Why You’re Not Making Progress With Your Money

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.

0:44So you're not seeing progress or the progress that you really want to see, right? The results that you want to see with your money. And because you're not seeing those results, you are believing and blaming yourself for not being good enough with money, for overspending, whatever, shame, guilt, blame. You're thinking it's internal. But I want to tell you, the problem with not seeing progress right now is because you're trying to do everything, right, all tasks to get the results you want. But the solution is that you need to drill down and just focus on one thing. One traction. Not just any one thing.

1:38but the one thing that will help you get the greatest momentum. And this is the exact outcome that you can get in my Map Your Money to Retirement workshop. We take a peek at your progress and we clarify a clear focus for you to move forward. So if you're not seeing progress, or if you're not sure where to start, this is a great workshop for that too. I want you to head over to elevatefinances.us backslash workshop, where you can learn more about the details and get yourself registered. The next date of the workshop is April 11th. If this is after April 11th, still head over there. There's going to be another date where I will be giving the same workshop.

2:28Okay, so let's talk about the problem. The problem is that you're trying to do everything to get the results you want. But how did this problem come to be? Why what you did and have always done is no longer working? It's basically what the problem is. So I want you to go back 20 years. If you're over 40, if you're younger than that, and you're going to have to follow along. 20, 25 years for those of us over 40. And I want you to reflect what age you were, what was going on. And then we're going to take a trip through time coming up those 20, 25 years, right? You either are graduating high school or college.

3:20You got your job. You got your first career. You bought your car, first car, right? Got another car, better car. You might have got married, bought a house, bought a better house, had kids, furnished the house, remodeled the house. As you're going along, think of the things specific to you. You might not have done all of those things I shared or even in that order. But what it boils down to is that we were accumulating. It's what we needed to do, right? Go out, get a job, buy a car, buy a house, raise kids, be responsible, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Those habits and routines for us to survive that, that accumulation period, we are still trying to do that today.

4:16Just those motions, just those feelings. That was good. We were successful, right? We lived in a world of money management and control as we were accumulating. Hopefully you did. Hopefully you did. But this is advice meant for, again, your 20, 30 year olds in that state of accumulation where you're just, okay, I know I need to buy a new car in the next two or three years. I'm going to be ready for that. Oh, we got to move. You know, it's just the state of accumulation and you're managing it well. And like I said, so you are used to this feeling and the motion of what you've done for 20 years, 25 years.

5:09So why would you think you need to do anything different to get the same progress and results today? I've got to keep moving forward. That's how I moved forward back then. And so you just keep going. You just keep going and you're just doing and you've done it for years. So it's like back of your hand, easy, simple. You've got a process, and you don't realize that you need to change. You don't realize that while those are great money habits, they are no longer serving your situation, your current life. Because at this point, trying to fix everything will stall your progress. It's crazy to think that something we've learned to do and do well, as I'm sure everybody has, is no longer what we need to do.

6:09And so we've got to teach an old dog new tricks, right, is what we need to do. But when I was on my Monday journey, what I found successful was dialing it down to the individual pieces, right understanding where I was at and then really dialing into each individual piece and making progress and momentum on that one piece so yes I was doing that in my 30s and my 40s hence retirement at 50 if retirement is not too far off from you you need to really start dialing it down but how how do you find your solution how do you find your solution how do you dial in your efforts at this stage of life because that's ultimately what we're doing we don't want to be feeding everything managing everything i mean we're still going to be managing but we're going to be managing on a smaller scale a focused a really good focus so as i was thinking about this i'm like okay how do i help them find their solution if they're not coming to the workshop, right?

7:23Or even before the workshop. I would love to still have you come. But how can you find this starting point? Basically, it comes down to knowing what you want from retirement. And I know you're like, wow, how does that make sense? That's the target we're headed to. Initially, we were at a target of creating our life in away from our parents' home, right? Ultimately, that's what it was, whatever it looked like for you. Married, single, kids, no kids, whatever it is, right? We were creating a life away from our parents' home. So now you're creating a life that's going to get you to retirement. So dialing into what you need and what you want from retirement is going to help you see and better understand the focus that you need to be taking right now.

