November 25, 2025 • 11 mins
In this episode I share a real-life example of how a couple with $1.4 million was feeling crushed by cash flow but found relief with a 5% contribution change and a focused debt reduction. Small, smart tweaks restored breathing room, protected retirement, and funded key home repairs without new loans.
• How saving more can add stress when cash flow is tight
• A small 5% 401(k) reduction created real breathing room
• Setting up a debt snowball for quick wins
• Rolling freed cash into essential projects
• Preserving long-term retirement while easing today’s pressure
• The right time to restore higher contributions
🗓️ Meet with me: https://paradigmwealthpartners.com/begin-your-journey/#calendly
↔️ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jbednarii/
🌐 Paradigm Wealth Partners (website) – Financial planning for career professionals who want to retire and stay retired: https://paradigmwealthpartners.com/
🌐 What the Wealth (website) – Adding clarity to difficult financial topics: https://whatthewealth.com/
▶️ YouTube: Paradigm Wealth Partners
If you or someone you care about could use the help of a financial advisor and sees the value in establishing a financial plan, please reach out to me.
Thanks for Listening!
Jonathan
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Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (00:03):
How a 5% adjustment can transform your retirement.
A real case study from thisweek.
Most people think the solutionis save more for retirement.
But for some families, savingmore is actually what's causing
additional stress.
And today I'm going to walk youthrough a real case study of a
couple in the early 50s thathave$1.4 million saved and
(00:27):
they're still feelingoverwhelmed every month.
Let's break down what we changedand why it's going to completely
transform their life.
Welcome back to the What theWealth Retirement podcast.
I'm your host, Jonathan Bedner,certified financial planners,
helping retirees and familiesgain clarity, confidence, and
peace of mind around theirmoney.
And today I want to share thisreal case study from a couple I
(00:51):
met with this week.
Again, the early 50s with about$1.4 million saved, doing all
the right things, but feelingincredibly stressed.
And the reason is because cashflow, not because of lack of
money, not because of lack ofsaving, but simply the pressure
of trying to do too much atonce.
So their situation, their early50s, um, they're saving 15% into
(01:16):
their 401ks at work.
They both have great jobs, goodincome, and they've amassed$1.4
million saved in retirement.
So this is great.
They're in a great positionstrategically for retirement.
And on paper, those things lookreally strong.
But the reality behind thosenumbers is a little bit more
detail than I'm going to provideyou.
(01:36):
So they bought their dream househere on the lake in East
Tennessee a few years ago.
They've relocated from anotherstate.
You know, if you've everremodeled a home, you know that
one project turns into five, andpretty soon the whole house
feels like it needs to be uhrebuilt.
Uh that's a little bit how thissituation has gone.
(01:59):
They've already redone almosteverything.
There's three major projectsthat have to be completed.
There's a$50,000 concrete jobthat needs to be done.
They already have a quote onthat for that$50,000.
They need a new roof, and thenthey need new exterior siding.
And these are not small cosmeticfixes, obviously.
They're they're big, they'restressful, they cost a lot of
(02:21):
money, but they need to be done.
The house was in in rough shape,and these projects need to be
done so that we can get them outof the reconstruction phase that
they've been in the last threeto four years and move them into
a phase of enjoying the simplepleasures of life, enjoying
their home on the lake, theirpontoon rides, uh, the things
(02:44):
that they bought the house for.
So, what's adding to thepressure is they owe$13,000 on a
pontoon.
Their son is now driving, and sothey purchased him a car for
$15,000, and they uh also boughta new car a couple years ago.
So they owe$40,000 on a Tahoe.
So, together, between the thesmall debt and these big home
(03:08):
projects, they have is kind of aperfect storm.
They have high savings.
I wouldn't say high debt, theyhave some some moderate debt,
but it feels really mountingwith the with the home projects
together.
And so they're in a cash flowcrunch and they're exhausted.
They're just emotionally andmentally exhausted with what do
(03:28):
we do?
So when we met this week in theoffice, we had uh a long
conversation, and they kind ofthe thing that they said to me
that stuck out was, we we feellike we're doing everything
right, but it just feelsstressful.
And that's what happens withmany families we work with.
