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The 4 phases of retirement | Dr. Riley Moynes | TEDxSurrey

Transcriber: Zsófia Herczeg
Reviewer: Peter Van de Ven Everyone says you have to get ready
to retire financially. And of course you do. But what they don’t tell you
is that you also have to get ready psychologically. Who knew? But it’s important
for a couple of reasons. First, 10,000 North Americans
will retire today and every day for the next 10 to 15 years. This is a retirement tsunami. And when these folks come
crashing onto the beach, a lot of them are going to feel
like fish out of water without a clue as to what to expect. Secondly, it’s important
because there is a very good chance that you will live one third
of your life in retirement.

So it’s important that you have
a heads up to the fact that there will be significant
psychological changes and challenges that come with it. I belong to a walking group
that meets early three mornings a week. Our primary goal is to put
10,000 steps on our Fitbits, and then we go for coffee
and cinnamon buns – (Laughter) more important. (Laughter) (Applause) So as we walk, we’ve gotten into the habit
of choosing a topic for discussion. And one day, the topic was, “How do you squeeze
all that juice out of retirement?” How's that for 7:00 in the morning? So we walk and we talk, and the next day,
we go on to the next topic. But the question stayed with me because I was really having
some challenges with retirement. I was busy enough,
but I really didn’t feel that I was doing very much
that was significant or important. I was really struggling. I thought I had a pretty good idea of what success looked like
in a working career, but when it came to retirement,
it was fuzzier for me. So I decided to dig deeper.

And what I discovered was
that much of the material on retirement focuses on the financial
and/or the estate side of things. And of course, they’re both important
but just not what I was looking for. So I interviewed dozens
and dozens of retirees, and I asked them the question, “How do you squeeze
all the juice out of retirement?” What I discovered
was that there is a framework that can help make sense of it all. And that’s what I want
to share with you today.

You see, there are four distinct phases that most of us move through
in retirement. And as you’ll see,
it’s not always a smooth ride. In the next few minutes, you’ll recognize
which phase you’re in if you’re retired, and if you’re not, you’ll have a better idea
of what to expect when that time comes. And best of all, you’ll know
that there is a phase four – the most gratifying,
satisfying of the four phases – and that’s where you can squeeze
all the juice out of retirement.

Phase one is the vacation phase,
and that’s just what it’s like. You wake up when you want,
you do what you want all day. And the best part
is that there is no set routine. For most people, phase one represents
their view of an ideal retirement. Relaxing, fun in the sun – freedom, baby. (Laughter) And for most folks, phase one
lasts for about a year or so, and then, strangely,
it begins to lose its luster. We begin to feel a bit bored. We actually miss our routine. Something in us seems to need one. And we ask ourselves, “Is that all there is to retirement?” Now when these thoughts and feelings
start to bubble up, you have already moved into phase two. Phase two is when we feel loss, and we feel lost.

Phase two is when we lose the big five – significant losses
all associated with retirement. We lose that routine. We lose a sense of identity. We lose many of the relationships
that we had established at work. We lose a sense of purpose. And for some people,
there is a loss of power. Now, we don’t see these things coming. We didn't see these losses coming in
because they happened all at once. It’s like, poof, gone.

It’s traumatic. Phase two is also when we come
face to face with the three Ds: divorce, depression and decline – both physical and mental. The result of all of this is that we can feel
like we’ve been hit by a bus. You see, before we can
appreciate and enjoy some of the positive aspects
associated with phase three and four, you are going to, in phase two, feel fear, anxiety
and quite even depression. That’s just the way it is. So buckle up and get ready. Fortunately, at some point,
most of us say to ourselves, “Hey, I can’t go on like this. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life, perhaps 30 years, feeling like this.” And when we do, we’ve turned the corner to phase three. Phase three is a time of trial and error. In phase three, we ask ourselves, “How can I make my life meaningful again? How can I contribute?” The answer often is to do things
that you love to do and do really well.

But phase three can also deliver
some disappointment and failure. For example, I spent a couple of years
serving on a condo board until I finally got tired
of being yelled at. (Laughter) You see, one year the board decided
that we were going to plant daffodils rather than the traditional daisies. (Laughter) And we got yelled at. Go figure. I thought about law school,
thinking perhaps of becoming a paralegal. And then I completed a program
on dispute resolution. It all went nowhere. I love to write. So I created a program
called “Getting started on your memoirs.” That program has met
with “limited success.” (Laughter) It’s been a rocky road for me too,
and I told you to buckle up. Now, I know all this can sound bad. But it’s really important to keep trying and experimenting
with different activities that’ll make you want
to get up in the morning again because if you don’t, there’s a real good chance
of slipping back into phase two, feeling like you’ve been hit by a bus.

And that is not a happy prospect. Not everyone breaks through to phase four, but those who do
are some of the happiest people I have ever met. Phase four is a time
to reinvent and rewire. But phase four involves
answering some tough questions too, like, “What’s the purpose here?
What’s my mission? How can I squeeze
all the juice out of retirement?” You see, it’s important that we find
activities that are meaningful to us and that give us a sense
of accomplishment. And my experience is that it almost always
involves service to others. Maybe it’s helping a charity
that you care about. Maybe you’ll be like the old coots.

(Laughter) (Applause) Yeah. These folks took a booth
in the local farmers market and were prepared to give their advice
based on their vast years of experience to anyone who came by. So one of their first visitors was a kid
who wanted help with his math homework (Laughter) on his tablet. (Laughter) They did the best they could. Or maybe you’ll be like my friend Bill. I met Bill a few years ago
in a 55 plus activity group. In the summer, we golf together
and walk together and bicycle together.

And in the winter, we curl. But Bill had this idea that we should exercise
our brains as well. He believed that there was
a tremendous pool of expertise and experience in our group, and so he approached a number of folks and asked if they would volunteer to teach some of the things
that they love to do to others. And almost invariably, they agreed. Bill himself taught two sessions, one on iPads and one on iPhones, because we were smart enough to know
that a number of our members had been given these things
as gifts at Christmas (Laughter) by their children, and that they barely knew
how to turn them on. The first year, we offered nine programs,
and there were 200 folks signed up. The next year, that number
expanded to 45 programs with over 700 folks participating. And the following year,
we offered over 90 programs and had 2100 registrations. Amazing. (Applause) That was Bill. Our members taught us
to play bridge and mahjong. They taught us to paint. They taught us to repair our bicycles. We tutored and mentored local school kids. We set up English-as-a-second-language
programs for newcomers.

We had book clubs. We had film clubs. We even had a few golf clubs. Exhausting but exhilarating. That’s what’s possible in phase four. And do you remember the five losses
that we talked about in phase two? The loss of our routine and identity and relationships and purpose and power? In phase four, these are all recovered. It is magic to see, magic. So, I urge you to enjoy
your vacation in phase one. (Laughter) Be prepared for the losses in phase two. Experiment and try as many different
things as you can in phase three, and squeeze all the juice
out of retirement in phase four.

(Applause).

As found on YouTube

Retirement Community Arizona

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401K To Gold IRA Rollover Guide: 401k To Gold IRA Rollover Review

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Kevin O’Leary: Why Early Retirement Doesn’t Work

This whole idea of financial independence retire early doesn't work. Let me tell you why. It happened to me. On the sale of my
first company, I achieved great liquidity and I
thought to myself, "Hey. I'm 36. I can retire now." I retired for three years. I was bored out of my mind. Working is not
just about money. People don't understand this very
often until they stop working. Work defines who you are. It provides a place where
you're social with people. It gives you interaction with people
all day long in an interesting way. It even helps you live longer
and is very, very good for brain health. Staying stimulated is how people
live into their 90s. I'm not kidding. So when am I retiring? Never. Never. I don't know where I'm going
after I'm dead, but I'll be working when I get there too.

As found on YouTube

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Help Choosing Retirement Properties

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25 Tips for Ensuring a Happy and Strong Marriage in your Retirement Years

