June 24, 2025 • 56 mins
One day you're sipping coffee, getting ready for work, and it hits you—you’ve got nothing saved for retirement. Cue the panic. But Jen and Jill are here to remind you once more: it’s never too late. In this episode, they talk about how just getting started now can still make a big difference.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What to do if you have nothing saved for retirement.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
hosts Jen and Jill. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
(00:24):
My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today
we are airing an episode that we originally recorded in
March of twenty twenty three, but it was a top
episode of that year. You guys loved it, and we're
going to replay it because we want to make sure
you get all of our greatest hits, that you do
not miss one of them.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We know y'all aren't going into the archive that deep.
And if you've been with us long enough that you
heard this episode two years ago, oh two years ago, yeah,
you are ready to hear it again.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You are real one.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You're a real one. You're ready for it. Yeah. But first,
this episode is brought to you by Seeing is Believing
For all you skeptics out there, cynics who aren't sure
if we're AI or not because we sound so stinking flawless.
You can see us and know that we exist on
our YouTube channel. You still won't be sure if it's
(01:20):
a deep fake or not, because you know we sound flawless,
look flawless, are flawless. I can't even go to our
YouTube you frugal friends on YouTube. Yes and subscribe. Please
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(01:42):
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(02:02):
like it and comment and engage with us there because
we right back. We will answer you.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Let us know how unflawless we are. No Like someone
just recently on one of our shorts said Jill, I
like the way you talk, and it was a video
of both Jill and me, so that I responded. Jill says,
thanks from Jen.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm actually curious. Let's look that up at the end
of this episode of hand and up responding to you.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
But please, yes, subscribe to the channel, because every time
you do, YouTube will push our channel and our videos
out to two people who've never heard of frugal friends,
and they too will get to learn about values based
spending and being a more empowered financial adult.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So your one action can impact and influence to other
people positively. Yeah, which is I love that ripple effect.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, just like when we originally recorded this episode, and
it has impacted people two years ago and it will
impact more people today. I don't think that's the butterfly effect,
but that is a trend that's going on in social media,
and I've seen it used incorrectly a lot, so I
kind of want to use it incorrectly now. But yeah,
(03:23):
So it can be really stressful if you don't have
anything saved for retirement. And I think before we go
into this episode, I just want to reiterate the main
message of it is that it's never too late to start,
and nothing is too small to start, because time in
the market beats timing the market and putting more greater
(03:47):
sums for less time in the market. So don't wait.
Use this as inspiration and motivation to get started today
with whatever you have. So I want to make that
clear right off the bat, and you'll hear that reiterated
through the episode.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
All Right, let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Let us get into this first article on what happens
when you don't save for retirement from one of my
favorite websites, Investipedia.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A cautionary tale. There were a lot of options that
we could have gone with on the internet when you
look up what's gonna happen to me if I don't
say for retirement were search We went with the not
as harsh of an article with Investopedia and some helpful
cautionary tales for us of what we could be looking at,
(04:45):
not being too doom and gloom either. I mean, there
is just a reality to this and even the best
laid plans could lead to some shifts that need to
happen in retirement. So I kind of walk with this
with some level of encouragement of like, Okay, it can
get figured out even if you start later in life,
(05:06):
even if you don't have any savings right now. But
to be able to look at the reality of, Okay,
this is what my life, my financial situation might look
like if I don't save for retirement, and is this
the reality that I want for myself or are there
shifts I can be making? So it's it I think
is worth going through. What they're listing out in this
(05:28):
article is what happens for people who don't save for retirement,
just to have an understanding to kind of put some
motivation or fire under us to say, yeah, let's make
some shifts, let's do some things right now, because I
think many of us need to hear that. I think
for many of us, what do they say, Almost half
of Americans don't have a retirement saving So chances are
(05:50):
that's a lot of us listening in. Or if we
do have retirement savings or investment accounts, maybe we're not
doing the most that we could be with them. So
the first thing that they list of what can happen
is that we might solely live on social Security if
we don't have any savings or investment accounts for retirement.
(06:12):
A lot of times that means people's plans are to
live on social Security. What it means is they need
to find a way to live off of social Security.
But the thing about social security is that it's usually
about forty percent of you like the income that you
typically were used to making, it's like forty percent, And
(06:34):
there's definitely ways to maximize how much you take out
of social Security. Those who are close to this stage
of life know what that is. You know, the age
that you start pulling from Social Security. But essentially social
security is best as an additional income, like an additional
(06:55):
piece of money that comes in, not what you could
solely live off of. It usually represents not enough to
pay for your mortgage if you still have it bills,
even if you want to do some fun things in
your retirement age. It's not a great plan, but that
is what most people will then try to lean on
(07:17):
and fall back on.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, you're going to have to plan to start withdrawing
as late as possible, So when you are seventy, I
think it is you're going to want to plan to
do it then. But again we've talked about this before,
is that the average age Americans say they want to
retire is sixty seven, and the average retirement age is
(07:40):
sixty three. But you're going to have to plan to
work till seventy. But you don't know if you're going
to make it there, so you still need to do
other things to supplement that. So they recommend you might
need to downsize your lifestyle, which is one hundred percent
(08:02):
most people do this anyway, even if they have saved,
So this, I feel is maybe a redundant recommendation, but
downsizing your home into something smaller, which can be just
fantastic anyway if you don't have a bunch of children
running around, and then maybe going down to a smaller
(08:27):
car that takes less gas, that is more reliable, and
then just kind of downsizing all of the subscriptions and
all of that things. So if you haven't thought about
all of those, because everyone kind of thinks about downsizing
their home, but there's a lot of other things to downsize,
(08:48):
definitely go get our spending Makeover Trugle friendspodcast dot com
slash makeover because we're going to give you space and
guidance on how to take an inventory of all those
things and then from this figure out what you can downsize.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Which, yeah, again that could be possible for anyone in retirement,
but it's not so great when that's not what you
wanted to do, or you need to downsize as a
result of not having saved, or you need to cut
things that you wouldn't have otherwise wanted to cut just
to make it work. So while there's kind of two sides,
(09:24):
I think to look at that downsizing piece of yeah,
plan for it. That can be great. It's a great
kind of frugal solution, but it is also a reason
to be investing for retirement because if you're forced to
downsize as a result of not having prepared, that can
be a really, really tough reality for many.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And we hope if you're listening to this you still
have a little bit of time to save. But chances
are if this is the episode you chose to listen to,
like you just searched it, then then these are realities
for you already. Like this first out article, these tips
are already realities for you're going to have to pursue them.
If you're a regular Frugal Friends listener and you're just
(10:05):
tuning in, we hope that you've already kind of taken
some steps and you're hearing this early enough to know
that these are the stakes you're working with. So these
are the things that are going to be at stake
if you don't ramp up to the amount of investing
that you need.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
They also list that it might be necessary to take
on a roommate if you still own a home. Many seniors,
those in retirement age will turn to their homes as
a source of income. That could mean running out a
portion of their space as a separate apartment. It could
mean just an actual other roommate in the home. I
would even add that I've seen many times older adults
(10:46):
needing to move in with their adult children, and that's
another version of having a roommate. If you don't have
enough saved or invested for retirement. Housing is one of
our biggest expenses that doesn't stop and we enter into
retirement and so be living with somebody else is often
a way that those who don't have enough money saved
(11:09):
will turn to to be able to pay the other
bills that they have. So again, if this is not
something that you want to be looking at in retirement age,
then okay, cautionary tale. Otherwise then yeah, you could use
it as a tip move in with your adult kids
or take on a roommate. But if that's not something
you want, that could be a bitter pill to swallow of. Okay,
(11:33):
I have to share my space now, after all my
decades of living life, I now have to learn how
to have a roommate to be able to afford life.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
And if you listen to episode two eighty five where
we talked about how your parents' finances affect you. And
you're listening to this and you're like, oh, my goodness,
my parents don't have anything save for retirement and this
is what they're dealing with. This is a good moment
to prepare yourself that this may happen to you, even
though you have time to save for retirement. That's another
(12:07):
reason people retire earlier than they want to is because
they become caregivers for their parents. So it's definitely a stake,
not just in your saving for your retirement. And if
you don't want to do this to your children, if
you don't want to be forced to move in with
your children, this is a stake that you have to
(12:27):
be really aware of. Is to save enough so that
you don't have to force them to retire before they're ready.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know I say that's the reason to have kids.
I mean, it.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Absolutely is a reason to have kids.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They owe you.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You provided for them in their time of need, and
they owe you provision in your time of needs.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Why am identifying one to two of my nieces and
nephews to really invest in their lives so that later
on they'll take care of me. Yeah, you don't have
any kids on my own, so one or two of
my nieces or nephew's better pan out for us.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I hope you're not thinking Jack's gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, Jack, it's not a four year old who growls
at people. He's not going to care for me.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Who literally growled at my son yesterday And I thought
he was just making monster truck noises.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, that would be what you would think as like
the mom of a very sweet boy, like they're making
monster truck noises. But Jack was not. He was growling.
