Episode 81: Funding Your Retirement Dreams - Practical Tips & Strategies

Welcome to episode 81 of Accessible Finance! In this episode, Eric and Rachael Johns discuss creating and funding your retirement bucket list without breaking the bank. They share personal bucket list items, review strategies for quantifying costs and saving up, and offer practical tips for budget reallocation. They also touch on the importance of intentionality, the value of clarity in spending, and ensuring a good balance between saving and enjoying life. Don't miss out on their playful banter and valuable insights for making your retirement dreams come true!

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Read the Transcript

Episode 81

Eric: Welcome to episode 81 of Accessible Finance. I'm Eric Johns. 

Rachael: And I am Rachel Johns. 

Eric: Let's dive in. 

Rachael: Alright, Eric, we are gonna be talking today about, um, retirement bucket lists and how to fund your dreams without, uh, breaking the bank. Okay. So we have definitely heard, um, a variety of. Bucket list items from people that we work with ranging from, you know, the small, very tangible to the larger, potentially less, uh, realistic ones.

Eric: What are yours? 

Rachael: That's what I was gonna say to you. Um, bucket list. Oh, that's hard. I haven't really thought, I mean, the easy ones, I'm like, I would love to learn how to play the guitar. 

Eric: Interesting. 

Rachael: I, 

Eric: interesting. I 

Rachael: mean, you've seen me attempt it's baby steps. 

Eric: I'm sure you're fine. 

Rachael: Um, I don't know. I feel like once you know how to play the piano and the guitar, like, 

Eric: then you're cool.

Rachael: Then you, you've won, you've 

Eric: won the musical game. 

Rachael: Then you can cover, um, like. Almost all the songs. Right? All right. Like there are songs that I love that playing on the piano just doesn't, it doesn't hit the same. 

Eric: Okay. That's interesting. I didn't know that. I would not have known that. Guys. I learned something today.

I mean, you, this is great. You've, this is great. 

Rachael: Okay. Gimme one of yours. 

Eric: I've toyed with the idea. Okay. I definitely want to go hella skiing with the kids and you, if you'll, oh my God. Okay. All right. I, and by skiing, I mean snowboarding. Yes. And then I would, I, I would like to. Snowboard, at least most major resorts internationally.

Rachael: Yeah, that's the one. 

Eric: That's the one that's, I think that's there. I think that's there. I absolutely can say that I want to eat. Um, Omae. Yeah. Sushi dinners in Japan. Yeah. Yeah. That is a very high on my list. 

Rachael: Okay. I can get behind that. 

Eric: All right. Well, you can come then. That's cool. That'll work. Okay. 

Rachael: I I'll, I'll come to that.

That'll 

Eric: work. Okay, good. Um, glad we established that. We 

Rachael: talked about this the other day. We were talking with the kids, like at the dinner table when we were just like, okay, what does your perfect day look like? Yeah. Um. Thrillingly, all three of our children gave us things that like we, that could do tomorrow normally.

That we normally do. Right. Um, or do like on their Yes. Days or whatever. Um, I am renting out Universal Studios. 

Eric: That's right. That was, yeah. 

Rachael: That's good. That's probably good. I'm renting out Universal Studios probably 

Eric: expensive, but it's doable. 

Rachael: Um, no, but then they have to build the Escape, the Harry Potter Escape.

Right, right, right. Very specific 

Eric: asks. 

Rachael: Um, there were definitely some. Like very expensive asks there, but, um, okay. 

Eric: So let's talk about how retire is to make that happen. Huh? Look at me. I'm incredible. I've looped it back. 

Rachael: Look at you. Yeah. Um, so we never want, I mean, you've worked hard your whole life and so by the time you've made it to retirement, we want you bucket list to be something that is attainable and realistic for you.

Um. But enjoyable. We don't want you to feel like you're only, um, getting to learn how to play the guitar. You don't get to do anything else. Um, okay. So Eric, what are some of the first steps that one would need to take, um, to make a bucket list dream become financially viable? 

Eric: Um, quantify the cost. Yeah. Um, we need to know the cost.

