March 3, 2026 • 14 mins
The hard truth: Most retirements don’t fail on spreadsheets. They fail in real life when emotions, freedom, and spending collide. After decades of doing everything right, it’s easy to feel like you’ve earned the luxury car, the bigger house, the nonstop trips, the generous gifts, the open tab for adult kids, or even the dream vacation home.
I break down why those “deserved” purchases often carry long tails of cost—depreciation, insurance, utilities, maintenance, taxes, and expectations—that quietly outgrow the portfolio meant to fund the next 30 years.
Six retirement regrets I see again and again: The luxury car trap, upsizing the house, travel without limits, pricey gifts that become norms, ongoing support for adult children, and the vacation home illusion. For each one, we dig into the hidden math, the emotional triggers that make smart people overspend, and practical alternatives that protect comfort and joy.
🗓️ 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
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_00 (00:04):
Most retirees don't run out of money because of bad
investments.
They run out of money because ofone or two emotional decisions
that they didn't fully thinkthrough.
I've seen it happen more timesthan I can count.
Someone spends 40 years doingeverything right, saving,
investing, being disciplined.
(00:24):
Then they finally retire.
They're finally living theretirement dream.
And then quietly, the dreamcollapses.
Not overnight, not from one hugemistake, but from a handful of
purchases that felt earned, feltjustified, and frankly felt
harmless at the time.
In this video, I'm going to walkyou through six retirement
(00:48):
regrets, not because they werereckless, but because no one
warned them what these decisionsactually cost over time.
If you retired or close toretiring or even thinking about
retiring in the near future, oneof these mistakes alone can
permanently change yourlifestyle.
These are the purchases thatpeople make after retirement
(01:10):
that quietly undo decades ofdiscipline.
And there's the uncomfortabletruth.
The mistakes aren't rare.
They're actually incrediblycommon, especially among people
who did everything right andfinally feel like they've earned
the right to stop worrying.
I'm Jonathan Bedner, certifiedfinancial planner, co-owner of
Paradigm Wealth Partners here inKnoxville, Tennessee.
(01:32):
And for almost two decades, I'veworked with retirees and
pre-retirees who did everythingright.
They saved consistently,invested responsibly, and they
seek guidance when they hadquestions or concerns.
What I've learned is this mostretirement plans don't fail on
spreadsheets.
(01:53):
They fail in real life whenemotions and freedom and
spending collide.
Not to scare you, but to helpyou avoid make mistakes is why
I'm creating this video.
I see it far too often afterpeople retire.
And I wanted to create thisvideo so that you could think
through the most common ones Isee.
(02:15):
In fact, a few years ago, I raninto a former coworker who had
been retired for a couple ofyears.
And during his working years, hewas practical, modest,
disciplined.
And when we met for lunch thatday, it was a completely
different picture.
Pulled up in a luxury car,wearing designer clothes, made
sure to flash his premium creditcard when he bought lunch that
(02:39):
day.
And on the surface, it lookedlike success, like retirement
was treating him well, like hehad been rewarded.
And a few years later, I'd heardthat that's not how the story
ended.
His savings was gone, hislifestyle was unsustainable, and
now he was forced to rely onfamily just to stay afloat.
(03:00):
Trying to impress people,getting caught up in thinking
that we deserve things.
And not that these items thatwe're going to talk about are
bad.
There's certainly great thingsthat you can do, but people
often overspend in retirementand it creates a dangerous cycle
(03:22):
if you're not thinking throughhow this impacts your full plan.
So the core problem mostretirees fall into is that
retirement creates a powerfulemotional shift.
I've worked my entire life.
It's now my turn to kick back,relax.
(03:44):
I deserve to do these things.
I've put in my time.
And that mindset isn't wrong.
You've spent your entire workingcareer, and it's time to enjoy
some of the fruits of yourlabor, some of your investments
that have been growing andworking for you.
But it's a dangerous propositionwithout proper guardrails.
(04:05):
Because many retirementpurchases feel justified in the
moment.
They create financial pressure,you won't until it's too late.
That's where these six mistakescome from.
Before we do, if this kind ofretirement guidance is helpful,
clear, real world, and focusedon decisions that actually
(04:26):
matter, go ahead and smash thatsubscribe button, like the
video.
I put out content like thisregularly to help people make
smarter retirement decisionsbefore mistakes become
permanent.
Alright, let's go.
Mistake number one, theexpensive luxury car.
Identity doesn't disappear whenthe work week ends.
