April 1, 2025 • 11 mins
How can you guarantee a fabulous retirement?
Retirement isn’t just about the dollars—it’s about designing a life of freedom, security, and fierce self-expression.
In this episode, we’re diving into nine essential money moves every LGBTQ person (especially fabulous folks over 45) should make to retire with confidence, not chaos.
Because let’s face it—only 35% of LGBTQ Americans over 45 feel financially ready for retirement. And we deserve better.
From ditching debt and dodging tax traps to building a “bitch, I’m fine” fund and finding your post-career purpose, we’re breaking down the strategies to help you retire with peace of mind and a little sparkle.
This episode is your mini masterclass in queer retirement prep—with just the right amount of sass, stats, and soul.
💅 Let’s make sure your golden years are as fabulous as you are.
Takeaways:
- ✨ Retirement isn’t just about money—it’s about freedom, security, and living life on your terms - You didn’t come this far to live a cookie-cutter life. Retirement should reflect you.
- 📉 Too many LGBTQ Americans are entering retirement feeling unsure and unprepared - Only 35% of us over 45 feel confident about our financial future. We’re here to change that.
- 💰 You need a “Bitch, I’m Fine” fund - That’s your emergency stash—12–24 months of expenses in cash to protect your peace and your portfolio.
- 🩺 Plan your healthcare before you need it - Don’t let surprise medical bills ruin your retirement glow-up. Get ahead of the game now.
- 🧾 Social Security isn’t just a check—it’s a strategy - The right timing can mean thousands more over your lifetime. Know your options, especially if you’re single or partnered without spousal benefits.
- 📂 Simplify, darling - Consolidating your retirement accounts makes managing your money easier and your future clearer. Less paperwork, more peace of mind.
Topics Covered:
- 00:01 - Understanding Retirement Beyond Finances
- 01:33 - Essential Money Moves for Retirement
- 04:41 - Understanding Retirement Finances
- 08:21 - Navigating Healthcare Options in Retirement
- 10:30 - Navigating Retirement: A New Beginning
Mentioned in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:16):
Want to retire?
Fabulous, honey.
Well, retirement isn't justabout money.
It's about freedom, security,and finally being able to live life
on your terms.
Unfortunately, though, onlyabout 35% of LGBTQ Americans over
the age of 45 say that theyfeel very confident about having
enough money in retirement.
(00:37):
So this is Queer Money,episode 584, and today I'm going
to share with you nineessential money moves that will help
you retire fabulously with allaspects of your life without a financial
hangover.
So let's dive in.
So the first one here is ditchthat debt drama or the potential
for it.
(00:57):
Carrying debt into retirementcan cause you to have a lot of stress
later on in retirement.
And the reason for this isbecause you're going to have to pull
more money out of yourretirement savings to pay down this
debt, whether that debt ishigh interest rate debt like credit
cards.
As a matter of fact, LGBTQAmericans on average have about 16%
(01:21):
more credit card debt than thegeneral population, or if it's other
debt like mortgage debt, thatthose kinds of debts will cause you
to have some financialpotential financial insecurity.
And that is not something youwant to carry into retirement.
So the first thing here is toprioritize paying down that debt,
(01:42):
especially that high interestrate debt on those credit cards,
because that will open up moreof your money for your budget later
on.
The second thing here is tobuild your Bitch I'm Fine fund.
Now, this is a fund thatbasically would cover anywhere from
about 12 to 24%, I'm sorry, 12to 24 months of your living expenses.
(02:04):
And you want to have thismoney either in cash if it's in your
retirement accounts, or in ahigh yield savings if it's non invested
money.
And the whole reason for thisis this will give you peace of mind.
It especially helps you whenyou see the market going up and down.
We know that right now a lotof people who are dealing with what
(02:27):
is going on in the marketbecause of what the Orange poop has
decided to do and all thethings that he is proposing is causing
the market to tumble.
A lot of people are feelinginsecure, especially individuals
who either just retired or, orlooking to withdraw money from their
retirement.