We need to know the timeframe, um, duration and. Yeah, that's, that's pretty much it, right? Yeah. Quantify the cost. Tell us when you wanna do it, and then we can use a calculator or financial planning software and find out what that funding's gonna look like. 

Rachael: Sure. And it's also important to know too, depending upon what it is, there may be times or um, seasonality or something like that where a dream that may otherwise.

Be slightly out of reach becomes more attainable because you're willing to go in off seasons or you're willing to do some type of like, group discount or whatever it is, right? Um, but I mean, ideally you're going through pricing out your, you know, flights, your hotels, you're, um, lessons your protective gear, the fricking helicopter that you need, 

Eric: right?

Rachael: All the things. 

Eric: Well, I'm not going in the off season. I can promise you that. 

Rachael: Well. Okay. Certain things you cannot go in the off season. Um, we did make the, 

Eric: it does sound like the good things you can't go in the off season, like for example, snowboarding, Rachel. 

Rachael: Well, okay, so I will say we ended up, uh, side note, we ended up taking a, a trip this past season and uh, it turned out the snow hadn't been as plentiful as, you know, you may have hoped.

And so there was some exposed, like areas on the mountain and some slushy snow at the vase that. Um, I was not able to attend. I mean, I attended the trip, but I was not able to attend on the mountain. Um, but I did hear some, some stories when you came back. Yeah. It was not 

Eric: amazing. 

Rachael: Turns out, uh, certain, certain bucket lists are very specific in what needs to go right.

For it to go right. That's right. Um, okay, so then now that you've priced out all of the things. Mm-hmm. Okay. Now let's talk about the creative ways or options that you have to start funding. That price tag that you've now got? 

Eric: Sure. So some people like to set up, um, like a separate account and use that as this is my, you know, Disney account.

Mm-hmm. Some people will do it, you know, annually for trips Yeah. Or semi-annually for trips or however they wanna, you know, take their trips or safe. 'cause it helps them to be, you know, out psychological tool. So they, they, they segregate that account so that, you know, they, they don't think about it when they're spending dollars and looking at their checking account balance.

So if that helps. Great. Um, it does not do anything from a. Return aspect, right from a return standpoint. I don't do that personally, but it, we 

Rachael: don't, but I do think, like if you're somebody who, yeah, if 

Eric: you're gonna spend the money based on what's in the account, then absolutely you should do this. 

Rachael: I've also seen people, um, essentially have like a dedicated account for that.

Um, and then what they'll do is. If they're going and paying for something, they essentially like round up whatever that is and put the balance of whatever that would be into the savings account. Sure. 

Eric: There's like, you know, a bunch of leverage you could probably pull there. Yeah. That are more psychological gain, but that's, but if it's on the margin, but that's fine.

Yeah. Right. Like that's still good. Right. Even if it's, if it's subjectively helps you to spend mm-hmm. Then it's. Good for you to to, to implement. And I think what's important here is intentionality. Like having a, a goal and working towards that goal is the important component. So if it's establishing a separate account, but the idea is you want clarity in your spending.

Such that your spendings match aligning with your values. Yeah. And if we know that this is a very important thing, if you say it's on your bucket list, it's a thing. It's a thing that you want to do, right? And, and you, you desperately wanna do this in your life, then there might be some I'm willing to cut back on.

I'm willing to eat out twice a week instead of three times a week or four times a week. Right. That's 

Rachael: where I think the biggest, I mean there that, 

Eric: I mean, that could save itself just 

Rachael: Right. Every 

Eric: dining excursion might be 50 to a hundred dollars a pot. So, and we, 

Rachael: we talked with clients about this, so, you know, we'll sit down and we'll have regular.

Um, budget conversations with clients, um, and talk about like, okay, let's look at your long-term picture. Let's look at, um, how much you save if you spend x less per month right now. Right? Let's look at, um, how much more you have later. And I think that being able to see that, being able to really feel the impact of that.

Because like if you say you're spending a hundred dollars a month less now, it. You know, you're like, oh, that couldn't possibly make a big, it makes a huge difference. 

