Will I Ever Be Able To Retire?

Do you ever question if you will be able to retire? If you do, you are not alone. According to a 2024 study by AARP, 61% of Americans over the age of 50, fear they will not have enough money to support them in retirement. The study also cited that 20% of the same group had zero retirement savings. If you turn to the internet to find out about what you need to retire, it can be a scary place. YouTube is full of Certified Financial Planners telling you that $1 million is enough to retire. Wait, never mind, it isn’t enough. And what about 2 million? Same answer, yes, no, maybe? And those, “yes“ here, but “no“ there answers; can be really confusing and frightening, especially if your current savings is nowhere near the number they are talking about.

I know, because I have been there. Almost 5 years ago at the age of 52, I received an email telling me to stay home the next day due to a reorganization that was going to result in layoffs. In the morning, I would get a call letting me know if I had a job or not. This was December of 2020, and while it had been a very uncertain year for everyone due to the pandemic, financially; I felt like we were okay. We had three kids, the oldest had just graduated college, another one was graduating that month, and the last one in six months. Our oldest had also just gotten married, and at 52 and 51, we felt like we were on a trajectory to retire at normal retirement age around 65. Though looking back, there was no evidence that my “feeling” was true.

We had never met with a financial planner, or done any calculations, but it just felt like that is what you did. You worked, raised your family, paid off your house, and retired. That is what our parents did, from what we could see anyway. I had no idea how, but that is just what happens, right? But this day in December 2020; I was not so sure. I knew we had a lot of debt, I just had no idea what the total was. I had not added it up and neither had my husband. If we wanted to buy something, we just evaluated if we thought we could afford the payment or not. There was never any discussion about how much we already owed, or how that amount was going to get paid off. It turns out, we were actually pretty normal.

According to a quick Google search: about 1 in 6 adults have students loans, with 6.1 million Americans owing $100,000 or more. About 46% of credit card holders carry over a balance month to month, and over 40% of Americans have a car loan. It is also very common to ask “can I afford the payment” instead of ”can I afford the total?” We definitely fit within these statistics, and that was not a good thing. At that moment with a job loss possible; half our income was in trouble. Being in pharmaceutical sales in December 2020, there were not a lot of companies hiring and I was scared about my ability to quickly replace my income. When we talked about it that evening, we both knew if this happened, we were not going to be okay. Our kids that were all graduating from college? We owed $98,000 in Parent Plus loans that had not started repayment yet. The van in the driveway? We owed around $30k on that. Add in my own student loans, our credit cards, personal loans - how much damage did we have? We had just over $280,000 dollars in debt, and that did not include our mortgage. I was beyond stunned, scared and felt hopeless. Needless to say, neither of us slept well that night.

In the morning the news was good. My position had been moved to another team, my job was safe. My counterpart was not so lucky. When I talked to her she said something to me that changed our life. It is because we didn‘t know, what we didn‘t know. My friend was more than 20 years younger than I was, but she was so much wiser. This is what she told me, “We will be okay, we have no debt except our mortgage, we can live off my husband's teaching salary, and we have a fully funded emergency fund." Wow, that sounded like peace, a peace I had actually dreamt of but didnt know how to achieve! She was the one losing her job, it seemed unimaginable that she was the one that was in a better place than I was. Because she and her husband were financially responsible, she was prepared for this unfortunate situation. I was used to comforting myself by believing everyone had debt, and learning that was actually untrue, was not only a wake up call; but a lifeline.

I asked her to tell me more, and she did. She was raised that way, her parents followed the financial principles of Dave Ramsey. I went home that night and told my husband about it. He said a co-worker at work recently retired and credited what he learned from Dave Ramsey as why he had been able to retire when he did. We decided to do it too; not even knowing what "doing it" meant. We made the decision not to use credit cards from that day forward and for the first time paid for everything for Christmas in cash. I read the book "The Total Money Makeover" by Dave Ramsey right around Christmas. Before the end of the year, my husband and I had our first budget and agreed to follow it starting January 1, 2021. We started a long journey that would take years, but from day one I felt lighter.

We learned that our greatest wealth building tool was our income, and that once we freed that up, we would have time to prepare for retirement. It took us 3 years, 7 months and 7 days to pay off all the debt. We didn't invest during that time and that was scary, but we knew our way had not worked so we trusted in the process. Now we are almost 5 years in and will have the house paid off soon. Just like my friend shared with me five years ago, we too can say we will be okay, we have no debt but our mortgage, we can live off of one income, and we have a fully funded emergency fund. We also have a solid plan for retirement, and a life now where we are not stressed about finances.

So what is the answer for you, will you ever be able to retire? You might be surprised by the answer, it is entirely up to you! You are in complete control of what happens with your finances. It might not feel like it right now, but if not you, than who is? If you owe a lot of money, then the banks might be in control now, but you can change that. It is never too late.

While I highly recommend Ramsey Solutions and their teachings to help you, you can learn good financial habits and plan for retirement a lot of different ways. In this journey I have gone down many rabbit holes trying to figure out how to shortcut this thing, and also how to learn how to do it best. There are not any shortcuts, and get rich quick schemes are too big of a risk for your future. The safest and fastest way is to follow solid proven financial principles and decide what is right for you and your family. No one else's opinion matters, just yours. If you are married, getting on the same page with your spouse is step number one. In addition, seeking counsel from experts and those that are doing it well; is wise. If where you are isn't where you want to be, then learn a different way and then do it.

Each week we will tackle a different question about retirement, and financial wellness in general. The reality of having a successful retirement is only as good as your plan and how well you execute it. That all starts with how you handle money now while you are still working. There is not a magic wand that will just "poof" and send you there. My feeling before that retirement would somehow take care of itself was false. It takes starting with a dream of where you want to be, then step by step, putting into action the behavior and habits that will build wealth and financial security in retirement. If I can do it, trust me, anyone can!

Today is not about giving you advice that will be actionable. It is about trying to give you that moment when you realize that more is possible for you and your retirement than you previously thought. This is about hope and about having your wake up call if you need one. There is an old saying "the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago; the next best time is today." If yesterday you felt unsure about what retirement looked like for you, today is the day to take the first step for finding a clearer picture, a practical plan, and to begin on the journey to the retirement of your dreams.

Don't forget to subscribe, you won't want to miss next week when we start solving the problem, "How much money do I need to retire?" See you next Monday!