They're there it's not thatthey're irresponsible, it's not
(03:50):
that they're really living abovetheir means, it's not that
they're overspending on you knowtoo many pumpkin spice lattes or
you know, trivial things.
It's just life and things havepiled up and you know these
extra obligations, and and it'sit's normal.
We all have these circumstances.
And so it's it's easy foremotionally to kind of get
(04:10):
bogged down and just wonder, youknow, what's happening.
So what we decided to do is kindof pull back the curtains and
and kind of reassess how we cancome back and and create a plan,
not the big are you on track toretire plan, but in the weeds,
X's and O's, what can we do tokind of get out of this over the
next little bit?
And so the good news is theydon't have to overhaul their
(04:34):
life, they don't need to sellthe house, they don't need to
panic, they just need to free upsome cash flow.
So we made one strategicadjustment.
Instead of contributing 15% tothe 41K, let's reduce the 401k
contributions down to 10.
And here's why.
Because you've already amassed$1.4 million saved, they're
(04:55):
still gonna be contributing 10%of their salary, so they're
still gonna be contributing anice little nest egg.
They don't plan to retire for 10or 12 more years.
So with their additional savingsof 10% plus what they've already
saved, they're still gonna havea really, really nice nest egg
coming over the next couple ofyears.
And this small tweak over thenext 12 to 18 months are about
(05:18):
reducing stress, not maximizingcontribution.
So this 5% shift createsmeaningful breathing room for
them today, and then you know,24, 36 months, whatever it
takes, we can readjust and goback to 15% if they want.
Reality is we'll probably sitdown at that time and then
determine, okay, where do we gofrom here?
(05:39):
But what we again, what wewanted to do was create this
shift to give them a little bitof breathing room and some
direction on how do we just kindof move forward and get out of
this stuck.
So from there, what we did waswe talked about um the debt
snowball.
I'm a big Dave Ramsey debtsnowball fan, and I think this
(06:00):
is perfect.
So what we've decided to do isonce we reduce the 5% shift from
1k, we go from 15% down to 10%,we take that additional 5%,
which is gonna work out to be umabout an additional$500
paycheck.
It's gonna be a nice little uh anice little contribution into
(06:25):
their cash flow.
We're gonna apply that to thethe payment.
And what we're gonna do is we'regonna line these up from
smallest debt to largest.
Pontoon at$13,000, Sun's car at$15,000, Tahoe at$40,000.
Those are the three debts we'retrying to chip away.
We're gonna add the extra$500 tothe pontoon, along with the
(06:48):
additional payment you'realready paying for the pontoon,
and we are going to not get thatknocked out over the next six or
eight months.
In the meantime, we're stillmaking the minimum payment on
the Sun's car and the Tahoe.
Once the pontoon is paid for,we're gonna take that money and
apply the pontoon payment plusthe$500 plus the son's car
(07:10):
payment together to get theson's car paid for.
So we're adding even more moneytowards that.
Once the sun's car is paid for,we take all the money we've
allocated to the pontoon, thepontoon payment, the extra$500,
the son's car payment, throwthat also at the Tahoe payment,
and this quickly gets paid off,probably over the next 18 months
(07:32):
or so, plus or minus.
And and we do the debt snowballbecause we want these quick
wins.
The momentum builds, and thatmomentum matters, and so that
creates the the drive tocontinue pushing on and getting
these paid down.
So with these three debts gone,we have cash flow back into our
pocket, probably a thousanddollars or more by the time we
(07:55):
count you know, the three ofthese debts together.
That's huge.
An additional thousand dollarsthat gives them more clarity,
less pressure, you know, reducesthe emotional burden.
They're probably sleepingbetter.
There's lots of benefits here.
And then the magic part is oncethe debt is gone, we pivot that
(08:16):
same payment stream forward andapply it to the home remodel.
So now we start attacking theconcrete job, the roof, the
siding.
There are places we could pullsome money from, but we don't
really want to try to pull anymoney if we don't have to.
So what we're gonna do is justcontinue applying that cash flow
(08:38):
to getting some of theseprojects done and without
necessarily having to take on umnew loans.
So this is kind of a real-worldstrategy on how we're how we're
making small tweaks to yourplan.
They don't have to derail theplan, they don't have to assume
that you're not successfulbecause you make these tweaks.
(08:59):
This is part of how we provideadvice and guidance to people
who just feel stuck.