He was being a monster.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He was very He was a very nice monster, though
I totally understood a very.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Big difference between a monster and a monster trup.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yes, all right, So the next one is, uh, you
might have to continue working part time, which is actually
something a lot of people in retirement do just for fun,
but you're going to have to plan to do it
for implementation of the Social Security income So I think
it is wise at this point to start thinking about
(14:08):
what kind of part time work you'd like to do
after retirement, whether it's consulting in your industry or taking
on a part time role at the same company or
or a different field. Maybe you hone your skills in
a you know, some kind of parallel field so that
you can work part time. It is never too early
(14:28):
to start thinking about this so that when you do
have to work part time in retirement, it's something that
you at least can semi enjoy. So we don't want
to like be miserable. We don't want you to be miserable,
and we're not going to tell you to be miserable
in retirement just because you have to do some things differently.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And the final reality that they mentioned in this article
is that for some retirement might not even be on
the table. Many people who have not say or invested
enough for retirement, or maybe aren't willing to completely overhaul
their lifestyle, then it's it just might not be an
option to really scale back in working, and they might
(15:13):
need to continue to work full time or end as
long as possible if there's not enough saved, which is
that that can be fine, and many people choose to
continue working just because they prefer that lifestyle and want
to set their hands to something. The pinch can come
when your life circumstances demand something different, like needing to
(15:37):
care for anyone in the family, an elderly parent, a spouse,
an adult child who knows there could be things that
require caregiving of us or our own medical concerns that
would keep us from working full time. So there are
those other additional pieces that need to be considered. And
I think just the bottom line that they are driving
(15:58):
home here is that we'reirement without a plan, without some
financial nest egg will require a lot of sacrifices, a
lot of overhauling, revamping, problem solving, and potentially just not
being able to have the lifestyle that you may have
hoped for in your later years, your golden.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Years, yes, and they can still be golden. So we've
talked about what the majority of retirement would look like
if you are just starting very late, have nothing saved.
And when we say very late, we're talking about like fifties.
If you want to, you know, retire in your sixties
and you have nothing saved in your fifties, that's kind
(16:42):
of what we're saying it might if you're in your forties,
you might feel like you're starting late, but you actually
have like a really good time horizon, So starting now
can still get you to a really good place. Obviously,
not any of those sexy projections. People talk about when
people start in their twenties, but I mean, how many
people really start investing in their twenties. There are some,
(17:07):
so we yeah, we did start investing in our twenties,
but like most of the time, it's an accidental like
you're automatically signed up for your four oh one K. So,
so our next article is from the Balance and it's
seven tips for saving for retirement if you started late
in life. And so when we're looking at investing, if
(17:29):
you're starting, say in your fifties, and you want to
retire in your sixties or seventy, we're going to look
at it different. We're not going to look at this
money as a way to carry you through your full retirement.
The first article, those tips are going to kind of
really carry you through retirement, but you are not absolved
(17:50):
from saving and investing for retirement because probably in the
last five years of your life, all of that is
going to change. You're not going to be able to
have a roommate or live with your kids. You'll probably
need some really assisted, heavy assisted living care. You're gonna
have more medical bills, You're not gonna be able to
(18:11):
work even part time. And this is. So it sounds
very sad, but this is kind of how to prepare it.
Like you're investing and your savings later in life can
be put towards those last five ish years. That's kind
of how you want to look at it. And if
you're starting at fifty and you're maybe investing from fifty
(18:35):
to fifty five, then and you invest nothing else for
the rest of your life and you don't use that
money until you're gosh, worst case scenario seventy five, probably eighty,
that money still has twenty or twenty five years to
grow and compound interest, and that your money usually doubles
(18:56):
around every ten years, so it can still make a
lot of growth. If this is the way we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That is encouraging. Yeah. Yeah, first case scenario isn't that bad. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So if you are, you know, closer to retirement and
you're like, it's just too late to start investing, it's not.
And it's really a necessity that you should be doing
so that you have the quality of life that you
want and it's less of a burden to any of
your familial caretakers later on. So that's really what this
(19:30):
I think we want to have that mindset going into
this article.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, so this one comes from the balance and it
goes through different things that can be done if we
feel like we're starting later in life. They are identifying
forty as that later in life age. A lot of
the examples that they give are forty, but a lot
of these tips apply even if you're older. So the
first one is to play catch up. So you are
(20:00):
legally allowed to save nineteen thousand, five hundred and a
four oh one K retirement plan. This was in twenty
twenty one, so not too much different. Now after you
turn fifty, you can contribute additional amounts sixty five hundred
and catch up contributions. That's not a ton, but we
might as well be taking advantage of those things if
(20:22):
that is the age bracket that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, anything that has a limit has a limit for
a reason because it's really good for consumers and not
really good for the irs or the government. And so
we want to take full advantage of anything that has
a limit, and that includes a four oh one K,
or if you are not currently offered a four to
(20:46):
one K, then an IRA or both if you have
the funds too. The next is to identify how much
savings you need. So this one probably should be first.
But here we are. So again you might tell yourself
you don't need a million dollars and that you want
a simple life, which I think is what most of
(21:08):
us do tell ourselves. And if you're starting later in life,
you probably won't get to a million dollars. So there
you go. But in twenty five years you're going to
see a lot of inflation. I think if you think
back twenty five years, gosh, if you think about back
two years ago and how much inflation that we've seen,
(21:32):
like in the eighties, with that inflation and just over time,
a million dollars is this like arbitrary number that we
think of as a lot, but is becoming like less
and less. So if you're thinking about it with that mindset,
don't think more money means like you know, is for
(21:55):
more like bougie people. I think we all need to
be investing in saving as much as we can, as
much as our incomes and expenses allow. And if you
get to a million, cool you'll probably need it. If
you don't, cool, we'll figure other stuff out. But you
do need to identify how much that is. And most
(22:17):
experts agree that you should withdraw no more than three
to four percent of your retirement portfolio each year. I
think most people will say about four percent of your
retirement portfolio. Again, if you're starting later in life, you're
probably going to be saving and then just kind of
taking it out in big swoops near the end of
(22:38):
your life. I probably would not plan to take out
four percent every year unless you've been saving for a
long time and you have that nest egg, so that
that's kind of But so if you have a nest egg,
if you're starting in time to build that, then plan
to do about four percent of it. So if you
(23:01):
do the math, three percent of one million is thirty thousand,
and four percent of a million is forty thousand. So
if you're planning on living on forty thousand dollars a
year in retirement, then you do need a million dollars,
and they do reference that's that's assuming it's not accounting
for a pension, rental properties, or potentially other sources of
(23:22):
income during retirement social Security.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So that could be enough if you are living modestly
and you have some of these other additional sources of income.
But it really is eye opening like, this is the
amount of money that needs to be saved even to
live modestly into retirement. And of course that depends on
how long you're living. That depends on the value of
(23:45):
a dollar at that point in life. And so if
we're decades away from retirement, then for us it probably
is more than even that one million that we want
to be aiming at.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, but definitely at least like take into considerations the
tips from the article and how much that will net you,
and then think of an ideal gap and whatever that is.
Just try to shoot for that gap at least, whether
it's a couple hundred thousand dollars, you know, seven hundred
and fifty thousand, whatever, you can do, shoot for it.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The next tip in here for those of us who
might be starting a little bit later is to not
take on more risk than what you are able to.
And really that's dictated by our age. People in their
twenties can accept greater losses, so their investments can be
a little riskier versus people in their forties can accept
(24:39):
less risk, and still less for people in their fifties.
So being aware of the level of risk that's in
your investment portfolios, they give a couple of different asset
allocation formulas that could be implemented and utilized. A few
of them include one being invest a percentage of one
twenty minus your age and stock funds, with the rest
(25:03):
going into bond funds. This represents a higher but acceptable
level of risk. Even more moderate risk would be investing
a percentage of one hundred and ten minus your agent
stock funds with the rest and bond funds. And then finally,
a more much more conservative level of risk would be
investing a percentage equivalent to your agent bond funds with
(25:26):
the rest going into stock funds. So that can be
a helpful formula. Obviously, do what's going to make sense
for you. Just know that less risk the older you
get is the ultimate formula.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
But honestly, if that confused you, a target date fund
is going to self allocate. It's going to do it
for you in the percentages and grow in conservativism the
closer you get to retirement. So typically they say, if
you are going to choose the date where you're going
(26:03):
to retire, So if I'm going to retire at sometime
between the age of sixty five and seventy, because the
target dates there's not one for every year. They go
every five years, So just whatever year is sometime between
when you turn sixty five and seventy, choose that one.
That's if you're if you're using it long term. If
(26:25):
you're not, if you're going to wait to pull any
money out until later in retirement, then choose the one
that is within the year the five years that you're
going to start, you think you'll start pulling it out.
So if you want to wait until eighty to start
pulling it out, then whatever date is between whatever five
(26:46):
year period is when you turn eighty, choose the I
choose the later one because they do tend to run
more conservative the later you get to them. So that's
how if you like, if you turn eighty in twenty
fifty three and you want to, you know, just do
(27:07):
a target date fund, then the target date fund for
twenty fifty or twenty fifty five is going to be
for you. I would I am in twenty fifty five,
that's not when I turn eighty, but so so yeah,
target date fund, it will it will allocate in a
really standard way and it will self rebalance and you
(27:29):
don't have to worry about it and it's got you know,
if you go with a Vanguard or a Fidelity or
a Schwab really low fees so you don't need to
worry about it.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Simplicity and maintaining It's not about timing the market and
keeping a pulse on it and checking what's happening every day.
It's just making a decision one day, setting up automatic
payments to that, and maintaining it. Yes, that's it, and
then thanking yourself later.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And then remember like my husband was in a target
date fund and beat my you know, quote unquote optimized
fund still, I mean just by one percent.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, but so well done.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Still, and neither of us lost money overall, and even
in the worst five years of investing in our lives.
Uh so, yeah, and that's just been five years. And
if we let it, if we let that money sit
twenty years, then it will grow more. I believe you
(28:33):
can't predict the stock market, but I mean, over its history,
it goes up into the right and that's what we
hope will continue to happen, at least in the next
twenty thirty years. Who who knows after that, but hopefully
that's all you're gonna need to know. So the next
one is to open a roth ira to save more.