retirement can redefine your marriage For Better or For Worse Better or Worse did I say that to us when we got married I think for did I make that vow I don't think so oh come on oh maybe but this new chapter retirement brings both opportunities and challenges to your relationship you know while divorce rates are down in the US gray divorce which is divorce over the age of 50 is on the uptick we don't want you to become part of those statistics no this video is going to be great we're going to give you is it 25 tips for a healthy marriage in retirement in retirement and I want you to pay attention to this I'm going to and me too all right now if you're new here my name is Mark and this is my wife jod and we don't focus on the financial aspects of retirement but rather lifestyle Health relationships and more so if you like this video and you like watching us please hit the Subscribe button and the notification button and we would be forever grateful if you could share this with someone that you care about who who's on their retirement Journey too so I don't know if we've got you know um I can't think of a story that really resonates with listen we know people who got who get divorced you know they they retire One retires and the next thing you know they're divorced and it's probably because they spent all their time apart then they're together and it's um it can be difficult well I also think you know as people are together for longer and longer periods of times without good healthy communication people change and you either need to acknowledge and embrace the change or discuss and discourage the change whatever your thing might be but but you know it all it all comes back down to how important that core unit is yeah and I think that I think that for sure the the marriage that you had when you began was super special that's why you got married and then you had maybe you had children you had your career years and now it's time to rebuild it because times are different and you want to have a good healthy happy marriage for sure and that's what this video is all about absolutely now before we jump into the teaching there's a quick download that we'd love for you to look at if you haven't received it yet on the downsizing dilemma it's one of our most popular downloads so take a look at that because that's something that comes up in a marriage discussion as well once you hit retirement so and you know stay till the end because we're going to give you five action steps to begin the process of building your stronger marriage that's that's key you're going to love that so what's the first step or the first thing we want to talk about for a healthy marriage I feel like this is the first step in quite a few of the videos we do especially as you're in retirement or entering into retirement and it's really communication you know communication is key establishing daily check-ins you know sharing retirement expectations and goals discussing any changes in roles and responsibilities that may come up and also addressing any unresolved issues and addressing them calmly right well so yeah so well yep so well so I'm just trying to think communication and we like you said we do a lot of this this is so important and some people don't even let the conversation start and that's bad they hold back I think men in particular they're afraid to be vulnerable with their wives because they don't want to they're afraid of how you might react let's say so they don't really want to open up how they feel right but this is something we all need to get over to be able to in a kind caring slow thoughtful way share with your partner how you're feeling share with them what you're concerned about share with them what right what what you can do for them today we have daily check-ins every morning we have coffee together for 30 minutes around yoga and cycling and my exercise and walk in the dog 30 minutes a day we kind of establish where are we how are we feeling how are we showing up how do we help each other out and sometimes that 30 minutes gets away from us not going to lie with um social media pressures YouTube comment responding and you know so we do our check-in I don't know if I'd give us the full 30 minutes anymore I feel like that's really cut down to maybe 15 or 20 one cup of coffee and then we got a roll well we should fix that yeah we should because because that's important yeah and we want to be honest about what we're really doing so yeah so I mean here's a here's a little tip if you're just retired or whatever spend 30 minutes each day checking in with each other it's a good one all right Second One Financial transparency typically one or the other of the spouses handles the money right there now needs to be complete transparency with both on how much money you have how much money is coming in how much money is going out what your big expenses are understanding each other spending habits you know on Amazon or wherever you know you just you need to really be open and transparent about that and not not withhold anything well and I think it's it's important because you want to plan for any unexpected expenses right you want to talk about any Financial fears or insecurities you might have and then maybe even consult a financial advisor together you know but really fully creating the space where you know everybody you know let's just all talk about what we're spending and what we're spending it on is a really good first step well and particularly if you both retire at the same time or One retires early there's not the same amount of money coming in right so there can't be the same amount of money going out that's got you've got to curtail your expenses and that's a hard conversation to have no one wants to be told we can't afford that or I don't like you spend so much money on that so but you have to be open about it and you know it's funny the third thing is a lot of um couples that we spoke to talked a lot about having Shar shared an individual interest as one of the key cornerstones to cultivating a really healthy marriage as they age you know some common activities and hobbies they respect and support also though their individual interests or needs so we have pickle ball MH we have golf you have your own golf mhm I have yoga you have yoga I have cycling so that's we have some stuff together and then you know we dinner time when I'm cooking Jody's helping me or you're cooking we're kind of in the kitchen together so I think it's just you know versus you do your thing I do my thing and you know we meet at the end of the day yeah no so you got to really balance togetherness and Independence yep and encourage each other to continue to grow and learn and and try new things you know a lot of times we have couples that one has a ton of hobbies and interest and one doesn't have any so you know it's really encouraging each other I think at the same time so as we age um our health and wellness becomes more important so number four is sharing doing building a life around health and wellness together and that means exercising regularly together adopting a a healthy diet as a couple making sure we both go see our doctors and we actually have the same uh skin doctor the same GP the same uh naturopath doctor so we go together right um you know I drive Jody sits next to me or do you sit in the back I drive Miss dais I would love that that could be Miss Daisy I think that um doing that together and being open and honest about what the doctor says right and Shar you know talking about medication prioritizing sleep and rest that's got to be an open part of your discussion again this is about having a healthy marriage right and it's hard to PRI prioritize sleep and rest if you're on different schedules you know Mark is a super early riser 4 in the morning I'm more of a six o00 girl um um so you know you like to get into bed a lot earlier I commit to getting in bed at the same time as you but then I want to read because I can't go to sleep that early so it's just really having again that conversation I think the next one which leads into uh quality time and romance planning regular date nights even in retirement celebrating anniversaries and special occasions showing appreciation and in and affection every day how do we do that well when we wake up in the morning you're already awake I wake up and come out I walk the dog and I always come in and give you a kiss yeah before you brush your teeth I do driv are crazy bad it's a tight kiss it's like this I'm a teeth brusher I like a good teethbrush well to your point you know um you reached this phase of life and maybe the romance is gone or it's the flame is not as high you really need to reignite that flame you need to work on it and if you need listen if you need therapy you should get therapy but if you want to help healthy romance you need to have quality time together healthy marriage you need to have quality time together and you need to have romance I mean you need to if you have to schedule can I say sex sure if you want to schedule sex to have sex schedule it we did a great video on sex after 60 or something yeah with a therapist a therapist and she at the end said listen if you're having trouble with sex and it's not happening she gave us exercise at the end get in to bed together naked touch each other all over but it can't seexual right have we done that yet I I don't know but you you went there really really fast I just thought about it for people who are stuck here because you're watching this video and you're think we don't have any romance don't give up right don't give up give up for sure for sure okay uh the sixth thing would be navigating social changes right building a Social Circle with other retirees staying connected with family and friends volunteering and engaging in community activities all of these things to address any feeling ings of loneliness or isolation you might have even hosting Gatherings you know into your home together so we're having dinner tonight with friends that live across the street another couple and they become sort of our group therapy couple because we're really open about our marriages and our struggles and some things that we're doing new you know that that's like unheard of but we are so comfortable with them and comfortable with each other we're okay sharing and they're okay sharing and it's really nice to have another couple that you can talk openly about your relationship it's true right yeah that's true yeah for sure all right number seven continuous learning and growth this is really important a lot of people think I'm done with my career and I'm just going to sit back I don't really need to learn anything gosh there's so much you can learn or relearn or unlearn the wrong way and learn the right way you can take classes you can do workshops together share knowledge we're always always kind of quizzing each other on on what we're learning the big word for this curiosity yeah stay curious curious and open to new experiences you know I hate playing cards I hate games I really do you can just ask our kids cuz they ask him all the time so we had dinner with these couple we're seeing again tonight couple a week ago and said you guys want to come over at 5:30 for pizza and play cards I'm like the pizza part I like I actually had the greatest time ever playing cards I didn't want it to end I know and I went in there with a different mindset I said you know what different experience everyone around me all my kids they love cards and I don't right it's not wrong with them it's wrong with me so this is still under the continuous learning learning bucket so even a card game is a good thing well 7A right between seven and eight is learning how to play cards there you go so we know we have to put it in there 28 y um you know adapting to a new home Dynamic you know you're both there full-time now that's different right it is different you need to redefine household responsibilities and kind of create your own personal spaces within your home and discuss expectations about home life you know does one of you like to watch The Morning News and the other wants to read the paper in quiet well back in the day one could go to the office and read the paper and the other could you know get dressed while the news was on or whatever it might be but there's going to be big changes and really need to navigate those changes inside your daily routine and talk about it so when your Dynamics are a little when you're a little at of sort you're at home and you're at of sorts with what's happening what your wife or husband is doing you have to find um time and space to address any conflicts promptly right I and constructively I was always the worst if things weren't the way I wanted them to be and they were out of s sorts i' withdraw into my cave and I would go in there and I'd shut down I'd be quiet that is the worst thing that I ever did to you I don't think I do it anymore at all maybe 10% but I used to go 120% all in and you'd say to me all day you okay I'm fine you're kind of quiet I just don't feel like talking but the difference was our home Dynamics were changing and you weren't really was I wasn't yeah what you were concerned about I wasn't addressing the conflict properly so now something happens I say hey I want to let you know how what you just did made me feel not looking for a response and just open up a line of communication the ninth thing would be respecting and understanding each other just kind of in a broad C category right acknowledging and validating each other's feelings being patient with each other to any adjustments that is required As you move through this transition yeah and I think cultivating um a feeling of empathy and compassion is really important and respecting each other's viewpoints we don't agree on a lot of things but I respect your Viewpoint and you respect mine and then we decide what we're going to do going forward and honestly I think that practicing forgiveness if you cannot forgive your partner for something they did 10 minutes ago or 10 years ago you're going to carry that around and it's going to be a wound that's going to prevent you from really getting close again I age so I agree I'm not great at forgiving you're really good at forgiving do you forgive me for all of my sins do I know all of your sins well to you oh yes oh good so Lu we started fresh I'm glad I'm glad we got to this one today no I'm again I joke around a lot forgiveness is really important we're going to make mistakes we're going to say stupid things going to we're going to be a jerk sometimes and I think you just need to apologize own up to it and forgive the other person okay the 10th thing is future plan planning really discussing long-term goals and dreams you know plan for any potential health issues that one or the other of you might have consider your living arrangements later in life what do you both Envision that to look like you know update your Wills your legal documents and talk about any Legacy and Family Matters talk about them early and talk about them often and talk about them together right you don't jod has three daughters I have three sons you know we we we have I talked to my boys about certain things J talks to her girls but anything about future planning trips Legacy Family Matters Jody and I talk to them together it's really important to be United on that particularly with a blended family 100% for sure all right so there's there's a lot of change in this phase of life so number 11 is embracing change together you know accepting the change that retirement brings you're both home home now you're both there all day long and you need to be open to adjusting plans and your expectations and gosh you got to have a lot of flexibility right yeah and you have to really realize and we all need to realize as this huge generation of us is embracing and moving in through the transition of retirement that it is one of the top 20 most stressful events you'll ever go through in your life is retiring oddly enough so you know celebrate this new phase of life together and support each other through the transition even though you might not be at the same phase yeah you know I think that uh we talked about health before and we talked about Legacy and talking about embracing change um taking care of each other as we age you know one of the things that maybe we haven't talked enough about really is what if one of us gets sick right yeah you going to take care of me of course I will oh good no but I think that's important because all of a sudden it's upon you yeah and you haven't talked about it now it's kind of a shock right um so I think that's that's really important um number 12 effective conflict resolution again for me I was really bad at this I'm a lot better but when there's some conflict really need to develop healthy ways to address disagreements you can't blame um you want to focus on Solutions right you really don't want to blame the other person okay something happened what can we do to fix it right and you have to practice some active listening skills right where you're asking questions along the way not closed-ended questions but open-ended questions and really showing empathy for what the other person's going through and feeling free to take a time out if this discussion gets heated Mark will do that sometimes he'll say up I'm full I had enough we're going to have to pause on this and I'm right mid stride and you get mad at me I do because it's hard because I'm I'm a task completion person so I'm ready to just work it all out and you need more time than I do so working towards compromise for Mutual satisfaction I think makes a big difference there's a couple I know that have a code word I honestly think it was my brother and his wife but there's a code word so when things are getting heated things are out of control they had a code word that they would say one of them would say and that just kind of said okay it's time to take a break instead of continuing the yelling or the screaming or the