Why Retirement Feels So Uncertain (Even When You’re Saving)

0:06Welcome 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.

0:47We're diving in to the question again, am I going to have enough? And I know we talk about this a lot, but this is the most common question I hear more than anything else. It's not about investments, how to invest. Granted, I'm not a financial planner, but it's also not about social security. It's simply, how do I know when I have enough and what does enough mean? So as we dive into this episode, yes, it's a similar topic, but I'm approaching it from a different side to help you find a different way to lean into how do I have enough and how am I going to get there. You feel uncertain about retirement because there's nothing that you can put your finger on to say you're on track.

1:45There's nothing that anybody is giving you to take action today. Pretty much the standard advice is just save, just save, just save. And for those of you who are continuing to make every effort to do your best to move forward, you're stuck. You feel uncertain. And those thoughts and fears continue to ruminate in your head. Am I behind? Have I saved enough? When can I retire? And it's just all of the same advice. Save consistently. contribute to your retirement accounts, work hard, earn a decent income, and you're doing all of those things. And you're still uncertain. You're still unsure. Just there's so much lack of advice, should I say?

2:44Your uncertainty isn't caused by a lack of effort. is caused by a lack of clarity, number one, out in the industry. Nobody is specifically saying what you should be doing today. And you're unsure how to affect a change when you are tapped on your savings. We get to the point where we're like, I don't know that I can save anymore. I have been doing the things. Yes, I've had the ups and downs. We all have. But how am I supposed to know? it's this big uncertainty. It's the same question. Am I going to have enough? How do I know that I decided to create the Retirement Ready Workshop? Now you've heard me talk about this before.

3:34This will be, I'm hosting it again the end of June. This will be the third time this year. It's been powerful. It's helped individuals be able to see where they're at and see where their gap is. I created the workshop to help clients understand how all of the steps that they've done, how all of the actions that they have taken to date have added up. What does that mean? I've done all of the things. My workshop, we take that, we look at it, we determine where you need to go, that retirement number, last week's episode, if you're wondering how to calculate that. And then there's this gap. I know I've talked about it before.

4:22The workshop addresses the gap, and it also addresses your financial stability, which is another key component, but I'm not getting into it today. But after having pretty much the same conversation over and over again, and after thinking back on my retirement journey, how I made progress, I discovered that there's a specific way to talk about how you can take action and close that gap and get to that retirement number that you need. And P.S., it's not that generic calculator number. Please come see me if you need help walking through that formula that I talked about on last week's episode. It's not that difficult, but it is more accurate than some model or some software that is generically applying some things.

5:20It's really, it's wanting to get your information so somebody can call you. Yes, same as me in a similar sense, but my formula is going to use your numbers and help you identify a gap. Once you have that gap and you're looking at it and you're like, I just can't save anymore. You're looking for options. So I've come to the summarization that it is a tripod effect. There are three retirement levers that you can pull for a second action, take action with, get involved with. So you're not just sitting there waiting for your savings to grow. And the first leg of that tripod, the first lever, yes, is going to be savings.

6:11It has to be a component. And you're probably already doing that. When that's the only thing that you're given, it can stand on its own. It's a one post. It doesn't make sense. So savings do matter. And when you're able to increase that and do a little bit more and find a little bit money or you get that promotion, whatever, however that factors in, savings does matter. But savings aren't the whole story. The misconception of just save more, everything will work out. Number one, what if you're tapped out? And in an economy like today, we feel that way. I don't even know that I have another dollar to save.

7:01You feel stuck. You feel hopeless. And they just tell you, I hope everything will work out. Again, savings is important, but we can't bleed a turnip. And you do get to that point. I remember that multiple times. All right, so let's move on to leg number two or lever number two. Remember, we're going to need a tripod for it to stand up, give us support. But the number two is debt. When you calculate your retirement number, and again, that's in last week's episode, a portion of using your current expenses is debt. So if you lean into the idea of I can reduce debt, maybe get rid of it all, whatever you want to look at, reducing debt has less demand for money in retirement.

8:00Now, I'm not saying that you can't incur debt in retirement. That's handled somewhere else. I'm literally just talking about how you can close the gap for this retirement number. Paying down debt. And if you're like, yes, I'm making my payments and I'm actually paying a little more. That's what I would really love to see. Your payoff plan is getting you there from that note quicker, the terms quicker. If you can snowball, avalanche it, whatever, I don't care what payoff plan, the sooner, the better. And debt, the demand of your income goes down and it's been being used at debt. You can then divert it to savings, but your overall retirement number because your retirement number isn't taking into account the amount you're saving partially.

8:56Okay, I'm going to say that loosely, but your retirement savings is not part of your income of that retirement number that you're figuring that you need to get to. So the more you can put there is the better. Debt is included for right now. So if you get that paid down and then move it over. It's a two for one right there. So think about debt differently. I've heard individuals say, that's only a 2%. Now what if it's a$500 car payment,$600 car payment, even if it is 2%,$600 a month, and then multiply that by 12, and then multiply that by 25 in your retirement number, that's a big demand. Getting rid of that, you then can see I am closer to my retirement number and affecting it that way.

