Feeling Behind on Retirement Savings? Here's What You Can Still Do

Nearly half of Americans over 55 feel they haven't saved enough for retirement. If you've looked at your 401 (k) statement and felt that familiar knot in your stomach, this episode of Clearpath Retirement Radio is for you.

Stewart Smith, LUTCF®, RICP®, and Mitch Davies walk through four real steps people in their 50s and early 60s can take right now to close the gap and still build a retirement worth looking forward to.

In This Episode: 

→ Catch-up contributions — how to sock away an extra $7,500 per year in your 401k after age 50 

→ Why delaying Social Security could be the most powerful move you make 

→ Getting real on your expenses — the one-month notebook exercise that changes everything 

→ Bridge work: how $1,500–$2,000/month in part-time income can dramatically reduce pressure on your savings 

→ Market update: what a headline-driven market means for retirees right now 

→ Why the anxiety doesn't go away until you have an actual plan

Timestamps: 

→ 0:00 - Feeling Behind: You Are Not Alone 

→ 3:46 - Tip 1: Catch-Up Contributions After Age 50 

→ 10:00 - Tip 2: Delaying Social Security 

→ 15:00 - Tip 3: Trim the Budget and Get Real on Spending 

→ 25:00 - Mitch's Market Minute: Volatility, Oil Prices, and Headline Markets 

→ 31:28 - Recap: The Four Steps to Catching Up 

→ 39:16 - Tip 4: Bridge Work and the Part-Time Income Strategy 

→ 46:00 - Why Procrastination Is the Enemy of Retirement 

→ 49:00 - When You Have a Plan, the Anxiety Clears

Ready to stop wondering and start getting clear?

ClearPath Retirement Planning helps retirees and pre-retirees in the Upstate SC and Columbia, SC areas build retirement income plans that actually work — no matter where you're starting from.

Ready to stress-test your retirement plan?

ClearPath Retirement Planning helps retirees and pre-retirees in the Upstate SC and Columbia areas create tax-efficient retirement income strategies. 

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 📞 (864) 775-5033

Schedule your complimentary consultation today at www.clearpathretirement.com

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Important Disclosure:

Investment advisory services offered through Alphastar Capital Management, LLC, a SEC-registered investment adviser. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC nor does it indicate that the adviser has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Fixed insurance products are offered through Clearpath Retirement Planning, LLC and Alphastar Capital Management is not involved in the offer, recommendation, sale or management of commission-based fixed Insurance products. Alphastar Capital Management and Clearpath Retirement Plannin...

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:00

Welcome to ClearPath Retirement Radio. From retirement income and tax planning to protecting the savings you've worked a lifetime to build. This is Real World Financial Talk, designed for real people. People who want clear answers, not sales pitches. So you can make informed decisions and plan for retirement with confidence. Now, here are your hosts, Stuart Smith and Mitch Davies.

Stewart Smith 0:22

Welcome in, everybody. Welcome to Clear Path Retirement Radio. I am your host, Stuart Smith. I'm here with Mitch Davies. Good morning, everyone. And boy, do we have a show for you guys today. So if you're somewhere between 50 and 65, and you've ever looked at your retirement savings and thought, oh no, is this enough? Today, this show is for you. You are not alone. In fact, in a recent survey, nearly half of Americans over 55 feel they haven't saved enough for retirement. That's half. That's not a fringe group. That's your neighbors, your coworkers, maybe even your siblings. So here's what I want to say here right now. It's not too late. It's not too late, Stuart. We're going to talk about that today. There are real concrete steps you can take starting today to close the gap and still build a retirement you feel good about. Let's walk through those today, Mitch, and let's get these people feeling a lot better about their options.

Mitch Davies 1:26

I'm excited, Stuart. This is something we hear all the time, and uh it's gonna be got a lot of good, a lot of good points here.

Speaker 2 1:31

Yeah, I can't even imagine um, you know, how many folks out there are looking at, you know, those 401k statements, those IRA statements, you know, their their bank accounts and that sort of thing, and thinking, I just I just haven't done enough and I'm never gonna be able to retire. That's right. I hear it all the time. It it actually is one of those things that I kind of live to um to to work on and fix for folks. And, you know, people come in all the time and we we we have that discovery call where we sit down and we start getting to know them and what's going on with them and and you know how they're feeling about retirement and what they want their retirement to look like. And how many times, Mitch, have they looked across the conference room table at us and said, I'm gonna I think I'm gonna have to work forever?

Speaker 2:29

All the time, Stuart. That's probably the main thing we hear. You know, they're looking at they're looking at this stuff and they don't have a plan really. They don't have a clear outline of how this is gonna look, and they're just looking at, like you said, 401ks and they they don't really see the picture. They don't really see how it's gonna work, and they're like, my only outcome is to just keep working, right? Is to just keep earning and contributing and maybe one day I can retire.

Speaker 2 2:51

Yeah, I just that makes me very, very sad and sad to hear that when someone says that. And what even you know, what makes me feel better about the situation is when I can sit down with them and actually show them a path forward where they don't have to feel so hopeless and where they do see light at the end of the tunnel, and that's what we do at ClearPath. So let's talk about things that that that they can be doing to to help themselves and to start to improve this picture as they go forward. And one thing is a lot of people aren't aware, but they're the IRS actually allows you to do something called catch-up contributions. And Mitch, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit about how about how that works.

