Worried About Retirement? Here’s How to Start Taking Action

0:00Have you caught yourself wondering, how am I supposed to retire? Will I ever be able to retire? This episode is your wake-up call. It's time to get serious about your retirement. Not when you're 60. Not someday. But now. Today. Because the longer you sit in worry, the easier it becomes to ignore the truth and the harder it gets to take action. So today we're talking about what getting serious really means and how to turn those worries into a plan that actually works. 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.

0:47I'm your host, Dalene 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. If you're feeling behind, don't worry. Continue listening to this podcast, as well as be sure to grab your free guide, 5 Must Do Steps to Start Retirement Planning Now at elevatefinances.us backslash must do. And remember, let's make retirement possible together. Welcome to the podcast where I help you enjoy your money now and later. So October has been a crazy month for me where I haven't necessarily been enjoying my money now, but the money that I have set aside for later has become right now.

1:46We've had some medical emergencies, some planned medical, and my medical sinking fund is really taking a toll this month. So just letting you know that it continues to carry forward. Having that there, even in an emergency, I'm not worried about financially. Now, I don't love to see that sinking fund low. It's not where I love to spend my money, but I am so grateful to have it there to support me in these hard times. So hopefully you are taking steps and getting yourself planned for whatever emergency life may throw at you. And you can worry about the emergency and not how you're going to pay for it.

2:32All right, talking about worries, if you're worried about retirement, whether it's going to happen or how it's supposed to happen, whatever your worry language is, it's time to get serious. And I don't care how old you are. If you're somebody listening to the podcast at 35 and you're worried about retirement, it's time to get serious. I was your age when I did. It doesn't matter, but it's just know that it's time for that seriousness. So what do I mean by it's time to get serious? Well, it's time to stop ignoring those thoughts you have about retirement that are coming from the doubt side. And what I'm, you know, is this going to happen?

3:29How is it supposed to happen? I'm not sure I'm going to ever make it. The really popular one I've seen is I'm working until I die. That is putting you in a cycle of ignoring it and you become complacent and even more complacent the longer you sit there. So it's important that we get serious about these thoughts because the key is not to sit in this cycle for too long. It's easier to make change if you haven't sat there for very, very long. Again, I want to share with you what this really means. So October has been a crazy month and I was notified that my medical care premium was increasing by 200%.

4:20Yep. I went into doubt mode. I was like, I don't know how we're going to do this. Is this even possible? And I really kind of just ignored it, but I let it stress and worry me probably for two, three days. And I was like, oh my gosh, you know, and it had me doubting some decisions I've made. That is when I'm like, all right, this isn't right. I've got to fix this. As you, if you've been a listener for a while and as you will hear me, I am going to talk about the power of budgeting. And I'm like, okay, it's time to solve this problem. I went to my budget. Every time there's a big event or a big financial change, I create a new budget.

5:05And what it is, is I copy it. I'm in Google Sheets. I copy what I already have. So it doesn't take that much effort. I add in the new price and I make adjustments. I can tell you within 20 minutes, I have solved the problem. This increase, while it's not where I want to be spending my money, the shifts I can make have me realizing that I can still enjoy my life. I didn't need to doubt. I didn't need to worry. I just needed to jump into action mode. When I say it's time for you to get serious, I want you to get serious and start taking action. Now, I know you're wondering, how do I take action?

5:51I'm going to walk you through that. I'm going to get you started. And that means you've got to understand the why and the what of these thoughts that you're having. Now I'm going to walk you through how to do that in just a minute. But I want to talk about why is it important to get serious? Why is it important to explore these thoughts? Well, as I was saying, you're stuck, you might become complacent. And as long as you are stuck, you will not and cannot take effective action. going back to my story for those two days I wasn't taking any action on that I wasn't progressing forward I was stressing my body out you know it just was I probably was not as nice to people as I should have been just thinking about that and the longer you stay there like I said you become complacent because then you become an enjoyable person because you've kind of just tucked it down but you're not taking action.