So this is an especiallyimportant thing for individuals who
(02:49):
don't have kids, for gaypeople in the queer community who
don't have children that wemay be able to fall back on in times
of need.
We don't have that familialsafety net.
The third thing here is tostart Holland, while you're still
Ballin'and.
Basically what that means isanytime you would need to make a
(03:12):
big expense in the firstcouple of years of retirement, try
to move those to a time periodwhere you're actually still earning
money before you retire.
Things like if you want to geta new car for the first five to 10
years of your retirement, orif you know that in the next couple
of years the roof on yourhouse might need to be replaced,
(03:32):
or say you want to have dentalwork done so your smile is more beautiful.
All of those kinds of thingsare things that may cause you to
spend a lot of money in retirement.
And it's a lot better to dothose kinds of things when you have
a source of income to pay forthem so that you don't have to dip
into your retirement savingsto pay for those kinds of things.
The fourth thing here is tostart budgeting like a boss.
(03:55):
And then you want to make sureyou take this for a test run.
So what this really means isat least six to 12 months prior to
retiring, you want to getreally comfortable with what you
think you would need to liveoff of when you're retiring in retirement.
The amount of money that youwould be able to to spend in retirement
(04:16):
on a monthly, quarterly, orannual basis.
Look at what that really looks like.
How does it feel to live onthat amount of money?
For some folks, to be honest,it might feel kind of scary.
They might find that they'rewhat they think that they will be
able to live off of inretirement is far less than what
they're actually able to.
(04:36):
So get used to understandinghow much money is coming in and where
it's going, when it goes, it'sgoing out.
And the whole reason for doingthis 6 to 12 months in advance is
because you want to give thattimeframe for you to get comfortable
and understanding and makingtweaks so that your budget isn't
something that ends up scaringyou in retirement.
(04:57):
The fifth thing is to slayyour Social Security strategy.
So this really focuses on whenit is the.
When is the best time for youto start taking Social Security.
For a lot of LGBTQ folks,especially gay men, we are not married
and we don't have children.
And for that reason, we don'thave that kind of financial support
(05:19):
for later years in our life.
So it's probably a good ideato think about maybe taking Social
Security a little bit later,pushing it more towards that 70 year
age to start taking ratherthan the 62 to 67 timeframe.
And remember that for everyyear that you delay Taking Social
Security after 67, you'regoing to see an 8% increase in the
(05:44):
payout.
So this is really a great wayfor you to kind of extend the amount
of money and increase theamount of money you're going to have
in those later years.
It's also really good to do ifyou have already some sort of foundational
base that you're going to bedrawing from when you're in retirement.
And you don't necessarily needto take Social Security.
(06:05):
So this is looking at your savings.
The sixth thing here is tomake Uncle Sam work for you rather
than taking from you.
And this is all around taxstrategy, right?
This is really when it'sreally important to think about,
okay, do I have a Roth account?
What about my 401k accounts?
What about when is the besttime or when is the bet?
Where is the best for moneyfor me to pull from so that I can
(06:28):
reduce the amount of money Ihave to pay in taxes?
Especially for those of youwho may be thinking about Roth conversions,
and that is moving from moneyfrom a 401k that is not a Roth over
to a Roth or a Roth retirement account.
Doing that is a taxable eventand you'll have to pay the taxes
on that.
But then once it's in theRoth, you don't have to take that
(06:52):
money out if you don't want to.
And you also can take it outwithout having to pay taxes, because
you paid the taxes when youdid the conversion.
So get really comfortable withthis idea of learning how to manage
your money for tax efficiencyso that you pay less in taxes, which
can extend the time that youhave with the money you have in retirement.
(07:15):
This is something that'sprobably really important to talk
to a financial advisor or afinancial planner about.
There are some really smarttax strategies.
So if you do have a sizableamount of money for in retirement,
work with a financial plannerwho can help understand or help you
understand when is the besttime to pull this money out.
(07:36):
The seventh thing here is tobecome your consolidation queen.
Now, what this reallybasically means is gather all those
retirement accounts and bringthem into one manageable or too manageable
places for a lot of folks.