Speaker 3:40

Yeah, let's get right into it with something you can you know take action on right away. So the catch-up contribution. So as you're I'm sure you're aware, you're maybe you have a 401k at work, or you have an IRA that you contribute to outside of work. There's limits to that, right? You know, the 401k limits a little more lenient. You can get up to 23,000, 24,000 in it per year. The IRA caps out at 7,000 per year. But once you hit 50, once you turn 50 years old, that stretch after that, they allow what's called a catch-up contribution. And all this is is the ability to sock away a little bit more money into those accounts. You know, they don't want, they don't let you just put a limit in these accounts because there's so tax advantage. So for a 401k, if you're contributing after 50, you can put an extra $7,500 per year on top of the regular limit. So that ends up being a little over $30,000. You can put away pre-tax. And remember, with these 401k contributions, it's we always say at least be contributing up to that match. This is just pre-tax money, the employer's match in this, you're getting more money, you're getting paid more money, essentially, however you want to cut it up. So having the ability to contribute even more, maybe take advantage of more of a match, is super strong. And if you have just an IRA that you contribute to, you know, and you're taking the tax deduction, you can do an extra thousand dollars. So this is one step you can take right away. Call your HR department, log into your 401k, say, hey, am I do I have catch-up contributions turned on? If you don't, that's a quick, simple, I'm over 50, let's turn this on, let's get an extra, you know, maybe $7,000, $8,000 into that 401k. And that's one thing that can dramatically help.

Speaker 2 5:13

Yeah. Absolutely. So like Mitch said, get on the phone, call your HR department, or log into your 401k portal this week and confirm that you have catch-up contributions turned on. If you are in a situation where you are getting, you know, paid every month, you're paying your bills, and you still have a surplus, you still have money left over at the end of the month. I want you to really consider increasing the contributions that you're making to that 401k at work. I I I'd just people who who take this money and just put it into savings where they're not really earning much interest on it, and just, you know, let that build that you are doing yourself a major disservice when you could be putting that extra money every month pre-tax into your 401 account and then having it invested and earning much, you know, potentially much higher returns there, that can make a huge difference over, you know, the last 10, 15 years of working and really change the trajectory of your retirement dramatically. So if this isn't something you're doing or that you've thought about, this is why planning is so important. And and I just want to, you know, say real quick, if you are in that, you know, 10 years till retirement window, and you are feeling like you haven't done enough, and you don't even like, you know, talking about it, you don't like having discussions about it, you don't like opening those statements when you get them because you just it just makes you feel worse about the situation. You know, this is where planning comes in. It's never too late to really, you know, get started on a really solid plan. And, you know, 20 years ago was the best time, but the second best time is today, right? And so, you know, it's time to take action. If this has been bothering you, if this has been, you know, slowly eating away at you over time, and you just feel like, man, I'm just gonna have to work until I'm 70, 75. You know, that is that that may be the case, but it may not be the case if you take action today and you start improving your situation. You can go to Clearpathretirement.com. You know, we have a a lot of information on that website that can kind of get you started and get you going. But more importantly, click that get started today button and make an appointment to sit down with my team and I, you know, I've been helping people retire for two and a half decades now, and we have a lot of knowledge and wisdom to share with you about all of the ways that you can get caught up, all of the ways that you can improve your situation, and it's just it's a little bit at a time, it's consistency over a long period of time. It's chipping away at that block just one day at a time, and I'm telling you, over time that makes a huge impact. You know, one percent a one percent higher savings rate over a 20-year period can be the difference in a million dollars. So, you know, you think about that for a second. I mean, if you get started today and you're able to maybe you're maybe you're contributing, you know, just the match at work in your 401k right now. Maybe it's a five, six percent match and you're just doing your five, six percent to make sure you don't leave free money on the table because we s the other mistake we see is people aren't even doing the match. Yeah and what they're doing is they're leaving free money on the table. And if you think about it, let's say your employer matches the first six percent of your income that you put into the 401k. That is a hundred percent return immediately on the first six percent of your money. How can you turn that down? How can you leave free money on the table and feel good about that? That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. So if you're not at least doing the match, do the match. But even beyond that, Mitch, if they can do one percent more than that, two percent more than that, think of the dramatic change that that can make over a 10-year, fifteen, twenty-year period, that can really be the difference between success and failure and running out of money in retirement. And we've seen it time and time again. So these are things that you need to be considering. If you're not doing those things, just sit down, take a moment, take a breath, think this through, and make that small change, it will pay huge dividends down the road.