(28:55):
So it says once you're finished maxing out your four
oh one k to open an IRA max that. I
would say everyone needs to have a raw ira, or
at least some IRA, because a lot of us don't
have four oh one k's or four or three b's,
et cetera, et cetera available. About forty percent of people
(29:16):
don't have them available, and even some of the ones
that do have horrible options and don't need the tax
benefits like immediately. So while four o one k's are fantastic,
they're way better than a brokerage for most people. Even
if you don't need the immediate tax benefits, still having
(29:39):
a raw IRA if you're eligible is great because that's
got tax benefits down the road. So most people aren't
going to be able to max out both, especially when
you get to the age where you can do catch
up contributions on both. If you can, that's great. I
(30:00):
would ask you, why haven't you been doing that the
whole time? But I digress. Do what you can head
your bets, even if you want to do part you know,
half in a pretax and half in a post tax,
which is which would be half in a four A
one k half in a roth ira. Do that. It's
really up to you. There's I mean for us in
(30:23):
for what the purpose of this episode is, like, we
don't we don't have a recommendation on that. That's really
up to you how you do it. But I mean,
if you if you're maxing out a four A one k,
okay open a roth Ira. But if you're not maxing
out a four one K, open a roth urray. Anyway,
you do it. If you're eligible, just do it.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
The next on here is telling us to buy adequate insurance,
stating that most personal bankruptcies are caused by unexpected calamity.
And isn't that just the case? We don't know what's
going to happen in retirement.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
If you could expect calamity, would it be calamity? Right?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I think that that's so much. I mean, that's that's
an emergency fund. That is what savings is for. We
don't know what's going to happen in retirement. I think
it's good to plan for the worst while not dwelling
on the possibilities of the worst. But we won't be
so shocked by things if we have a contingency plan.
If we've thought about it and we've put some things
(31:25):
into action, it really reduces the feeling of something be
being a calamity. Yeah, so we can do this by
buying adequate health insurance, disability insurance, I mean car insurance.
I think you have to have car insurance to be
driving on the road most places. Okay, And these things
(31:45):
are really going to help, especially if we've got dependence,
being able to have life insurance set up, so these
things can help us and be prepared for those calamities.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Insurance is another one. We're not going to be able
to tell you how much or what to do because
it is so per person. This is where the five
years before you retire or you want to before you
want to start with drawing and retiring whatever feels good
to you. It is really useful to get a financial planner,
(32:20):
a certified financial planner that has the CFP designation, because
when you find a CFP, they're going to have a
fiduciary duty, which is a legal ethical responsibility to you,
not to the company they work for. Because you'll find
a lot of financial planners and financial advisors from insurance
(32:45):
agencies and their best interest is to sell you insurance policies,
as retirement policy, as retirement accounts. You're going to find
a lot of money managers working for investments that are
their best interests to sell you on a particular fund
of investments. You know, So you want somebody, especially in
(33:06):
the five years before you retire, who's really going to
be working in your best interest. You will pay them
for that. If you're getting advice for free, know that
you're paying for it in other ways. But you want
to pay for advice. And they're going to tell you
this is the type of insurance you need, because if
you're starting later in life with saving for retirement, you'll
(33:29):
probably need more insurance than somebody who is not. And
so that CFP is going to tell you kind of
how to hedge your bets in pre and post tax investing.
They're going to guide you on insurance. These are the
things where like wet emails about this and we're like,
we can't answer this for you. And even if I,
(33:50):
even if I had more information about you, I would
not answer this for you because I'm I don't hold
the CFP, I don't hold any you know, licenses to
do that. So take some savings, take some money, pay
for a certified financial planner to tell you what these
(34:13):
things are for you. The next one we can tell you,
we can give you all the advice on this one
is to pay down debt. And we're talking about high
interest debt, high interest car loans, high interest non mortgage debt.
These are the things you're going to want to focus on.
(34:35):
You may want to pay off your mortgage before retirement,
but if you have nothing invested, a paid off house
isn't going to buy you food and retirement. That's gonna
be money. So you're gonna need to really be careful
with how much debt you pay off, even though yeah,
you'd like to I'm sure be debt free in retirement
(34:56):
that would be a huge weightlifted. But if you have
nothing invest that may not be a wise dream. So
but paying down high interest at pretty much anything, I
would say definitely above ten percent, ideally above five if
you can do it, those are the things to focus.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
On, yesh. And lastly, I love this one. You and
your spouse come first, So this is a really helpful
thing because emotional emotions come away with spending, and especially
I think, yeah, so you have kids and grandkids. But
(35:40):
reality is, we don't want to ruin our retirement savings
and investing plan if that like, by sending kids to college.
I know this sounds like a really tough truth here,
but it would be better if you have to choose
between one or the other. Right Obviously, if you can
do both, fans fantastic. Keep contributing to your savings accounts
(36:03):
and send your kids to college. But at the end
of the day, it's going to be better for you
and your children if you continue to contribute to and
focus on your retirement savings plan then to send your
kids to college, because ultimately, if you trash your retirement
savings by not try, I mean, that's what the article says.
(36:24):
It's the word for their places. But if you kind
of interrupt, intersect that retirement savings plan, and maybe even
pull money out of it to give to your children,
that's then setting yourself up to not be in a
great place come retirement. It may put extra financial burden
onto the children to be paying for you in retirement
(36:47):
or somehow financially responsible for you. When your children have
more time to be able to say for themselves in retirement,
they've got the opportunity in their twenties and thirties to
be saving for that retirement. They've got the rest of
their lives ahead of them versus you, who might be
starting later in life, really need to be focusing on
(37:08):
that retirement versus giving all the money to the children.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, here's a really easy way to make this decision.
Ask your teenager, or if your kids are older, just
ask them now if they, in their adult lives, would
rather you pay for their college now or if they
would rather take care of you part time to full
time in their home in yeah, in your later years,
(37:33):
ask them which one they would rather do, and you're
going to get the most honest answer from a teenager.
But I mean, that's really what it is. You're either
paying for their college now or they're going to spend
their time or money taking care of you later in life.
And so ask them what they want to do. Maybe
they do want to take care of you in your
(37:54):
older years, and in which case, cool factor that in.
But I think most the time they're going to say
I'll take out a student loan.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
The best gift you can give your children is your
own fine nancial or tie or men security.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
That's a line in the article that she just sang,
yeah like a jingle.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, it's a jingle. Now it's the best gift you
can give to your children.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
And I agree, Yeah, in their forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Freedom As an adult child. I couldn't agree more absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
As an adult child who knows I will be a
caregiver in my forties fifties. Hi, we'll just leave that
out there.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Wish you had received the best gift.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I wish somebody had asked me focus.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Teenager, giving that gift to your children. You know what
the best gift is that we can give to our listeners.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah, and I'm going to ask you as a teenager
or as a full grown adult, But I'm only going
to take your answer right now.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
The bill of the week.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
car died and you're happy to not have to pay
that bill anymore. That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This
is the bill of the week.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Hi, Jen, love your podcast. So I actually have a
couple of bills of the week. One is the bill
for the remaining car payment on one of our vehicles,
as well as the balance for the birth center for
my son. We actually refinanced those and was able to
lower what was a ten percent APR and an eighteen
(39:56):
percent APR to just around eight percent. The second bill
is the remaining balance for the person. Our kids are expensive.
Love them to piece as though I've paid it on
our Chase credit card and they have the mid Chase plan,
so we're able to for a small fee, be able
(40:17):
to pay it over a portion of time versus leading
it out standing with the provider and having to incur
severe interest costs by having the balance just hanging out
on the credit card and actually a third bill anything
else that we have from a medical standpoint, I've contacted
the providers and asked that we get set up on
(40:38):
a payment plan, and I'm able to use my HSA,
so again, it's not something that we're having to incur
on our credit cards or anything like that. So a
lot of moving wheels, but feel really good about the
ways that we have to take care of those without
going into severe medical debt. So again, love you guys.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Thanks, it's great. Lowering the interest rates eighteen is very
very high an eight. It's definitely more manageable. So that's
amazing and I hope everybody checks out. We have an
episode with doctor Vergie on negotiating medical bills. I will
(41:19):
find that episode tell you what it is.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You are moving and shaken over there, which is awesome.
Congratulations on the birth of your child that is so exciting,
and the fact that you have a health savings account
you're able to utilize that. I think just what stands
out to me in your multiple bills is just kind
of knowing the resources that are available to you, implementing
(41:42):
utilizing them, and making some really wise decisions with your
finances to get rid of some of this debt, lowering
these interest rates really really awesome, and hoping with you
that all of these payments get paid off quickly. That'll
be a great feeling. Yes, you all listening, have a
bill that you want to submit, if it has to
(42:03):
do with moving and shake and given birth or just
out there being a bill being a person named Bill.
Visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yes, and episode two thirty that's the one, or it
is Negotiating.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Medical debt Episode two thirty. Check it out. That's a
great one. And now it's time for lightning round.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Pew. All Right, so today, what is your biggest worry
about retirement? Jill.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
I've thought about this quite a bit, and I think
it comes from seeing what many people face in retirement,
and that is just unforeseen medical issues and concerns. I
guess I'm anticipating it, so maybe I'm kind of seeing
it but not knowing exactly what it would be or
(43:07):
look like. Some of that's unavoidable, but I think it's
leading to a lot of different potential decisions for me,
like the reality that retirement could mean caregiving. It could
mean me being chronically ill or facing some sort of
(43:31):
difficulty physically medically. That has a financial impact, but I
think also an emotional, mental, relational impact that holds concern
for me. I mean, I don't want to spend a
ton of time thinking about that or considering that, but
definitely preparing for it. I think in some ways it
makes me consider what are the things I want to
(43:51):
do in life now. I have seen a lot of
people hope for big travel, lots of excitement in their
retirement years, only to experience a different reality oftentimes that,
you know, no fault of their own, just life interrupts
(44:12):
and that's not possible anymore. So it definitely leads me
to think, how can I live life to the fullest
now while I maintain a level of health, but then
prepare for what that might look like in the future
as well, kind of holding the tension of both. I
don't want to you know, you only live once and
blow all my money now because I'm anticipating, you know,
(44:33):
not a great lifestyle in retirement, but kind of both,
how do I make sure that I am making the
most of the right now while preparing for what might
be to come, but yet optimistic about maybe having some
really beautiful golden years ahead of me. So, but I
would say that's that's a concern, you know, facing medical
(44:54):
issues I think is a concern and potentially a very
real reality. Yeah, what about for you?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I mean, yeah, I mean I kind of you just
summed up our whole ethos is to like live for
today while being able to live in our golden years.
