Retire Now If you Answer "Yes" to These 5 Questions

That's when it dawned on me that this particular client and so many like him were asking the wrong questions to understand . Are they really ready for retirement ? So in today's video I'm going to walk through five questions and if you answer yes to any of these questions , it may be a sign that it's time for you to retire now .

This is another episode of Ready for Retirement . I'm your host , james Canole , and I'm here to teach you how to get the most out of life with your money . And now on to the episode . This first question that I asked my client and you can ask yourself is do you feel that time is passing you by ?

So , going back to my client , he couldn't get beyond the fact that if he was to retire now , he'd be saying no to next year's bonus , he'd be saying no to next year's new vesting of stock options that he had . It was very difficult for him to get past that .

The projections clearly showed how much that extra bonus , how much the extra stock added to his portfolio at the end of the day , but I had to remind him . So the financial projections that we're looking at , by nature these are only focused on the financials . So , as obvious as that sounds , of course the longer you work , the better off this is going to be .

But at what point is that too much ? At what point is life passing you by and the experiences that you have available to you today are going to be missed , and that's a permanent opportunity cost . And I point out to him that , of course , the longer you work , the better these projections are going to look .

So if we get too focused on just the financial projections , we're going to miss the bigger picture , which is your life will pass you by . And as we discussed that , I shared a real client story with him . I shared how I was working with a client and this client could not wait to retire .

But they kept pushing it back and they finally retired at the age of 65 . Within 12 months she had passed away . She had waited all her life , she had deferred retirement till this time and when she finally was there , she didn't actually get to enjoy it . So what we have to realize is that time is the only non-renewable currency . We can always work more .

We can always make more money , maybe increasingly more difficult , but it's always something we can do . We can never get this time back , but I think in general principles , the older we get , the less valuable money becomes and the more valuable time becomes , so we have to strike that right balance . Of course , you can't retire too early .

You don't have the financial resources to support the time you want to spend in retirement , but if all we do is keep working , there's going to be an opportunity cost to that , and the opportunity cost is the one thing we can never get back , which is time . So ask yourself do you feel as if time is passing you by ?

If the answer is yes , it might be time for you to retire . The second question to ask yourself is this is your health suffering ?

The thing about retirement and those years before retirement is this is typically coming on the tail end of 30 , 40 plus years of working , of paying off a mortgage , of raising a family , of increasing responsibilities at work , and by the time that we get there , it's not uncommon for our health to be suffering pretty significantly .

This is why you see all kinds of studies showing the increase in things like depression , anxiety , heart disease , stroke all things happening earlier and earlier in retirement because we're getting less and less healthy as a country . So , as we look at this , we can't just look at retirement from the financial side of things , to use my previous example .

Of course , the longer you work , the better your financial projection is going to look . But could it be quite literally that every year you work is actually starting to take years off of your life because you're neglecting your health ?

And every extra day , every extra month , every extra year you continue to neglect your health , you run a greater and greater risk of not having that health as you go into retirement . So really look at that . Ask yourself the question is your health suffering ? And if work is causing your health to suffer , it might be time for you to retire .

The third question you need to ask yourself is do you long to spend more time with friends and family ? Now , in many cases , work can be wonderful . You have 40 to 50 hours a week that you get to spend with really amazing people that are doing great things and you enjoy your time with them .

But when you spend 40 to 50 hours there , then add a few hours in for a commute , add a few hours in for chores , add a few hours in for running errands , taking care of tasks around the house , how much time is really left for friends and for family ?

Now the quality of our lives is largely going to be determined by the quality of our relationships and work . Relationships are wonderful and hopefully there are a lot of friends that you have at work . But if that's not the case , are you saying no to the relationships that really matter by continuing to work ?

One of the greatest benefits of retirement is having your time back , having that blank slate where you get to intentionally say here's who I'm going to spend time with or not spend time with .

But as you ask yourself the question , when you look at your friends , when you look at your family , ask how much longer , how many more times are you going to get to spend time with these specific people in your life ? The older we get , the lower that number is going to be .