Speaker 10:21

It will, Stuart. And you know, one more point on that. If you're not sure if you can, one of the biggest things we hear at our office all the time is someone who feels like they're behind. A a big fear, a big reason to not move forward with starting this process is feeling like you don't have everything together. I always like to tell people, don't let the fear of not being prepared stop you from preparing, right? So many times people come in and they're like, I don't have, I don't know, I'm not in a good spot, right? I'm behind. I don't want to it it's almost scary to start. Come sit down with us and start our process. What we do is get you prepared. If you come in, you're like, I my accounts are a mess, I don't really know where my logins are, I don't really know where anything is. Well can we can help you through that? Don't feel like you have to be a hundred percent ready with everything perfect, because that's that can waiting months and months and months for that, we hear that all the time. And people will delay this process because they don't feel like they're ready. Let us come sit down. If you feel like you're not don't have everything organized perfectly, come sit down with us, let us take you through that and get you to the point where we can show you, hey, you have a surplus. We could if we could remove fifty bucks a month from your cash flow, would that hurt? And they're like, no, but we've got plenty. So let us show you that on paper how this will actually work for you.

Speaker 2 11:30

Yeah. So we're winding down this first segment. Like we say, if you're feeling behind and it's troubling you, go to ClearpathRetirement.com, click that get started button, give us a call at the office 864-775-5033. Quit procrastinating, take action today. Let's start down this path together. We'll be right back and talk more about this in segment two. Hey, are you approaching the distribution phase of life where it's time to turn the assets you've worked so hard to accumulate into a reliable retirement income? And are you unsure how to do that in the most tax-efficient way possible? At Clear Path Retirement Planning, we help retirees and pre-retirees design income strategies that aim to reduce taxes, manage risk, and create confidence in retirement. Visit ClearpathRetirement.com to schedule a complimentary consultation.

Speaker 1 12:28

Thanks for tuning in to Clear Path Retirement Radio with Stuart Smith and Mitch Davies. Let's get back to the show.

Speaker 2 12:35

Hey guys, welcome back in to Clear Path Retirement Radio. This is Stuart Smith. I am your host. I'm here with my co-host, Mitch Davies. Welcome back. And we are today talking about those folks that are feeling behind on their retirement planning and feeling like they're not prepared, you know, staying awake at night wondering, you know, have I done enough? Am I doing enough? Is there a way to improve my situation going forward? And I'm here to tell you, absolutely there is. And, you know, we're we're talking about different ways that you can, you know, play catch up, so to speak, when it comes to getting your retirement in order and making sure that you live a decent retirement and your quality of life is good and your standard of living doesn't, you know, drop dramatically. And so, you know, the first thing we talked about was maxing out your catch up contributions. That's an additional contribution that they allow to your 401ks and IRAs and pre-tax accounts you know after age 50, which Mitch explained in the last segment. But the next thing that we would say is, you know, another thing we would consider is delaying Social Security. Yeah. You know, delaying Social Security is your hidden power move, right? So what we mean by that is, you know, every year you wait past age 62, which is the first age that you can claim Social Security, your your your benefit is going to grow the guaranteed income stream that you will be guaranteed when you do cut it on, you're will grow by six to eight percent guaranteed every year, no matter what the stock market does. And that ends at age 70. So, you know, at 70 you have to claim because it's not going to grow anymore from there. But, you know, listen, six to eight percent is nothing to sneeze at when you're in your sixties. And that is not including cost of living adjustments. But, you know, we've we've worked through this with so many folks over the year who believed that, you know, they would take it at 62 because they really didn't have a choice, felt like that they just were gonna definitely need that extra income coming in when that wasn't in fact the true case. And with proper planning, we were able to, you know, do some other things, bridge some some income gaps that were there with assets and other things, and and able to push that out to where they were able to claim, you know, at 67, 68, maybe even wait until 70. And in those cases, it was a great feeling because it, you know, the further you push it out, the higher the payment is, and then once you do lock it in, that payment's guaranteed for life. And that is a big piece, chunk of the the mystery that that gets solved immediately, and it's just so comforting to know that every year that payment's gonna go up, you know, typically for cost of living adjustments. If you look at the 10-year average on those raises, it's over 3% a year. And you know, not only, you know, is it gonna keep going up to hedge inflation for you, and that's a big deal, but it's guarantee for life, and it just it insures you against longevity of living too long, and you know, knowing that that payment's never going away is definitely a comforting feeling to folks. So if you think you're gonna take it at 62 and you're just not really sure, and you you want to know, you know, come see us. Let's sit down, let's have a conversation, go to ClearpathRetirement.com, you know, let us know that you want to chat, and let's take a look at the big picture for you. Let's start building out a retirement income plan that allows us to model what it looks like at 62, 67, 70, all of those ages, and we can definitively figure out together what is feasible and what is not feasible.

Speaker 17:02

That's right, Stuart. You know, we like to say, we talked about it a bit last week. We like to say Social Security is an asset. And it might be, for some people, it's your biggest asset. If you think about it, you've been contributing to this maybe since you were 18, some people since they were 15, right? You've been contributing to this asset your whole life, if you think about it. You've been putting in, you've been paying taxes on it every check, every two weeks, you've been contributing to this bucket of money. And when you start to think about it like an asset, so many opportunities open up. I mean, Stewart just mentioned an 8% guaranteed return plus cost of living adjustments, you know, hypothetical return, because this payment is growing, and that's guaranteed for life. You don't get opportunities like that in a 401k. If someone told you, hey, you could take your 401k and for three years ensure that it's going to pay you eight percent more plus cost of living adjustments, you would think about it entirely differently. But people get to 67 and they're like, okay, I'm at retirement age, let's just take Social Security without much thinking at all. And when you take it into a whole retirement income plan and we start to think about working, we start to think about taxes, we start to think about all this stuff, it allows us so many options to strategically plan this in. So if you're feeling like you're in that area, you're you're feeling I'm I'm behind, I gotta start taking Social Security as soon as I can to get more income. I see the thought process, but we might be able to give you much more advantage by using it strategically as an asset and not just a desperation income source.