Eric: It absolutely does. And when 

Rachael: you see how big of a difference it makes, it makes it a lot easier to be like, Hmm, I don't really need to go out now.

Like, we can go ahead and cook tonight, or whatever it is. 

Eric: Sure. 

Rachael: Um, 

Eric: that's a good point. So yeah, the, the sensitivity of any plans success. To the sliding bar that is monthly expenditures. Mm-hmm. And then month and then retirement, monthly expenditures. I mean, if you think about that, it makes sense, right?

Like it's spending every month Yeah. For the rest of your life compounded. So it's, it's compounding and it's enabling all of your accounts to compound more, right? Like more of the balances are gonna be saved, or you're gonna save more or early, and then you're gonna give it more time to compound before you're ripping it out because you're, you're needing it to subsidize your, your spending.

Right. Or to, you know. Substantiate your spending. 

Rachael: Yeah. 

Eric: So, absolutely. It's going to make, you know, it's, it's gonna make a huge difference. And I think that does help people to spend a little bit less, right. When they gain that clarity of, oh, wow. I'm actually, without a doubt, I'm really, you know, I, I'm, I'm super close.

I'm on a razor's edge here. Yeah. But if I just spent, you know, $500, a thousand dollars less a month, yeah. We're good and that, and what does that look like? You know, maybe, maybe a couple less dining out options. Mm-hmm. You know, maybe a few less purchases on Amazon that I know everybody's guilty of these days for sure.

Rachael: And I, I mean, that certainly helps us. It's too 

Eric: easy. Buy it now. Yes. It'll be here tomorrow. Let's go. Let's just press it. 

Rachael: And it's really easy to not think of the aggregate amount that you're spending, because like with the free shipping, you don't feel like you have to bundle everything. You're gonna get that month into one.

You know, delivery. So you can go ahead and buy like the candy thermometer that you need and then you can go ahead and buy the shoes that you want and then you can go up ahead and buy. I did see the candy 

Eric: thermometer. What's that for? 

Rachael: Yeah. What 

Eric: are we doing with the candy thermometer? They need to know it.

Rachael: I did. I really 

Eric: do. Yes, I know. That's why I'm bringing it up. I got the email. Tell me about it. This is fun. Okay, we're having fun. 

Rachael: Okay, so, um, I like prolene. You don't like them? 

Eric: Oh, no. But this, that's okay. Hey, we, we should do. 

Rachael: But it's not just that this summer with the kids, um, we come up with a theme for every day and Monday is Make it Monday, and that's when we bake or cook.

That's awesome. And so we had a candy thermometer that we've had since, since college because Okay. Too, as much as he likes to make it sound, as much as he likes to make it sound like I spend, I don't really spend money unless it's stuff for like the kids. I don't like to go shopping. I'm really bad at it.

But I've had this candy thermometer we had. Since like. College. Okay. And it got to a point where as I'm making candy now, the steam goes through it and I can't see the number on it. And I kept trying and I put it in the dishwasher for one. Like the last time I did it was just, it died. All right. So I need another one.

And I, the one to be clear, the one that I bought was. Do you know how much it was? 

Eric: I have no idea. I didn't look. It was 

Rachael: 1299. 

Eric: Okay. 

Rachael: $12 nine, nine. Big 

Eric: spender. Yes. High roller. Unbelievable. Well, you made a, you made a compelling argument to justify your purchase. I'm very 

Rachael: excited about it. You'll be enjoying the things we make with said candy thermometer.

Eric: Fair enough. 

Rachael: Okay. We got. Oh. Um, so I was talking about how we actually do practice, what we preach, um, in that we're looking at our spending monthly, we're looking at categories and things that, um, I was 

Eric: curious, I didn't know where you were going with that. Our 

Rachael: a bit more. Um, and so we do actually have a trip coming up in December.

And so it's something where as we need to be more sensitive. Of like our spending. If we would need to be more sensitive about our spending, we, I would certainly be willing to do that because it's a trip I'm really excited about. 

Eric: Right. And I would change nothing because while it's going to be a fantastic experience, it's not snowboarding.