(04:49):
Status, habits, clear, uh, youknow, continue to follow you.
They don't die easily.
You're constantly chasing andkeeping up with the Joneses.
And these luxury cars areespecially risky in retirement
because they combine longpayment commitments, rapid
(05:09):
depreciation, and high insurancepremiums and maintenance costs.
Here's the key question retireesrarely ask Who am I trying to
impress now?
There's no boss, there's noclient, and the promotion is not
on the line.
So comfort and safety matter.
I've got a family myself.
(05:30):
I understand having some newerfeatures and the importance of
having safety while you're onthe road, while you're older.
But a lot of times peopleconfuse image with safety.
And they're justifying thepurchase of the vehicles for
safety reasons, and they'rereally scratching the image
(05:51):
itch.
My advice is to pause, wait, andrevisit this decision.
Let some of the uh the urgefade, hopefully, when that
emotion wears off.
It's really, it gets reallyexciting to purchase, to buy
something, to negotiate thedeal.
And then a lot of times I seethere's some buyer remorse on
(06:12):
the other side.
So sleep on it, take an extraweek, think about it, don't rush
and make a quick decision topurchase a luxury vehicle.
Mistake number two, buying abigger house.
This one sneaks up on a lot ofpeople, especially with people
moving around the country overthe last several years.
(06:33):
They think the house may becheaper somewhere else, so we
can go bigger.
But cheaper house doesn't alwaysmean cheaper lifestyle.
Larger homes bring hidden costslike higher utilities.
It costs more to heat and cool alarger home with a larger
footprint.
Uh they often may have higherproperty taxes.
(06:55):
Maintenance costs is tied tosize, not the location.
Not that location is not afactor, but obviously the bigger
the house, the bigger theproperty, the more maintenance
it's going to cost.
So bigger space equals biggerongoing obligations.
Even if the purchase feels likea deal, you might end up
(07:16):
spending more in retirement andneed to use more of your
retirement portfolio orretirement income to continue to
meet those obligations.
Mistake number three,overspending on travel.
Now, everyone that I've met forthe most part loves to travel.
There's a few exceptions.
And it's important to take somerewarding trips, you know,
(07:39):
experiences, and enjoy the lifethat you have, the remaining
healthy time you have inretirement.
Your bucket list matters, yourexperiences matter with your
family and your friends.
But there's a difference betweenintentional travel and
never-ending vacation mode.
Frequent expensive trips candrain a portfolio faster than
(08:04):
people expect, especially earlyin retirement when spending
patterns typically get lockedin.
So maybe some small uh smarteralternatives could be travel at
off-peak times.
Maybe take a shorter trip, likea four-day trip instead of the
seven-day trip.
Maybe use a travel agent who hasexperience in finding ways to
(08:27):
make your travel get the biggestbang for its buck, or has some
experience in booking, you know,maybe alternative accommodations
at a cheaper rate or a moreboutique place.
Those uh insights can be very,very, very impactful for making
(08:47):
these travel decisions, andyou're not having to go it
alone.
Mistake number four is expensivegifts, and oftentimes, sometimes
those expensive gifts becomeexpectations.
Retirement, I see this a lot forretirees.
It brings reflection, theyreflect back on their life, the
things they did as a kid or intheir career.
And a lot of times the retireesthat I'm working with want to
(09:10):
help people, they want tosupport their friends or their
family or their charities, theirchurch, things that they are are
important to them.
They want to create memories,they want to help their family.
All these things are admirable,but generosity can become
dangerous when it turns into anexpectation.
Expensive gifts can quietlycreate a standard that feels
(09:34):
impossible to walk back.
And often what family membersvalue most isn't the price tag,
it's the presence, the sharedexperiences, the things that
bring them together.
So it's important to think whenyou're making gifts, how is this
going to impact your decisionsgoing forward and their
(09:54):
expectations going forward?
Mistake number five, ongoingcash support for adult children.
I see this frequently.
In fact, this may be uh the onethat I see the most.
It's one of the hardestconversations that I have with
clients and that they end uphaving with their family when
(10:15):
we're doing retirement planning.
Occasional help turns intoregular support, and regular
support turns into dependence.
Suddenly, you're funding someoneelse's lifestyle at the expense
of your own financial security.
Good intentions don't cancelfinancial consequences.
So you're gonna want to makesure that when you're
(10:37):
considering helping adultfamily, you think it through,
support needs structure, andthose boundaries matter.
All right, the final mistake: the vacation home illusion. (10:47):
undefined
This idea is seductive.