Speaker 2 18:27

Yeah, I mentioned I'll tell you the piece that people miss all the time. The piece that people miss is I take it at 62 while I'm still working and making a decent income, and then they don't even think about the tax picture. And the tax picture is that, you know, if you're mason making a dis decent income and you start taking that social security payment, you're paying a higher tax on that Social Security payment while you're taking it, which you if you don't even need the money, which a lot of people don't, then it it doesn't make any sense to your tax efficiency in your tax picture. You know, for someone with a $1,500 a month benefit at age $62, waiting until just $67 at full retirement age, they could get $2,100 instead. And over a 20-year retirement, that's a difference of $144,000. That's real money, Mitch. Yeah. And, you know, how much of a difference would $144,000 make to people over a 20-year period in retirement? It could be, you know, a huge factor for them and really be the difference between success and failure.

Speaker 1 19:41

Yeah.

Speaker 2 19:42

Right? So here's the here's the next thing that we would highly recommend, and this is, you know, this is something that we work on with clients a lot, and that is you can close the gap by shrinking the spend. And what we mean by that is we meet with so many people who are just their spending's a little out of control. And when we really dial down and we really look into the budget and where the money is going on a monthly basis, what we see is they are shocked at how much money is being spent. And typically those things are it comes down to two or three things that I've seen a lot lately, and one of them is eating out. Eating out is very expensive in this day of time, and people do not realize the kind of money that they are spending eating out. Now, eating out is a wonderful thing, it is a lot of fun, um, but I can tell you that it is costly. The next thing that we see is Amazon.

Speaker 20:57

Amazon. It's always Amazon. Amazon. It's always Amazon.

Speaker 2 20:59

I tell you, it is crazy how convenient it has come become to jump on that app and order whatever comes to mind, whatever you think you need at the time. And you know, that can be a huge I mean, I was with a couple the other day, Mitch, a thousand dollars a month. Yep. An extra thousand dollars a month was going to Amazon, and they had never even realized they were spending that kind of money. And when we got into the real details on it, none of that stuff was vital. No. None of that stuff was really necessary. And so think about what people could be doing. You know, listen, spend two hundred a month at Amazon. Let's save eight hundred. Right. Let's let's take that other eight hundred and get it into something that is going to start, you know, earning interest and paying dividends and and making you um, you know, wealthier and and helpier. Your retirement picture in the long run. But I can tell you those two main areas that we see eating out and and Amazon can be a real issue for folks. And if if that sounds like you, then it's time to have a real what we call courageous conversation with yourself. And that is let's be real, let's take a look. I tell you a thing that that really has worked for folks that we recommend is you know, if you're old school like I am, then you know, carry a little spiral notebook in your pocket. And just for for one month, for one solid month, start and do it on the first of the month and end it on the thirty-first or thirtieth or whatever month you're in and write down every single time you spend money on everything. I'm talking you pay a parking toll, you pay whatever it is, you write it down. And at the end of the month, sit down and go through where the money went that month. And I think it would be an amazing exercise for you to realize, you know, that a lot of the spending that's going on is frivolous, a lot of it is unnecessary, and you could be saving and doing a lot better job than you are by just tightening up the belt straps, you know, let's get real with our spending and let's start getting our savings back on track where it needs to be. I don't mean to sit here and preach to you people, but I'm telling you that there is a lot of fat that can be cut on most of these budgets, and it's time to trim the fat, it's time to get lean. If you are worried about that you're not doing enough, you feel like you're behind, it's time to get real, and we can help you do that. We have, you know, some some real good conversations sitting in our office with folks about this, and we're able to get them real clear and and real able to really talk through, you know, what's going on with them. If you're feeling this way, and again, you're feeling behind, you're feeling like you haven't done enough, and you're worried, give us a call, 864-775-5033. Let's sit down, let's have a real conversation, and we'll get you straight. We'll be right back for the next segment, guys. Retirement planning isn't just about growing money, it's about using it wisely, generating income, managing taxes, planning for health care costs, protecting your legacy. At Clear Path Retirement Planning, we specialize in helping retirees and pre-retirees transition from accumulation to distribution with confidence and clarity. If you're approaching retirement and want to plan, not just opinions, discover the Clear Path difference. Visit ClearpathRetirement.com today.

Speaker 1 24:59

Welcome to Clear Path Retirement Radio. From retirement income and tax planning to protecting the savings you've worked a lifetime to build, this is Real World Financial Talk designed for real people, people who want clear answers, not sales pitches. So you can make informed decisions and plan for retirement with confidence. Now, here are your hosts, Stuart Smith and Mitch Davies.

Speaker 2 25:21

Welcome back in to Clear Path Retirement Radio. I'm your host, Stuart Smith. I'm here as always with Mitch Davies, and he is ready. Uh we call him Money Mitch in the office. So, Money Mitch, give us your market minute for the week.