Rachael: Okay. But it is a celebration of my birthday slash yes. Being done with. Chemo That is correct. So 

Eric: it is absolutely gonna be worth, it'll bell fine. It'll be 

Rachael: amazing. Um, 

Eric: that's right. But the idea is you wanna find that thing Yes. And then use that to motivate you. Yes. To spend less in the areas that you really don't care that much about.

Rachael: Yes. A thousand percent. So looking at your budget is, I think, gonna be one of the biggest, most impactful areas. And being willing to say like, okay, like let's forego one dining out experience a month, and that can go towards whatever it's right. Again, this depends upon your timeline for. Doing said thing.

Um, like Eric's bucket list item. You know, he can't wait till he's 90 to go. 

Eric: Correct. I gotta get moving guys. I gotta get moving snowboarding 

Rachael: everywhere. Um, yet we could continue doing roller coasters. Um. Well into our nineties 

Eric: maybe, perhaps. 

Rachael: Um, okay, so we talked about dedicated savings accounts. That might be a psychological tool that people use.

Yeah. Budget reallocation, um, looking into travel deals or things like that, depending upon where you're going. But again, um, I wouldn't 

Eric: lie too heavily on that. Well, exactly. I think that plan, yeah. If you wanna do great, but yeah, that's, that's the cake. That should not be the cake. 

Rachael: Mm-hmm. Um, what about side hustles?

That's a popular thing that people tend to like to do. 

Eric: I don't know. I feel like it's overrated. It just depends. Some 

Rachael: seasonal work depends on what you 

Eric: have on, how good are you, what you do. I mean, if you're really good at the thing that you do when you wanna do it on the side and people are gonna pay you for it.

Great. Yeah. Maybe, but if you're trying to, you know, like, I, I don't know, I don't wanna disparage side hustles, but it just depends on how lucrative they are. Right? It 

Rachael: depends on what it, you might have a really awesome skill and open up an Etsy shop and do really well. We've also seen people doing, um, like garage sales.

Eric: I would just encourage you to make sure that you have, um, quantified your spending on this. Endeavor, um, accurately, right? So make sure you're accounting for all of the cost of goods sold, including potentially your time or the opportunity cost of not spending time with your family on the weekends so that you can make, you know, magnets or shirts or whatever you're making.

Um, again, maybe 

Rachael: your family helps you do it. Yeah, that's a fun thing. It 

Eric: could be a, absolutely could be a experience. No, but 

Rachael: I think that's, I think that's a really good point because there's also a lot of costs that go into it. So the amount of money you're hoping to make, the amount of money you really make, 

Eric: yeah.

Rachael: Might be very different. 

Eric: I would focus on the numbers. Yeah. That's all I'm saying. 

Rachael: I think it's fair. Um, now how do we make sure, right, like let's say that at the same time you're trying to save up for this bucket list item mm-hmm. While maintaining your retirement plan. Right? We don't wanna forego. Like we talked about budget, reallocation stuff.

There are certain things that we should not be absolutely. In our budget. Absolutely. So what are the things that we need to make sure still remain first and foremost? Yeah. We're not tapping 

Eric: into an emergency fund for this. We're not gonna tap into probably not Roth accounts for this. Um, it's really unlikely unless it's a very much later in life thing.

Um, it, it, it just cannot negatively impact your plan or set it astray in a. Meaningful or material way. Right. So, 

Rachael: and we wouldn't wanna see you taking on debt for that either. Absolutely 

Eric: not. Yeah, absolutely not. That's nonsense. Um, at this point, if we're approaching retirement and we're talking bucket lists, we should be largely debt free Outside of something like maybe a mortgage, like it might make sense to take on some debt if your ROI or return on income, um, investment is, is positive there.

Like if you're, you know, you have a business, you're taking a business loan, something like that, and you wanna personally guarantee it. Sure. But just as a general rule, again, not specific advice. Um, you, you probably don't wanna be incurring debt and you certainly don't wanna be incurring debt for recreational activities.

Rachael: Yeah. 

Eric: Even if they're meaningful recreational activities like snowboarding. 