pushing or the blaming just saying you know what I this isn't working right now I want to come up with a solution but we're headed in the wrong direction let's take a little pause well I know our daughter Evan and her boyfriend Hayden have a conversation where if it's going in a wrong direction one or the other will say let's roll that back oh and that gives the person a chance to roll back the direction or what does that mean like a undo what you just said no not undo it like like let's let's roll that back because this isn't going in the right direction and they can then have a conversation about redirecting the conversation I thought it was a good Str again this is about healthy marriages healthy relationships so these are all good tips and good ideas and the 13th one we kind of discussed a little bit earlier but maintaining intimacy and closeness prioritizing your physical and emotional intimacy which I think is really as important as the physical intimacy you know CU as you get older your intimacy needs change and be open to new ways of expressing love and kindness right scheduling regular time for intimacy which I think you already talked about when is that Sundays at 3 and um is that when it is I don't know got footballs on I don't know if that's I tell you what it's today at 5 um but also seeking professional help you know if you need to face some challenges together don't be afraid of getting therapy right either individually or as a couple if you've been together for 20 or 30 or 40 years gosh don't you know this whole saying about the grass is greener on the other side it's so true and do the best you can to work through your problems but get some professional help if you need it the other thing you really need is a supportive Network right and again I talk about a couple across the street he's a great guy for me to go to he understands me he understands jod he understands our relationship I can talk to him about something I'm struggling with with jod and he's really good at just saying you know not really saying a lot just listening so building a supportive Network for yourself and as a couple I think is important yeah I think to really maintain friendships that enrich your marriage right support your marriage you know connecting with individuals or other couples that are in the Life same life stage as you participating in community or religious group you know activities you know that you can do together you know and offering support to friends and then accepting that support back in return I think is really important during this stage and I think the children too you know our our children are adults now you know my sons are 30 I'll get this wrong 38 36 34 more or less they're they're grown young men yeah they are and they do provide a a supportive Network for me we don't share like when we're struggling but just to have conversations with them is helpful too and you're really good with your daughters yeah but I I think with the girls I actually do share when I'm struggling because I I value their perspective so that might be well a new layer for you and the boys well maybe me a new layer for the girls and I cuz I'm picking up um Maddie tomorrow uh at the airport and I'll be with her for an hour and a half so I could check in with her on what you're telling her okay is that what we think is that how it's going to go all right setting personal and Joint goals you know um a healthy marriage needs growth it needs uh fun it needs excitement and you need to have some goals as a human being and as a couple so we do a lot of individual goals but we do a lot of joint goals we do we do and celebrating those achievements big and small keeping each other accountable and motivated you know is uh It's Tricky but it's something that I think really supports this one about setting goals and celebrate achievements you know I had a I'm almost finished with my book and there's been a whole bunch of different achievements and you've been my biggest fan yeah well I'm excited for it yeah I am too but you know I think I think keeping each other accountable to their goals too and being motivated is really important okay here's one we're struggling with we struggle with this one I'm surprised it's number 16 well it's not in any kind of order but managing time effectively we gosh you know we have this business we love it YouTube Channel's doing great uh but you know balancing personal time couple time so couple time for us is pick a ball Tuesdays and Thursdays and golf on Thursday and we're missing out on that right now yeah we got the puppy we little Ruby which helps but you've really got to spend some time at this and allocate time for relaxation and Leisure right for each other and alone time and and really prioritize the tasks and activities that are most important and everything can't be important right and then also be flexible to some spontaneous plans I think that's where we really fail I love spontaneity did I say it right I think you did spontaneity um 17 enhancing your emotional intelligence This falls under communication but really work on understanding each other's emotions when when I see that you are I'm going to say wound up or stressed or anxious it's because you're concerned about making sure what you're working on people will appreciate and and that it'll be the best that you can deliver and that's a great thing that you feel that way but I know it takes a lot of energy and I'm getting much better at recognizing that you're not stressed out you're not mad you're not angry you're just trying to make something really good for somebody else right right and I think learning to express that constructively really helps because sometimes when you just say you know like well what's a matter and I'm like well nothing's the matter I'm just deep into a research project or I'm deep into writing a script or I'm deep into you know trying to find a new book that we can you know help you know with clients or whatever but sometimes when you just say what's the matter it puts me on my heels for sure you like this is kind of like us kind of revealing it's like doing therapy with a camera exactly they're not saying anything I know leave the comments below let us know what you think but the other thing is that Jody and I are getting really good at and we're you know listen we're we're a work in progress defin we're a work in progress but we're we're study this stuff for ourselves and for you but recognize and appreciate each other's strengths and we're getting so much better at that I kind of give you free Liberty on what you're good at and I don't worry about it right and then we try to engage in activities that boost our emotional well-being you know we sometimes we meditate together we journal in the morning at the same time so here's a big one for couples you know trying to stay together and happy and that is really handling health challenges together you know really being prepared for age related health issues support each other through any health setbacks share responsibility and Health Care Management and stay informed about each other's medical needs you know this is the way to encourage a proactive approach to health and wellness and I think we we spout that a lot well we spout it but we haven't dealt with it we're very fortunate that both of us are healthy and there there's some minor things but nothing really bad knock on wood but someone left a comment on YouTube just uh this morning she just retired she's 62 her husband is 20 years older and because of that her they've been married for a long time because of that her dreams of traveling now have kind of vanished and she's struggling with that right and so so things like that can happen to your to your relationship if one of you does get sick and they can't TR so you really need to have backup plans or or talk ahead of time that you know if you do get sick we're not going to travel I'm fine with that yeah my sister-in-law's mom does that her husband can't travel for some health related issues and she goes everywhere but they agree upfront the things that he can do locally they do together and then the things she does abroad she does with girlfriend that's such a great example we should really add that comment for that couple because there's something a 62 and an 80-year-old can do together right and the younger partner can still do some stuff alone absolutely I love that absolutely all right continue to Foster mutual respect for each other you know this feeling of uh oh I don't know taking advantage taking for granted yeah is that what what you making Google I again no but you really want to stay consistent with your respect in words and actions appreciate each other's contributions to the relationship yeah and really celebrate each other 's uniqueness right practicing kindness and gratitude for each other every day even on Small Things y you know this morning Mark made the bed I'll be honest that doesn't happen a lot not what do you mean well I usually 20% of I'm last person out of bed so I figure I'm the person to make the bed but this morning you made the bed and it was really kind and I was very grateful my friend John won't let his wife make the bed cuz he makes it so much better than anybody he does it tight he does it tight does um all right come on on number 20 plan for the unexpected so plan for it at least discuss it right so discuss and prepare for unforeseen events financial problem a health problem a death of of uh a friend and you need a continuously plan for emergencies you really have to be you have to talk about everything that could potentially happen so at least you've talked about it and when it happens if it happens you're not totally taken by surprise and really just stay adaptable to life surprises right this time of life there will be some surprises but building a support system with you and your spouse together for tough times you know really really helps and it helps you maintain a positive outlook through all those challenges and this next one is really what's saved our marriage really cultivating a sense of humor I'm the class clown I'm the Joker I create all of the happiness around the house because I get you to laugh every day you really believe that no but we do push ourselves on sense of humor look we're laughing now laugh together regularly see I just did I think it's more important Mark does think he's the funniest man alive you know he'll always say I'm so funny and I'm like yeah where that one didn't land but I do think it's um important not to take yourself so seriously in this phase of life especially if you're trying new hobbies trying new activities trying new things trying new groups trying new religious whatever you're trying that's new you may or may not be good at it so don't take yourself so seriously here's what I do and it does get me in trouble I use humor to diffuse tension if there's tension I'll try to crack a joke sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't because sometimes I'll crack a joke and you'll say I can't believe he just said that right I'm trying to be serious but I I I feel tension and you know that's what I or sometimes you'll just do that laugh well yeah sometimes I just start laughing he just starts laughing and we're in the middle of like a like a tough topic and he'll just start laughing and then I just get incensed and just crazy so and I'm laughing because you're nervous I'm nervous plus I'm thinking maybe she's explained it enough when is when is she going to take a breath give me a chance to weigh in thanks so much that it could be that all right number 22 sharing responsibilities equitably right so dividing some household chores this is important as you are going to spend 7 days a week you know 24 hours a day together dividing chores fairly discussing and agreeing on decision-making process around different things and both of you showing financial responsibility yeah during this phas I think that's a pretty easy one to get your head around but it's something necessarily you have to communicate about it if someone thinks they're doing more of the household chores responsibilities than the other you need to say that right I mean I feel badly that you make the bed every day like you just said on YouTube but I I I'll I'll do it more you what I don't know I'm glad you make the bed when you make it but I made it today and I think I did a good job almost to the end all right practicing gratitude and appreciation appreciation so I journal every morning and I write down my three gratitudes my first one is always jod with a hyphen and something about her I'm grateful for and I know you sneak and look at it sometimes cuzz you live little heart signs and you leave little notes but listen I practice gratitude every day with jod and it's helped our relationship a lot when you really screw up which is rare but you have doesn't matter anymore our relationship is bulletproof I wonder if we should do a whole YouTube segment on when jod screwed up I'd love to see what very rare very rare everyone but no and ALS again I'm joking practicing gratitude and appreciation for the other person is important it doesn't hurt it's not not that hard to say thank you and it doesn't have to be big acts it can be small acts of kindness thank you for making the bed thanks for emptying a dishwasher thanks for cooking dinner right right that's what I want to hear more of okay um keeping a gratitude Journal together I haven't really looked in your Journal you have it am I in there you're in there you and little rucious all right number 24 investing in personal development you know I think it's important and we've done some research that it is important to encourage each other's individual growth you know supporting the new hobbies or educational Pursuits that one or the other of you might want to do and share some learning insights with your partner as you go along the way we we're the king and the queen of this we are so into personal development we can't wait to get our hands on a new book that someone recommended to us we do a lot of reading for you guys I mean all of these these 25 came from books and research so we invest a lot in personal development not money but just time and we share it with each other and we challenge each other it really is helpful all right so here's number 25 and then stay tuned because we have the five action steps we're going to leave you with celebrate your milestones and your retirement achievements celebrate your retirement mileston Milestones yeah we're married uh 14 years it's past August coming on 15 next year I'm 67 you'll be 40 2 I'll be 42 I love that idea I know but I think reflecting on your journey and your grow together is important and we do talk about this a lot we've come a long way from 15 years ago or 17 years ago whatever and you know we're always readapting rethinking about our future milestones and and and really these retirement experiences that we're having we try to share them with each other you know whether it's hey I'm really nervous I'm joining a ladi's golf league I you know I'm not a great golfer I'm just a learner but and I don't know a person there and I'm nervous but I shared that with you in a vulnerable way um you know you said you know just go get them but go get them go get them you go you got it you go you got it but um okay so here are the five action steps five action steps you can take to build a healthy marriage first one can't say it enough open and honest communication you want to schedule regular uninterrupted uninterrupted time to talk about your day your feelings and your concerns and the other person needs to practice active listening empathy and understanding and again show your appreciation and gratitude every single day I agree number two is joint financial planning we don't do financial planning but reviewing and adjusting your retirement budget together being transparent about spending habits and financial goals and plan for any long-term needs including your health care needs these are really that's really important to do and I think it's it's an important step for everyone it is shouldn't be any undisclosable your financial situation no surprises number three prioritizing health and wellness cannot emphasize this enough communication knowing your finances and being Health um health conscious is really really important we we have a joint exercise routine you know pickle ball and golf and golf isn't really exercise but we do physical activ together we eat together so we adopt a healthy diet we walk together we go to the doctors together um we support each other with our medical concerns and you know we do stress reducing activities you do yoga I do meditation mindful walk so prioritizing health and wellness will lead to a healthier marriage and the fourth thing is to cultivate those shared and individual interest is interests you know identify hobbies and activities you can do to together and encourage and support each other to pursue individual passions I think we talked about that one enough but that's a really important one number five this is it might be hard for you guys but regular relationship check-ins we do it every day we check in with each other every single day I'll admit this morning was a little bit rough this morning was a little crazy a little rough rough um and you know we didn't really get a chance to talk about it but we kind of aired it today on on here so I feel better you know I didn't get a kiss this morning but that's all right but celebrate your accomplishments and Milestones in your marriage revisit and revise your goals but gosh just have a check-in on how you're doing as a couple so listen we covered a lot here today and we hope you made some notes and have a good list to start working on your marriage together so if you like this video this next one don't make these marriage mistakes will be great to watch we outline all the mistakes that you can make that you shouldn't and it really complements what you learned here today so watch this next

