Why Your Retirement Number Should Be Personalized

0:05Hey there and welcome to Wealthy After 40. I'm Daylene Higgins, your podcast host and financial coach. If you're a Gen X woman or couple who's worried about retirement, maybe you feel like you're starting late or don't have enough saved, you're in the right place. This show is all about ditching the financial stress and creating a retirement plan that works for your life now and later. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let's figure this out together.

0:45Picture this. It's Friday evening. You just got home. It's six o 'clock. You've worked all week. You're tired. Dinner still needs to happen. Maybe you're scrolling your phone while the TV plays in the background and somewhere in your mind you think, I don't know if I can do another 10 years of this. Not because you hate your job, but you're tired and you've been working for a long time. And even though you're saving, you've been contributing to retirement for years, you still think, is it going to be enough? Am I doing enough? And because you don't know the answer, you push the thought aside. And honestly, the weekend swallows up the worry because weekends are amazing.

1:33Weekends are great. And so you repeat this again on Friday, Friday evening. So if you're in your 40s or 50s, chances are you've been doing responsible things. Now again, it may not be perfect, but you've been contributing to your 401 or a retirement plan of some sort. You've tried to save more. You're trying to save as much as you can. Now you've listened to podcast calculators. You've talked to co-workers and maybe you've attended HR retirement meetings. But despite all of the information you're taking in, you still don't feel confident you haven't found your answer of is this enough? And it's because saving without a strategy creates anxiety.

2:26You can still save every month and still have no idea if you're on track because the strategy is actually to know how much you actually need. So most women that I talk to, they are trying hard to figure this out. That's how we end up here. That's how you ended up finding me. And you've consumed a lot of information, but everything you're hearing is generic, especially those statements that someone says you need$2 million or another person says at least a million. And then the online calculator gave you a completely different answer. And suddenly, retirement not only feels overwhelming, but impossible.

3:16So you either panic or avoid it. Hiding from it takes away that worry, that nag that you'll never be able to do it. And so honestly, you just surrender and tell yourself, I guess I'll just work longer. But the issue isn't a lack of information. The issue is that none of it is personalized to you. This was the exact story of a client who had come to me with that fear. I'm not on track. I don't know that I need to make changes so I can get there. She was still trying. That's the way most of my clients are. I'm being told one thing, but I want to make it happen. As we sat down, we reviewed all of her numbers.

4:05We put them in the formula I've given you multiple times on this podcast. And I said, you know what? According to what you're spending and these calculations, you are on track. There was such a huge gap from the retirement online calculator to what we actually formulated. And if you remember me talking about, this formula is used heavily and has been for years in that FIRE community. She quickly went from panicked to relieved to excited because for the first time she could see the path. Not what somebody else had said, but her path. What numbers actually pertained to her? So if you're telling yourself, I still have time, I know I do, and you're still trying to find that piece of clarity, you are right.

5:08And clarity is what you need because it buys you options later. The earlier or the quicker you understand your numbers, the more choices you create. I've talked about decisions, money decisions on this podcast before. Part of my framework, knowing how to make decisions when things happen or how to work around to make best decisions that are affecting now and later. So as you get clarity around your numbers and you start seeing those choices for retirement, maybe you can work less. Maybe you retire early. Maybe you choose to transition slowly. Maybe you can actually travel more than you thought.

5:54And overall, you stop living in fear and you start making the decisions with confidence. But none of these options appear by accident. They're not just going to happen. They actually come from clarity. So what makes us different? Over 40, we have something, you have something that no calculator can give you. That is self-knowledge. You know your lifestyle. You know your current health. You know what matters most, you know your non-negotiables. Thinking back to 20-year-old you, did you really know your lifestyle, your health, or what really matters most? As we grow up, as we've gone through the decades of showing up for everyone else, raising kids, maybe caring for aging parents, building our careers, it's time for you to build a retirement that's based on your life.

7:02not averages, not headlines, not someone else's numbers. This is an active work. It's not passive waiting for that retirement savings number to have lights go off. Hey, it's time. I sent you the letter. You can leave work now. We're done waiting. We're done waiting because belief and motivation will not come from you crossing your fingers, from you hoping it's going to work out. Motivation and belief come from seeing progress. That is crucial. And knowing how to see progress is so important. So if you're curious if you've made progress or how to track progress, I invite you to my Retirement Ready workshop, June 27th.

7:58I know it's really quick after this is airing. Please, if you can jump on registered. If you've missed it and you're like, I really want to know what my progress is, please reach out. Let's see what we can do. But for tonight, for right now, whether you're driving and you've got to come back to it later, there is one thing that I want you to do. One thing that you need to start with. And I had my client say it the other day to me, I am always talking about clarity. And that is where I want you to start. Get clear on your monthly expenses. Not with any judgment. Not with any, I'm looking at this.

8:43I want you to just know how much does it cost for me to exist or with my spouse every single month. That's it. Don't worry about your retirement number yet because this piece is piece one of how many that went into that formula. The more clear you are on this, the better this is dialed in, this builds a stronger foundation. So it's not that hard. It's not going to take a lot of time. And then from there, over the next 90 days, you will then define your personalized retirement number. Then you will understand better what's driving that number, seeing that gap. And remember, I've just talked about in that gap are three levers, savings, debt, and expenses.

9:42You've done a lot of work on expenses if you listen to my action step from this episode. And as you look at those levers and as you start getting into the strategy within each one, you will start seeing your retirement progress accelerate. and maybe six o 'clock on Friday, it might still find you tired. I know how it was working a 40 hour week, especially if you're still raising kids. But this time, after this work, it's different. There's a glimmer. There's a little bit of more hope, relief, less anxiety, because now you know you're making progress. You know how to see that progress. You're not just waiting.

10:34You're not just hoping. And the other thing is you're not just searching for more information. We're done searching for information. It's time to take action. It's time to start taking those steps that will make progress in building that retirement. And as you keep doing this, that glimmer of hope, that little light is going to get bigger every time you take another intentional step. So if you've been saving faithfully, fairly consistency, I'm not talking about perfection, and you're still wondering if it's enough, I want you to know that uncertainty does not equal that it's too late or that you're behind.

11:29What this is telling you is that you're missing clarity. You're missing understanding. That's what clarity is, just understanding better what all of this is. And clarity changes everything. Because making retirement happen isn't about guessing. It's about building a plan, having a plan that is actually yours. Not those stated pieces of information on the internet about everybody. We don't know where all of these people are living, why they are declaring these things, because it costs different and needs costs of living where you live. It really does matter. So if you're ready to stop guessing and finally understand your numbers to get that clarity, I would love to have you book your retirement accelerator call and together we'll uncover how much you need, if you're on track, and which of the three levers you can act on today to help accelerate your progress.

12:45Hit me up on Facebook, DM me Accelerator, head down into the show notes. The link is down there as well. Book that call. Let's spend 30 minutes and get you the clarity that you need to actually believe and not just hope that this is going to happen. Because remember, retirement isn't something that happens to you. It's something you build on purpose. And every intentional step you take today makes retirement happen.

13:24Thank 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. you