3 Habits that are Holding You Back From a Comfortable Retirement

[@joycewright5386]

So true! As a nurse I had coworkers that made the same salary as I did. They always had newer cars, bigger houses, luxury vacations etc but I am happily retired and they are still working with almost no savings.

[@janethunt4037]

Being content with less in the car and house categories can result in a lot of retirement savings. You are spot on.

[@angelovendicatoreboycott-c2242]

Number 1 echoes the adage "penny wise and pound foolish".

[@rayanderson3164]

Amen. Save early and hard. For us the 401K has set us free. Pre-tax, post-tax, roth assets and matching have all combined over the last 25+ years to allow us to retire in less than 2 years at 55. The advice is simple. Get started! The money you saved years ago is doing all the heavy work when you get older. Put yourself at the front of your monthly bills. We have always paid ourselves first right off of the top and then built a lifestyle around what was left over. That is how you purchase your freedom.

[@gizmobowen]

For item 1, I understand the example, but I think there's a facet that needs to be added. Typically it isn't just the one $5 coffee that you have to manage. You also have a big bunch of other little luxuries that you want to have. When you rationalize a bunch of little extra expenses, they can add up. It's like the hiking mantra of keep track of the ounces and the pounds will take care of themselves. On the third point, it can be quite difficult to decide what your retirement is going to look like. It can be 30 years of living that can have all sorts of ups and downs and be impossible to envision or plan for. I agree that it's good to try to create an idea of what you'll be doing and what it will cost, but those goals and ideas will always be changing and thus the costs. I like the go-go, slow-go, no-go basic model, but even then you have to assign a budget and timeline to them. For me, I wish I could have a 100% go-go retirement, but there's no way I could fund that or be sure my health will hold out. I appreciated your video, but as with all things in life, the complexity can still make it hard to implement efficiently.

[@scottfromsouthcarolina3185]

I see this from people I work with. Retirement age, credit card debt, new car, cashing in 401k to pay bills. Two incomes >$150k

[@johngill2853]

Great job Taxes are the biggest part for me of not working harder but smarter For years when I was young I pushed my traditional 401k and became eligible for savers credit. Then I put the tax refund into a Roth IRA

[@Woodland26]

Spent the working life saving to the retirement fund, mainly due to the tax advantage to do so (Australia). Now it appears that on retirement after 60, the fund will pay out the same of my normal after tax income regularly. Therefore when the day comes in about 16 months I will try out the semi-retirement phase of my life.

[@raewynannbenten1385]

Yes, same for us here in Aus. My husband turns 60 this year and will cut his working hours to three days a week (using the tax breaks in the transition to retirement scheme offered by his superfund). We will enjoy the same level of income with only a nominal impact to our Super. Plus it means we are more likely to be eligible for part pension at 67, instead of being right at the cut off threshold with less drawdown cost to ourselves. I’m surprised more people don’t utilise TTR here.

[@drmitofit2673]

I calculated that if you do your own lawn mowing and yard care and stop paying $400 per month in post tax income and instead invest it as $500 per month pre tax income into an S&P 500 401k account, you can make $1,040,000 over 30 years (assuming 10% return and no employer matching). If you have spent $40k over the years on mowers, equipment, and supplies, you have made a cool million. Then after retiring you can draw down $5,000 per month ($4,000 after taxes) for 30 years (assuming a lower 6% return). Saving $400 per month while working can pay out $4,000 per month when retired. Nice!

[@FIRE_DrNinjaTurtle]

I love your channel and Ari’s channel.

[@ppw8716]

Agree. James is relatable and realistic. He’s on point.

[@iczemi]

I have a hard time finding a proper portfolio that returns something like 4~5 %, after fees. There are some CDs, but that is only for now. What I fear more is that I go to a financial advisor, invest my money and the lose, pay fees and in the end all is just an empty story.

[@Hyper_Driven]

Only lose if you sell. Holding long term you can ride out the dips and allocate appropriately. Main concern is to generate more income in the building phase and buy index funds and hold is the basic tenet. Do your own and forget a financial advisor till you have enough assets and have found a good advisor if you need one.

[@LKtube1]

Fancy/Luxury cars can do horrible damage to retirement plans over a lifetime!!

[@Woodland26]

yes, it is really no big deal with fancy cars. I had my share of ownership but it is less important to me. Well may be a Porsche one day but the attraction is way less as one mature.

[@janethunt4037]

Also, just trading often.

[@topofmindwithterri]

Been saving in 401k since I was 30. My spending used to be rather mindless. Now, it is intentional. I have only 2 streaming services and 2 subscription services. That's it. I know people who do not know how many streaming or subscription services they have and how much money is being wasted. Also, I make several of my holiday gifts. Personal and less expensive.

[@sw6118]

The market may drop and you might lose a lot…past performance isn’t a promise.