Speaker 25:37

Thank you, Stuart. Uh yes, sir. I'm excited as well. You know, this is my personal favorite segment. We get to talk about uh the same same as always. We're gonna keep that same structure, what's going on today, where the market's at overall, if you're not following this stuff super closely, just generally what's happening, um, what are we watching, what's going on in the world, just trying to keep this really current. So, first of all, as we've been talking about for the last few weeks, it's been volatile, right? It's been very up and down, and it's the moves have felt strong. Uh the SP is still sitting about 6,700. For reference, its all-time high was a little over 7,000. And the NASDAQ, 24,900. Both of those are about you know, four or five percent away from all-time highs. So we're still down a little bit year to date. Uh the main driver, what we've been talking about for the last few weeks, is oil prices. Oil prices are came down a little bit this morning, but are still up in the you know mid to high 90s for crude. Crude is what we use here in the U.S. And this, you know, what this means is generally oil just trades independently from the market. But recently it's been trading inverse. What that means is we're seeing oil prices shoot up, and as a fear result, the markets are going down. The SP, the NASDAQ, the main indexes that we trade here in the US. And that has a lot to do with volatility as well. Uh we've talked about the volatility index, that's also high. What that means is, you know, the market's expecting major swings. When volatility is low, that means the market's not expecting huge moves throughout the day. It's expecting smooth gains, smooth losses, you know, just general trading. But when we see heightened volatility due to a war or something like that, you know, pandemic, whatever it may be, we see big swings. And what that means is we see a lot of fear. These are times where, you know, we always like to say good advisors shine in down markets, right, Stuart? Good advisors, any advisor can, you know, we've had a strong bull market for the past five, six years. You know, we had a down market in 2022, but we had a long stretch where the market was doing well. And, you know, everybody can do well in those markets, even if you're self-directing and you just bought the SP or NASDAQ index funds, you probably did well. But, you know, there's times like this where we really get to bring a lot of value. We get to have a lot of conversations. We get to talk to people about, hey, look, again, here we talked last week about the stock market history. How does the market recover from these things? It recovers very well. Historically, we've had, you know, 20, 30 of these types of events, not wars per se, but different events that are driving a lot of volatility. You know, a event that directly increases volatility. And historically, when that's happened, we've seen sharp drops and sharp recoveries after. So these are conversations that we're talking to clients about every day. I want to challenge you with two things here. Two things. If you're self-directing and you're managing this stuff yourself, or if you have an advisor, two things I want to talk about. You know, first, did your advisor, did you plan through what, you know, last year? Hey, the market's doing good, what would happen if it wasn't? What would happen if something happened? What would did you stress test your portfolio? Did your advisor say, hey, what would happen if we had another some sort of event? You know, what would happen if the terror thing happened again? What what would this look like? So if this isn't a conversation your advisor ever has, or if you're self-directing and you don't know how to have this conversation, that's the first thing I'd challenge you to look at. And the second thing is if you have an advisor, are you receiving constant updates with throughout these times? You know, we send out a market update every week talking through, hey, here's what's going on, here's how the history of this works. Because our job is to reassure and you know help people through these times because times like this are where the market doesn't really trade. Right now, the market's trading purely on news, purely on headlines. We call this a headline market. The stock market in of itself is designed to represent how well companies are doing. But in times like this, it's just going off of tweets and headlines and these types of things. So our job during these times is to remind people, hey, companies are doing well. Companies are making money. We need to focus on that because underlying the stock market is doing quite well. But these headlines and this volatility is driving a lot of, you know, fear. So our job there is to do those two things, to show people ahead of time, hey, what what are we going to do if this happens? How are we preparing? Are we taking some risk off the table? Are we allocating a little safer? And then update people through that. If you're working with an advisor and you feel like you're not getting either of those things, please give us a call. Because I feel like that's the most one of the biggest value ads we have for people is not just managing people through good markets, but being able to be that backbone and be that reassurance through times like this.