To hold the tension between both. And I think my
biggest worry, okay, vulnerability time. Yeah, here we are.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, so the door is open.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, I think we're saving, we're saving well, we're having
children that can drive us around when we're old. I
think just my greatest fear might be just, I don't know,
maybe doing it alone. Yeah, because all of my grandfather
died before I was born. My dad died when I
(45:49):
was in high school. So I think that seeing what
that did to my mom and my grandmother, I think
that's really my only like fear.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Otherwise I feel like we've prepared really well.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Right, And those are the things money can't buy.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
There enjoy the years that we have while hoping that
we get good years in the future. But we don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
There's only so much we can do with finances. We
can face additional difficulties and stressors if we've not prepared financially.
But there are things that are going to happen in
life that have nothing to do with money. They can
be compounded and exaggerated by a lack of money. But yeah,
(46:38):
medical concerns, money can't solve that, Yeah, the medical debt,
money money solves. Yeah. Being doing retirement alone, it's not
something yeah, Yeah, I mean that's why you build community
and friends. If you're alone, Jenna, I'll still be here
I've got longevity on my side, and might will be
(46:59):
the old women, Yeah, will be the old women who
are roommates, just like living life together. Yeah, I'm down
for that. Okay, you won't be I will call you.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
The quote that Goldie pulled for this episode is every
little action counts, And it is so so true when
we are talking about investing long term, especially when we're
we're talking to regular people with regular incomes and not
affluent people with super high incomes. We need to be
(47:39):
focusing more on little, more frequent actions. So if maybe
you're just doing a little bit every paycheck and you
get paid every week or every two weeks, and you're
just putting a little bit from every paycheck in before
you spend for the rest of the month or week,
that is what that is. The most power that you
(48:02):
have is investing off the top. So, and we actually
have a financial Reset course. It's like a personal finance
one oh one course that we released earlier this year,
and the whole last section is on investing. So if
you feel clueless about investing, particularly for retirement, yeah, that's
(48:25):
oh the only thing we talked about investing for you
can have to frugal friends, podcast dot com, slash reset
and get that and you can also our favorite book
is I would say either Rich af by Vivian two
or I Will Teach You to Be Rich byramit SETI.
Both of those are really good for learning.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
So nice.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
But if you like videos Frugal Friends podcast dot com,
slash reset.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, it doesn't have to be complicated. You just need
to start. Not let our lack of confidence get keep
us from fielding this for the entire moment.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
You can learn to invest. I think that's the first
thing we reiterate in our course is that you are
smart enough to do this and you don't need to
be that educated on investing to invest for retirement. That's
the beautiful thing that technology has progressed investing to make
(49:24):
it so accessible, so you don't need to know a lot.
It's helpful to know a little start today. Yes, yeah,
and that's all I have to say about that, besides
thank you so much for listening. We also have a
book where we mentioned investing, but we don't dive deep
(49:45):
into it. It's called Buy what you Love Without Going Broke.
It's about spending. So if your problem with investing is
that you never seem to have enough money left at
the end of your paycheck to invest. Buy what you
Love without going Broke is the book for you, and
you can get Buy what you Love book dot com.
We even have instructions there on how to request it
at your library. And Rachel read it and here's what
(50:10):
she had to say. Gave it five stars. I truly
loved reading this book. I got an Advanced reader copy
back in December and spent a few days reading it
over Christmas while taking lots of notes. From the opening introduction,
which on a personal note I loved as a teacher myself,
to the additional research notes at the end, I was
a very happy reader all throughout the book. The book
(50:33):
was divided into three major parts, so I'll just touch
on some highlights from each one. Part one I liked
the exploration of impulse spending. Part two I loved the
breakout of different levels of replacements for shopping and an
explanation of how habits form. However, my true favorite was
Part three. The call to simplify your Environment has me
(50:55):
thinking of how I could structure decluttering challenges in my
own life. The messages to learn about contentment and what
generational biases about money might be lurking. Was truly enlightening.
I love this book and I'll be buying another one
to share it with one of my friends because I'm
not letting go of my copy.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
This is amazing and it's so fun to hear because
actually our favorite chapters, both Jen and myself, are different,
but they're both in Part three. And that's funny because
statistically speaking, they say that most people don't make it
past like the first couple of chapters of a book.
And while those are good chapters, still our best chapters
(51:38):
are in part three. We needed to build upon it
in order to get there. They couldn't have been in
the beginning of the book.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
But a lot of books are good the first half
and pointless the second half, and I think ours flip
flops like it really does build it to a crescendo.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for reading that book.
If you've read the book, please leave us a review
on that. If you haven't, get your copy by what
youlovebook dot com, and thanks for being here listening. If
you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review.
That's a freeway to help us and help new listeners
find us, and of course find us on YouTube subscribe
(52:16):
to our channel. That's our biggest goal at this point,
to be honest with you, We would love to see
ten thousand subscribers by the end of this year, and
that's a big lift.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
But we have ten thousand people that listen to each
episode of Rugal Friends. So and it's not even the
same listeners. I'm sure you listening right now. You don't
listen to every single episode, right, so we have enough
to get there. Yeah, So we're just asking go over
to YouTube right now, hit subscribe and then go on
(52:49):
your way. Maybe leave a comment on the latest video,
and you tell us which books you thought had a
pointless second half, whether it be fiction or non fiction.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Your comment on a video doesn't need to have anything
to do with no video itself. Well, we love that,
will understand.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, So and tell me you like the way I talk,
please on any video.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
That's Jen speaking. Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
You got Fourth of July plans?
Speaker 1 (53:37):
No, not at current because it is still June.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
I mean you know the classic fourth of July plans, right, fireworks? Well?
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Oh, okay, you typically do at Josh's parents. Yeah, yeah,
I think probably we'll do that. That is what we've
done every year. And I always forget my bathing suit.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Oh somehow every year.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I'd always know it's the same thing. And sometimes I
put I don't like to wear my bathing suit places.
I like to just wear my clothes and then change
when I'm ready, and I'll put it out and then
just shuffling everybody together, it gets left behind. Maybe this
(54:23):
is the year I just wear it.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
I think that's what you should do. They so our
friends of ours parents live on a waterway connected to
Tampa Bay, and every Fourth of July they let us
come crash their house and then there's always fireworks that
you can see from their home over the water, and
we all swim in the water up until after the
(54:50):
sun goes down, which is not safe. There are sharks
in this water right Like.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
I'm thinking about it too, Like I wouldn't be able
to get in the water even if I did bring
my bathing suit because I have two young kids that
I'm not gonna let go in that water.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
All of the other parents do have their children in
that kids are older, though not that much older than Kai.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
They're a little older than Kai, so they're like minimum, like.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
The four year old was in the water last year.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Well, I can't comment on that, but.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
We always bring tubes and we're kind of like on
top of the tubes, right. Sharks don't attack you when
you're on a tube.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
I think we all kind of feel comforted by our
numbers and who knows, just a full day in the
sun that we don't we just starn't thinking.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
But I don't think that they believe it's a feeding frenzy,
Like they just haven't come over there, and then they
see all your butts right in tubes and they're like, oh, yeah,
that's a lot of butts. I'm gonna get one of them.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
I'll go on dumb butts. This is the Maybe maybe
it will be my butt. Who knows, stay not your butt.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Probably be my butt. You know what I get in
that water with my bathing suit. This is the first year,
and they don't get my butt.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
You don't have to be the fastest swimmer. You just
have to outswim the person behind you. However that saying goes,
it's usually about bears, but I'm gonna make it about sharks. Yeah,
I guess so that's what we'll do. We're gonna maybe
tempt the Sharks with our bums this fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Hope you have a fantastic fourth of July.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Oh you're gonna be there in a swim our listeners.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, they're still here.
That's right, Okay,
What to do if you have nothing saved for retirement.
Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast, where you'll learn to
save money, embrace simplicity, and live your life. Here your
hosts Jen and Jill. Welcome to the Frugal Friends podcast.
(00:24):
My name is Jen, my name is Jill, and today
we are airing an episode that we originally recorded in
March of twenty twenty three, but it was a top
episode of that year. You guys loved it, and we're
going to replay it because we want to make sure
you get all of our greatest hits, that you do
not miss one of them.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
We know y'all aren't going into the archive that deep.
And if you've been with us long enough that you
heard this episode two years ago, oh two years ago, yeah,
you are ready to hear it again.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
You are real one.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
You're a real one. You're ready for it. Yeah. But first,
this episode is brought to you by Seeing is Believing
For all you skeptics out there, cynics who aren't sure
if we're AI or not because we sound so stinking flawless.