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Live your Best Life with the Best Retirement Advice You’ll Ever Get!!

we've been researching and living retirement for about 5 years now and we learned a lot about what works and quite frankly what doesn't work and we you know coached a lot of people and we get a lot of comments on our YouTube channel so there's a lot of people who enter this phase really unprepared and then they just wander around and end up bored and even depressed you know without the right strategies you're missing out on the joys and opportunities that retirement can offer to you so today we're going to give you the top 20 pieces of advice from ourselves but also from so many of our clients who are having a really great time in retirement that they describe as super successful and make sure you stay till the end because we're also going to throw in our top five retirement tips can't wait to get to that yeah exactly listen if you're new here I'm jod and this is my husband Mark now we don't focus on the financial aspects of retirement but really what we do focus on is lifestyle Health relation relationships and so much more we hope you like our videos and if you do please share them with someone you care about and definitely like them as you're on your way down your retirement Journey so let's talk a little bit about our journey for the last 5 years because we don't want you all to think just because we have a YouTube channel that we have it all figured out we do in many regards but I I would say the the one thing that we're doing really well is working at it we do yeah I would say that we work at it every day almost to the point where sometimes you know how you work at something so long that sometimes you're like okay I'm going to take a pause on this every once in a while I'll have to call the pause yeah and and I don't want to give away our five tips but the one thing that you and I have going for us well there's really 10 things but I only want to focus on one now is our communication yeah you know we don't always agree nor do we always get along well we always communicate yeah you know we really do give each other respect the space to have an opinion um and you know we're human beings and living together can have its challenges absolutely but we I think the big thing for us is experimenting we don't always agree we don't always get along but we always reset and regroup and what's what else am I looking to say well sometimes I think we also just do what I said just take a pause right I mean sometimes you have to just kind of step away to go back at it with fresh eyes yeah so you know we keep we do keep track of what's working and what isn't working for us and you know what worked for us for all the years that we were married that we were working may not work for us now so we've had to adapt a few things for sure you know when we were working it was I'm not going to say it was easier but there was so much going on there really was no downtime right now we have downtime and we need to make sure we're we're doing it the right way y so you might be wondering why do you even need to think this Harden retirement well we have people say that to us all the time you know you guys make it sound like it's so much work in retirement that's when you're supposed to have no work right well what we found out is our retirement other people's retirements are successful and they're happy because they spend a little bit of time working on things right now by the way we've got a whole bunch of free downloads but we're going to put a link below to one it's a health and wellness checklist we want you to get that download and use that to kind of reset your health in retirement that's really really important so let's jump into some of the best retirement advice we've heard from RE reies thus far and again stay till the end where we'll do our top five retirement tips okay first thing stay active first thing always what staying active it is it's one of our first things we always say I can't emphasize this enough now we have a new puppy who is in the background is he eating something well just a dresser no he's eating a knob on a dresser maybe you should grab him but staying active it's her uh yeah it's a her so we'll bring her up um you get to see Ruby this but uh staying Physically Active it boosts your mood it boosts your health you know walking walking walking our dog is always helpful but we're both pretty big fans of some regular type of exercise Absolut and you need to do that yep yep and you know we read a great book called outlived by Dr Peter ATA and he talks a lot about exercising being the best medicine for longevity okay you can't lick the microphone all right second thing nutrition you've really got to understand what it is that you put into your mouth you know my mom said that when I was a kid but as we get older you know there are changing nutritional needs that we need to be aware of and you got to have a good balance of fruits vegetables lean proteins and whole grains absolutely and you know you have to also stay hydrated you know you have to limit your intake of sugary or processed foods and definitely make sure that you're Consulting a nutritionist I think or a dietitian even of sorts and make it fun in the kitchen you know explore some new recipes or Cuisines to keep your meals exciting and nutritious yeah you do good with that because you're really our cook I'm really appetizers Ambiance and clean up well we've moved from Strictly meat and potatoes and gravies I I call it comfort food to more of a Mediterranean diet so we don't do much beef we do a lot of chicken we do a lot of fish having fish tonight right um a lot of vegetables and we feel better because of that the exercise and nutrition really makes us feel great absolutely so the next thing is really to just you know our retirees tell us all the time you know continuous and constant learning keeps our brains active and really keeps us sharp and keeps us young yeah and you know retirement offers you the freedom to explore new hobbies or skills or go to the library when was the last time you're in a library you know it's amazing to walk I love walking through bookstores but walk through a library is even more fun because it just massive and there's so many different sections you can get lost in there forever right and you know I think that uh local community centers like uh got down here in Florida they've got all of these nature preserves they just kind of fun to go walks Serenity walks and different things another thing that's really important and the fourth tip today is socializing you really got to make sure you're getting out and making new connections there are a lot of people in the same boat that you're in right that want to meet new people down here in Florida we're just really getting so much better at putting ourselves out there Y where you can volunteer join a club um I and it's not that hard you know I think we make socialization as we age a lot harder than it really needs to be it's like almost like we build up these walls around how am I going to get invited or who am I going to know or what am I going to say and you know really it's just a matter of putting yourself out there and being you I mean you you are very interesting and what we always tell our kids is it's important to be both interesting when you're socializing and interested so you know have your battery of questions kind of lined up that you're going to you know say to people when you're in Social settings a lot a lot of it is easier than you think so that's all about meeting new people and networking so to speak uh the other thing the fifth tip is nurturing your current relationships we get that a lot from our retirees what's that that need to do this once they are retire I mean whether it's your children or your old colleagues at work or your relatives or high school friends or college friends these are people that at one point in your life were probably pretty close to you will reach out and find out what they're doing look for them on Facebook or whatever but don't be afraid they're probably wondering if they're retired as well gosh I I wonder where my high school friends are and when you call them I guarantee you they're going to be like oh my gosh I can't believe it just called and you have the most wonderful conversation so I also think that in the nurturing relationship bucket Mark I I also think it's a time where you can really sit back and address any unresolved conflicts that you might have whether that's with family or old friends or you know old neighbors or colleagues you know it's a good time to be able to address all of that for sure okay um staying financially Savvy lot of the lot of our clients and ourselves and people leave comments that you know how much money can I spend spend should I downsize or rent when should I take Social Security or my pension you know we have a great tool that we um came in contact with through new retirement and it's actually a um a portal where you can connect all your bank accounts and it actually pulls everything and it shows how much you're spending it shows you what might happen if you downst it's a really cool too it's it's like a scenario plan yeah so we'll put that down below but these are all questions that people have you need to get the answers so either a financial planner or um your accountant or using this tool but you know having a regular budget can be helpful because you kind of know how much you can spend right um I think the other thing that we see a lot of because we get it all the time too is being really careful about scams oh I know you know this thing where people call up and say that uh it's it's an email and or they'll say is this Mark Rollins and you say yes and then they have your yes there so there's a lot of those things that are happening good financial adviser and really understanding your finances is really important okay the next thing I would say and and I didn't do this as much during my career but I've really taken this on um and with some advice from our retirees is prioritizing your mental health your mental health and wellness is so important it's critical and almost as crucial as your physical health right uhoh Ruby's getting adventurous Ruby's getting out of hand um you know meditation I talk about meditation a lot lot I talk about journeying a lot and you know five five or six years ago I started meditating and if you asked me the day before I was meditating would I ever do it I would I would have said no yeah but it really is a lifesaver now it really helps me every morning to kind of get myself set for the day journaling gets my ideas and my feelings out on a piece of paper it really has helped me tremendously be more calm and in the moment for whatever comes our way absolutely and you know what I I remember you and I remember you the day before you started and and you really that's a true statement you never would have done it if if you didn't you know kind of feel like you had to do it at that point okay the next thing I would say is um you know our retirees these days are really embracing technology you know it offers a great tool to stay connected and informed and even entertained and then there's you know the platforms like Zoom or Skype that allow you to do virtual meetups with family family members we just yesterday gave our grandson Luca his fifth birthday present oh yeah via Zoom they're in California they're in California and we're here in Florida and we had the present all set it was all ready you know we had it all kind of concealed his eyes were covered and um that was really the only way we were able to celebrate so I think it was good that we were able to do that and they're able to do it you know back with us I mean I think Luka could zoom or Skype us probably without his parents well on the way to school a lot in the morning uh Jonathan will give Luca his phone and luuka and I will have a conversation on the way to school which is fun so there's um there's a lot you can do with technology and I I find that when people are struggling with technology they're struggling with life so really investing some time and learning how to use your phone right learning how to use your computer it really is important I think the next you know the next thing our retirees tell us is you know you know travel and explore you know traveling provides such EXP exposure to new cultures you know I know we've got a safari coming up at the end of next year we're both a little nervous about um but new cultures new foods new experiences and even some local trips some stations but going to the next town over I know I had a hard time saying that the other day but the next town over can be really fun and it keeps you busy so you can plan a trip you can research trips we we've we've now seen recently there's a lot of travel agents that specialize in trips for solo not solos solo retirees or solo people individual people so you go on a vacation with 10 people who are all there on their own right and you know the travel agent does a pretty good job we hear of making sure that you're all the same um you know you're you're going to the same place for the same reason and that you'll pretty much get along so that's great so more advice from our um retirees that we've been kind of investigating and calculating this is always a favorite re-evaluate your living situation and you know what I mean by that is you know consider your proximity to you know family to friends to Health Care Facilities to your doctors to your favorite recreational areas you know re-evaluate if where you are here today is where you really want to be or need to be as you move through your retirement yeah I think that's really important because there are so many options for you today to live and again it's not just about downsizing which I think we're going to talk about in a minute but it's really where do you live and how are you living we we always talk about wanting to end up as we get older being there one of our kids and we have six it's just hard but they haven't really we're not necessarily on the same page on this one what do you mean well I mean I think it would be great but I like who do you pick how do you pick what do you do I I'm not going to say it on here but I know who I'm going to pick okay I want to be taken care of okay I know who she is oops did I say that okay so the the next thing is downsizing or rightsizing your home so this has Financial connotations but it also has a tremendous amount of um psychological stumbling blocks that you need to get over in order to even think about downsizing and the first place to start instead of just saying I don't want to talk about it with your partner you have to talk