Speaker 2 30:10

Yeah, and we do do that. We will stress test your portfolio, we will, you know, be in constant communication with you. We hear it all the time. Folks come in and they say, you know, I like my advisor, but they just they're not answering my questions. I don't hear from them unless they want to sell me something or they want to pitch me a new idea. And I just feel like I want more communication, I want to understand what's going on better. And, you know, a lot of times our clients are, you know, that's that's the biggest compliment they give us is hey, I I just love it because I hear from you guys. Even, you know, when things are bad, I hear from you more. Right. And that's I think that's the most important piece of it, is that you, you know, any advisor can shine in a good market. You know, you can throw a dart at the dartboard and make money, right? But but uh but in bad markets is where real good advisors really come, you know, come the cream rises to the top and and you see who you're re what they're really made of and who you're really working with. So all right, well, thank you, Mitch. That was fantastic. Um so just let's kind of um let's reiterate what we're talking about here today. We're talking about folks that are feeling behind and feeling like they haven't done enough. We see this a lot with folks in that 50 to 65 range of of ages where, you know, they feel, and and you know, I'm getting ready to hit 55, so I'm right there in the middle of it, and I know exactly how how it feels, although I will say I am very prepared for my retirement. But, you know, in that range you see a lot of people with a lot of anxiety. I mean, the the boomers did a better job, but the generation Gen X, I guess is is is what I am, you know, they're feeling a lot of anxiety here and feeling like, you know, a lot of those those people, you know, they had to they've done things that the boomers didn't have to do. And and what I mean by that is because the boomer population was so large, larger than any other population, a lot of Gen Xers had to take time away from work to to provide care. Right. And a lot of times, you know, that the maybe one of the spouses took time away to make sure that they were cared for. Or, you know, maybe it they were I know that a lot of uh Generation X, a lot of the the the you know, my generation um had to suspend contributions to the 401k at different times based on different, you know, situations that we've had to go through, su such as COVID and all of these other things. And so they just don't quite have that same level of savings and and things that the the boomers had. And so there's a lot of anxiety out there. We understand it, we see it, I live it, I understand, I am that generation, and so you know the things that you can do just to feel better, to get yourself back on track, and let me just reiterate, it is never too late to start today to turn things around and get things headed in the right direction, and we are certainly here to help you with that. But the first thing, and I'm just gonna you recap what we've been talking about, the first thing would be max out those catch-up contributions that are allowed for folks over age 50 in their 401ks and IRAs. I can't stress it you know the importance of that, you know, uh strategy that that if you are in a position to do that, then you absolutely need to be doing that. Consider delaying Social Security. That's the second tip we're gonna give you. Consider delaying Social Security, take a look and see what makes sense. You don't have to keep working to delay Social Security. You can retire at 65 and still not take it till 70. There are strategies we can put in place to bridge that income gap, but sometimes that makes a lot of sense for folks and it really puts them in a much stronger position when it comes to retirement, having more of the income they're gonna need guaranteed, and have cost of living adjustments on that so that it hedges inflation, sometimes that can make a huge impact on the retirement picture. Number three would be close that gap by shrinking the spin. Like we said, a lot of people are spending a lot of money that they don't need to be spending. There's a lot of fat to trim in those budgets. If you are getting a little crazy with eating out, and especially with that Amazon budget, then that's something we need to take a hard look at. It's time to get real. It's time to get, you know, start to take a look at a real look at that stuff and be honest with yourself about how much of that is just making you temporarily feel better and hurting you in the long run.

Speaker 35:34

Absolutely. And there's, you know, on that expense idea, this is the most important thing, guys. People will come to us all the time and they'll say, I need X amount of dollars to retire. And we'd say, no, no, let's take a step back. How much do we need to spend to retire? How much do we need to spend in retirement? And this is the biggest thing. People focus on their account value when it comes to figuring out what that looks like, and it's not the case. If we take that step back and look at what do I need to spend every month, what do I want to spend every month in retirement, you'd be shocked at how much of a difference even a couple thousand dollars a month would make in what you need to accomplish that and how we can accomplish that, what returns we need to accomplish that. But without understanding that first, without understanding what the expenses really are, because these days, Stuart, how many people really have a budget? How many people have sat down right. So this is the biggest thing. We people people come in and we're like, so how what do your expenses look like? And they're like, well, I mean, I don't know. We kind of start, well, I spend this on the mortgage, right? We kind of start going through it. And so what we can do is really get you clear on what your expenses are, and no judgment, whatever they are, they are. But we need to understand that. We need to understand what you need to spend before retirement, what cash flow, surplus, deficit, whatever we're dealing with, how can we because without that, we can't do the other things, right? We can't contribute the more the catch-up. We're not going to feel confident about it. We can't think about Social Security like an asset. We can't do all these things without first understanding that real number. So that would be that third, fourth step is super crucial to understand that before we start focusing on account balances.

Speaker 2 37:04

Yeah, I mean I think the biggest mistake people say, and this these things drive me crazy when we see these generalizations of like you need two million dollars to retire. That is so insane to even say, make that statement because everybody's income needs are very, very different. Retirement is not about account balances. Retirement is about income. Yeah. And what you need to generate income. So, you know, to say that it, you know, a million dollars or two million, that is insanity. What you need to have an understanding about is what are your expenses, what are your monthly expenses, what you know, and then what do we need to generate that monthly income? So some of that monthly expense will be covered by Social Security. If you're fortunate enough to have a pension, some of that will, you know, maybe that covers the rest, maybe it doesn't. But it's only after that that you need to start pulling off of your assets to cover any, you know, um shortfalls that you might have. And so it's not about asset balances, it's about income and what can you do with income. Again, if you're feeling behind, you're feeling anxiety about this, we understand. We deal with it every day. Give us a call, 864-775-5033. Let's have a real discussion. We'll continue this in just a few minutes. Are you a business owner with an email list you are not sure is actually growing your business? Most business owners are just guessing, sending emails, hoping for a click. At Kathy Farah Consulting, we take guesswork out of your email marketing. We help you identify what's working and fix what's broken, turning your list into a reliable engine for better leads and consistent sales. Stop wondering, start growing. Visit KathyFara.com to book your free email clarity call today. Let's make your email marketing work smarter.