You can see us and know that we exist on
our YouTube channel. You still won't be sure if it's
(01:20):
a deep fake or not, because you know we sound flawless,
look flawless, are flawless. I can't even go to our
YouTube you frugal friends on YouTube. Yes and subscribe. Please
don't skip that step. Yeah, if you make it to
our channel on YouTube, please click that button. It helps
(01:42):
us so so, so, so so much. Even if you
aren't a big YouTube person, you prefer podcasts, at least
do us this solid see us and believe us, and
then support us and subscribe. And if you are liking
it and you like some of the content that we're
putting out that is different than what's here on the podcast,
(02:02):
like it and comment and engage with us there because
we right back. We will answer you.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
Let us know how unflawless we are. No Like someone
just recently on one of our shorts said Jill, I
like the way you talk, and it was a video
of both Jill and me, so that I responded. Jill says,
thanks from Jen.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
I'm actually curious. Let's look that up at the end
of this episode of hand and up responding to you.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
But please, yes, subscribe to the channel, because every time
you do, YouTube will push our channel and our videos
out to two people who've never heard of frugal friends,
and they too will get to learn about values based
spending and being a more empowered financial adult.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
So your one action can impact and influence to other
people positively. Yeah, which is I love that ripple effect.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Yeah, just like when we originally recorded this episode, and
it has impacted people two years ago and it will
impact more people today. I don't think that's the butterfly effect,
but that is a trend that's going on in social media,
and I've seen it used incorrectly a lot, so I
kind of want to use it incorrectly now. But yeah,
(03:23):
So it can be really stressful if you don't have
anything saved for retirement. And I think before we go
into this episode, I just want to reiterate the main
message of it is that it's never too late to start,
and nothing is too small to start, because time in
the market beats timing the market and putting more greater
(03:47):
sums for less time in the market. So don't wait.
Use this as inspiration and motivation to get started today
with whatever you have. So I want to make that
clear right off the bat, and you'll hear that reiterated
through the episode.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
All Right, let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Let us get into this first article on what happens
when you don't save for retirement from one of my
favorite websites, Investipedia.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
A cautionary tale. There were a lot of options that
we could have gone with on the internet when you
look up what's gonna happen to me if I don't
say for retirement were search We went with the not
as harsh of an article with Investopedia and some helpful
cautionary tales for us of what we could be looking at,
(04:45):
not being too doom and gloom either. I mean, there
is just a reality to this and even the best
laid plans could lead to some shifts that need to
happen in retirement. So I kind of walk with this
with some level of encouragement of like, Okay, it can
get figured out even if you start later in life,
(05:06):
even if you don't have any savings right now. But
to be able to look at the reality of, Okay,
this is what my life, my financial situation might look
like if I don't save for retirement, and is this
the reality that I want for myself or are there
shifts I can be making? So it's it I think
is worth going through. What they're listing out in this
(05:28):
article is what happens for people who don't save for retirement,
just to have an understanding to kind of put some
motivation or fire under us to say, yeah, let's make
some shifts, let's do some things right now, because I
think many of us need to hear that. I think
for many of us, what do they say, Almost half
of Americans don't have a retirement saving So chances are
(05:50):
that's a lot of us listening in. Or if we
do have retirement savings or investment accounts, maybe we're not
doing the most that we could be with them. So
the first thing that they list of what can happen
is that we might solely live on social Security if
we don't have any savings or investment accounts for retirement.
(06:12):
A lot of times that means people's plans are to
live on social Security. What it means is they need
to find a way to live off of social Security.
But the thing about social security is that it's usually
about forty percent of you like the income that you
typically were used to making, it's like forty percent, And
(06:34):
there's definitely ways to maximize how much you take out
of social Security. Those who are close to this stage
of life know what that is. You know, the age
that you start pulling from Social Security. But essentially social
security is best as an additional income, like an additional
(06:55):
piece of money that comes in, not what you could
solely live off of. It usually represents not enough to
pay for your mortgage if you still have it bills,
even if you want to do some fun things in
your retirement age. It's not a great plan, but that
is what most people will then try to lean on
(07:17):
and fall back on.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yeah, you're going to have to plan to start withdrawing
as late as possible, So when you are seventy, I
think it is you're going to want to plan to
do it then. But again we've talked about this before,
is that the average age Americans say they want to
retire is sixty seven, and the average retirement age is
(07:40):
sixty three. But you're going to have to plan to
work till seventy. But you don't know if you're going
to make it there, so you still need to do
other things to supplement that. So they recommend you might
need to downsize your lifestyle, which is one hundred percent
(08:02):
most people do this anyway, even if they have saved,
So this, I feel is maybe a redundant recommendation, but
downsizing your home into something smaller, which can be just
fantastic anyway if you don't have a bunch of children
running around, and then maybe going down to a smaller
(08:27):
car that takes less gas, that is more reliable, and
then just kind of downsizing all of the subscriptions and
all of that things. So if you haven't thought about
all of those, because everyone kind of thinks about downsizing
their home, but there's a lot of other things to downsize,
(08:48):
definitely go get our spending Makeover Trugle friendspodcast dot com
slash makeover because we're going to give you space and
guidance on how to take an inventory of all those
things and then from this figure out what you can downsize.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Which, yeah, again that could be possible for anyone in retirement,
but it's not so great when that's not what you
wanted to do, or you need to downsize as a
result of not having saved, or you need to cut
things that you wouldn't have otherwise wanted to cut just
to make it work. So while there's kind of two sides,
(09:24):
I think to look at that downsizing piece of yeah,
plan for it. That can be great. It's a great
kind of frugal solution, but it is also a reason
to be investing for retirement because if you're forced to
downsize as a result of not having prepared, that can
be a really, really tough reality for many.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
And we hope if you're listening to this you still
have a little bit of time to save. But chances
are if this is the episode you chose to listen to,
like you just searched it, then then these are realities
for you already. Like this first out article, these tips
are already realities for you're going to have to pursue them.
If you're a regular Frugal Friends listener and you're just
(10:05):
tuning in, we hope that you've already kind of taken
some steps and you're hearing this early enough to know
that these are the stakes you're working with. So these
are the things that are going to be at stake
if you don't ramp up to the amount of investing
that you need.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
They also list that it might be necessary to take
on a roommate if you still own a home. Many seniors,
those in retirement age will turn to their homes as
a source of income. That could mean running out a
portion of their space as a separate apartment. It could
mean just an actual other roommate in the home. I
would even add that I've seen many times older adults
(10:46):
needing to move in with their adult children, and that's
another version of having a roommate. If you don't have
enough saved or invested for retirement. Housing is one of
our biggest expenses that doesn't stop and we enter into
retirement and so be living with somebody else is often
a way that those who don't have enough money saved
(11:09):
will turn to to be able to pay the other
bills that they have. So again, if this is not
something that you want to be looking at in retirement age,
then okay, cautionary tale. Otherwise then yeah, you could use
it as a tip move in with your adult kids
or take on a roommate. But if that's not something
you want, that could be a bitter pill to swallow of. Okay,
(11:33):
I have to share my space now, after all my
decades of living life, I now have to learn how
to have a roommate to be able to afford life.
Speaker 1 (11:43):
And if you listen to episode two eighty five where
we talked about how your parents' finances affect you. And
you're listening to this and you're like, oh, my goodness,
my parents don't have anything save for retirement and this
is what they're dealing with. This is a good moment
to prepare yourself that this may happen to you, even
though you have time to save for retirement. That's another
(12:07):
reason people retire earlier than they want to is because
they become caregivers for their parents. So it's definitely a stake,
not just in your saving for your retirement. And if
you don't want to do this to your children, if
you don't want to be forced to move in with
your children, this is a stake that you have to
(12:27):
be really aware of. Is to save enough so that
you don't have to force them to retire before they're ready.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
I don't know I say that's the reason to have kids.
I mean, it.
Speaker 1 (12:39):
Absolutely is a reason to have kids.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
They owe you.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
You provided for them in their time of need, and
they owe you provision in your time of needs.
Speaker 2 (12:50):
Why am identifying one to two of my nieces and
nephews to really invest in their lives so that later
on they'll take care of me. Yeah, you don't have
any kids on my own, so one or two of
my nieces or nephew's better pan out for us.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I hope you're not thinking Jack's gonna do it.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah, Jack, it's not a four year old who growls
at people. He's not going to care for me.
Speaker 1 (13:17):
Who literally growled at my son yesterday And I thought
he was just making monster truck noises.
Speaker 2 (13:24):
No, that would be what you would think as like
the mom of a very sweet boy, like they're making
monster truck noises. But Jack was not. He was growling.
He was being a monster.
Speaker 1 (13:35):
He was very He was a very nice monster, though
I totally understood a very.
Speaker 2 (13:42):
Big difference between a monster and a monster trup.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yes, all right, So the next one is, uh, you
might have to continue working part time, which is actually
something a lot of people in retirement do just for fun,
but you're going to have to plan to do it
for implementation of the Social Security income So I think
it is wise at this point to start thinking about
(14:08):
what kind of part time work you'd like to do
after retirement, whether it's consulting in your industry or taking
on a part time role at the same company or
or a different field. Maybe you hone your skills in
a you know, some kind of parallel field so that
you can work part time. It is never too early
(14:28):
to start thinking about this so that when you do
have to work part time in retirement, it's something that
you at least can semi enjoy. So we don't want
to like be miserable. We don't want you to be miserable,
and we're not going to tell you to be miserable
in retirement just because you have to do some things differently.
Speaker 2 (14:50):
And the final reality that they mentioned in this article
is that for some retirement might not even be on
the table. Many people who have not say or invested
enough for retirement, or maybe aren't willing to completely overhaul
their lifestyle, then it's it just might not be an
option to really scale back in working, and they might
(15:13):
need to continue to work full time or end as
long as possible if there's not enough saved, which is
that that can be fine, and many people choose to
continue working just because they prefer that lifestyle and want
to set their hands to something. The pinch can come
when your life circumstances demand something different, like needing to
(15:37):
care for anyone in the family, an elderly parent, a spouse,
an adult child who knows there could be things that
require caregiving of us or our own medical concerns that
would keep us from working full time. So there are
those other additional pieces that need to be considered. And
I think just the bottom line that they are driving
(15:58):
home here is that we'reirement without a plan, without some
financial nest egg will require a lot of sacrifices, a
lot of overhauling, revamping, problem solving, and potentially just not
being able to have the lifestyle that you may have
hoped for in your later years, your golden.