They don't know where to go,they don't know who to turn to,
they don't know what to do,they're just kind of stuck in
their own head.
And so, you know, I guess what Iwould say is they didn't move to
the water, to the lake to enjoythose beautiful sunsets on the
pontoon ride to be stressed.
They moved there to creatememories.
(09:20):
And what we want to do is enableand help those memories come to
fruition.
And so once we clean up thisdebt, add the cash flow back in,
they're gonna be in a really,really nice situation where they
can do that without sacrificingtheir long-term retirement
objectives.
So if you are listening andyou're saving and cash flow
(09:41):
feels tight and you're not surewhat to do, retirement, you
know, what I want you toremember is retirement planning
isn't just about the future,it's also about you know
reducing stress today andenjoying the ride and and you
know, smelling the fresh air andlooking out the windows and and
and just kind of enjoying theprocess, not so much the
destination.
The destination's important, butenjoy the ride.
(10:03):
And sometimes these smalladjustments like shifting how
much you save and how youallocate your cash flow can make
a huge difference.
If you're not sure, you'restuck, you're overwhelmed.
Let's talk.
You can schedule that freeconsultation over at
paradigmwealthpartners.com.
If you're not a client, ifyou're already a client, you can
go to the same place,paradigmwealthpartners.com, and
(10:26):
schedule a time to meet with us.
You can email our staff, have atime scheduled to meet with you
to review your plan and how wecan help kind of get you over
those humps that come upseemingly out of nowhere.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the podcast,
please do so.
And until next time, take a deepbreath.
You're closer to clarity thanyou think.
(10:47):
Be confident in your retirement,have a wonderful day.
Thanks for joining me on anotherepisode of What the Wealth.
If you enjoyed the episodetoday, smash that subscribe
button.
It helps me more than you think.
Also, if you found this episodeinsightful and a light bulb went
off, share it.
Your friend, Aunt Judy, therandom guy in the office who's
always talking about investment.
(11:08):
Wealth isn't about just the chipchain.
It's about our choices, chances,and changing our financial
features.
The information in this podcastis informational and general in
nature and does not take intoconsideration the listener's
personal circumstances.
This podcast is not intended tobe a substitute for specific in
financial, legal, or tax advice.
You should consult the approvedqualified professional prior to
(11:31):
making a final decision.
Security is offered through LPLFinancial, member FINRA SIPC.
Paradigm Wealth Partners is theother business name for
Independent Advisor Alliance.
Investment Advice offeredthrough Independent Advisor
Alliance, a registeredinvestment advisor, Independent
Advisor Alliance, and ParadigmWealth Partners are separate
entities from LPL Financial.
How a 5% adjustment can transform your retirement.
A real case study from thisweek.
Most people think the solutionis save more for retirement.
But for some families, savingmore is actually what's causing
additional stress.
And today I'm going to walk youthrough a real case study of a
couple in the early 50s thathave$1.4 million saved and
(00:27):
they're still feelingoverwhelmed every month.
Let's break down what we changedand why it's going to completely
transform their life.
Welcome back to the What theWealth Retirement podcast.
I'm your host, Jonathan Bedner,certified financial planners,
helping retirees and familiesgain clarity, confidence, and
peace of mind around theirmoney.
And today I want to share thisreal case study from a couple I
(00:51):
met with this week.
Again, the early 50s with about$1.4 million saved, doing all
the right things, but feelingincredibly stressed.
And the reason is because cashflow, not because of lack of
money, not because of lack ofsaving, but simply the pressure
of trying to do too much atonce.
So their situation, their early50s, um, they're saving 15% into
(01:16):
their 401ks at work.
They both have great jobs, goodincome, and they've amassed$1.4
million saved in retirement.
So this is great.
They're in a great positionstrategically for retirement.
And on paper, those things lookreally strong.
But the reality behind thosenumbers is a little bit more
detail than I'm going to provideyou.
(01:36):
So they bought their dream househere on the lake in East
Tennessee a few years ago.
They've relocated from anotherstate.
You know, if you've everremodeled a home, you know that
one project turns into five, andpretty soon the whole house
feels like it needs to be uhrebuilt.
Uh that's a little bit how thissituation has gone.
(01:59):
They've already redone almosteverything.