7:00And that's the key is we need to take action. So how do you take action? The first question I want you to explore is why are these thoughts coming up? We don't just randomly think, I'll never be able to retire. There was something prior to that. What is prompting those thoughts? Because if you can get to that, then you can find out what is your motivator. And finding out your motivator is where you're going to find that action steps, and it's going to move you beyond that worry stage. Let me give you an example. So the prompting of that thought could be a friend or family member has expressed that they're going to retire, and it could be in a couple years.

7:56It could be immediately. And they shared what they're going to do in retirement. And this got you thinking, man, that would be nice. Oh, that'll never happen. Go back to that would be nice. Why would that be nice? And if that's your thought, then it's time for you to start creating the dream and the vision. That is how you start taking action. We don't just go into it'll never happen because then you're in that cycle. So to get out of it, you want to start by creating your dream. Now, maybe that wasn't what prompted your thought. It could have been that you heard or read something about, oh, you need$2 million to retire now.

8:43And you're like, oh, I'll never reach that amount. I can't do that. Now, I've talked to you about this before and specifically walked you through how to clarify your own number in episode 116. So go listen to that. That is your action step, finding out how much you need to have saved. If it's either one of those, your action step, they're different, yes, but both action steps have to happen. So even the person creating their dream, then they're going to have to create that amount. If you're creating the amount, then you're going to have to create your dream. But either way, it gets you into finding what is your action step now?

9:28So why are your thoughts coming up? And you might not remember at the point that you're listening to this episode, but I want you next time you're thinking that, remember what was the trigger. That trigger becomes your motivator. What in that thought can motivate you? What in that motivation can create an action step? So getting retirement Ready, there is a lot of information. I always share hopefully some steps that get you thinking, get you moving, getting you're growing. And I'm sure you're here to get more and more each time. And I am thankful for that. But I am thinking of creating a workshop.

10:15It will be titled Retirement Ready 101. And what I would love from you is I would love to know how best to support you? What specific questions or topics would you love for me to cover in that workshop? What do you need to get ready, retirement ready? Now, definitely, I will give you that. But what specifically, where are you stuck? Where are you struggling? Send me your questions, your topics, your thoughts. You can do it via SpeakPipe, which is down in the show notes. It's audio. You can speak, you have up to 90 seconds. You can stay anonymous or include your email if you want to reply. Or head over to Instagram.

11:03Yes, I'm coming back to social media. And leave me your thoughts in the DM there. Now that's not quite as an anonymous. So hopefully you can use speak pipe and that will just come through. I might get to hear your lovely voice instead of you just hearing mine. Or over on Instagram, when I drop in stories about, you know, how can I support you with this workshop, I would love to create a three day event that gives you the solid foundation of what it is to be retirement ready. But I need to know that I'm not jumping to step four and five when you're needing step one and two. So please drop those thoughts, questions, ideas over through SpeakPipe or Instagram.

11:47And yeah, let me know. And I'll begin building that. So to recap this episode, it's time for you to get serious. And what I mean by that is I want you to just start taking action. And to take action, you've got to explore what is prompting the thoughts. So the next time it happens, I want you to think, oh, this is what she was talking about. who said what or what did I hear or what did I read? So that means I need to do X, Y, and or Z and start there. Take one little step. Getting serious does not mean that you're going to go through all everything in the next week. I want you to just get serious that you're going to make a change and you're going to take action at least by the end of next month.

12:42That gives you 30 days to hopefully have that experience, hopefully work through those thoughts and find that action step. If you have any questions about this episode, I've told you what I needed, but if you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me directly at elevatefinances.us. And hey, while you're over there, I have a new retirement ready quiz. This quiz will help assess where you're at and get an action plan. So maybe that's where you want to go to get those action steps of what you should do now. I'm going to lay it out for you depending on your score in this quiz. It is an interactive and it is relevant to where you fall in that quiz.

13:28So thank you for listening today. I hope you will join me next week. As you have realized, I have gone back to weekly episodes, but join me on Instagram and follow me there for weekly little tidbits and some fun and some stories. And we'll see you next week.

13:51Thank 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 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.