Speaker 1 (16:20):
Years, yes, and they can still be golden. So we've
talked about what the majority of retirement would look like
if you are just starting very late, have nothing saved.
And when we say very late, we're talking about like fifties.
If you want to, you know, retire in your sixties
and you have nothing saved in your fifties, that's kind
(16:42):
of what we're saying it might if you're in your forties,
you might feel like you're starting late, but you actually
have like a really good time horizon, So starting now
can still get you to a really good place. Obviously,
not any of those sexy projections. People talk about when
people start in their twenties, but I mean, how many
people really start investing in their twenties. There are some,
(17:07):
so we yeah, we did start investing in our twenties,
but like most of the time, it's an accidental like
you're automatically signed up for your four oh one K. So,
so our next article is from the Balance and it's
seven tips for saving for retirement if you started late
in life. And so when we're looking at investing, if
(17:29):
you're starting, say in your fifties, and you want to
retire in your sixties or seventy, we're going to look
at it different. We're not going to look at this
money as a way to carry you through your full retirement.
The first article, those tips are going to kind of
really carry you through retirement, but you are not absolved
(17:50):
from saving and investing for retirement because probably in the
last five years of your life, all of that is
going to change. You're not going to be able to
have a roommate or live with your kids. You'll probably
need some really assisted, heavy assisted living care. You're gonna
have more medical bills, You're not gonna be able to
(18:11):
work even part time. And this is. So it sounds
very sad, but this is kind of how to prepare it.
Like you're investing and your savings later in life can
be put towards those last five ish years. That's kind
of how you want to look at it. And if
you're starting at fifty and you're maybe investing from fifty
(18:35):
to fifty five, then and you invest nothing else for
the rest of your life and you don't use that
money until you're gosh, worst case scenario seventy five, probably eighty,
that money still has twenty or twenty five years to
grow and compound interest, and that your money usually doubles
(18:56):
around every ten years, so it can still make a
lot of growth. If this is the way we're looking at.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
That is encouraging. Yeah. Yeah, first case scenario isn't that bad. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
So if you are, you know, closer to retirement and
you're like, it's just too late to start investing, it's not.
And it's really a necessity that you should be doing
so that you have the quality of life that you
want and it's less of a burden to any of
your familial caretakers later on. So that's really what this
(19:30):
I think we want to have that mindset going into
this article.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, so this one comes from the balance and it
goes through different things that can be done if we
feel like we're starting later in life. They are identifying
forty as that later in life age. A lot of
the examples that they give are forty, but a lot
of these tips apply even if you're older. So the
first one is to play catch up. So you are
(20:00):
legally allowed to save nineteen thousand, five hundred and a
four oh one K retirement plan. This was in twenty
twenty one, so not too much different. Now after you
turn fifty, you can contribute additional amounts sixty five hundred
and catch up contributions. That's not a ton, but we
might as well be taking advantage of those things if
(20:22):
that is the age bracket that we find ourselves in.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
Yeah, anything that has a limit has a limit for
a reason because it's really good for consumers and not
really good for the irs or the government. And so
we want to take full advantage of anything that has
a limit, and that includes a four oh one K,
or if you are not currently offered a four to
(20:46):
one K, then an IRA or both if you have
the funds too. The next is to identify how much
savings you need. So this one probably should be first.
But here we are. So again you might tell yourself
you don't need a million dollars and that you want
a simple life, which I think is what most of
(21:08):
us do tell ourselves. And if you're starting later in life,
you probably won't get to a million dollars. So there
you go. But in twenty five years you're going to
see a lot of inflation. I think if you think
back twenty five years, gosh, if you think about back
two years ago and how much inflation that we've seen,
(21:32):
like in the eighties, with that inflation and just over time,
a million dollars is this like arbitrary number that we
think of as a lot, but is becoming like less
and less. So if you're thinking about it with that mindset,
don't think more money means like you know, is for
(21:55):
more like bougie people. I think we all need to
be investing in saving as much as we can, as
much as our incomes and expenses allow. And if you
get to a million, cool you'll probably need it. If
you don't, cool, we'll figure other stuff out. But you
do need to identify how much that is. And most
(22:17):
experts agree that you should withdraw no more than three
to four percent of your retirement portfolio each year. I
think most people will say about four percent of your
retirement portfolio. Again, if you're starting later in life, you're
probably going to be saving and then just kind of
taking it out in big swoops near the end of
(22:38):
your life. I probably would not plan to take out
four percent every year unless you've been saving for a
long time and you have that nest egg, so that
that's kind of But so if you have a nest egg,
if you're starting in time to build that, then plan
to do about four percent of it. So if you
(23:01):
do the math, three percent of one million is thirty thousand,
and four percent of a million is forty thousand. So
if you're planning on living on forty thousand dollars a
year in retirement, then you do need a million dollars,
and they do reference that's that's assuming it's not accounting
for a pension, rental properties, or potentially other sources of
(23:22):
income during retirement social Security.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
So that could be enough if you are living modestly
and you have some of these other additional sources of income.
But it really is eye opening like, this is the
amount of money that needs to be saved even to
live modestly into retirement. And of course that depends on
how long you're living. That depends on the value of
(23:45):
a dollar at that point in life. And so if
we're decades away from retirement, then for us it probably
is more than even that one million that we want
to be aiming at.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, but definitely at least like take into considerations the
tips from the article and how much that will net you,
and then think of an ideal gap and whatever that is.
Just try to shoot for that gap at least, whether
it's a couple hundred thousand dollars, you know, seven hundred
and fifty thousand, whatever, you can do, shoot for it.
Speaker 2 (24:18):
The next tip in here for those of us who
might be starting a little bit later is to not
take on more risk than what you are able to.
And really that's dictated by our age. People in their
twenties can accept greater losses, so their investments can be
a little riskier versus people in their forties can accept
(24:39):
less risk, and still less for people in their fifties.
So being aware of the level of risk that's in
your investment portfolios, they give a couple of different asset
allocation formulas that could be implemented and utilized. A few
of them include one being invest a percentage of one
twenty minus your age and stock funds, with the rest
(25:03):
going into bond funds. This represents a higher but acceptable
level of risk. Even more moderate risk would be investing
a percentage of one hundred and ten minus your agent
stock funds with the rest and bond funds. And then finally,
a more much more conservative level of risk would be
investing a percentage equivalent to your agent bond funds with
(25:26):
the rest going into stock funds. So that can be
a helpful formula. Obviously, do what's going to make sense
for you. Just know that less risk the older you
get is the ultimate formula.
Speaker 1 (25:40):
But honestly, if that confused you, a target date fund
is going to self allocate. It's going to do it
for you in the percentages and grow in conservativism the
closer you get to retirement. So typically they say, if
you are going to choose the date where you're going
(26:03):
to retire, So if I'm going to retire at sometime
between the age of sixty five and seventy, because the
target dates there's not one for every year. They go
every five years, So just whatever year is sometime between
when you turn sixty five and seventy, choose that one.
That's if you're if you're using it long term. If
(26:25):
you're not, if you're going to wait to pull any
money out until later in retirement, then choose the one
that is within the year the five years that you're
going to start, you think you'll start pulling it out.
So if you want to wait until eighty to start
pulling it out, then whatever date is between whatever five
(26:46):
year period is when you turn eighty, choose the I
choose the later one because they do tend to run
more conservative the later you get to them. So that's
how if you like, if you turn eighty in twenty
fifty three and you want to, you know, just do
(27:07):
a target date fund, then the target date fund for
twenty fifty or twenty fifty five is going to be
for you. I would I am in twenty fifty five,
that's not when I turn eighty, but so so yeah,
target date fund, it will it will allocate in a
really standard way and it will self rebalance and you
(27:29):
don't have to worry about it and it's got you know,
if you go with a Vanguard or a Fidelity or
a Schwab really low fees so you don't need to
worry about it.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Simplicity and maintaining It's not about timing the market and
keeping a pulse on it and checking what's happening every day.
It's just making a decision one day, setting up automatic
payments to that, and maintaining it. Yes, that's it, and
then thanking yourself later.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
And then remember like my husband was in a target
date fund and beat my you know, quote unquote optimized
fund still, I mean just by one percent.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Yeah, but so well done.
Speaker 1 (28:13):
Still, and neither of us lost money overall, and even
in the worst five years of investing in our lives.
Uh so, yeah, and that's just been five years. And
if we let it, if we let that money sit
twenty years, then it will grow more. I believe you
(28:33):
can't predict the stock market, but I mean, over its history,
it goes up into the right and that's what we
hope will continue to happen, at least in the next
twenty thirty years. Who who knows after that, but hopefully
that's all you're gonna need to know. So the next
one is to open a roth ira to save more.
(28:55):
So it says once you're finished maxing out your four
oh one k to open an IRA max that. I
would say everyone needs to have a raw ira, or
at least some IRA, because a lot of us don't
have four oh one k's or four or three b's,
et cetera, et cetera available. About forty percent of people
(29:16):
don't have them available, and even some of the ones
that do have horrible options and don't need the tax
benefits like immediately. So while four o one k's are fantastic,
they're way better than a brokerage for most people. Even
if you don't need the immediate tax benefits, still having
(29:39):
a raw IRA if you're eligible is great because that's
got tax benefits down the road. So most people aren't
going to be able to max out both, especially when
you get to the age where you can do catch
up contributions on both. If you can, that's great. I
(30:00):
would ask you, why haven't you been doing that the
whole time? But I digress. Do what you can head
your bets, even if you want to do part you know,
half in a pretax and half in a post tax,
which is which would be half in a four A
one k half in a roth ira. Do that. It's
really up to you. There's I mean for us in
(30:23):
for what the purpose of this episode is, like, we
don't we don't have a recommendation on that. That's really
up to you how you do it. But I mean,
if you if you're maxing out a four A one k,
okay open a roth Ira. But if you're not maxing
out a four one K, open a roth urray. Anyway,
you do it. If you're eligible, just do it.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
The next on here is telling us to buy adequate insurance,
stating that most personal bankruptcies are caused by unexpected calamity.