We hopped around in ourcareers and we may have a 401k at
this company and a 401k atthat company.
(07:57):
Or we have maybe they it wasrolled over into a brokerage account
at one institution and thisrolled over into a brokerage account
at another institution.
So when you have all of yourinformation in front of you in as
few places as possible.
It's really easy to get abetter picture as to what you have,
what your options are.
(08:18):
The other thing is that thiscan really be helpful because it
helps you understand whatoptions you have.
If you have a Roth, if youhave a pension, if you have a 401k,
if you have a 403b, what arethe rules?
What are the requirements?
What are the options you havefor drawing on all of those?
The eighth thing here is todon't let your health care become
(08:41):
a horror story.
If you plan on retiring before65, you will need to come up with
some sort of healthcare onyour own.
So things like the AffordableCare Marketplace or COBRA are options
for you.
Look at what is going to bemost cost effective for you, depending
(09:01):
on your age and where you'reat in retirement.
And then remember, as youapproach the age of 65, you're going
to want to start to shoparound for things like Medicaid and
Medicare.
There's Medigap and Medicare Advantage.
Both of those allow you tokind of close the gap between what
you're going to get from thegovernment, which looks like it might
(09:22):
be shrinking right now basedon what's happening with those and
what it is that you truly needfor your health care.
And we know that this is a bigissue for LGBTQ folks.
Health care is a veryimportant one.
One of the things to rememberhere is that a lot of LGBTQ centers,
especially the larger ones,have resources to help you navigate
(09:44):
Medicare.
So take a look at those.
And our last final thing hereis to retire with to something rather
than from something.
And really the idea here is ifyou don't know what you want to do
in retirement, you're likelyto spend more money than you actually
have or have set aside.
And that is because we kind ofwander around aimlessly.
(10:07):
We know that when we're bored,we say, okay, I'm going to go out
to eat or I'm going to go dothis form of entertainment.
If you have a plan forhobbies, maybe part time work, volunteering,
all of those kinds of creativeand fun things to do.
If you have a plan you canactually look at which ones of these
can I do that allow me to stayin line with my budget.
(10:30):
And that really allows you tosay, I'm not just quitting a job,
quitting my career, I'mactually moving on to something much
more exciting.
So in closing, don't think ofretirement as a finish line.
Think of it as your launch pad.
If you're a gay person who'sover the age of 45.
(10:50):
Right now is a reallyimportant time to start understanding
and navigating the systemsthat will help you retire more fabulously.
And that's why it's importantto take these matters into your own
hands.
Things like paying down yourdebt, paying for those big expenses
in advance, making sure yourmoney is prepared in a way that you
can take advantage of taxadvantage opportunities, as well
(11:14):
as ways to pay less taxes andextend the amount of money that you
have invested so it can groweven more.
So tell us in the commentshere, what are some of your big goals
from retirement?
What do you really want to do?
I know for John and me, it'sall about the freedom, things like
travel, being able to spendtime volunteering in the way that
(11:34):
we want.
So I'd love to hear from youwhat your thoughts are.
And remember, stay fabulous.
Want to retire?
Fabulous, honey.
Well, retirement isn't justabout money.
It's about freedom, security,and finally being able to live life
on your terms.
Unfortunately, though, onlyabout 35% of LGBTQ Americans over
the age of 45 say that theyfeel very confident about having
enough money in retirement.
(00:37):
So this is Queer Money,episode 584, and today I'm going
to share with you nineessential money moves that will help
you retire fabulously with allaspects of your life without a financial
hangover.
So let's dive in.
So the first one here is ditchthat debt drama or the potential
for it.
(00:57):
Carrying debt into retirementcan cause you to have a lot of stress
later on in retirement.
And the reason for this isbecause you're going to have to pull
more money out of yourretirement savings to pay down this
debt, whether that debt ishigh interest rate debt like credit
cards.
As a matter of fact, LGBTQAmericans on average have about 16%
(01:21):
more credit card debt than thegeneral population, or if it's other
debt like mortgage debt, thatthose kinds of debts will cause you
to have some financialpotential financial insecurity.