You like the idea of buying thebeach house, the lake house, the
mountain cabin, you know, thisthe ski cabin.
Uh, there's there's all theseideas about having a vacation
home.
You're gonna escape the winners,you're gonna create a family
(11:10):
gathering place.
Ownership makes more sense thanrenting, baby.
You're telling yourself that.
All of these things make perfectsense, but the math rarely
agrees.
In fact, two homes mean doublethe property taxes, double the
maintenance, double theutilities, and year-round cost
(11:32):
for part-time use.
The rental myth usually fallsapart pretty quickly.
You want it when everyone elsewants it, no one wants it when
you don't.
If the cash flow doesn't workduring ownership, appreciation
at sale probably won't save it.
So it's important when you'rethinking about a second home,
(11:53):
that vacation home, you'rereally thinking long and hard
about does it make sense?
Retirement mistakes aren't loud,they're not flashy, they're not
in your face, they don't comewith warning signs, they're
gradual, they sneak up on you.
Uh oftentimes they feelcomfortable.
(12:13):
You justify it.
It's easy to emotionally justifythe decision.
Before any major purchase, youshould pause, reflect, run the
long-term numbers, talk withyour financial advisor, your
financial planner, make adecision on the on the numbers,
on the math, not just on theshort-term feelings.
(12:36):
If you've seen mistakes likethese, share them.
Your experiences might savesomeone else years of stress and
frustration and anxiety.
If you'd like to sit down andwalk through your retirement
plan, your income plan, yourspending, your decisions, you
can schedule a time with me onmy calendar using the link below
(12:57):
in the description.
There's no pressure, justclarity about whether your plan
truly supports the retirement.
Be confident in your retirement,have a wonderful day.
Thanks for joining me on anotherepisode of What the World.
If you enjoyed the episodetoday, smash that subscribe
button.
Helps me more than you think.
Also, if you found this episodeinside before the light bulb
(13:20):
went off, here, your friends,it's duty, the random guy in the
office who's always talkingabout a network.
Well, it'sn't about just the 50.
It's about the choices, chances,and everything else.
The information on this podcastis informational on a general
does not take intoconsideration.
So let's go to personal focus.
(13:40):
This podcast is not intended tobe a substitute for specific or
financial legal or tax advice.
We should consult the approvedqualified professional fire to
make the final statement.
Security is offered through LPLFinancial member FINRA FIPC.
Paradigm Loft Partners is theother business thing for
Independent Advisor Alliance.
Investment advice offeredthrough Independent Advisor
(14:00):
Alliance, a registeredinvestment advisor, Independent
Advisor Alliance, and ParadigmLoft Partners are separate
endings for LPL Partners.
Most retirees don't run out of money because of bad
investments.
They run out of money because ofone or two emotional decisions
that they didn't fully thinkthrough.
I've seen it happen more timesthan I can count.
Someone spends 40 years doingeverything right, saving,
investing, being disciplined.
(00:24):
Then they finally retire.
They're finally living theretirement dream.
And then quietly, the dreamcollapses.
Not overnight, not from one hugemistake, but from a handful of
purchases that felt earned, feltjustified, and frankly felt
harmless at the time.
In this video, I'm going to walkyou through six retirement
(00:48):
regrets, not because they werereckless, but because no one
warned them what these decisionsactually cost over time.
If you retired or close toretiring or even thinking about
retiring in the near future, oneof these mistakes alone can
permanently change yourlifestyle.
These are the purchases thatpeople make after retirement
(01:10):
that quietly undo decades ofdiscipline.
And there's the uncomfortabletruth.
The mistakes aren't rare.
They're actually incrediblycommon, especially among people
who did everything right andfinally feel like they've earned
the right to stop worrying.
I'm Jonathan Bedner, certifiedfinancial planner, co-owner of
Paradigm Wealth Partners here inKnoxville, Tennessee.
(01:32):
And for almost two decades, I'veworked with retirees and
pre-retirees who did everythingright.
They saved consistently,invested responsibly, and they
seek guidance when they hadquestions or concerns.
What I've learned is this mostretirement plans don't fail on
spreadsheets.
(01:53):
They fail in real life whenemotions and freedom and
spending collide.
Not to scare you, but to helpyou avoid make mistakes is why
I'm creating this video.
I see it far too often afterpeople retire.
And I wanted to create thisvideo so that you could think
through the most common ones Isee.
(02:15):
In fact, a few years ago, I raninto a former coworker who had
been retired for a couple ofyears.
