Are you saving so much for retirement that it’s squeezing your life today? In this episode, we’re answering a smart viewer question about finding the right balance between preparing for the future and living fully in the present.
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Transcript:
Marc:
Are you saving so much for retirement that it's squeezing the life today out of you? And in this episode, we're going to answer an interesting question from a listener about the right balance between future savings and living in the moment. Am I saving too much for retirement? Let's find out this week here on Plan With The Tax Man.
Hey, everybody. Welcome into the podcast. Thanks for hanging out with Tony and myself as we talk, investing, finance and retirement. Of course, Tony is a CPA, CFP, and an EA of 30 plus years and the big kahuna over there at Tax Doctor Inc. And if you guys got questions and need some help, reach out to him at yourplanningpros.com before you take any action from something, from our podcast or any others, you always want to check with a qualified professional with the experience to help you get to and through retirement. And that is Tony. So yourplanningpros.com or 844-707-7381. Tony, my friend, is there such a thing as saving too much for retirement? And let's talk about it. How you doing?
Tony Mauro:
I'm doing good. It's post tax season and I figured this would be a good topic because we don't hear this that much, but it is possible to be doing too much of this.
Marc:
Okay.
Tony Mauro:
And normally we're always talking about saving more, saving more.
Marc:
Right. Yeah, yeah. That's why I thought it was kind of an interesting question. So here's the question from the listener. He says, "My wife and I bring in about $200,000 a year." Very nice. I'm assuming obviously that's combined, wife and I.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah.
Marc:
And he says, "We max out our two 401Ks and HSA, a 457B and still put some into brokerage accounts." Very cool. Right? He's doing a very good job.
Tony Mauro:
That's good.
Marc:
Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
Yeah.
Marc:
He said, "Yet I still feel like, honestly, sometimes we live paycheck to paycheck." Very interesting. "We also are not living in our dream home, just FYI, because I've prioritized retirement savings versus a bigger chunk down for a down payment or a mortgage or whatever. So my question is are we saving too much for retirement? I feel like it would be nice to live a little bit more in the moment." So that's the question, Tony. So, I mean, the first thing that jumps out to me is does this gentleman have a plan because... or is because we've been kind of beat up in the head to say save, save, save, like you just said a minute ago... Has he been doing all that without really truly knowing what his numbers look like?
Tony Mauro:
Exactly. And that's what comes to my mind, is if you're asking this question, obviously you must not have a plan other than-
Marc:
Save.
Tony Mauro:
... the only plan is I'm just saving, saving, saving.
Marc:
Right, right.
Tony Mauro:
And I think if we zoom out a little bit, the thing is, well, there's not a whole lot of risk for over-saving, but there can be some because you're feeling like you're feeling.
Marc:
Yeah.
Tony Mauro:
In other words, you feel like you're not living enough, you're making maybe too many sacrifices. And so it's not maybe a financial risk, but it's an emotional one for sure.
Marc:
Right. Okay. Yeah, yeah. That makes sense. Well, we've got this... and let me know what you think about this. So I guess the question for the listener would be how can you tell, right? Without coming in, sitting down with a qualified professional, obviously running the numbers. That's certainly going to be the easiest way to do it.
Tony Mauro:
Right.
Marc:
But how can you tell if you're ahead of schedule financially? What do you think about those online benchmarks and online things that you can use? Like we've got one from T. Rowe Price here. We'll throw a link into the show notes description this week if people want to go check that out for themselves. Just click on the link. But it gives you that... How much do you have from your salary going here and there and that kind of stuff. Do those things, are they helpful?
Tony Mauro:
I think they're helpful. I mean, if somebody's just asking me off the cuff, I
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