There's three major projectsthat have to be completed.
There's a$50,000 concrete jobthat needs to be done.
They already have a quote onthat for that$50,000.
They need a new roof, and thenthey need new exterior siding.
And these are not small cosmeticfixes, obviously.
They're they're big, they'restressful, they cost a lot of
(02:21):
money, but they need to be done.
The house was in in rough shape,and these projects need to be
done so that we can get them outof the reconstruction phase that
they've been in the last threeto four years and move them into
a phase of enjoying the simplepleasures of life, enjoying
their home on the lake, theirpontoon rides, uh, the things
(02:44):
that they bought the house for.
So, what's adding to thepressure is they owe$13,000 on a
pontoon.
Their son is now driving, and sothey purchased him a car for
$15,000, and they uh also boughta new car a couple years ago.
So they owe$40,000 on a Tahoe.
So, together, between the thesmall debt and these big home
(03:08):
projects, they have is kind of aperfect storm.
They have high savings.
I wouldn't say high debt, theyhave some some moderate debt,
but it feels really mountingwith the with the home projects
together.
And so they're in a cash flowcrunch and they're exhausted.
They're just emotionally andmentally exhausted with what do
(03:28):
we do?
So when we met this week in theoffice, we had uh a long
conversation, and they kind ofthe thing that they said to me
that stuck out was, we we feellike we're doing everything
right, but it just feelsstressful.
And that's what happens withmany families we work with.
They're there it's not thatthey're irresponsible, it's not
(03:50):
that they're really living abovetheir means, it's not that
they're overspending on you knowtoo many pumpkin spice lattes or
you know, trivial things.
It's just life and things havepiled up and you know these
extra obligations, and and it'sit's normal.
We all have these circumstances.
And so it's it's easy foremotionally to kind of get
(04:10):
bogged down and just wonder, youknow, what's happening.
So what we decided to do is kindof pull back the curtains and
and kind of reassess how we cancome back and and create a plan,
not the big are you on track toretire plan, but in the weeds,
X's and O's, what can we do tokind of get out of this over the
next little bit?
And so the good news is theydon't have to overhaul their
(04:34):
life, they don't need to sellthe house, they don't need to
panic, they just need to free upsome cash flow.
So we made one strategicadjustment.
Instead of contributing 15% tothe 41K, let's reduce the 401k
contributions down to 10.
And here's why.
Because you've already amassed$1.4 million saved, they're
(04:55):
still gonna be contributing 10%of their salary, so they're
still gonna be contributing anice little nest egg.
They don't plan to retire for 10or 12 more years.
So with their additional savingsof 10% plus what they've already
saved, they're still gonna havea really, really nice nest egg
coming over the next couple ofyears.
And this small tweak over thenext 12 to 18 months are about
(05:18):
reducing stress, not maximizingcontribution.
So this 5% shift createsmeaningful breathing room for
them today, and then you know,24, 36 months, whatever it
takes, we can readjust and goback to 15% if they want.
Reality is we'll probably sitdown at that time and then
determine, okay, where do we gofrom here?
(05:39):
But what we again, what wewanted to do was create this
shift to give them a little bitof breathing room and some
direction on how do we just kindof move forward and get out of
this stuck.
So from there, what we did waswe talked about um the debt
snowball.
I'm a big Dave Ramsey debtsnowball fan, and I think this
(06:00):
is perfect.
So what we've decided to do isonce we reduce the 5% shift from
1k, we go from 15% down to 10%,we take that additional 5%,
which is gonna work out to be umabout an additional$500
paycheck.
It's gonna be a nice little uh anice little contribution into
(06:25):
their cash flow.
We're gonna apply that to thethe payment.
And what we're gonna do is we'regonna line these up from
smallest debt to largest.
Pontoon at$13,000, Sun's car at$15,000, Tahoe at$40,000.
Those are the three debts we'retrying to chip away.
We're gonna add the extra$500 tothe pontoon, along with the
(06:48):
additional payment you'realready paying for the pontoon,
and we are going to not get thatknocked out over the next six or
eight months.
In the meantime, we're stillmaking the minimum payment on
the Sun's car and the Tahoe.
Once the pontoon is paid for,we're gonna take that money and
apply the pontoon payment plusthe$500 plus the son's car
(07:10):
payment together to get theson's car paid for.
