Keen On Retirement™

In financial planning, we sometimes refer to your working years as the "accumulation years." A large part of your time is spent working and earning so that you can support your family, achieve milestones like buying a house, and secure your financial future. But during those years, you're "accumulating" more than money. You're gaining relationships, hobbies, interests, skills, experiences, memories, and, yes, possessions. By the time you reach retirement, your life is probably as full as it's ever been. Too full, maybe. As you move through the various stages of retirement, your identity is going to change along with your interests and priorities. And part of change is letting go so that you can make room for new people and new experiences that are going to make every step of your journey more fulfilling.

"Save more than you spend" sounds like a timeless piece of money advice, as true today as it was two hundred years ago. But in the mid-1800s, many folks believed you needed to spend your money as soon as possible. In fact, saving too much back then could lead to financial ruin! That's just one example of how Americans' attitudes about money have evolved throughout history. But it's not just rules of thumb and hand-me-down wisdom that's changed. It's the nature of money and our relationship to it. On today's show, we welcome author Joseph S. Moore to discuss his new book, How to Get Rich in American History: 300 Years of Financial Advice That Worked (& Didn't), and the surprising ways five money philosophies have shifted over time.

In my previous post, I explained why a 30-year retirement plan cannot be treated as a "one and done" checklist. From unexpected health events to shifting personal priorities, your life should determine how and when your financial plan needs to adjust, not the other way around. But not every change requires a new financial strategy. And that's where the true tension in retirement planning lies. On the one hand, underestimating the effects of a meaningful change could put your long-term security at risk. On the other hand, overreacting to every market dip, unsettling headline, or argument with your spouse about money can cause lasting damage to your wealth. The goal for retirees should be thoughtful adaptation, not constant reaction. Before you overhaul your portfolio, ask yourself these six questions to determine if your plan truly needs an adjustment.

Your life and career haven't progressed in a straight line. Retirement won't either. But that's a misconception, or maybe a hope, that so many folks build into their retirement plans: that, after decades of ups and downs, happy surprises and serious challenges, retirement is going to coast along on autopilot. Hopefully, you have decades of retirement ahead of you. And those years are going to be just as unpredictable as any other period of your life, with one major new variable guaranteed. You won't have a paycheck from employment to rely on. Without the reassurance that more money is coming at the end of the month, too many seniors start making emotional money moves in the moment, whether they're facing a market dip or an unplanned home repair. That's not the kind of adaptability I was describing in part one of this blog series. I'm suggesting that if you view retirement planning as an ongoing process, you should be able to reroute when necessary. And, just as importantly, you'll have a decision-making framework that will help you distinguish between genuine warning sirens and noise you can ignore.

A comprehensive retirement plan usually includes a lot of important documents. Charts and graphs. Monte Carlo simulations. Annual rate of return projections. Lifetime tax liability. Legacy plans. But a comprehensive retirement plan isn't just documents. It's a dynamic framework for making the best possible decisions for you, your family, your money, and your life for decades to come. And as important as the numbers printed in black and white are to that framework, I believe that the true strength of a retirement plan is measured by its durability and by the confidence it gives seniors to live their best lives during their Golden Years.

Are you feeling a little more anxious than usual about your money? Given everything that's happening in the world right now, that's perfectly understandable. What concerns me is the rising number of Americans who say that their money worries are nudging them towards high-risk speculation in crypto, meme stocks, and prediction markets. And what's even more concerning is that folks aren't taking massive money risks just because they want to get rich quick. They're afraid that their peers and some of the bedrock assumptions of our financial system are leaving them behind. Unfortunately, substituting a disciplined financial plan with speculative gambling rarely helps anyone catch up, let alone build wealth to secure retirement. On today's show, we try to ease some of this financial anxiety by answering three listener questions that touch on some very common money fears.