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Welcome to How to Retire on Time, a show that answers your retirement questions. Say goodbye to the oversimplified advice you've heard hundreds of times. This show is about getting into the nitty-gritty so you can make better decisions as you prepare for retirement. Text your questions to 913-363-1234 and we'll feature them on the show. Don't forget to grab a copy of the book, How to Retire on Time, or check out our resources by going to www.retireontime.com.
Welcome to How to Retire On Time, a show that answers your questions about all things retirement, including income, taxes, Social Security, health care, and more. This show is an extension of the book, How to Retire On Time, which you can grab today on Amazon, or you can get a free copy by downloading it by going to www.retireontime.com. My name is Mike Decker. I'm the author of the book, but I'm also a licensed financial adviser, insurance agent, and tax professional, which means when it comes to financial topics, we can talk about it all. Now that said, please remember this is just a show.
Mike:Everything you hear should be considered informational as in not financial advice. If you want financial advice, you can contact our team by going to www.yourwealthanalysis.com and request Your Wealth Analysis. With me in the studio today is my cohost colleague, mister David Franson. David, thanks for being here.
David:Yep. Thank you. Glad to be here.
Mike:David's gonna read your questions, and I will do my best to answer them. You can always submit your questions anytime during the week by texting them to (913) 363-1234. Again, that's (913) 363-1234, or you can email them to heyMike@howtoretireontime.com. Let's begin.
David:Hey, Mike. I'm considering delaying my retirement by a few years. What are the potential financial benefits and drawbacks of doing so?
Mike:The answer I have is probably not what you're gonna expect. So let's answer the question financially. That's the easy one. Okay. The longer that you work, the better it is for you financially.
David:Yes. And so that's sort of self evident. Right?
Mike:That's self evident. The other parts of this, which are not financial aspects, the longer you work, the better it is for your health. When people retire, and they lack purpose, they lack critical thought, they lack healthy stress, they accelerate their physical and cognitive decline in life. We humans are not designed for retirement. That's kind of a funny thing to say on a show that's called How to Retire on Time.
Mike:Right. But we, at least internally, we do try to do a lot of work around, okay, what are you gonna do now? What's gonna get you out of bed? You might not need a job for a paycheck, but you need to do something. And if you're not critically engaged, you're just going on vacations is not critical thought.
Mike:Going to the garden and enjoying that, it's a wonderful hobby. Not necessarily good for you. I mean, it's good for you. Gardening's great for you. But Yes.
Mike:You have to have critical thought. You've got to keep learning. You've got to stress out yourself at least in some way. And I'm not saying like, oh, I'm gonna stress myself out by watching the news. I'm saying stress yourself out because you've got responsibility, because you have a reason to get up, because someone else depends on you for being there
David:for them. That'd be the healthy stress you mentioned.
Mike:That's healthy stress. Which sounds like
David:an oxymoron. Right? Healthy stress?
Mike:Yeah. You need a little stress in life. Okay. And again, I cannot emphasize this enough. Don't give yourself unnecessary stress.
Mike:Don't sit and watch the news and worry if everything's gonna work out. That's bad stress. The stress I'm talking about is you host Bible study with your local church, that you're volunteering at nonprofit of your choice. Right? You're you're going to the pick and choose.
David:Yeah. Wayside waifs and play with the doggies or whatever. Right? Is that man, maybe that sounds stressful enough.
Mike:Yeah. If you're you're there bringing the dogs back to life, you know, there were abuse, I could see that.
David:Oh, yeah. Okay.
Mike:A third party entity needs to rely on you showing up.
David:Yeah. I get you.
Mike:K? And it's not the fish in the pond, and it's not the golf ball. Like, look, I love golf. Okay? Yeah.
Mike:I know that's a cliche. Whatever. I think golf is fun. Is that going to be my retirement? Not a chance.
Mike:We are designed to serve people. We are designed to help people. So we need to have the connection. We seek affirmation, affection, and approval, so we need to make sure that we're building a life of purpose. We have to do that.
Mike:So let's see, the question was, consider delaying my retirement. I've had several people delay their retirement because they didn't know the next chapter well enough, and so we put their plan together so that they could retire at any point. But then we continue to work on, okay, what are you gonna do next? What's your encore look like?
David:Yeah. Get that.
Mike:That makes sense?
David:Yeah. Yeah. There needs to be an encore. If there is no encore, and you're sitting and twirling your thumbs, that's what you alluded to earlier, which is your cognitive decline could be sped up.
Mike:Yep. Now let's talk about a relationship decline. Called the gray divorce. Did you know that 55 plus is the number one group of divorce? That's surprising to me, actually.
Mike:It's not the 20 year olds that are allegedly, oh, they're getting married. They're too young. 55. Number one group getting divorced. Why?
Mike:Because they didn't have an identity. They put everything into their kids, and once their kids left, they had work, which really isn't a healthy identity. It's what you do, but it's not who you are. And so when the kids go off and when you stop working, you, in your mind, are nothing, and it's really sad. And then you go, well, who are you?
Mike:I guess we're married, but I don't really know you anymore, and divorce happens, and then from a financial standpoint, there's hardship, from an emotional standpoint, there's hardship, there's many layers. And so sometimes it might make sense to keep working so that you have some built in separation, so that you can maybe see marriage counseling or redate your spouse, recourt your spouse, and redesign the life that you're gonna share with that special someone. Because let's use a cliche example. Let's say the wife was the homemaker, husband worked his whole life. He provided all was well.
Mike:He was in charge at work. She was in charge at home. Now they're both at home, and they both think they're in charge. Those situations don't typically go very well.
David:Yeah. K? Yeah. As my mother long would say, she would say that there's too many, like, cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth.
Mike:Yeah. Yeah. So retirement is often portrayed by, I mean, really, the entire financial services space as this endless vacation. Could not be further from the truth. You've got responsibility.
Mike:You've got relationships. You've got dynamics that need to be accounted for, and so sometimes you might delay your retirement just to make sure that you've developed and designed your life, your encore, appropriately, so as you transition, that it's a smooth transition. So why would you delay your retirement? It's more on the emotional side than it would be the financial side, assuming you could afford to retire. Right.
Mike:And there's nothing wrong with that.
David:Now some people might just either need to work longer just for their financial situation.
Mike:For a financial reason. Yeah.
David:Yeah. Or maybe they just really love their work, and they're like, I don't need to work, but I have such a good time doing it, and it feels good, and it helps me. Maybe they just keep working for that reason.
Mike:I mean, Warren Buffett just retired. Bit late, but he did. Yeah. He enjoyed what he did. And look at how sharp he's been all of these years.
David:That's
Mike:right. So, yeah. It's just because you can afford it doesn't mean you should. Make sure you look at it from a holistic standpoint.
David:And maybe you could just work less too. Maybe you don't have to do forty hours a week.
Mike:You can be a consultant. Yeah. A contractor. Right. Yeah.
Mike:Stay sharp. That's all the time we've got for the show today. If you enjoyed the show, consider subscribing to it wherever you get your podcast. Just search for how to retire on time. Discover if your portfolio is built to weather flat market cycles or if you're missing tax minimization opportunities that you may not even know exist.
Mike:Explore strategies that may be able to help you lower your overall risk while potentially increasing your overall growth and lifestyle flexibility. Is not your ordinary financial analysis. Learn more about Your Wealth Analysis and what it could do for you regardless of your age, asset, or target retirement date, go to www.yourwealthanalysis.com today to learn more and get started.