And that is not something youwant to carry into retirement.
So the first thing here is toprioritize paying down that debt,
(01:42):
especially that high interestrate debt on those credit cards,
because that will open up moreof your money for your budget later
on.
The second thing here is tobuild your Bitch I'm Fine fund.
Now, this is a fund thatbasically would cover anywhere from
about 12 to 24%, I'm sorry, 12to 24 months of your living expenses.
(02:04):
And you want to have thismoney either in cash if it's in your
retirement accounts, or in ahigh yield savings if it's non invested
money.
And the whole reason for thisis this will give you peace of mind.
It especially helps you whenyou see the market going up and down.
We know that right now a lotof people who are dealing with what
(02:27):
is going on in the marketbecause of what the Orange poop has
decided to do and all thethings that he is proposing is causing
the market to tumble.
A lot of people are feelinginsecure, especially individuals
who either just retired or, orlooking to withdraw money from their
retirement.
So this is an especiallyimportant thing for individuals who
(02:49):
don't have kids, for gaypeople in the queer community who
don't have children that wemay be able to fall back on in times
of need.
We don't have that familialsafety net.
The third thing here is tostart Holland, while you're still
Ballin'and.
Basically what that means isanytime you would need to make a
(03:12):
big expense in the firstcouple of years of retirement, try
to move those to a time periodwhere you're actually still earning
money before you retire.
Things like if you want to geta new car for the first five to 10
years of your retirement, orif you know that in the next couple
of years the roof on yourhouse might need to be replaced,
(03:32):
or say you want to have dentalwork done so your smile is more beautiful.
All of those kinds of thingsare things that may cause you to
spend a lot of money in retirement.
And it's a lot better to dothose kinds of things when you have
a source of income to pay forthem so that you don't have to dip
into your retirement savingsto pay for those kinds of things.
The fourth thing here is tostart budgeting like a boss.
(03:55):
And then you want to make sureyou take this for a test run.
So what this really means isat least six to 12 months prior to
retiring, you want to getreally comfortable with what you
think you would need to liveoff of when you're retiring in retirement.
The amount of money that youwould be able to to spend in retirement
(04:16):
on a monthly, quarterly, orannual basis.
Look at what that really looks like.
How does it feel to live onthat amount of money?
For some folks, to be honest,it might feel kind of scary.
They might find that they'rewhat they think that they will be
able to live off of inretirement is far less than what
they're actually able to.
(04:36):
So get used to understandinghow much money is coming in and where
it's going, when it goes, it'sgoing out.
And the whole reason for doingthis 6 to 12 months in advance is
because you want to give thattimeframe for you to get comfortable
and understanding and makingtweaks so that your budget isn't
something that ends up scaringyou in retirement.
(04:57):
The fifth thing is to slayyour Social Security strategy.
So this really focuses on whenit is the.
When is the best time for youto start taking Social Security.
For a lot of LGBTQ folks,especially gay men, we are not married
and we don't have children.
And for that reason, we don'thave that kind of financial support
(05:19):
for later years in our life.
So it's probably a good ideato think about maybe taking Social
Security a little bit later,pushing it more towards that 70 year
age to start taking ratherthan the 62 to 67 timeframe.
And remember that for everyyear that you delay Taking Social
Security after 67, you'regoing to see an 8% increase in the
(05:44):
payout.
So this is really a great wayfor you to kind of extend the amount
of money and increase theamount of money you're going to have
in those later years.
It's also really good to do ifyou have already some sort of foundational
base that you're going to bedrawing from when you're in retirement.
And you don't necessarily needto take Social Security.
(06:05):
So this is looking at your savings.
The sixth thing here is tomake Uncle Sam work for you rather
than taking from you.
And this is all around taxstrategy, right?
This is really when it'sreally important to think about,
okay, do I have a Roth account?
What about my 401k accounts?
What about when is the besttime or when is the bet?
Where is the best for moneyfor me to pull from so that I can
(06:28):
reduce the amount of money Ihave to pay in taxes?