9:49All right, moving on from debt, just know that the more you get rid of, the closer you'll be to your retirement number. And that's something you can effectively do. You can see you're making that effort. All right, number three, lever three, tripod three. We now have a standing chair at this point and it's called expenses. Now expenses is a big subject. It's a big category. But when you used or when you created your retirement number, you used current expenses. And as you think about that, the first way I want you to start thinking is, are those expenses going to be in retirement? Are they going to be that true number?

10:38This is where you can start getting in that nitty gritty. For example, if your job requires you to dress a certain way, so you're buying clothing often, I can tell you my clothing budget really has tanked in a way, but I also don't drive to work every day anymore. So my fuel budget has dropped. but all we hear in the industry or about retirement is, oh my gosh, this would help. Okay. Yeah. There are going to be some things going to go up, but there are going to be some things that come down. And when I took the leap, it was really almost sixes for me. Okay. It wasn't such this big demand and overturning as long as you know where your money is going?

11:25How are you spending your money? Will those expenses go into retirement? What can I logically think about retirement? And not that you need to get nitty gritty today and start creating one. You can just start seeing your expenses from a different light. The next viewpoint is thinking about your expenses as a holistic, do I enjoy these? Are these serving me well? the biggest fear next to am I going to have enough am I going to make it is I want to maintain my current lifestyle that's in your expenses when anyone comes to me with that and I'm like okay so what are you talking about your lifestyle how I live today no you've got to get specific maintaining your current lifestyle has some expenses tied to it and if you're just saying that because you enjoy how you're living, that's not going to be enough to really make sure it's going to be there in retirement.

12:27And do you really know what that means? So starting there and saying it means I get to eat out once a week, maybe we go for short weekend trips once a month, whatever it is, you need to declare that. And then those expenses need to stay in your retirement budget. That's how we massage the expenses as well. So expenses are, it's a big category. You can approach it from many different ways. The way I do not want you to approach it, yes, I'm going to coach you, is it's not about going in and cutting and restricting anything. We start with a more holistic view of where's my money going? What does this mean by lifestyle, if that's truly you?

13:15What are the three expenses I absolutely love? And start refining from there. You see your expenses differently when you start looking at them that way. Is this serving me so well now and I can have it later as well? How does this expense support me? the thing I have realized lately is we spend too much time controlling our spending instead of aiming for our goals so as you look at your expenses it's to help you get to your goal it just it all the advice out there is about cutting or restricting or tracking and I'm not saying that you don't need to do that, but that is not a first step. And that is so much more negative than thinking about how am I going to get to my goal?

14:14The most recent app I've seen advertised, Rocket Money for the subscriptions. And then it says, okay, then you can see where else you're spending. But all it wants you to do first is cut your subscriptions. Is that going to help you reach your goal. I don't know. I guess it could. But just start thinking about aiming for your goal instead of controlling your spending. So let's quickly review the levers I talked about. First one is savings. Don't give up on that. Hopefully that's still growing and going. Number two is debt. Stay on your payment plan, if not accelerated if possible, and realize what that is going to save you for a demand on your income in retirement.

15:01And then number three, expenses. How do your current expenses look compared to what you think is going to be in retirement? We can't exactly detail everything, but we can start thinking about it, but also looking at our expenses and are they supporting us getting to retirement? So as you think about those levers, you now have options. I've given you three options, not just one. Save more. Save more. You now have three options, which when you have options, you now have power and control. You now have action steps that you can do, if not daily, weekly. So I want you to think through which one of those levers inspired you most, and what is one action you can take this week.

15:56One small action. And if you don't get it done this week because it's a busy week, then in two weeks, and put this on repeat. Keep going. Keep going through these levers one piece at a time. These levers have different pieces within them. This gives you the chance to find your option. Somebody's going to be like, oh man, I'm going to go look at my debt, see what I can do. And they're going to be motivated by that. Where somebody else is, oh man, I'm going to go look at my expenses and really see, is it directing me to my goal? Whatever one excites you, start there. And then find one small action within that lever that you can take this week.

16:39So these levers are part of my coaching. But I introduce you to them more specifically with your numbers in my retirement ready workshop. So if you're ready to dive into more specifically your retirement number, figuring out how to get there and what actual steps you need to take using your numbers. I've got all the worksheets, all the spreadsheets for you to complete and walk away with an action plan for the next 90 days and then know how to repeat that every 90 days from there. Like I said, I'm hosting it June 27th for this month. I will host it again one or two times this year. So if you are listening to this after that time, you can always learn what day is next and get registered at elevatefinances.us backslash workshop.

17:32It's$55 to join. Now the bonus code is June. If you get registered before next week, June 11th. and save$10. Okay, come join me spend two hours on that Saturday morning, noon Eastern, 10 mountain time, two hours or less depending on how many people join, how many questions come get specific advice, we can support you and get you moving ahead. Being retirement ready isn't about guessing or hoping that your savings is going to be enough. You need to understand where you're at, what the progress you have taken adds up to, and what lever most you can pull to get the momentum quicker. Thanks for listening.

18:22We'll see you next week.

18:35with 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.