement savings more heavily as you're coming up on these payoff dates with your debt and shifting instead of continuing to snowball. What does that look like? She says, I remember when I first filled it out, I didn't have all of my information. I remembered some accounts. This is a very common when I work with clients. As they start doing more with their money and start doing more with their accounts, they remember what they have somewhere and it becomes a very solid, complete piece.

7:43So as she updated that, she sent me a message. She says, I've got that done. Let me know what you think. She is 95 % there. She has$20 ,000 left through her projection and her retirement estimated expenses. $20 ,000 is nothing on the scheme of that she needs$2 million. And so now she can actually look at how can I work with this money better? She has some short-term goals as well. She wants to buy another house. She obviously still needs to pay off her debt. But she's like, we want to buy a camper or a motorhome so we can travel around and see our kids. They're getting older. They're moving on.

8:27All of these plans, very similar plans to you, because we are reaching that empty nest, because we are getting ready for retirement, all of these things are happening. but really for her the power has come where she's actually got into our numbers she's actually pulling everything completely into it and showing her that retirement savings isn't something that she needs to double down on so she has freedom in that money because she knows she's still got many years to work that she wants and she will get raises which means employer will add some more to that as well. That little gap is going to close off plus whatever the market does.

9:09It's a whole piece and being able to look at that creates an empowerment that then you know the right decision to make. Yes, you have all these goals, but how does it fit in? What does it look like? Now, I'm not saying that if you're in her situation, you can then achieve your goals. I remember starting my journey and I was like, okay, 13 years, I want to retire. And then I was like, my daughter's eight. We're enjoying camping. We're riding. They were riding motorcycles. I was riding a four-wheeler because you know what? That was my speed. And we really, at that moment that I staked the claim of retiring in 13 years, I said, I would really like to buy a piece of recreational property.

9:57It was a dream for a while. And when I was able to do that, wow. But it was because I had done what I asked you to do the very beginning. Why do you want these? How important is it? The pieces of having our camp trailer, the pieces of having our motorcycles and our four-wheeler, those were important. And those were small. Those were easy. Having that piece of recreational property so we didn't have to compete for a space and camping spots, being with neighborhoods in the mountains as opposed to just peace. And so really looking at how that became a possibility was because of my system. Because I knew I was doing one long-term and one short-term and I went all in on both.

10:44Now you don't have to simplify to that one and one. There are several things you want to do. Think about the priority. Think about what you want. Think about it in pieces, just like I did. We were able to do half of our dream, should I say, and being able to get through that. So what I want you to remember from this episode is I want you to lose the all or nothing mindset. It's not serving you well. It's causing you to feel overwhelmed quicker, be frustrated more often. And I want you to dive into your numbers until you reach all of your goals. Those numbers are going to guide you to your goals.

11:28You should have goals. You should be achieving them. And that is how you do it. So if you want some help in getting started, book a money clarity call. We'll dive into where's your money going and what can you do to reach those goals. I'll also share what it looks like to work inside the retirement ready coaching and the process that just like my client, we could find and resolve and really help you get rid of those things that I'm never going to be able to do them and achieve those things that you want. Most of the time we are stuck because of something we are believing. And I hope this episode was helpful in freeing you from a belief that you're stuck in and recognizing that if you can just take small steps, you will be able to achieve retirement.

12:23Thank you for listening and we'll see you next week.

12:30Thank 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.