And during his working years, hewas practical, modest,
disciplined.
And when we met for lunch thatday, it was a completely
different picture.
Pulled up in a luxury car,wearing designer clothes, made
sure to flash his premium creditcard when he bought lunch that
(02:39):
day.
And on the surface, it lookedlike success, like retirement
was treating him well, like hehad been rewarded.
And a few years later, I'd heardthat that's not how the story
ended.
His savings was gone, hislifestyle was unsustainable, and
now he was forced to rely onfamily just to stay afloat.
(03:00):
Trying to impress people,getting caught up in thinking
that we deserve things.
And not that these items thatwe're going to talk about are
bad.
There's certainly great thingsthat you can do, but people
often overspend in retirementand it creates a dangerous cycle
(03:22):
if you're not thinking throughhow this impacts your full plan.
So the core problem mostretirees fall into is that
retirement creates a powerfulemotional shift.
I've worked my entire life.
It's now my turn to kick back,relax.
(03:44):
I deserve to do these things.
I've put in my time.
And that mindset isn't wrong.
You've spent your entire workingcareer, and it's time to enjoy
some of the fruits of yourlabor, some of your investments
that have been growing andworking for you.
But it's a dangerous propositionwithout proper guardrails.
(04:05):
Because many retirementpurchases feel justified in the
moment.
They create financial pressure,you won't until it's too late.
That's where these six mistakescome from.
Before we do, if this kind ofretirement guidance is helpful,
clear, real world, and focusedon decisions that actually
(04:26):
matter, go ahead and smash thatsubscribe button, like the
video.
I put out content like thisregularly to help people make
smarter retirement decisionsbefore mistakes become
permanent.
Alright, let's go.
Mistake number one, theexpensive luxury car.
Identity doesn't disappear whenthe work week ends.
(04:49):
Status, habits, clear, uh, youknow, continue to follow you.
They don't die easily.
You're constantly chasing andkeeping up with the Joneses.
And these luxury cars areespecially risky in retirement
because they combine longpayment commitments, rapid
(05:09):
depreciation, and high insurancepremiums and maintenance costs.
Here's the key question retireesrarely ask Who am I trying to
impress now?
There's no boss, there's noclient, and the promotion is not
on the line.
So comfort and safety matter.
I've got a family myself.
(05:30):
I understand having some newerfeatures and the importance of
having safety while you're onthe road, while you're older.
But a lot of times peopleconfuse image with safety.
And they're justifying thepurchase of the vehicles for
safety reasons, and they'rereally scratching the image
(05:51):
itch.
My advice is to pause, wait, andrevisit this decision.
Let some of the uh the urgefade, hopefully, when that
emotion wears off.
It's really, it gets reallyexciting to purchase, to buy
something, to negotiate thedeal.
And then a lot of times I seethere's some buyer remorse on
(06:12):
the other side.
So sleep on it, take an extraweek, think about it, don't rush
and make a quick decision topurchase a luxury vehicle.
Mistake number two, buying abigger house.
This one sneaks up on a lot ofpeople, especially with people
moving around the country overthe last several years.
(06:33):
They think the house may becheaper somewhere else, so we
can go bigger.
But cheaper house doesn't alwaysmean cheaper lifestyle.
Larger homes bring hidden costslike higher utilities.
It costs more to heat and cool alarger home with a larger
footprint.
Uh they often may have higherproperty taxes.
(06:55):
Maintenance costs is tied tosize, not the location.
Not that location is not afactor, but obviously the bigger
the house, the bigger theproperty, the more maintenance
it's going to cost.
So bigger space equals biggerongoing obligations.
Even if the purchase feels likea deal, you might end up
(07:16):
spending more in retirement andneed to use more of your
retirement portfolio orretirement income to continue to
meet those obligations.
Mistake number three,overspending on travel.
Now, everyone that I've met forthe most part loves to travel.
There's a few exceptions.
And it's important to take somerewarding trips, you know,
(07:39):
experiences, and enjoy the lifethat you have, the remaining
healthy time you have inretirement.
Your bucket list matters, yourexperiences matter with your
family and your friends.
But there's a difference betweenintentional travel and
never-ending vacation mode.
Frequent expensive trips candrain a portfolio faster than
(08:04):
people expect, especially earlyin retirement when spending
patterns typically get lockedin.
So maybe some small uh smarteralternatives could be travel at
off-peak times.
Maybe take a shorter trip, likea four-day trip instead of the
seven-day trip.