8:29But as you are thinking this, okay, as you're dialing into this, I don't want you to be scared of messing up. If you don't do anything, it's going to be a bigger mistake. I don't know about mess, right? Bigger mess than if you try something and figure if it's going to work. So I want you to believe in yourself. Then I want you to tell yourself, what do I want and what do I need in retirement? Okay, to help demonstrate why that is important. I want you to think if you are staying put, you are in your house for the life, right? I know there's some people that they're like, yep, this is the house I'm going to die in.

9:20And if that's you, doesn't it make sense to pay the house off? Okay. That is, and I'm not saying that's what you should do. I'm just saying that's how you start finding your focus. I don't know everything else that's going on. We're going to talk through a couple of different scenarios so that you can see and you can lay it out for yourself. But if you're like, well, we're going to relocate, I don't know where, I don't know what it's going to look like, then the best step for you is going to make sure you have cash reserves so that you can make that move, be able to move. I would say Even if you're going to downsize and not pay off your house, not put the money into the house, you're going to need money at your fingertips.

10:06So obviously not an investment pieces that you can't get out today so that you're able to make that step when you need to. Maybe you're going to, like I said, downsize, go live somewhere where it's cheaper. so then you're going to have more cash flow from the house and being able to get there won't be too hard and planning for that piece then maybe you do sink it into retirement savings. Right another piece of the puzzle is going to be age and we talk about this in the workshop right defining the timeline and how do you know what account you need when right so as you are like okay in retirement i want this and this or i need this and this combination of both you clearly see the target you are trying to get to you clearly see what you need to do and as you do that as you do that you're going to then see the path there.

11:20Oh, well, if that's in this many years, then we still got, you know, so-and-so needs to go to college or, well, we've got this or what about that? You can then see your path. You have the end and then your path starts becoming really clear. And then that's how you start seeing, okay, well, I got to tackle this thing first. I've got to tackle this one next. I I got to tackle this one. And you start managing that way, but your focus starts long and then your path becomes clear.

11:56So the result of painting that big picture is creating that path and you will see exactly what you need to do when. It might feel fuzzy, might feel foggy. I want you to stay with this. What do I want? What do I need from retirement? until you start getting more clear and you start seeing that path. You start visualizing what's going to come up before you get there. That's what we do when we're driving a car. You're looking ahead. What's coming up? Oh, there's a detour. What does that mean? We will have detours on our path. We've got to be ready for them. We need to know how to pivot, take action, right?

12:37And then get back on that path. so why does all of this matter at this stage of life it's really important to be planning for that next stage you've done well you have created this stage away from your parents home right i think that's the best description it's going to be and then we're going to be creating a life after work right or after our career maybe we're pivoting it's a whole different topic right but we know where we want to go what does actually winning look like that you become more focused that you know exactly what you should give progress results effort to take that step like i mentioned earlier Don't be afraid.

13:36Choose the one thing. Make a plan. Do the actions. Measure the results. Hopefully you're seeing them. Hopefully you're seeing them. And if you're not, come back again. Reassess, are you still on that clear path? Did something change? Right? Sometimes our money changes. Sometimes the cost of reality changes. Sometimes we're presented with a different scenario in the midst of trying to do it and we forget to come back and reassess.

14:10So what does winning look like? It will become easier. You will see the results. You will feel the momentum. Even if you're not seeing that exact dollar or that exact result, it will feel easier. because anytime something isn't working or you're feeling challenged, it's time to go back to that focus. It's time to go back to what is it that I want? Am I still on the path? Did something new pop up? I hope you're able to dial in your efforts, find your progress, and have that clear path that will get you to retirement. But you got to start with some new habits, with some new feelings, with not doing what your old 30-year-old self would do.

15:02Even though she did amazing, he did amazing. It's time to do something different over 40 so that you can make every effort that you need to reach retirement. Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week. Thanks for tuning in. I hope today's episode helped you feel a little clearer and more confident about your money and reminded you that progress doesn't have to feel overwhelming. If this episode was helpful, I'd love it if you followed the show, left a quick review, or shared it with another Gen Xer who could use this kind of support. And if you're ready to stop guessing and want clarity around what to focus on next, I invite you to book a free financial clarity call at elevatefinances.us backslash clarity.

15:47and remember retirement isn't just a dream it's a plan let's make it possible together