about it I think that's really the first thing we have a lot of people who are frustrated with this topic because they're spouse or partner don't want to talk about it well well the retirees that we spoke to for this video said you know this is a scary and dangerous topic right downsizing you know decluttering is a little bit easier than downsizing downsizing means you're thinking of making a big move right and if you're both not on the same page it becomes divisive so you know the retirees uh that we talked to said this is good advice to start to bring up early in your retirement really planning the seeds you know where do you stand on on this you know is simplifying something that's going to lead to less stress or are you the house that everyone comes to and and we've done and that's fine too we've done uh several videos on this topic of downsizing there's another one that says if downsizing isn't right for you some things that you can do really the process here is to simplify your life you're now in a phase of your life where you've got more free time you can travel so will Trading houses up or down make your life simple right so right and it's you know it's a therapeutic process and speaking of a therapeutic process the next thing that everyone says helps them so much is beginning the process of decluttering right and that oh my gosh we we try to declutter all the time it gives you mental Clarity it makes your home safer and there's so many emotional but what's so funny I'm laughing because if we try to declutter all the time where's the Clutter coming from I don't well yeah the first thing is to stop buying stuff right yeah exactly because you know take the Amazon app off of your phone because you know when you declutter you know and then you declutter again and again you got to start saying to yourself where is it all coming from well I I mean you can start with a closet you can start with a dresser and you know there's a lot of gems inside your closet and your dresser that other people can use if you're not using I mean if you're not if you haven't worn a c outfit for 2 years get rid of it yeah you're never going to wear it again the other thing is when you when you take a look at an item in your closet if you wouldn't buy that new today get rid of it right you know so you know you don't need your suits anymore your work clothes if you've retired so decluttering can really be fun we did we've done a lot of videos on that too you know this next um item a lot of our retirees really felt uh strongly about and and that is to document your legacy you know sharing your life stories is such a gift to all the future Generations in your world you know writing or recording or even creating digital albums you know can be great methods of documenting your legacy and this is the one thread I think that I heard that just everyone spoke about with passion there's a good friend of mine um who is a a grandmother she's got three children and five grand grandchilden and she writes a letter I think she writes two letters a year to each grandchild every year she's been doing that since the kids were born and she's telling them stories she's sharing with them a little bit about her um her preferences or political background uh you know how she feels about certain current events that are going on right now it's really going to be an amazing gift to give to these kids to be able to have a letter from their grandma mother from 20 years ago about some current event that was happening and how it's making her feel so it really is a neat project that she's done yep well you just saw Ruby or maybe you did but adopting a pet you know it gives this is controversial with retirees actually okay you know because and I didn't mean to interrupt you I know I'm going to get hit with comments on stop interrupting it's typically me that interrupts you that's what the comments say but um you know adopting a pet or rescuing a pet or somehow putting that type of love and companionship into your life gives you so much the flip side and I guess where I'd say it becomes controversial is you have to be you know ready for it you have to have you know the financial wherewithal to handle it you have to have the bandwidth to handle the training the potty training the dog walking you have to have good physical activity and if you don't it's going to help you get there but you have to be ready for it and this one just kind of was like uh probably 7 25 a was interesting for us though we've had two dogs together before we had sugar um and we had little Max and we just got the dogs and we just brought them up the way we wanted to well because we were working we were still so now we have Ruby for three days and I said to jod why don't we do this differently why don't we find some YouTube channels and learn how to really train a dog well it's actually been really exciting for us because we're learning some things we never knew right and I think it's been really helpful for us and for little Ruby and for rucious yeah so having a Pet's great it well it's works for us and again it was kind of a controversial well there is a lot of love that comes back yep and there's just a lot of anxiety that comes with the love so all right the 15th tip you could join a club or start a club right so coffee uh with uh so for a man get one buddy have coffee once once a week bringing have him bring a guest and you bring a guest get up to like 10 people and have weekly coffee tell stories I I do that all the time and I love it so it's it's a really fun way to well let me say this it's important Jody and I have a business we're married we have kids we do a lot together but we do a fair amount apart too so I think that for everyone in retirement if you're solo you're solo but if you're a couple you got to have your own stuff yeah you got to have your own club you got to have your own group yep um you know the next thing is to seek out mentorship opportunities you know um again our retirees had a wealth of professional and life experiences and there's so much that they could share with younger Generations that they would engage in really meaningful guided conversations that helped build multigenerational connections for them and again they got pretty charged up about seek seeking out these opportunities you know Mark and I did that at the University of Hartford in one of the business classes where we kind of did a guest professorship for a day and then we actually took applications for um for students to mentor and it was a really fun year for us well the thing there's a couple things that happen first of all you're helping someone else but you feel fulfilled you know you feel like you have a sense of purpose uh by guiding others and the other thing is I'm going to go guide is get getting mentored by someone who's younger than you I mean I have two mentors we kind of Mentor each other one is my son and one is another young professional that I know but but I actually can learn a lot from them they have a different outlook on business they have a different outlook on life and it really has been helpful to me for sure so that that's been fun yeah it has sorry I had to step away um this was I thought an interesting one and this came from a a a pocket of our um friends and retirees that wanted to engage in artistic Pursuits um I would put myself in this area I haven't done it yet but exploring different art forums and painting and pottery you know our neighbor across the street Jen she does that every year whenever she gets down to Florida she joins last last year was Pottery this year it's painting drawing it's drawing drawing she joins um art classes and workshops and goes to the local community center and she loves it and that's something I think I would like to do cuz I don't do much for my artistic side but it gives you also um uh Arts a form of expression and emotional release and if you're into that at all it really is kind of fun to do that I mean this in a way what we're doing is Artistic Pursuits I mean we're shooting video and we're you know um you know building a little business but it it's uh it's fun I would I wouldn't say it's a hobby but we've had to learn so much so it's been kind of cool y on the other thing and we just did a Facebook live on this yesterday is um staying updated with current events you know we we did a a Facebook live yesterday in our in our community uh do you consume the news or is the news consuming you right so really finding a way to get good solid news we think is important I mean trying to find reputable news sources or magazines is really helpful versus getting caught up in what everyone calls the fake news if you will but you know uh get involved with Community discussions or forums talk to friends don't be so judgmental when someone has a certain opinion on a news article but really finding a balance there because it is important to stay up to date it is I believe it really is important to stay up to date but like you said it's also can be all consuming we do have some retirees that watch the news Chann channels and you can watch the news channels now 24 hours a day so uh we do have some folks that are doing that which isn't probably the healthiest the next one is well before you do that one of the what's that I interrupted you I get a good comment um we stepped away we have stepped away from watching the news in a in a big way so we'll watch the evening news for I don't know 35 minutes we watch some things on um well Evan your daughter told us to watch NPR well listen that's a podcast it's a podcast so we we we get some news that way but um staying informed about local events or Community changes we kind of stepped away from that we jumped back in you found out about this great concert taking place and then you signed up for it and it was full yeah I mean literally the day I saw it which means it probably was out there before yeah so I think the whole idea of current events is really important things happening in your community so I didn't mean to interrupt you but I didn't want to forget that okay I think the next thing that we heard a lot about from everybody was planning regular family events or Gatherings you know now you have the time to organize events and birthdays and anniversaries and really start to create traditional Traditions like annual family picnics or you know um different things you could do with grandchildren either in groups or select one at a time I mean that's really something fun that you can um really jump into I think yeah we have Thanksgiving um in Florida this Thanksgiving couple weeks couple weeks and we've got five of our six kids coming with their partners and um the grandkids are not going to make it but we can't wait for that and we make it special and we make it a lot of fun and they all have their favorite food here and little gifts and we take a lot of pictures so that we can have really good memories for um for the future um you know investing in self-care is really really important a lot of people don't take time to do that you what it shouldn't have been number 20 it shouldn't have been last no it shouldn't it really shouldn't because now is the time you can dedicate for relaxation and meditation and deep breathing and different things like that if you can afford to get a massage once in a while um you know do yoga on the beach you got to get your health checkups I I know I um I think we'll leave a link below we have a a free yeah Health checkup worksheet is really great so you can download that we'll put that in the comments below but you know you want to engage in activities that stimulate your mind puzzles games right you have to get adequate sleep and rest we have the aura ring so we track our sleep the first thing we talk about in the morning is well just how you do what are your numbers you guys have been patient our top five retirement tips number one you have to have a plan y you need a short long-term plan you need 5 10 15 20 years or more out you know my my plan is to be physically independent at the age of 90 you You' heard me say that before so that is what drives me to get up and exercise every single day and we start each day with a plan that's a good segue to the second big tip exercise exercise exercise exercise exercise it's the number one thing that we can do for ourselves to be healthy and if you're not exercising now keep it simple walk out the front door walk 10 minutes one way and come back and do that for 5 days and then go 15 minutes and then do 20 minutes for a week so you got to do that the third top tip is you've got to build a community of people you've whether it's your family you reach out to whether it's Friends new friends neighbors re-engaging with old work friends number three is you've got to build community and the fourth tip would be healthy habits really review your habits you know think about can you limit your alcohol can you stop any bad habits I mean you stopped cigar smoking you pretty much eliminated chocolate chip cookies pretty much eliminated what do you mean pretty much you bought them yesterday and I haven't had one yet and you're going to throw them out I'm having them and you know keeping ahead of better nutrition you know eliminating your bad foods and making sure you're eating what makes you feel good I was thinking about this this morning healthy habits or food alcohol whatever it is I drink very little now so if you can try going for two weeks let's just say two weeks no alcohol uh change your nutritions try to eat healthy try to get good sleep it's amazing how much sleep you can get when you don't have any alcohol yes try it for two weeks see how you feel just see if you feel any different because that's what's happened to me if I have a glass of wine I feel like crap the next day I've gotten so used to not having one glass yeah yeah but but anyway all right the the fifth thing is to give back you know volunteer start or get a dog Ruby really like that one volunteer or start a company you know during our career we got fulfillment out of our job but volunteering is a great way to replace that right um and if you're married in a relationship have fun have fun with each other look how much fun we're having and doing this right sorry about flexible with each other you know she's brand new we run into trouble here at times together as a couple but try to find ways to have fun yes some of this was ser ious and it can affect your quality of life and other things are just downright important but all of it is to make this next phase of Life exciting and fun so we hope you enjoyed this and if you did this next video top tips for living longer in retirement on that video we talk not only about living longer but almost as important as living healthier so watch this one next