Maybe use a travel agent who hasexperience in finding ways to
(08:27):
make your travel get the biggestbang for its buck, or has some
experience in booking, you know,maybe alternative accommodations
at a cheaper rate or a moreboutique place.
Those uh insights can be very,very, very impactful for making
(08:47):
these travel decisions, andyou're not having to go it
alone.
Mistake number four is expensivegifts, and oftentimes, sometimes
those expensive gifts becomeexpectations.
Retirement, I see this a lot forretirees.
It brings reflection, theyreflect back on their life, the
things they did as a kid or intheir career.
And a lot of times the retireesthat I'm working with want to
(09:10):
help people, they want tosupport their friends or their
family or their charities, theirchurch, things that they are are
important to them.
They want to create memories,they want to help their family.
All these things are admirable,but generosity can become
dangerous when it turns into anexpectation.
Expensive gifts can quietlycreate a standard that feels
(09:34):
impossible to walk back.
And often what family membersvalue most isn't the price tag,
it's the presence, the sharedexperiences, the things that
bring them together.
So it's important to think whenyou're making gifts, how is this
going to impact your decisionsgoing forward and their
(09:54):
expectations going forward?
Mistake number five, ongoingcash support for adult children.
I see this frequently.
In fact, this may be uh the onethat I see the most.
It's one of the hardestconversations that I have with
clients and that they end uphaving with their family when
(10:15):
we're doing retirement planning.
Occasional help turns intoregular support, and regular
support turns into dependence.
Suddenly, you're funding someoneelse's lifestyle at the expense
of your own financial security.
Good intentions don't cancelfinancial consequences.
So you're gonna want to makesure that when you're
(10:37):
considering helping adultfamily, you think it through,
support needs structure, andthose boundaries matter.
All right, the final mistake: the vacation home illusion. (10:47):
undefined
This idea is seductive.
You like the idea of buying thebeach house, the lake house, the
mountain cabin, you know, thisthe ski cabin.
Uh, there's there's all theseideas about having a vacation
home.
You're gonna escape the winners,you're gonna create a family
(11:10):
gathering place.
Ownership makes more sense thanrenting, baby.
You're telling yourself that.
All of these things make perfectsense, but the math rarely
agrees.
In fact, two homes mean doublethe property taxes, double the
maintenance, double theutilities, and year-round cost
(11:32):
for part-time use.
The rental myth usually fallsapart pretty quickly.
You want it when everyone elsewants it, no one wants it when
you don't.
If the cash flow doesn't workduring ownership, appreciation
at sale probably won't save it.
So it's important when you'rethinking about a second home,
(11:53):
that vacation home, you'rereally thinking long and hard
about does it make sense?
Retirement mistakes aren't loud,they're not flashy, they're not
in your face, they don't comewith warning signs, they're
gradual, they sneak up on you.
Uh oftentimes they feelcomfortable.
(12:13):
You justify it.
It's easy to emotionally justifythe decision.
Before any major purchase, youshould pause, reflect, run the
long-term numbers, talk withyour financial advisor, your
financial planner, make adecision on the on the numbers,
on the math, not just on theshort-term feelings.
(12:36):
If you've seen mistakes likethese, share them.
Your experiences might savesomeone else years of stress and
frustration and anxiety.
If you'd like to sit down andwalk through your retirement
plan, your income plan, yourspending, your decisions, you
can schedule a time with me onmy calendar using the link below
(12:57):
in the description.
There's no pressure, justclarity about whether your plan
truly supports the retirement.
Be confident in your retirement,have a wonderful day.
Thanks for joining me on anotherepisode of What the World.
If you enjoyed the episodetoday, smash that subscribe
button.
Helps me more than you think.
Also, if you found this episodeinside before the light bulb
(13:20):
went off, here, your friends,it's duty, the random guy in the
office who's always talkingabout a network.
Well, it'sn't about just the 50.
It's about the choices, chances,and everything else.
The information on this podcastis informational on a general
does not take intoconsideration.
So let's go to personal focus.
(13:40):
This podcast is not intended tobe a substitute for specific or
financial legal or tax advice.
We should consult the approvedqualified professional fire to
make the final statement.
Security is offered through LPLFinancial member FINRA FIPC.
Paradigm Loft Partners is theother business thing for
Independent Advisor Alliance.
Investment advice offeredthrough Independent Advisor
(14:00):
Alliance, a registeredinvestment advisor, Independent
Advisor Alliance, and ParadigmLoft Partners are separate
endings for LPL Partners.
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