Rachael: For sure. I mean, I would think that there could potentially be, um, you know, a caveat to that if you just got some type of, you know, terminal diagnosis or Oh, for sure. Something has suddenly moved up. 

Eric: Absolutely right. 

Rachael: Um, so it's not that we're saying never, but all else being equal.

Eric: If you have some clarity on your end of plan and that's changed dramatically. Yeah. Then that, that in my mind, that just changes everything, all the numbers it does. Right. It changes all the math. 

Rachael: It does. You 

Eric: should a hundred percent be entitled to spend your money. Yeah. Right. You probably don't 

Rachael: need to take on debt.

You're probably just having larger withdrawals. Right, 

Eric: right, right, right. 

Rachael: Um, but all else being equal. Right. You want this to enhance your life and not to detract from it, right? Mm-hmm. So making your current situation worse to have something, you know, in the future. 

Eric: Not great. No. Not a viable strategy, 

Rachael: no.

Um, okay. So Eric, what are some like concrete tips then for what we can give as far as like nailing down, like this bucket list plan, like you and I are probably in phase one where we are still trying to Yeah. Just kind of brainstorm it, what the bucket list are. I hadn't, 

Eric: right. I hadn't thought much about it.

I think I was listening to a podcast the other day and they were talking about it. Um, and I was like, you know, I, I, I don't know what I would wanna do. Yeah. And then, you know, I was thinking about going to snowboard at the voca. The location that offers the best value proposition is what we're currently doing.

Mm-hmm. While the kids are learning and, you know, they have free lift tickets at, um, at the place we go in Colorado. So. We've been frequenting that and I was thinking, you know, like what's the, what, how much would I personally be willing to pay to experience different mountains with them? How much enjoyment would they get?

What's their marginal benefit from other mountains? And you know, that's how I like to think about things. I know most people don't like to think about things in terms of marginal utility and benefit and things like that, but that's my, that's how you see everything's how I work. So, yeah. So I was thinking like, how many, how many more dollars would I be willing to pay to, you know, visit Vail and go down some of the trails in on the back bowl that I used to do in college?

What 

Rachael: it reminds me of Whitney made, okay, sorry, side note, I couldn't keep this to myself. It reminds me of Eric had the kids sit down and, and try to explain. The value of one vacation. Oh, this is awesome. In terms 

Eric: of the other, yes. Yes. So he, I did do that. He wanted, 

Rachael: he, he wanted them to explain 

Eric: everything in terms of beach trips, 

Rachael: like, to be clear.

Um, we're not a beach family. I love, I like the ocean. Mm-hmm. I could listen to it. I could hang out in it. Yeah. I like feeling the waves. I don't need the sand. I hate the sand. I don't like laying out and tan. That's not me. That's not, and I am, that's certainly not 

Eric: incredibly pasty. So, 

Rachael: and our children's favorite thing at the beach is the pool that's attached to the hotel.

Eric: I just look at the sun and I get sunburned. So That is true. It's not an enjoyable experience. 

Rachael: Fortunately, our children have also gotten some of my DNA, so they're a little on the safer side. Yeah. But he had the children sit down and explain every trip in term of how many beach trips it would be worth to them.

So how many, how many beach trips is a snowboarding trip or ski trip they ski? How many beach trips does a skiing trip war to you? How many beach trips is a Disney trip war to you? How many beach trips is a universal trip war to you? 

Eric: We do need to broaden it a little bit, you know? I agree. Have we need to go whitewater rafting and hiking and do some of that kind of stuff?

Rachael: A cruise was one of the things. Yeah. I think Zoey recommended maybe. Um, and then of course, like I am kind of Type A too, so then I made a Google, Google form that the kids then filled out our poor children. 

Eric: Um, they're gonna, they love it. 

Rachael: They're all gonna have complex. They 

Eric: love it, 

Rachael: but um, 

Eric: they're gonna be a little economists.

That's gonna be great. 

Rachael: But I think that they're gonna have some ideas of the things that like, oh yeah. We're constantly trying to drill down for them. Like what things bring you joy? Mm-hmm. Um, just so that we're experiencing things that we know. You know, honestly, everybody likes 

Eric: as a person, if listeners have kids, you'd know that if the kids are first, if the kids are unhappy, you're probably, your likelihood of being happy is not gonna be that high.