Especially for those of youwho may be thinking about Roth conversions,
and that is moving from moneyfrom a 401k that is not a Roth over
to a Roth or a Roth retirement account.
Doing that is a taxable eventand you'll have to pay the taxes
on that.
But then once it's in theRoth, you don't have to take that
(06:52):
money out if you don't want to.
And you also can take it outwithout having to pay taxes, because
you paid the taxes when youdid the conversion.
So get really comfortable withthis idea of learning how to manage
your money for tax efficiencyso that you pay less in taxes, which
can extend the time that youhave with the money you have in retirement.
(07:15):
This is something that'sprobably really important to talk
to a financial advisor or afinancial planner about.
There are some really smarttax strategies.
So if you do have a sizableamount of money for in retirement,
work with a financial plannerwho can help understand or help you
understand when is the besttime to pull this money out.
(07:36):
The seventh thing here is tobecome your consolidation queen.
Now, what this reallybasically means is gather all those
retirement accounts and bringthem into one manageable or too manageable
places for a lot of folks.
We hopped around in ourcareers and we may have a 401k at
this company and a 401k atthat company.
(07:57):
Or we have maybe they it wasrolled over into a brokerage account
at one institution and thisrolled over into a brokerage account
at another institution.
So when you have all of yourinformation in front of you in as
few places as possible.
It's really easy to get abetter picture as to what you have,
what your options are.
(08:18):
The other thing is that thiscan really be helpful because it
helps you understand whatoptions you have.
If you have a Roth, if youhave a pension, if you have a 401k,
if you have a 403b, what arethe rules?
What are the requirements?
What are the options you havefor drawing on all of those?
The eighth thing here is todon't let your health care become
(08:41):
a horror story.
If you plan on retiring before65, you will need to come up with
some sort of healthcare onyour own.
So things like the AffordableCare Marketplace or COBRA are options
for you.
Look at what is going to bemost cost effective for you, depending
(09:01):
on your age and where you'reat in retirement.
And then remember, as youapproach the age of 65, you're going
to want to start to shoparound for things like Medicaid and
Medicare.
There's Medigap and Medicare Advantage.
Both of those allow you tokind of close the gap between what
you're going to get from thegovernment, which looks like it might
(09:22):
be shrinking right now basedon what's happening with those and
what it is that you truly needfor your health care.
And we know that this is a bigissue for LGBTQ folks.
Health care is a veryimportant one.
One of the things to rememberhere is that a lot of LGBTQ centers,
especially the larger ones,have resources to help you navigate
(09:44):
Medicare.
So take a look at those.
And our last final thing hereis to retire with to something rather
than from something.
And really the idea here is ifyou don't know what you want to do
in retirement, you're likelyto spend more money than you actually
have or have set aside.
And that is because we kind ofwander around aimlessly.
(10:07):
We know that when we're bored,we say, okay, I'm going to go out
to eat or I'm going to go dothis form of entertainment.
If you have a plan forhobbies, maybe part time work, volunteering,
all of those kinds of creativeand fun things to do.
If you have a plan you canactually look at which ones of these
can I do that allow me to stayin line with my budget.
(10:30):
And that really allows you tosay, I'm not just quitting a job,
quitting my career, I'mactually moving on to something much
more exciting.
So in closing, don't think ofretirement as a finish line.
Think of it as your launch pad.
If you're a gay person who'sover the age of 45.
(10:50):
Right now is a reallyimportant time to start understanding
and navigating the systemsthat will help you retire more fabulously.
And that's why it's importantto take these matters into your own
hands.
Things like paying down yourdebt, paying for those big expenses
in advance, making sure yourmoney is prepared in a way that you
can take advantage of taxadvantage opportunities, as well
(11:14):
as ways to pay less taxes andextend the amount of money that you
have invested so it can groweven more.
So tell us in the commentshere, what are some of your big goals
from retirement?
What do you really want to do?
I know for John and me, it'sall about the freedom, things like
travel, being able to spendtime volunteering in the way that
(11:34):
we want.
So I'd love to hear from youwhat your thoughts are.
And remember, stay fabulous.
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