And isn't that just the case? We don't know what's
going to happen in retirement.
Speaker 1 (30:59):
If you could expect calamity, would it be calamity? Right?
Speaker 2 (31:04):
I think that that's so much. I mean, that's that's
an emergency fund. That is what savings is for. We
don't know what's going to happen in retirement. I think
it's good to plan for the worst while not dwelling
on the possibilities of the worst. But we won't be
so shocked by things if we have a contingency plan.
If we've thought about it and we've put some things
(31:25):
into action, it really reduces the feeling of something be
being a calamity. Yeah, so we can do this by
buying adequate health insurance, disability insurance, I mean car insurance.
I think you have to have car insurance to be
driving on the road most places. Okay, And these things
(31:45):
are really going to help, especially if we've got dependence,
being able to have life insurance set up, so these
things can help us and be prepared for those calamities.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Insurance is another one. We're not going to be able
to tell you how much or what to do because
it is so per person. This is where the five
years before you retire or you want to before you
want to start with drawing and retiring whatever feels good
to you. It is really useful to get a financial planner,
(32:20):
a certified financial planner that has the CFP designation, because
when you find a CFP, they're going to have a
fiduciary duty, which is a legal ethical responsibility to you,
not to the company they work for. Because you'll find
a lot of financial planners and financial advisors from insurance
(32:45):
agencies and their best interest is to sell you insurance policies,
as retirement policy, as retirement accounts. You're going to find
a lot of money managers working for investments that are
their best interests to sell you on a particular fund
of investments. You know, So you want somebody, especially in
(33:06):
the five years before you retire, who's really going to
be working in your best interest. You will pay them
for that. If you're getting advice for free, know that
you're paying for it in other ways. But you want
to pay for advice. And they're going to tell you
this is the type of insurance you need, because if
you're starting later in life with saving for retirement, you'll
(33:29):
probably need more insurance than somebody who is not. And
so that CFP is going to tell you kind of
how to hedge your bets in pre and post tax investing.
They're going to guide you on insurance. These are the
things where like wet emails about this and we're like,
we can't answer this for you. And even if I,
(33:50):
even if I had more information about you, I would
not answer this for you because I'm I don't hold
the CFP, I don't hold any you know, licenses to
do that. So take some savings, take some money, pay
for a certified financial planner to tell you what these
(34:13):
things are for you. The next one we can tell you,
we can give you all the advice on this one
is to pay down debt. And we're talking about high
interest debt, high interest car loans, high interest non mortgage debt.
These are the things you're going to want to focus on.
(34:35):
You may want to pay off your mortgage before retirement,
but if you have nothing invested, a paid off house
isn't going to buy you food and retirement. That's gonna
be money. So you're gonna need to really be careful
with how much debt you pay off, even though yeah,
you'd like to I'm sure be debt free in retirement
(34:56):
that would be a huge weightlifted. But if you have
nothing invest that may not be a wise dream. So
but paying down high interest at pretty much anything, I
would say definitely above ten percent, ideally above five if
you can do it, those are the things to focus.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
On, yesh. And lastly, I love this one. You and
your spouse come first, So this is a really helpful
thing because emotional emotions come away with spending, and especially
I think, yeah, so you have kids and grandkids. But
(35:40):
reality is, we don't want to ruin our retirement savings
and investing plan if that like, by sending kids to college.
I know this sounds like a really tough truth here,
but it would be better if you have to choose
between one or the other. Right Obviously, if you can
do both, fans fantastic. Keep contributing to your savings accounts
(36:03):
and send your kids to college. But at the end
of the day, it's going to be better for you
and your children if you continue to contribute to and
focus on your retirement savings plan then to send your
kids to college, because ultimately, if you trash your retirement
savings by not try, I mean, that's what the article says.
(36:24):
It's the word for their places. But if you kind
of interrupt, intersect that retirement savings plan, and maybe even
pull money out of it to give to your children,
that's then setting yourself up to not be in a
great place come retirement. It may put extra financial burden
onto the children to be paying for you in retirement
(36:47):
or somehow financially responsible for you. When your children have
more time to be able to say for themselves in retirement,
they've got the opportunity in their twenties and thirties to
be saving for that retirement. They've got the rest of
their lives ahead of them versus you, who might be
starting later in life, really need to be focusing on
(37:08):
that retirement versus giving all the money to the children.
Speaker 1 (37:11):
Yeah, here's a really easy way to make this decision.
Ask your teenager, or if your kids are older, just
ask them now if they, in their adult lives, would
rather you pay for their college now or if they
would rather take care of you part time to full
time in their home in yeah, in your later years,
(37:33):
ask them which one they would rather do, and you're
going to get the most honest answer from a teenager.
But I mean, that's really what it is. You're either
paying for their college now or they're going to spend
their time or money taking care of you later in life.
And so ask them what they want to do. Maybe
they do want to take care of you in your
(37:54):
older years, and in which case, cool factor that in.
But I think most the time they're going to say
I'll take out a student loan.
Speaker 2 (38:04):
The best gift you can give your children is your
own fine nancial or tie or men security.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
That's a line in the article that she just sang,
yeah like a jingle.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Yeah, it's a jingle. Now it's the best gift you
can give to your children.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
And I agree, Yeah, in their forties and fifties.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
Freedom As an adult child. I couldn't agree more absolutely.
Speaker 1 (38:30):
As an adult child who knows I will be a
caregiver in my forties fifties. Hi, we'll just leave that
out there.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
Wish you had received the best gift.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
I wish somebody had asked me focus.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
Teenager, giving that gift to your children. You know what
the best gift is that we can give to our listeners.
Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah, and I'm going to ask you as a teenager
or as a full grown adult, But I'm only going
to take your answer right now.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
The bill of the week.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
That's right, it's time for the best minute of your
entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name
is Williams. Maybe you paid off your mortgage, Maybe your
car died and you're happy to not have to pay
that bill anymore. That bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, This
is the bill of the week.
Speaker 3 (39:33):
Hi, Jen, love your podcast. So I actually have a
couple of bills of the week. One is the bill
for the remaining car payment on one of our vehicles,
as well as the balance for the birth center for
my son. We actually refinanced those and was able to
lower what was a ten percent APR and an eighteen
(39:56):
percent APR to just around eight percent. The second bill
is the remaining balance for the person. Our kids are expensive.
Love them to piece as though I've paid it on
our Chase credit card and they have the mid Chase plan,
so we're able to for a small fee, be able
(40:17):
to pay it over a portion of time versus leading
it out standing with the provider and having to incur
severe interest costs by having the balance just hanging out
on the credit card and actually a third bill anything
else that we have from a medical standpoint, I've contacted
the providers and asked that we get set up on
(40:38):
a payment plan, and I'm able to use my HSA,
so again, it's not something that we're having to incur
on our credit cards or anything like that. So a
lot of moving wheels, but feel really good about the
ways that we have to take care of those without
going into severe medical debt. So again, love you guys.
Speaker 1 (40:57):
Thanks, it's great. Lowering the interest rates eighteen is very
very high an eight. It's definitely more manageable. So that's
amazing and I hope everybody checks out. We have an
episode with doctor Vergie on negotiating medical bills. I will
(41:19):
find that episode tell you what it is.
Speaker 2 (41:21):
You are moving and shaken over there, which is awesome.
Congratulations on the birth of your child that is so exciting,
and the fact that you have a health savings account
you're able to utilize that. I think just what stands
out to me in your multiple bills is just kind
of knowing the resources that are available to you, implementing
(41:42):
utilizing them, and making some really wise decisions with your
finances to get rid of some of this debt, lowering
these interest rates really really awesome, and hoping with you
that all of these payments get paid off quickly. That'll
be a great feeling. Yes, you all listening, have a
bill that you want to submit, if it has to
(42:03):
do with moving and shake and given birth or just
out there being a bill being a person named Bill.
Visit Frugal friendspodcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill.
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Yes, and episode two thirty that's the one, or it
is Negotiating.
Speaker 2 (42:22):
Medical debt Episode two thirty. Check it out. That's a
great one. And now it's time for lightning round.
Speaker 1 (42:36):
Pew. All Right, so today, what is your biggest worry
about retirement? Jill.
Speaker 2 (42:46):
I've thought about this quite a bit, and I think
it comes from seeing what many people face in retirement,
and that is just unforeseen medical issues and concerns. I
guess I'm anticipating it, so maybe I'm kind of seeing
it but not knowing exactly what it would be or
(43:07):
look like. Some of that's unavoidable, but I think it's
leading to a lot of different potential decisions for me,
like the reality that retirement could mean caregiving. It could
mean me being chronically ill or facing some sort of
(43:31):
difficulty physically medically. That has a financial impact, but I
think also an emotional, mental, relational impact that holds concern
for me. I mean, I don't want to spend a
ton of time thinking about that or considering that, but
definitely preparing for it. I think in some ways it
makes me consider what are the things I want to
(43:51):
do in life now. I have seen a lot of
people hope for big travel, lots of excitement in their
retirement years, only to experience a different reality oftentimes that,
you know, no fault of their own, just life interrupts
(44:12):
and that's not possible anymore. So it definitely leads me
to think, how can I live life to the fullest
now while I maintain a level of health, but then
prepare for what that might look like in the future
as well, kind of holding the tension of both. I
don't want to you know, you only live once and
blow all my money now because I'm anticipating, you know,
(44:33):
not a great lifestyle in retirement, but kind of both,
how do I make sure that I am making the
most of the right now while preparing for what might
be to come, but yet optimistic about maybe having some
really beautiful golden years ahead of me. So, but I
would say that's that's a concern, you know, facing medical
(44:54):
issues I think is a concern and potentially a very
real reality. Yeah, what about for you?