So how can we recognize that and how can we prioritize relationships with the people that matter most in our life ? The fourth question that you need to ask yourself is are you looking at your health span and not just your lifespan . What I mean by that is so often people think about retiring and let's assume they want to retire at the age of 65 .

They might think they have 30 years left to live because they've got longevity in their family , and let's assume we could guarantee that to be the case . So even if you retired at 65 and I could guarantee you had 30 years , that doesn't mean all 30 of those years are going to be created equal . The first years are going to be your healthiest .

You're going to have the most energy , you're going to be the most vibrant . You're going to have the most opportunity to do things in those years , far more so than you will in your 70s , your 80s or your 90s .

So when you look at a 30-year retirement , understand the first four or five might be the best and there's going to be a sliding and maybe decreasing scale over time , hopefully . Going back to point two , if we prioritize our health , we're extending the health span that we have in retirement .

But if we're not , we might have a very narrow window , even if we have a long lifespan . But to reinforce this point , I want you to imagine for a second all the things that you want to do in retirement ?

Playing with grandchildren , traveling , playing pickleball , yard work , things that you want to do for fun , for adventure , whatever those things might be , imagine them . I want you to imagine doing that thing as a 65-year-old versus doing that thing as an 85-year-old .

You can start to see the difference that even if you have that life and that lifespan , it's going to be a very different experience . So how do we make sure that we get back the best years of our life , which are often going to be the younger years ? By not continuing to push retirement back longer than it needs to be .

Then , finally , the final question that you need to ask yourself is are you financially ready Now ? This should go without saying . You cannot retire , you should not retire if you don't have the financial means of being able to support your desired retirement lifestyle .

But as obvious as that sounds , too many people , like the client I was mentioning , in some way get addicted to seeing their financial projections grow , to seeing their financial outcome improve . You work all these years , you work 40 years and you see the impact of working .

One more year or two more year adds tremendously to the long-term value of your financial projections at the end of your lifetime . It's hard not to get addicted to that . It's hard not to say you know what . Just six more months or 12 more months , or one more bonus payment or one more . You fill in the blank , but think about one more year .

Is it never actually gets here ? One more year is always going to be the temptation . One more year is always going to be the thing that's pulling at you because it's one more bonus , it's social security increasing one more time . It's another year of maxing out your 401k . It's another year of putting money aside in savings or paying down a mortgage .

One more year is always going to be beneficial from a financial standpoint , but one more year is always going to have an opportunity cost , and an opportunity cost is doing the things that you might never be able to do again with the same level of energy or health or vitality . So how do you strike that balance ? Good financial planning should be just that .

It should be a balance . It should be prudent planning for the future with also a balanced living for today , aligned living today to ensure that neither the future nor the present is costing the other . So , as we wrap this up , the message that I want to get across is not that work is bad .

I think work is wonderful and I hope that many of you listening have a wonderful work environment where you get to do things that you care about , with people you care about , for clients you care about .

But if that's not the case and if you're starting to get too drawn into just the financial projections and the impact of one more year , start to ask yourselves these questions or do you feel time is passing you by ? Is your health suffering ? Do you wish to spend more time with friends and with family ?

Are you looking at your health span and not just your lifespan ? And finally , are you financially ready ? If you're financially ready and if you answered yes to any of those other questions , now might be the time for you to retire . Root Financial has not provided any compensation for , and has not influenced the content of , any testimonials and endorsements shown .

Any testimonials and endorsements shown have been invited , have been shared with each individual's permission and are not necessarily representative . Hey everyone , it's me again for the disclaimer . Please be smart about this . Before doing anything , please be sure to consult with your tax planner or financial planner .

Nothing in this podcast should be construed as investment , tax , legal or other financial advice . It is for informational purposes only . Thank you for listening to another episode of the Ready for Retirement podcast .

If you want to see how Root Financial can help you implement the techniques I discussed in this podcast , then go to rootfinancialpartnerscom and click start here , where you can schedule a call with one of our advisors . We work with clients all over the country and we love the opportunity to speak with you about your goals and how we might be able to help .

And please remember , nothing we discuss in this podcast is intended to serve as advice . You should always consult a financial , legal or tax professional who's familiar with your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions .