This summer, we will take the opportunity to highlight some of our favorite “Questions on Course” segments from the last several months. In this episode, we are going to bring back focus on the retirement planning side of things. I share my thoughts and advice when someone says, “I’ll never be able to retire”.
You will want to hear this episode if you are interested in…
- Welcome to Money Mile (00:00)
- The 2-Phase problem for not being able to retire (01:30)
- How to be aware of your financial options (02:35)
- Four steps to reach your retirement goals (04:30)
The Two-Part Problem if You Believe are Unable to Retire
When someone says they are unable to retire, I want to respond, “Not with that attitude”. If someone believes they can’t retire, it usually comes from two problematic ideas.
- Not being taught that retirement is attainable.
- They believe a misconception that they must have several million dollars in order to retire, and this is discouraging.
There is a solution to this. The solution starts with education. Ask yourself, what does my ideal retired life look like? Once this is established, you can set up achievable action items and timelines. As athletes, we invest in coaches to help us train towards specific goals in our athletic pursuits. Consider your retirement goals and training; a Financial Coach can keep you on track for the long run. Here are 4 steps on how:
Four Steps to Meet our Retirement Goals
- Understand where you are in relation to your goal– are you saving enough money? If you have enough money, should you be investing in other things like family, traveling, or hobbies? Get objective advice from a fee-only financial planner to advise you on how to move forward.
- Understand your financial strengths and weaknesses-Everyone’s financial picture is different; maybe you have strong income but weak savings, or good investments but no emergency fund. The idea is to be honest with yourself so you can plan wisely. I encourage you to gain a clear view of your financial standing by assessing what you’re doing well and what needs improvement, and then create a strategy to preserve and grow your financial power over time.
- Optimize what you are currently doing- I would suggest looking into what you are currently doing and identifying if there are ways to do better. An example of this might be to increase your savings into an employer-sponsored retirement plan. Or maybe it’s refinancing a mortgage.
- Explore new strategies if there are gaps- If you’ve identified weaknesses in your retirement plan, this step is about adding smart tools to patch those gaps. Whether that means evaluating a Roth account for tax flexibility or diversifying your portfolio to avoid over-concentration in one area, the goal is to figure out how you can maximize your strategies to fill in gaps in your financial planning.
Connect With Justin Waller
- https://WallerFC.com
- Waller Financial Coaching on Facebook
- Justin on Instagram
- Justin on LinkedIn
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