Speaker 1 (45:00):
I mean, yeah, I mean I kind of you just
summed up our whole ethos is to like live for
today while being able to live in our golden years.
To hold the tension between both. And I think my
biggest worry, okay, vulnerability time. Yeah, here we are.
Speaker 2 (45:25):
Yeah, so the door is open.
Speaker 1 (45:28):
Yeah, I think we're saving, we're saving well, we're having
children that can drive us around when we're old. I
think just my greatest fear might be just, I don't know,
maybe doing it alone. Yeah, because all of my grandfather
died before I was born. My dad died when I
(45:49):
was in high school. So I think that seeing what
that did to my mom and my grandmother, I think
that's really my only like fear.
Speaker 3 (46:01):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (46:02):
Otherwise I feel like we've prepared really well.
Speaker 2 (46:06):
Right, And those are the things money can't buy.
Speaker 1 (46:10):
There enjoy the years that we have while hoping that
we get good years in the future. But we don't know.
Speaker 2 (46:17):
There's only so much we can do with finances. We
can face additional difficulties and stressors if we've not prepared financially.
But there are things that are going to happen in
life that have nothing to do with money. They can
be compounded and exaggerated by a lack of money. But yeah,
(46:38):
medical concerns, money can't solve that, Yeah, the medical debt,
money money solves. Yeah. Being doing retirement alone, it's not
something yeah, Yeah, I mean that's why you build community
and friends. If you're alone, Jenna, I'll still be here
I've got longevity on my side, and might will be
(46:59):
the old women, Yeah, will be the old women who
are roommates, just like living life together. Yeah, I'm down
for that. Okay, you won't be I will call you.
Speaker 1 (47:14):
The quote that Goldie pulled for this episode is every
little action counts, And it is so so true when
we are talking about investing long term, especially when we're
we're talking to regular people with regular incomes and not
affluent people with super high incomes. We need to be
(47:39):
focusing more on little, more frequent actions. So if maybe
you're just doing a little bit every paycheck and you
get paid every week or every two weeks, and you're
just putting a little bit from every paycheck in before
you spend for the rest of the month or week,
that is what that is. The most power that you
(48:02):
have is investing off the top. So, and we actually
have a financial Reset course. It's like a personal finance
one oh one course that we released earlier this year,
and the whole last section is on investing. So if
you feel clueless about investing, particularly for retirement, yeah, that's
(48:25):
oh the only thing we talked about investing for you
can have to frugal friends, podcast dot com, slash reset
and get that and you can also our favorite book
is I would say either Rich af by Vivian two
or I Will Teach You to Be Rich byramit SETI.
Both of those are really good for learning.
Speaker 2 (48:49):
So nice.
Speaker 1 (48:50):
But if you like videos Frugal Friends podcast dot com,
slash reset.
Speaker 2 (48:54):
Yeah, it doesn't have to be complicated. You just need
to start. Not let our lack of confidence get keep
us from fielding this for the entire moment.
Speaker 1 (49:02):
You can learn to invest. I think that's the first
thing we reiterate in our course is that you are
smart enough to do this and you don't need to
be that educated on investing to invest for retirement. That's
the beautiful thing that technology has progressed investing to make
(49:24):
it so accessible, so you don't need to know a lot.
It's helpful to know a little start today. Yes, yeah,
and that's all I have to say about that, besides
thank you so much for listening. We also have a
book where we mentioned investing, but we don't dive deep
(49:45):
into it. It's called Buy what you Love Without Going Broke.
It's about spending. So if your problem with investing is
that you never seem to have enough money left at
the end of your paycheck to invest. Buy what you
Love without going Broke is the book for you, and
you can get Buy what you Love book dot com.
We even have instructions there on how to request it
at your library. And Rachel read it and here's what
(50:10):
she had to say. Gave it five stars. I truly
loved reading this book. I got an Advanced reader copy
back in December and spent a few days reading it
over Christmas while taking lots of notes. From the opening introduction,
which on a personal note I loved as a teacher myself,
to the additional research notes at the end, I was
a very happy reader all throughout the book. The book
(50:33):
was divided into three major parts, so I'll just touch
on some highlights from each one. Part one I liked
the exploration of impulse spending. Part two I loved the
breakout of different levels of replacements for shopping and an
explanation of how habits form. However, my true favorite was
Part three. The call to simplify your Environment has me
(50:55):
thinking of how I could structure decluttering challenges in my
own life. The messages to learn about contentment and what
generational biases about money might be lurking. Was truly enlightening.
I love this book and I'll be buying another one
to share it with one of my friends because I'm
not letting go of my copy.
Speaker 2 (51:13):
This is amazing and it's so fun to hear because
actually our favorite chapters, both Jen and myself, are different,
but they're both in Part three. And that's funny because
statistically speaking, they say that most people don't make it
past like the first couple of chapters of a book.
And while those are good chapters, still our best chapters
(51:38):
are in part three. We needed to build upon it
in order to get there. They couldn't have been in
the beginning of the book.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
But a lot of books are good the first half
and pointless the second half, and I think ours flip
flops like it really does build it to a crescendo.
Speaker 2 (51:54):
Yeah, well, thank you so much for reading that book.
If you've read the book, please leave us a review
on that. If you haven't, get your copy by what
youlovebook dot com, and thanks for being here listening. If
you're enjoying the show, please leave us a rating and review.
That's a freeway to help us and help new listeners
find us, and of course find us on YouTube subscribe
(52:16):
to our channel. That's our biggest goal at this point,
to be honest with you, We would love to see
ten thousand subscribers by the end of this year, and
that's a big lift.
Speaker 1 (52:27):
But we have ten thousand people that listen to each
episode of Rugal Friends. So and it's not even the
same listeners. I'm sure you listening right now. You don't
listen to every single episode, right, so we have enough
to get there. Yeah, So we're just asking go over
to YouTube right now, hit subscribe and then go on
(52:49):
your way. Maybe leave a comment on the latest video,
and you tell us which books you thought had a
pointless second half, whether it be fiction or non fiction.
Speaker 2 (53:01):
Your comment on a video doesn't need to have anything
to do with no video itself. Well, we love that,
will understand.
Speaker 1 (53:07):
Yeah, So and tell me you like the way I talk,
please on any video.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
That's Jen speaking. Okay.
Speaker 1 (53:20):
Bye. Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
You got Fourth of July plans?
Speaker 1 (53:37):
No, not at current because it is still June.
Speaker 2 (53:42):
I mean you know the classic fourth of July plans, right, fireworks? Well?
Speaker 1 (53:49):
Oh, okay, you typically do at Josh's parents. Yeah, yeah,
I think probably we'll do that. That is what we've
done every year. And I always forget my bathing suit.
Speaker 2 (54:00):
Oh somehow every year.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I'd always know it's the same thing. And sometimes I
put I don't like to wear my bathing suit places.
I like to just wear my clothes and then change
when I'm ready, and I'll put it out and then
just shuffling everybody together, it gets left behind. Maybe this
(54:23):
is the year I just wear it.
Speaker 2 (54:25):
I think that's what you should do. They so our
friends of ours parents live on a waterway connected to
Tampa Bay, and every Fourth of July they let us
come crash their house and then there's always fireworks that
you can see from their home over the water, and
we all swim in the water up until after the
(54:50):
sun goes down, which is not safe. There are sharks
in this water right Like.
Speaker 1 (54:56):
I'm thinking about it too, Like I wouldn't be able
to get in the water even if I did bring
my bathing suit because I have two young kids that
I'm not gonna let go in that water.
Speaker 2 (55:05):
All of the other parents do have their children in
that kids are older, though not that much older than Kai.
Speaker 1 (55:13):
They're a little older than Kai, so they're like minimum, like.
Speaker 2 (55:16):
The four year old was in the water last year.
Speaker 1 (55:19):
Well, I can't comment on that, but.
Speaker 2 (55:22):
We always bring tubes and we're kind of like on
top of the tubes, right. Sharks don't attack you when
you're on a tube.
Speaker 3 (55:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
I think we all kind of feel comforted by our
numbers and who knows, just a full day in the
sun that we don't we just starn't thinking.
Speaker 1 (55:42):
But I don't think that they believe it's a feeding frenzy,
Like they just haven't come over there, and then they
see all your butts right in tubes and they're like, oh, yeah,
that's a lot of butts. I'm gonna get one of them.
Speaker 2 (55:56):
I'll go on dumb butts. This is the Maybe maybe
it will be my butt. Who knows, stay not your butt.
Speaker 1 (56:09):
Probably be my butt. You know what I get in
that water with my bathing suit. This is the first year,
and they don't get my butt.
Speaker 2 (56:16):
You don't have to be the fastest swimmer. You just
have to outswim the person behind you. However that saying goes,
it's usually about bears, but I'm gonna make it about sharks. Yeah,
I guess so that's what we'll do. We're gonna maybe
tempt the Sharks with our bums this fourth of July.
Speaker 1 (56:34):
Hope you have a fantastic fourth of July.
Speaker 2 (56:37):
Oh you're gonna be there in a swim our listeners.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, they're still here.
That's right, Okay,
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