Very true. And second, you know, the kids' happiness is gonna bring you happiness. Like, that's kind of, that is true the way your, your complexion and your outlook on life kind of changes when you have kids. And their enjoyment is your enjoyment. Right. So they win. You win. Like that's just how it, that's just how it is.

Rachael: Agreed. We, well, we also, we, the reason we had to do the Google form was for the anonymity piece because we have Right. One of our three children. 

Eric: It didn't work out that well then. Um, 

Rachael: it didn't because their 

Eric: spelling was hilarious. 

Rachael: Okay. We had some writing questions, but one of our three children, our daughter is uh, very much a people pleaser.

Eric: Yes. A daddy pleaser. 

Rachael: Yes. More so than anybody. Um, and so you would be shocked when you realized that, uh. Everything in her form was about how amazing skiing was. Now, that's not to say she doesn't like skiing, but I think that she's so focused on trying to be like, me too, me too. That I don't think that she's reflected on what it is that she enjoys.

So I think we're actually, I'm gonna make another one. We're gonna do another one. Um, okay. I'm excited. We're gonna do this on this. Alright. 

Eric: Google forms. I'm in. 

Rachael: Yeah, I like a Google form. 

Eric: But yeah, I think, I think the, the broad takeaways are. Plan for your retirement, the more you're able to save for your retirement.

Yeah. Early on in life, the more optionality and flexibility you'll have later. That's right. Right. So you'll be able to achieve a lot of these bucket list items, particularly the ones that might be expensive. You know, if we're talking touring the world and snowboarding, I better be making a lot and I better be saving a lot.

Rachael: Yeah. 

Eric: Right. 'cause that stuff's not cheap. Um, it's not cheap. It also is important to know what you're able to do with your age. Right. Because I was thinking about that and I'm like, Hey, if I wanna snowboard the world. I better get moving. Like I'm not getting any younger. 

Rachael: That's a great fitter point though too.

Um, like typically you're not necessarily thinking about your bucket list items when you're 20 and 30 and wherever. Yeah. And then by the time that you're starting to really feel your mortality and think about your bucket list items. Yeah. Your runway to save up, to have those bucket list items. Happen is shorter.

Right. And then you've missed out on the possible additional compounding of money that you may have been willing to contribute towards retire. Exactly. Otherwise, um, that's a really, really good point. 

Eric: So, I mean, unfortunately in a capitalist society, that's kind of how the, that's the name of the game. Yeah.

So if you're able to save and you're able to let it compound early and often 

Rachael: mm-hmm. 

Eric: It's a good thing. Right. So if you have the funds Right, if you have excess funds, 'cause that's what, that's essentially what we're talking about. You cannot really. Lower your quality of life all that much. It's what we found with working with clients and working with individuals.

It is very difficult to. Deflate the, um, the, uh, the lifestyle creep. 

Rachael: Yeah. 

Eric: Does that make sense? It's very hard to unwind that when you've gotten used to eating, you know, like higher quality food at a regular basis. You're ordering Uber Eats and DoorDash and takeout and all these things are very convenient and they cost money.

So, you know, going from that to now I'm cooking again and I'm eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and stuff, it's just, it's probably not gonna happen. 

Rachael: And this is where, you know, that motivation, that psychological piece can certainly help. Um. True. But again, you don't wanna make a plan that's gonna involve that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You don't wanna make a plan that hinges on something that you can't guarantee is gonna become a reality. 

Eric: It also shouldn't be dramatic. You know, I'm gonna spend, instead of dining out being a thousand dollars a month, it's gonna be $10. Like no, it's not. I imagine, let's be honest, I 

Rachael: imagine it as like.

Trying to do weight loss healthily, right? Yes. Like you don't wanna go from cutting calories. That's 

Eric: exactly, that's a great point. Thank you. Great analogy. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. 

Rachael: Um, you want, I mean, you can go ahead and restrict it needs to be sustainable. Correct? 