[@Hyper_Driven]

Only lose if you sell. Holding long term you can ride out the dips and allocate appropriately. Main concern is to generate more income in the building phase and buy index funds and hold is the basic tenet.

[@kennyhart2699]

My #1. Get married and stay married to that person. Divorces cause a lifetime of problems

[@Bob-yh7ir]

Most people do not think or plan long term. Always tracked our income and expenses. Do a budget ! We always had money in the bank, even when we were living at the poverty level when we started out. Didn't buy more house than we needed. Raised a child in it and payed it off in 17 years. Sent child to college completely paid for by the ESA we started when said child was born and fed it each year. With the gains it made and still makes it paid for 4 years of school. It is still growing in the market and will be taken out for down payment on house. Yes there will be a 10% penalty for not using it for school but it has earned far more than that over the past 25 years. We don't do debt. We buy cars with cash/check, pay for vacations when we take them, and all the fun festivals, events we do each month, etc. Going to retire early in our 50s. We love travel, so going to spend months away from home each year. Our neighbors wonder how we do it. They make the same income but are strapped and have little to nothing for retirement. It's because they spend it all on stupid stuff, ie. trucks and big vehicles and change them out every 4 to 5 years, gas, maintenance, house upgrades, yadda, yadda. You know the story or should by now. We have tried to help them in the past, but they just cannot change their mindset, so we stopped worrying about them and just do our thing.

[@all4fitz]

If you live in the US and are considering a house for $7-800k, start looking somewhere else. If you can't find a house for $300K or less, start planning to move to a different area. Your job most likely doesn't compensate enough for that ridiculous cost of living. People get so conditioned to $5 coffees and $700k houses and this is a bigger mistake than anything talked about in this video. Get the cheaper house, stop Starbucks madness, cancel pay TV, switch phone plans to one of the small $20/ month providers, and on and on. Be relentless. Then, when you retire, move to a low cost part of the world and instantly double your retirement savings.

[@xigeng]

Unfortunately, in reality, Mike makes more money and knows investing his 30k but Sarah only banks her 6k. And end up 20M vs 240K after 40yrs. It’s so important for us to educate our kids investing.

[@70qq]

🤘

[@quartytypo]

Fund your retirement like you are going to live forever

[@Markrtsoon]

I don’t get it. Will anyone who are near retirement buy a house with a 30 year mortgage?

[@zbuglady]

Sure. In some areas a mortgage is cheaper than renting. And the mortgage doesn’t go up every year. I bought my house 20 years before retirement but refinanced at less than 3% for cash flow reasons (still have most of the equity).

[@roburb73]

If the rates are right, absolutely! I'll retire in 5/6 years but still have 27 years left on my mortgage. More people worry about paying off a mortgage vs investing. That's why most people retire broke or have to work until they're 70+. They focused on what they "thought" was right and forgot about what could do more for them - a large portfolio! In the 3 years I've had my 2.25% mortgage inflation has made my $1,500 payment worth so much more!

[@rubyus7332]

Or some sell their house at a right time, make good money and buy a house that they afford.

[@haroldcoleman7497]

My total PIT is $1410 at 2.625, and I'll still have about 25 years when I retire. But I plan to rent it while I travel abroad continuously for about 10 years. Houses aren't getting any cheaper over the long run, and if I choose to sell at some point to downsize, I'll be in a cash purchase position. Until then, I'm socking away cash for the next few years, my 401, Roth, IRAs are growing fine.

[@vinnyg2619]

We refinanced our home in Aug of 2021; we had $104K remaining on our mortgage for another 20 years and a 4 3/8% rate. We refied to a 2 7/8% rate and saved $250 a month in principle and interest; we also used their money for the closing costs and still saved that much. It's cheap money, got to live somewhere and it's locked in for 30 years. Yes, we would save $6,000 a year by not having it but we can afford it. If I took that $104K to pay off the original mortgage that would have drained it from my retirement funds. I can actually take that $104K and buy a 20 year T Bond with a 3.875% yield or a 30 year T Bond and get a 3.623 yield - both will make me money. Lately T Bills have been averaging over 4.5% APR - this too will make money BUT they are very short term so who knows how long it would last. Some of us don't have an issue having a mortgage in retirement.

[@scottjackson163]

The 3 habits: (1) getting married; (2) getting sick; (3) having sex.

[@Donkeyearsa]

$700 a month for an extra $100,000 is extremely optimistic it might be an extra $1,000 with current interest rates on top of insurance and all taxes. Social security is not going to make all that much of a difference if you have been a high income maker for your entire life. Social security has the biggest affect on retirment on the lower income makers. Then on top of that what age you die at will make a huge difference. If you die before age 81 you will be far better off taking SS at 62 than at 65. To get the most benefit taking SS at 70 you will have to live to your late 80 where the average male adult in the US lives to 81 and for females it's age 83. Now since most people can't retire without some sort of income most people have to wait to be 67 before collecting Social Security as after 67 there is no limit on one's income to collect Social Security.