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How Can I Buy Gold With My IRA?

How can I acquire gold with my individual retirement account? Investment in rare-earth elements can be made
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Regal Properties is a gold individual retirement account rollover firm.

A self-directed Individual retirement account supplies all the investment. For any individual holding an Individual retirement account, you can invest. Gold IRA. IRA account to a 2nd one within 60 days, you won ' t have to pay
any taxes on the transfer. Individual retirement account to precious metals.

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401k to gold IRA rollover

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Things We Wished We Knew Before Retirement

Well it's great to be with you all again it's 
another video day for us – It is – So things that   we wish we knew before we retired almost 
sounds like a country music song there Tina   – And I guess you must be feeling lucky 
today Norm – Oh yeah got my lucky shirt   on so because we're filming been to 
Costco – Got the great deals haven't we   – We have so one of the things that we wish we knew 
before we retired was how free it is how stress   free no longer having to get up and go through the 
morning ritual of preparing yourself to go to work   and being accountable to somebody else all 
day long it's wonderful to be accountable to   your own self and your partner that's it 
you're your own person and it's such a freeing   feeling and we saw that with Tina when she gave 
up work the amount of stress we hadn't realized   until a few years after retirement just how 
different she was she'd lost all that stress of   meeting quotas and all that good stuff – And I think 
I'll just add Norm that when you're actually doing   the job you actually don't think it is stressful 
you don't think you are under all this   stress until you stop it do something else and 
you think wow this is a lot better we like this   it's great so just being accountable to ourselves 
we love it don't we – It is totally life changing   – One thing that we do think is very important 
before you retire is you do need to have a   discussion with your partner as to what it is 
that the ideas that you're both thinking you   have when you're going to retire you do need to 
have some goals about, do you want to travel do   you want to garden or do hobbies do you want 
to stay home you really do need to have that   conversation to make sure you're both on the 
same page – I think it is it is important and   we hear a lot from some comments especially 
married women who are saying that their husband   their frightened the husband will get under their feet 
because he'll be hanging around all the time in   retirement but that really isn't the case – Not 
for us is it – We've been secure as a couple for   the longest time and retirement hasn't changed 
how we feel about each other and about what   our expectations of each other is it's not as if 
we've all of a sudden being locked up together in   retirement (no) so it is important to figure out 
what you both want out of retirement and to have   that discussion a few years before you actually 
do retire (yeah) one thing to bear in mind is   the first few years of your retirement you'll 
be your most healthy so just use that health and   strength that you do have in the early years 
to achieve some of the goals that you want   – Yeah and if you want to be traveling do it while 
you've got that – Don't think about traveling if   that's on your list just do it right away – Yeah 
absolutely and that's what we've done isn't   it when we retired we just traveled everywhere 
didn't we it was great – About two years before we   retired we had an inspector come to the house 
for I don't even remember what it was but it was   some form of home inspection that we had to and 
so we got chatting with him because he was a few   years older than us but not that much and he told 
us that he had a house very similar to ours that   he had sold and now he was living an apartment 
and he went through the whole process of them   and how they moved to the apartment and how 
it was such an improvement on their life   and it was something we'd never ever considered 
– This was big news to us wasn't it we never even   thought about renting an apartment – We had been 
homeowners since we were 19 years old so to rent   we had that preconceived idea that it was throwing 
money away but the more that we looked into it so   after he left the next couple of days we spent 
many hours thinking about this we did a budget   of how much it cost to keep our mortgage free 
home – Yeah crunched all the numbers – And what the   rent would be and if we had sold the house and it 
made more and more sense to us to sell the house   to downsize into an apartment bank the money 
from the house live off that as an investment and   that's what we did – And that's what we did didn't 
we – But had that guy not come to our house we might   never have come up with that idea – No because 
originally we had thought that we would just   buy a smaller house didn't we – That's right yeah 
– So part of our decision when we had actually now   decided that we were going to rent and we realized 
that would take care of we wouldn't have all this   maintenance and stuff like that to do we decided 
after we started looking at apartments that if   we moved to a cheaper area could we benefit by 
getting the same as what we wanted in an apartment   but would it cost us less money so the more 
we looked into it we did have a family member   who lived in a cheaper place so we looked 
at the equivalent of renting an apartment   in this new place and it was so much cheaper 
wasn't it Norm – Because we initially thought   we would just sell our house and stay in 
the same area so we started shopping for   apartments to find out how much they cost and the 
availability and we were pretty surprised that   at the expense of them but we were prepared 
to pay that (yeah) and then we came to a what   you would call it a small town that's cheaper 
(yeah) we came to visit a family member here and so   we started looking around at the apartments here 
and they were substantially cheaper about $800   a month cheaper than where we were initially going 
to – Yeah and not only that Norm there was a lot of   extras with it wasn't that we got there was 
underground parking and what else a swimming pool   – And laundry facilities in the apartment – And that 
was one thing the gentleman had told us he didn't   have on-suite laundry he had it in a laundry room 
so we wanted that – But coming to the cheaper town   it wasn't just the rents that were 
cheaper everything was cheaper   the Tina's hairdresser as we've 
said in the past was cheaper it just permeated everything so our budget became 
so attainable (yeah) by moving – That gave us a lot   more money to be able to travel didn't it because 
we thought if we can save money on a daily basis   and it worked perfect didn't it – It did it was 
great, take a look at that if you do have family   that live in an area that might be cheaper or 
just consider going not knowing anybody – No it's   like a new adventure isn't it a new chapter in 
your life because we've made friends here and   they don't have any family just here but they've 
made it a new place for them haven't they – A lot   of people have moved out of the big cities to a 
small town because it's it's far more conducive to   retirement (yes) and friendlier another 
thing that you really need to consider   is where your friends are going to come from 
in retirement because once you leave work   those friendships tend to wither away because 
the only common bond you have was your job   your workplace so we've never 
really had lasting friendships from   work colleagues they've always been outside 
of there so it's it's critically important   to continue looking for friendships in retirement 
and being outgoing and prepared to speak to people   Tina when we moved to this apartment building 
they did have a social room and they did a coffee   morning and so she would go down there and we 
found out so much information about the town and   businesses to use – It was great wasn't it – It was – It 
was kind of my mission wasn't it to find out   new information and to try and make new friends 
which we did and we made some fabulous friendships   – Well in particular there was one couple that Tina 
made struck up a friendship with and they in turn   have introduced us to another couple yeah and then 
they in turn have introduced us to another couple   so that's how it goes – Yeah so now we've got 
a group of really close nice friends that we   socialize with don't we – And the thing that we have 
in common isn't an employer it's being retired   – It is isn't it – It really is so don't be afraid 
of striking out to a new city a new town   because it's relatively easy to make friendships 
– Yeah you just have to push yourself out there   a little don't you and be confident to going to 
things and it's very exciting isn't it so we hope   that everybody is staying safe – And keeping 
well – Until the next time bye bye, bye bye

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Can I Retire at 55? Tips for Early Retirement

If you're thinking of retiring at 55, you want to be careful about where you get your advice and guidance, and that's because most retirement advice is geared toward those who retire quite a bit later, in fact… Most people retire at 62, but things will be different for you if you're going to retire at 55. So that's what we'll talk about for the next couple of minutes here, we'll go over where you can get the money from, and how that works with taxes as well as healthcare, then we'll look at some actual numbers and what it might look like for somebody who retires at age 55.