Speaker 1 39:05

Thanks for tuning in to Clear Path Retirement Radio with Stuart Smith and Mitch Davies. Let's get back to the show.

Speaker 2 39:13

Welcome back in to Clear Path Retirement Radio. I am your host, Stuart Smith, here as always with Mitch Davies. Welcome back. And we are having a great show today talking about those folks who we hear from quite often and they just are feeling a lot of anxiety because they feel like they're behind.

unknown 39:33

Yeah.

Speaker 2 39:34

And, you know, I know that's not a great feeling to have. You feel like you just haven't done enough. Maybe you've had to take time off from work to take care of your your parents and provide care for them. Maybe you've had to suspend contributions to your 401k for some time. Maybe you don't have a 401k. Maybe you're not fortunate enough to have enough income to, you know, to be putting money into an IRA. Maybe you're an entrepreneur who has put all of your time and energy into growing a business and haven't really had time to save the way you you you feel like you should have. And you know, that you um are basically using that that business as your retirement and planning on selling it at some point, but you don't really have a real succession plan on how to do that and what that would mean to you and what what it's worth and all of those things. We can help with all that. Yeah. We can help with all that. We do succession planning at the firm to help on entrepreneurs figure out their next move, figure out their exit strategy and what that can mean financially to them. That is, we have a whole team that works on that that we can we can work with that can really, really start to build that puzzle picture for you and let you start getting your questions answered. If that's you, give us a call, 864-775-5033. Let's get started today. You know, the biggest thing about this stuff and what we're talking about today is procrastination. Yeah. And I can tell you that procrastination is the enemy of retirement. And you cannot procrastinate on this stuff. This, you know, you don't need to be doing a ton, but you need to be doing a little bit along the way for a long period of time, and the difference that that can make can be tremendous when it comes to your retirement. So let's recap what we've been talking about today, Mitch. First of all, you know, the first tip we gave you was max out those catch-up contributions that you're allowed to do to your 401ks and IRAs after age 50. That is a big deal. Allows you to put away, you know, maybe another $7,500 a year there, which could be a huge, you know, huge deal to you as you get closer to retirement. Um maybe delay Social Security or consider delaying Social Security and understanding how that would work and how that would fit into your overall plan. That would be a very, you know, a power move as we like to say. Um the other thing is get real on your expenses and start trimming the fat where you can because guys, look, we understand that you live in America, eating out is fun, Amazon is fun, but I can tell you it is uh a cost too high to bear when it comes to you know your retirement picture and what you're doing. You've got to get real, you know, learn how to cook and eat at home a lot more and take that money and put it into savings, put it into your IRA every year, and you will start to feel much, much better about where you're headed. And then, you know, the the last thing we're gonna say here is as far as a tip on catching up and starting to get things headed in the right direction, consider working a little longer. And I know a lot of people don't don't want to hear that. I know that, but even part-time, right, Mitch, we we see this a lot. You know, a lot of times we call this bridge work, and it's basically bridging the time period between working full-time and to full retirement, and that's a part-time career where you might be doing consulting, freelancing, or maybe you have a passion project that brings in a little bit of income without that full-time grind that we see. And, you know, listen, even fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars a month in part time income can dramatically reduce the stress on your savings. And maybe it's not enough to really, you know, feel like the grind anymore, and you at least get away from that, but and it and it it Definitely helps to, like we say, if that's fifteen hundred, two thousand dollars a month, you're not having to dip into your savings to cover. Um, that's a huge deal and can spread your assets out much, much longer than you originally thought. And for a lot of people, that's an option.

Speaker 44:17

It is, and it's you know, this is something we've seen a lot of success in is this bridge work. Stuart, not only the financial part of it, but a lot of people when it comes down to, you know, say you're really working that grind and you're in this job for a long time, maybe you're an executive of some sort, when it comes to just pull that plug and stop working, it's hard mentally, right? It's really difficult. People will just work, even when they have enough money, just to say, hey, I don't know what else I'd do. If I just woke up Monday morning and didn't have to be anywhere, I don't know what I'd do, so they just keep working. What we can really see a lot of success in is this bridge work and say, hey, instead of taking 50 hours a week and you're on the road three days and you're driving all this stuff, let's cut that workload. A lot of companies will work with you on this, or it can be something more passionate. Some again, that consulting, freelancing, but cutting that back, cutting back that workload, maybe it's only a few days a week now. Maybe it's they have a good healthcare program and you're just making a little bit of money, but it keeps you, it helps you bridge mentally because retirement is as much of a mental thing as it's a financial thing, right? A lot of people have a sink a lot of identity into that work, and you know, you've been working for 30, 40 years, you're providing for the family, it's awesome. But mentally it could be challenging to shift out of that. So we've seen a lot of success there too.