So we're adding even more moneytowards that.
Once the sun's car is paid for,we take all the money we've
allocated to the pontoon, thepontoon payment, the extra$500,
the son's car payment, throwthat also at the Tahoe payment,
and this quickly gets paid off,probably over the next 18 months
(07:32):
or so, plus or minus.
And and we do the debt snowballbecause we want these quick
wins.
The momentum builds, and thatmomentum matters, and so that
creates the the drive tocontinue pushing on and getting
these paid down.
So with these three debts gone,we have cash flow back into our
pocket, probably a thousanddollars or more by the time we
(07:55):
count you know, the three ofthese debts together.
That's huge.
An additional thousand dollarsthat gives them more clarity,
less pressure, you know, reducesthe emotional burden.
They're probably sleepingbetter.
There's lots of benefits here.
And then the magic part is oncethe debt is gone, we pivot that
(08:16):
same payment stream forward andapply it to the home remodel.
So now we start attacking theconcrete job, the roof, the
siding.
There are places we could pullsome money from, but we don't
really want to try to pull anymoney if we don't have to.
So what we're gonna do is justcontinue applying that cash flow
(08:38):
to getting some of theseprojects done and without
necessarily having to take on umnew loans.
So this is kind of a real-worldstrategy on how we're how we're
making small tweaks to yourplan.
They don't have to derail theplan, they don't have to assume
that you're not successfulbecause you make these tweaks.
(08:59):
This is part of how we provideadvice and guidance to people
who just feel stuck.
They don't know where to go,they don't know who to turn to,
they don't know what to do,they're just kind of stuck in
their own head.
And so, you know, I guess what Iwould say is they didn't move to
the water, to the lake to enjoythose beautiful sunsets on the
pontoon ride to be stressed.
They moved there to creatememories.
(09:20):
And what we want to do is enableand help those memories come to
fruition.
And so once we clean up thisdebt, add the cash flow back in,
they're gonna be in a really,really nice situation where they
can do that without sacrificingtheir long-term retirement
objectives.
So if you are listening andyou're saving and cash flow
(09:41):
feels tight and you're not surewhat to do, retirement, you
know, what I want you toremember is retirement planning
isn't just about the future,it's also about you know
reducing stress today andenjoying the ride and and you
know, smelling the fresh air andlooking out the windows and and
and just kind of enjoying theprocess, not so much the
destination.
The destination's important, butenjoy the ride.
(10:03):
And sometimes these smalladjustments like shifting how
much you save and how youallocate your cash flow can make
a huge difference.
If you're not sure, you'restuck, you're overwhelmed.
Let's talk.
You can schedule that freeconsultation over at
paradigmwealthpartners.com.
If you're not a client, ifyou're already a client, you can
go to the same place,paradigmwealthpartners.com, and
(10:26):
schedule a time to meet with us.
You can email our staff, have atime scheduled to meet with you
to review your plan and how wecan help kind of get you over
those humps that come upseemingly out of nowhere.
Thanks for listening.
If you haven't alreadysubscribed to the podcast,
please do so.
And until next time, take a deepbreath.
You're closer to clarity thanyou think.
(10:47):
Be confident in your retirement,have a wonderful day.
Thanks for joining me on anotherepisode of What the Wealth.
If you enjoyed the episodetoday, smash that subscribe
button.
It helps me more than you think.
Also, if you found this episodeinsightful and a light bulb went
off, share it.
Your friend, Aunt Judy, therandom guy in the office who's
always talking about investment.
(11:08):
Wealth isn't about just the chipchain.
It's about our choices, chances,and changing our financial
features.
The information in this podcastis informational and general in
nature and does not take intoconsideration the listener's
personal circumstances.
This podcast is not intended tobe a substitute for specific in
financial, legal, or tax advice.
You should consult the approvedqualified professional prior to
(11:31):
making a final decision.
Security is offered through LPLFinancial, member FINRA SIPC.
Paradigm Wealth Partners is theother business name for
Independent Advisor Alliance.
Investment Advice offeredthrough Independent Advisor
Alliance, a registeredinvestment advisor, Independent
Advisor Alliance, and ParadigmWealth Partners are separate
entities from LPL Financial.
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