We might also want to get philosophical just briefly and ask the question, Why age 55? Yes, it's a nice round number. And there are some interesting tax strategies that are available around that age, but let's say you could retire a little bit earlier at 54, would you want to make that happen? Or if you worked a few more years… I know you'll think this is crazy, but if you worked a couple of more years and you could not impact your finances, but still take some of those dream vacations and spend time with loved ones, would that be worth it to maybe work until 59, for example? So we want to figure out exactly why you are pursuing a particular goal and then we can improve the chances of success for you, so let's start with health coverage, this is a tricky one because you're retiring quite a bit earlier than most people who might be near that Medicare age, so you have a number of different options to continue being covered, and it is a good idea to have real health insurance coverage just in case something happens.

So a couple of your choices include, number one, you can continue your current benefits from a job if you have them for up to 18 months in most cases, and that's under COBRA or your state's continuation program, that can get quite expensive because you're going to pay the full price, if you weren't already doing that, plus perhaps a teeny little bit extra for administration, but it is a way to continue with the program that you currently have, so that can be helpful if you are mid stream in certain treatments or if it's going to be hard to get certain benefits that you currently have on a different health care program, unfortunately, that's not usually a long term solution because we need to get you until age 65, which is when most people enroll in Medicare, and you should see your costs go down quite a bit at that point, maybe depending on what happens, so another solution that a lot of people look at is buying their own coverage, and that happens typically through a healthcare marketplace or an exchange, and that's where you just by coverage through an insurance company.

So you can go directly to the insurers, but it's often a good idea to go through… Start at healthcare.gov, and then go through the marketplace or the exchange, and that way you can shop some plans and potentially, depending on your income, you can potentially get some cost reductions that make it a lot more affordable, I'll talk more about that in a second, but another option is to switch to a spouse's plan, if you happen to be married and that person has coverage that's going to continue for whatever reason, that might also be a solution for you, when you leave your job, it could be a qualifying event that allows you to get on that person's program, but let's talk more about saving money on health care expenses before age 65, most people are going to buy a policy based on the factors that are most important to them, so that could be the premium or the out of pocket maximum, the deductible, the co pays, certain areas of coverage, all that kind of thing, you can select a plan that fits your needs.

Now, you might find that those tend to be quite expensive, and so if your income is below certain levels, you might be able to get effectively a reduction in the premium, it might be in the form of a tax credit or a subsidy, so here's just a preview of how things could look for you, let's say your income is, let's say 50,000 in retirement, and you need to look at exactly what income means, but there is no coverage available from a spouse, we've got one adult, and let's say you are… As our video suggest age 55 here, so you might get a benefit of roughly 422 a month, meaning you could spend that much less each month, and that's going to make it a lot easier to pay for coverage on these plans, if we switch your income down to 25,000 per year, the help is even bigger, so as you can see by varying or controlling your income, and this is something you might have some control over if you retire at 55, you can also control your healthcare costs, we'll talk about some conflicting goals here, where you might not want to absolutely minimize your income during these years, but this is important for you to know if you're going to be paying for your own coverage, and if you're experiencing sticker shock when you see the prices…

By the way, I'm going to have a link to this and a bunch of other resources in the description below, so you can play with this same calculator yourself. Now, once you're on Medicare, the cost should drop quite a bit, this is a calculator from Fidelity where we can say, let's say you are a female, and we're going to say you're eligible for Medicare at this point, so we'll bring you up to age 65. It is going to be quite a bit higher cost, if you look at it before age 65, and that's because you are paying for those private policies from insurance companies, let's say you're going to live until age 93, and so you might expect to spend roughly 5800 6000 bucks per year, depending on your health and your location and other factors, it could be more or less, but this is an estimate of what somebody might spend, a single woman each year in retirement, of course, that number is going to increase each year with inflation and deteriorating health issues.

But this is a ballpark estimate of what you might be spending in the future, now we get to the question of, do you have the financial resources to retire at 55? And that comes down to the income and the assets that you're going to draw from to provide the resources you need to buy the things you want and need, and one way to look at this is to say We want to avoid early withdrawal penalties because again, you are retiring at an age that's earlier than the typical retiree and most retirement accounts are designed for you to take withdrawals at 59.5 or later, to avoid those penalties, fortunately, you have a couple of options, so with individual and joint accounts, just taxable brokerage accounts, you can typically withdraw from those without any penalties, but you may have capital gains taxes when you sell something, those taxes may be at a lower rate than you would pay if you take big withdrawals from retirement accounts, but you just want to double and triple check that, but that can be a liquid source of funds.

You. Can also typically withdraw from Roth accounts pretty easily. So those regular contributions come out first, in other words, you can pull out your regular contributions at any time with no taxes and no penalties, what that means is that's the annual limit contributions you might have been making her by year, so the 7000 per year, for example. That money would be easily accessible, but if you have other money types like Roth conversions, for example, you're going to be very careful and check with your CPA and find out what all of that could look like. There. Are other ways to get at funds that are inside of pre tax retirement accounts, and it might actually make sense to draw on those to some extent, we'll talk more about that in a minute, but these are some of the tricks you can use to avoid an early withdrawal penalty yet still draw on those assets before age 59.5.

The first one is the so called rule of 55, so this applies if you work at a job with, let's say a 401K, and you stop working at that employer at age 55 or later, if you meet certain criteria, then you can withdraw those funds from the 401k so they go directly from the 401k to you. They don't go over to an IRA, you could withdraw those funds without an early withdrawal penalty. A complication here is that not every employer allows you to do that, so 401k plans can set a bunch of their own rules, and one of them might be that they don't let you just call them up and take money whenever you want, they might make you… Withdraw the entire amount, so if that's the case, this isn't going to work, so be sure to triple check with your employer and the plan vendors and find out exactly how this would work logistically or if it will even work.

Next, we have SEPP that stands for substantially equal periodic payments or rule 72. This is an opportunity to draw funds from, let's say your IRA or a certain IRA that you choose, but before age 59 and a half without getting early withdrawal penalties. Now, this is not my favorite choice. I don't necessarily recommend this very often at all, and the reason is because it's easy to slip up and end up paying tax penalties. The reason for that is in part that it's really rigid, so when you establish this, You calculate an amount that you have to take out every year, and it has to be the same amount every year, and you have to make sure you do that for the longer of when you turn age 59 1/2 or for five years.

And even that sounds kind of simple, but it's still easy to trip up, and you also have to avoid making any kind of changes to your accounts, so it's just really rigid and can be difficult to stick to you, so… Not my favorite choice, but it could be an option. Those of you who work for governmental bodies, maybe a city organization or something like that, you might have a 457b plan, and those plans do not have early withdrawal penalties before 59 and a half, so you could withdraw money from that and use some income, pre pay some taxes, and have some money to spend fairly easily, this by the way, is an argument for leaving money in your employer's 457 versus rolling it over to an IRA, because once it goes over to an IRA, you are subject to those 59 1/2 rules and a potential early withdrawal penalty.

So that could end up leaving you with 72 to work with, for example, which again is not ideal. So you might be asking, well shouldn't I just minimize taxes and hold off on paying taxes for as long as possible? And the answer is not necessarily. So it could make sense to go ahead and pre pay some taxes by getting strategic, the reason for that is that you will eventually have to pay taxes on your pre tax money and it might happen in a big lump, and that can bump you up into the highest tax brackets, so it could be better to smooth out the rate at which you draw from those accounts and hopefully keep yourself in lower tax bracket, at least relatively speaking. So when your RMDs or your required minimum distributions kick in after age 72 under current law, that could possibly bump you up into the highest tax brackets, maybe you want to smooth things out and take some income early.

So let's look at the question of, Do you have enough with some specific numbers, and before we glance at those numbers, just want to mention that I am Justin Pritchard. I help people plan for retirement and invest for the future. I've got some good resources, I think, in the description below, some of the things that we've been talking about here today, as well as some general retirement planning information. So if this is on your mind, I think a lot of that is going to be really helpful for you. Please take a look at that and let me know what you think of what you find. It's also a good time for a friendly reminder, This is just a short video, I can't possibly cover everything. So please triple and quadruple check with some professionals like a CPA or a financial advisor before you make any decisions, so let's get back into these questions, Do you have enough? As we always need to mention, it depends on where you are and how much you spend and how things work for you. Are you lucky to retire into a good market, or are you unlucky and retiring into a bad market? All of these different aspects are going to affect your success, but let's jump over to my financial planning tool and take a look at an example.