Eric: Has to be sustainable. Correct. If you're going on, you know, a, a keto diet or something that's gonna last a week, what did you really do?

Yeah. 

Rachael: You might have increased 

Eric: more when you started eating cake again. That's what you did. 

Rachael: You might have increased, I would know savings by. We have gone off the rails in this episode. This is 

Eric: fun. This 

Rachael: is a good one. Um, I'm excited, guys. You've gotten sick every single time you've done Yes. Unfortunate.

Um, that is so funny. Um, okay, so yes. So the first thing is you wanna have a really concrete idea of like what that bucket list item is. Mm-hmm. Um, you wanna be able to then research what the costs are and have a really clear quantified amount that you are then saving up for. Right. Um. And then it's time to put that plan into place.

And the reality is that you're probably not doing it next month. Right. So like it's, this is a long-term plan, a long-term saving strategy. Yep. If you're working with a, um, financial planner or something like that, as soon as you have an idea that this is something you want. To have happen. Yeah. Even if you're not totally sure of the amounts, if you just have a round number, like I really want to start to look at it.

Eric: Yeah. Yes. We're thinking in five years I want to go visit, you know, Italy or whatever. Sure. Put it on the list. The 

Rachael: planner can then go ahead and put that into the plan, 

Eric: see what it looks like. It might not mean, it might not mean you have to make correct all these dramatic adjustments. It might just be, Hey, I can do this.

It might just be have been a good saver. Correct. And I'm relatively thrifty, you know, because. 

Rachael: One of the best. I mean, or I just earn a lot. If you have a plan and you're following it, one of the best ways to save is time. Mm-hmm. Because your plan has that built in. Let it work. Yes. Let the money work. So then it more than, you know, picking up a side hustle or having a garage sale or, you know, making $50 here and there.

It may just be, you know, I retire six months later. I, um. You know, end up going on my trip a year later than I initially had planned. But that would stop me from having to make withdrawals or cut back or do anything. Mm-hmm. I mean, there's lots of options and leverage that if you're working with somebody they can pull and so they can say, okay, would you rather like work six more months?

Would you rather. Cut back a hundred dollars a month in spending. Now, would you rather, you know, push your trip back six months? Yeah. Whatever. It's, 

Eric: I think it's important to try to be very clear about what brings you the most happiness, the most utility. Right? Be clear about that, and then be intentional about how you're going to attain those goals and how you're gonna incorporate that reality.

Like, what makes you happy into your spending. That's, that's the most important thing, is aligning those two things. 

Rachael: Mm-hmm. Agreed. So it really ends up being all about. Balance a healthy balance. Um, and then, I mean, honestly, that's what your pre and post-retirement is as well, right? You wanna balance your enjoyment today Yep.

With your ability to enjoy things later. Um, but ultimately retirement should be a time that you're enjoying and that you, I mean, you've worked your whole life for this, so it should be something that is memorable for you. 

Eric: Absolutely. Mm-hmm. 

Rachael: Alright, well if you enjoyed this episode, have any thoughts or would like to share your bucket list items with us?

'cause we are open for ideas. Um, you can send that to podcast@equilibriumfp.com. 

Eric: I'm less open to the ideas than Rachel is, but. Please do share. That's true. I'm interested. 

Rachael: We really wanna know. 

Eric: I'm intrigued 

Rachael: also, um, if there's a certain mountain that you have skied Yes. That you really like 

Eric: Now we're talking Yes.

Then 

Rachael: he would really like to know, 

Eric: has to be open to snowboarding though. No alta 

Rachael: Oh, fair. Or 

Eric: snowbird, whatever. One in Utah doesn't allow us. 

Rachael: Yes. 

Eric: Very sad 

Rachael: while the kids ski. The two of us do not. 

Eric: Correct. 

Rachael: Well, you try. You. 

Eric: I'm not good. Let's not talk about that. It's very depressing. That could be a whole episode.

Yeah. Nobody wants to hear about that. Might wanna see it though. It's kind of funny. I'm not good. 

Rachael: I do have videos. 

Eric: All guys. 

Rachael: Okay. Till next time. Thank 

Eric: you.