Speaker 2 45:28

Yeah, and as soon as people shift out of that, you know, 50 hour a week grind into something more manageable, it's it becomes a sustainability thing where they're able to sustain that and not feel like they're still, you know, having to grind it out every week. And that becomes, you know, something that really is manageable for them and brings them a lot more joy and happiness and in their life. And, you know, a lot of people just don't want to go from that 50-60 hour a week grind right to nothing anyway. So psychologically, it really helps you make a transition and also takes the financial pressure off tremendously to still have some income coming in. So it's definitely something that we, you know, we would definitely recommend that that you consider that if you're feeling, again, like you haven't done enough, you're not sure, you know, if you're feeling that that pressure of like, man, I think I'm just gonna have to work till I die. Um, I've heard it so many times. And you know, the other thing that I'm gonna say is for you folks that are feeling that way, it's because you don't have a plan. Right. When you have a plan, it it clarifies this for you. It brings that picture crystal clear for you. So it's like you may be feeling the anxiety of I haven't done enough and then I'm not gonna be able to retire. And once my team sits down and we're able to really build the details out, we're able to really build that picture for you to take a look at, you know, let's get down to where the rubber meets the road and let's take a deep dive and really build that retirement income picture and model through some scenario. Like, how many times have people come in feeling that anxiety and then realize, no, I I'm fine, I can retire. I can retire when I thought I could, and you know, maybe I'm not gonna be able to take that $10,000 trip with the family every year like I was hoping, but we could take that $5,000 trip and we can maybe we're not going to Hawaii, maybe we're going to, you know, uh Pauli's Island instead. But, you know, it's okay. That's all right. You know, at least you know. One of the things I like to tell people all the time is if you haven't done enough and you haven't saved enough, when would you like to know that? Right? Now or later. Right? So you know, here's what I'm gonna say. Stop procrastinating, stop wondering, and let us start to answer these questions for you. Let us start to really get you crystal clear because it is what it is, and there is no changing that. There is only clarity today, and then going forward, making the small changes that are necessary to ensure that when you get there, you know, uh whether that be now, tomorrow, a couple years from now, that you know at least where you stand and that you can start to get your arms around whether that's going to be okay for you, or whether working that part-time job for a couple more years is is something that's viable for you. All of these things are just extremely important to understand because that anxiety isn't going away.

Speaker 48:55

This is the key, Stuart. This is there's a million reasons to feel behind, but there's no reason not to figure out a plan, right? No one's ever walked out of our office and said, Okay, I don't know what I'm gonna do now, right? Whether that's hey, I need to buckle down, cut a little bit of expenses, and contribute more, hey, I'm actually fine, which is usually the case, right? But no one's ever walked out of our process, which doesn't take long. So it doesn't take long at all. And guys, we are again a local Greenville veteran-owned business. If you want to work with somebody who's based out of here, we're from South Carolina, if you want to work with a local Greenville office and sit down and get through this stuff, you will not walk out of our hour, two-hour process feeling like, oh, I don't know what to do now. No matter the direction, there's no reason not to start planning now. However you're feeling, we can condense that and give you a solid plan.

Speaker 2 49:45

Absolutely we can, and I tell you, it nothing brings me more joy than giving people the answers that they've been looking for. And that's what my team and I do day in and day out. I've been doing this for two and a half decades. You know, I served honorably in the United States Navy. If that means something to you and you want to work with a veteran and you are a veteran, then I would more than welcome you in. I would love to hear from you and to talk to you. I've worked with quite a few over the last two and a half decades. And, you know, we help people every day get clear on these things. They, you know, maybe they are good, maybe they're not, but when would you want to know that? You'd want to know it now. And and that's what we do, guys. So if you are feeling this way, if you're feeling the anxiety, stop procrastinating, go to ClearpathRetirement.com, hit that get started button today. Let's start getting clear on this stuff, and let's start taking the steps that we need to to get you back on track and get you feeling much better about that upcoming retirement. And you don't know, I mean, with some Roth conversion strategies, with some good tax planning, with you know, some withdrawal order, you know, tweaks that we do on what accounts you're accessing when, with all of the strategies that we've learned over the last two and a half decades, we could maybe paint a very different picture than you think you have. And people are surprised every day after meeting with us, and we'd love to do that for you. We'd love to give you clarity. Give us a call, 864-775-5033. Go to ClearpathRetirement.com and let us know you want to have a conversation. And until next week, you guys have a happy retirement. Are you anxious to see what retirement might look like for you? Do you feel like you have the pieces of the puzzle, but you're not sure how they fit together or where to start? At ClearPath Retirement, we help you bring clarity to retirement by organizing your income, taxes, healthcare decisions, and legacy planning into one cohesive plan. Retirement doesn't have to feel uncertain, it just needs a clear path. Schedule your complimentary consultation at ClearpathRetirement.com.

Speaker 1 52:06

You've been listening to Clear Path Retirement Radio with Stuart Smith and Mitch Davies, helping you make informed decisions so you can plan for retirement with confidence. To learn more, visit Clearpathretirement.com. That's Clearpathretirement.com. Investment advisory services offered through Alpastar Capital Management LLC, a SEC registered investment advisor. SEC registration does not constitute an endorsement of the firm by the SEC, nor does it indicate that the advisor has attained a particular level of skill or ability. Fixed insurance products are offered through Clearpath Retirement Planning LLC, and AlphaStar Capital Management is not involved in the offer, recommendation, sale, or management of commission based fixed insurance products. AlphaStar Capital Management and Clear Path Retirement Planning LLC are separate and independent entities. This is for informational purposes only and is not intended as legal tax or investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, investment product, or investment strategy.