This is just a hypothetical example, it's the world's most over simplified example, so please keep that in mind, with a real person, we've got a lot more going on. The world is a complicated place and things get messier, but we're keeping it very simple here, just to talk about an example of how things might look, so this person has one million in pre tax assets and 350,000 in a brokerage account, and if we just quickly glance at their dashboard here, pretty high probability of success, so let's make it a little bit more interesting and say…

Maybe that IRA has, let's say, 700,000 in it. What is that going to do? And by the way, this is still a lot more than a lot of people have, but again, if you're going to be retiring at 55, you typically have quite low expenses and/or a lot of assets. So let's keep in mind here that retirees don't necessarily spend at a flat inflation adjusted level, and I'll get into the assumptions here in a second, but let's just look at if this person spends at inflation minus 1% using the retirement spending "smile," that dramatically improves their chances, and I've got videos on why you might consider that as a potential reality, so you can look into that later at your leisure, but as far as the assumptions, we assume they spend about 50,000 a year, retire at age 55.

The returns are 5.5% per year, and inflation is 3% per year. Wouldn't that be refreshing if we got 3%… So we glance at their income here age 55, nothing, and then Social Security kicks in at 70. They're doing a Social Security bridge strategy. I've got videos on that as well, or at least one video, the full year kicks in here later, and then their Social Security adjust for inflation, looking at their taxes, we have zero taxes in these earlier years because they are just not pulling from those pre tax accounts. Maybe not getting much, if anything, in terms of capital gains, maybe their deduction is wiping that out, so we may have an opportunity here to actually do something and again, pre pay some taxes and pull some taxable income forward. In fact, if we glance at their federal income tax bracket, you can see that it's fairly low from 55 on, maybe they want to pull some of this income forward so that later in life, they are drawing everything out of the pre tax accounts all at once.

It just depends on what's important to you and what you want to try to do, and that brings us to some tips for doing calculations, whether you are doing this with somebody, a financial planner or on your own, you want to look at that gap between when you stop working and when your income benefits begin from, let's say, Social Security, there's also that gap between when you stop working and when Medicare starts, and that's another important thing to look at, but what are your strategies available there? Should you take some income, and exactly how much? That's going to be an area where you might have some control, so it's worth doing some good planning. We also want to look closely at the inflation and investment returns, and what are the assumptions in any software that you're using, for example? These are really important inputs and they can dramatically change what happens… You saw what happened when we switched from a flat inflation adjusted increase each year to the retirement spending smile, just a subtle little adjustment has a big difference on how things unfold, and in that scenario, by the way, we would typically have healthcare increasing at a faster rate.

But like I said, we use an over simplified example and didn't necessarily include that in this case, but you do want to click through or ask questions on what exactly are the assumptions and are you on board with those assumptions? You may also need to make some adjustments, and this is just the reality of retiring at an early age when you may have 30 plus years of retirement left, a lot can happen, and there really is a lot of benefit to making slight adjustments, especially during market crashes, for example, so.

If things are not necessarily going great, some little tweaks could potentially improve the chances of success substantially, that might mean something as simple as skipping an inflation adjustment for a year or two, or maybe dialing back some vacation spending. These are things you don't want to do, that's for sure, but with those little adjustments, you can potentially keep things on track, and that way you don't have to go back to work or make bigger sacrifices. And so I hope you found that helpful. If you did, please leave a quick thumbs up, thank you and take care..

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Retirement Planning for Singles

Retirement is a big deal for anybody, and that's especially true for single people who may be retiring with just one income and who may have built up a nest egg solely off their own savings. So, we know that single people can and do retire comfortably. In fact, one quarter of people over age 60 are living alone in their household, and that number is slightly higher for women, and that's, of course, due to women's longevity. So what we're going to talk about here is retirement for single people. First, we'll go over some averages to give you a rough idea of what the landscape looks like for single people, then we'll get into how much money you might need as you go into retirement, then we'll talk about some tips that can help improve the chances of retiring comfortably. Let's start with the average retirement income for single people. So it's $42,000 on average for an individual in retirement, and that comes from the US Census Bureau. The median is a little bit lower at $27,000.

So a friendly reminder of how this works: The median is the middle, so if you line up all of the survey results, people telling you what their income is, for example, that arrow points at the middle observation, which would give us the median down at the bottom. But if we go to the average, that is going to get skewed by, in this case, wealthy people, for example, they have a very high income.

When it comes to Social Security, the average is about $1,500 a month or $18,000 per year.Your level depends, of course on your earnings, if you had higher earnings during your working years, then you tend to potentially have a bigger benefit than that, and it could be lower, and then of course, your claiming age is also an important thing. If you claim early at age 62, you get a reduced benefit. That's likely to bring down the amount you get. Next, we have pensions, some people get an income from a job they worked at. That might be in the public sector as a teacher, a firefighter, that sort of thing, or even in the private sector, you could have a pension from your job, and those incomes just are all over the board, it could be high, it could be low, but these are different sources of income that people might have in retirement.

This is just a friendly reminder that this is just one video and it may cover some interesting information, but it's not specific to you so I hope you'll do a lot more research, hopefully check with some professionals and get some individualized advice, and that way you can improve the chances of things going well for you. So now let's talk about how much you might need as you go into retirement. Unfortunately, there's no single answer on what you need because it depends. So the first step is to figure out what sort of income you're going to need, and I've got other videos on that, I'll put links in the description to get you some more information, but you can look at replacing a portion of your income, or you can just say, I want X amount of dollars per year, or you can go with other approaches, but first we need to know how much income you are hoping for.

Next, we tally up your income sources, so that might be some guaranteed income that comes in from Social Security, for example, or from your pension at your workplace, but that forms a base of income and that might or might not cover what you need. But it gives us a base and then if we need to fill that in, we can supplement withdrawals from your retirement savings, so that might be out of your IRA, your 401, 403, these accounts that you have built up over time can provide supplemental income to help fill the gap between that guaranteed income you get and the amount you actually want to spend.

There are a number of ways to figure out how much to withdraw and to set up different strategies, there might be bucking strategies, there might be withdrawal strategies like the 4% rule. Or if you don't like that, make it the 3% rule to be safer, or take out more if you think that's not enough and you're selling yourself short. Ultimately, there are a number of ways to approach this, so you just pick one that works well for you, and again, I can point you to some resources on figuring that out. And finally, you will want to look at taxes and inflation, so during your retirement years, it's reasonable to assume that prices may increase on many of the things you buy, so we want your income to be able to increase as well, Social Security typically does rise, but maybe not at the same rate as the things you're buying, so your withdrawals may need to account for that.

Plus we've got taxes. You typically will owe taxes if you're taking distributions or you're taking withdrawals from pre tax retirement accounts. If you have a pension that might be taxable as well. We just want to look at all of these things and figure out what your ultimate money left over to spend each month is going to be. For an over simplified example, let's just look at Jane Doe. She's 60 years old, she's single, she wants to retire in about five years, she makes about 80,000 a year and has 700,000. A lot of people retire with less than that, a lot of people retire with more. I'm going to bring up my financial planning software that I use with clients, and we'll just go over kind of why there's no single answer on how much you need.

Now, if you can tell me exactly how long you'll live and what the markets will do and what inflation will look like, we can tell you exactly what you'll need. But there are a lot of unknowns, so a lot of times we start with a probability of success and I'll go over what that means, and then we look at little tweaks and how different changes might affect that probability of success, so working an extra year might bring her from… Let's say 75% to 84% likely to succeed. Now, success and failure are pretty complicated. They don't necessarily mean that you go completely broke, but you may need to make some adjustments, so let's talk about what does the success mean? We, again, cannot predict the future, so we say, Let's look back and say, You get dealt 1,000 hands. You're playing a game of cards and you get 1,000 hands. Some of those are good and some of those are bad, so the very good ones tend to be up here, near the top. And you actually end up with a lot of money left over.

Some of them are not as good and you end up running out of money early. The median is, again, that one that's right in the middle when we line them up in order for best to worst. And so you might say, you're probably not going to get the best, you're probably not going to get the worst, although anything is possible. So that's how we go with this likelihood of success. Now, maybe she doesn't want to work an extra year, so we can look at different ways of accomplishing things here. By the way, we've built in some long term care in case she does get sick and needs that at the end of life. She's looking to spend about 4,000 a month, that's after some health care costs that are going to inflate each year, and she's saving a decent amount in some 401K and taxable accounts. Let's say she goes ahead and maxes out that Roth, is it going to make a big difference? Not really, 'cause she only has five years left.

So what we do here is we start looking at all of these different variables and playing with the pieces and figuring out what does it take to make her successful at her retirement, or at least successful enough that she's comfortable making that transition. So here are some tips to improve your chances. The first is to plan for long term care. If you're living on your own, you don't have somebody in the house who can help you do things, and it's arguable if even a couple is capable of managing this on their own… I mean, if you think about a couple, is one of the people physically able to move the other person around and do they have the skills to provide health care, and the time and the energy, frankly, to provide all that type of care? So it's important for everybody, but it's especially important for single people to plan for this care.

So you can look at getting insurance, you can look at budgeting for some costs, like we showed you in the software, you might want to budget for a much bigger number if you go into memory care or something like that with 24 hour supervision, it can get really expensive quickly. And you can explore different living arrangements, maybe doing things with friends or certain communities that might be a good fit for you. Next is to avoid leaving money on the table so if you were previously married and your spouse passed away or you've been divorced, you may be eligible for benefits. That's maybe from Social Security, you can potentially get a survivor's benefit, or if you were married for at least 10 years and you've been divorced, you can potentially get spousal benefits on your ex spouse's work record.

It's just important to explore all of these to see if there are any resources available for you. Next is to make a plan, and I am of course biased as a financial planner, but I think it is really helpful to go through the process, and the main goal isn't to get a big document that tells you what your financial plan is. Instead, really, the benefit is going through that process and learning a lot about your finances as you do it, and in that process, you get an idea of what the risks are, how you're doing, you might get confidence and clarity on whether or not you can go ahead and retire, if you should do certain things or not.

It's just a very valuable process for a lot of people, but I'll leave that for you to decide. If you found this video helpful, please leave a quick thumbs up. That gives me feedback that this is something you might enjoy more of, so thanks for watching and take care..

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