2023 EP1028 | Financial Updates | Happy Retired Couple Are Also Financially Healthy

Welcome back, everyone.

Peter, good to see you. As always, I'm really excited about today's topic. Happy retired couples are also financially healthy. Long before you leave the workforce, talk with your partner about what each of you wants to do, where you want to live, and what you want to spend in retirement. So today we're taking a closer look at the topics that successful couples asked one another in order to become successful and happy retirees. First, you suggest discuss retirement expectations long before you retire.

Yeah, I think that's important. And, you know, this is a little bit of a chicken and the egg scenario, which came first. Are happy people financially successful or are financially successful people a little happier? They say money can't buy love or happiness, but I don't think not having money helps in either of those either.

And, you know, it's not talked about a lot. Looking at this from the other side is that retirement can actually be a very stressful time in people's lives. There's actually an unspoken about high prevalence of depression in retirement. And part of that could be financial, but part of it also could be, you know, the activity, the interaction, the social aspect of our lives changes pretty dramatically. And some people really have a sense of identity from the work that they do and the interaction that they get with peers. It's a motivation factor. So we need to aim to have these discussions and understand that we are going to have a change in life circumstances.

What are we going to do with that extra time to continue to be active and inspired and to continue having that motivation? I think that is important. So, yeah, especially with couples, you need to talk it through early on.

And, you know, some people like the time away from spouses that work brings, quite frankly. There's a balance there. Right. We're really getting into it here. I agree. Do you have any suggested questions, though, to get the ball rolling?

Because I can assume this could be a stressful conversation for some people. How will we spend time together? How will we spend time apart? How much money will we have? How much money will we be spending? How can we control that?

All of those things, I think, are important. And what do we want to do? You know, what kind of travel plans do each of us envision? Is it just kind of putting around the state parks? Is it time on the golf course or is it more elaborate and lavish kind of trips, international cruises, those kind of things?

Like, what do we envision? Do we have any bucket list kind of trips that, you know, before we can't really do something, we want to go ahead and take care of? You know, I do find that the spending goes up in the first several years of retirement, oftentimes, as people do some of the things that they've always dreamed about doing. And they have a little bit of the extra time to do it.

But we need to also have a plan for how to be able to maintain the ability to do those kind of things. So a lot of folks, my clients in particular, whether you want to classify it as lucky or hardworking or blessed, they have been in a situation where they have not had to pinch every penny or stretch every dollar because they've earned a comfortable living. But the change for that same description of person is that much more substantial when they walk away from the paycheck.

And generally, the lifestyle is that much more expensive. So budgeting, once again, not anybody's favorite word, but it becomes an important part of the conversation. Second, you say regularly discuss current and future income and spending together. Studies show that couples with long term financial happiness have joint financial discussions.

Right. And again, you know, the budgeting discussion, a lot of the worry that we have with money throughout the month or throughout the years and in retirement, the decades could be confined into a finite period of time with a monthly joint budgeting and financial discussion. And then we have a lot greater confidence in what we're doing financially.

But in the majority of. Situations and conversations I have with couples, there is oftentimes one person who sort of handles the finances, which is fantastic that that is that person's interest, but the other one should never be in the dark completely about things either, because you're not doing that other person any favors. What's what if something happens? What what what happens when something happens to that one who is the one handling the finances?

What happens to the other one if they are completely in the dark about where the income comes from, what bills have to be paid, how to check on accounts? It's really it has to be a team project and task here that everybody at least is aware of of some of the basics of of the money in finance, regardless of if they want to get in in deep, deep depth about the actual investments themselves. They need to know where they're at. Right. Third, you say acknowledge differing needs or wants. This is a good rule of marriage or partnership. In general, indeed. And and I think every marriage and partnership has that bit of a yin and yang. Right. Is that there's always some balance there where, well, this is one person's strength. That is not mine.

This is my weakness. So having having a complementing dynamic in the relationship is is always valuable. I know in my household, you know, I probably would save a bunch of money and never have any fun.

My wife might have a different personality, but we have to learn to not cause conflict with that, but appreciate what the other one brings to the table, because he or she who dies with the biggest pile of money is not necessarily the winner. We've got to enjoy life along the way. But we also need to save to be able to continue to enjoy a quality of life into future years. So that balance is is important there.

And I think that, yeah, we've we've got to have those regular conversations and discuss that. And then last, you say consider life insurance. I think there are probably some retired couples who think they're probably too old for it. You know, it is a common phenomenon that on the day that we retire, we've got the biggest pot of money that we've ever had. Our personal wealth is hopefully on that day higher than it's ever been. And the house may be paid off. We're not needing to replace an income. We're in fact leaving the income on purpose.

The kids are up and raised. So all of those things may lead us to the conclusion that we no longer need life insurance. But I know in my personal situation, I am going to want to be able to spend my money together with my wife with confidence and enjoy ourselves in retirement.

And really, the only way I'm I feel at this point that I'm going to be able to do that is by giving her the means to refill the bucket. If we do happen to spend that balance down over time and as you begin to retire and withdraw from accounts, you know, that does have a habit of happening. The balances can can begin to go down over time. In fact, I find that people tighten up a little bit the very first time they have to take money out of those retirement accounts instead of being a contributor to it.

Well, over the course of decades, that feeling can can really grow and accelerate as as we do see the balance diminish. But life insurance would give that spouse the ability to refill the bucket when something happens. So giving you yourself the confidence to spend together and enjoy time and money in retirement.

And, you know, we hope this never happens to anyone, but stats show that it does. If there are extenuating medical circumstances, the need for long term care, you know, about seven in 10 people do have that that that experience and that need before the end of of their life. That can be rather expensive. So today, life insurance can actually be used to cover those costs and expenses, whether you accelerate and draw from it to pay those those costs while you are alive, therefore preserving the assets or you spend down on the assets and then have a life insurance component there to replenish it again. I don't think that the need is the same in retirement as it is when you've got a mortgage and kids and income that you're looking to replace. But I do think that the need does not ever completely go away. And even for those that could could reasonably qualify themselves as being self-insured.

I mean, that kind of person generally enjoys leverage and the insurance can provide a good deal of leverage for tax free legacy asset transfer as well. You know, I really, again, like this topic, Peter, and it shows how much you focus on kind of a holistic retirement plan. If somebody wants to talk through anything that we've covered today, what's the best way to reach you?

Yeah. Give me a call at Rashaan planning nine one nine three zero zero five eight eight six nine one nine three zero zero five eight eight six. You can visit online Rashaan planning dot com.

It looks like rich on planning or you can email me, Peter, at Rashaan planning dot com. All right, Peter, thank you. Always a pleasure. Thank you.

Everyone, Peter Rashaan here. Hope you enjoy the content. As always, make sure that you like, subscribe, share the videos with others that may find this information helpful. And as always, you're welcome to be in touch or to submit questions or comments. You can comment below the video anything that you'd like to see or hear shared on our YouTube channel. And in future videos, you've got a topic that you've been thinking about or is of concern for you financially. Be sure to let us know. We'd love to help you by discussing it on the channel. So appreciate the continued views and the likes and the subscribes, the shares, the comments always helpful. We look forward to getting you the information that you need.

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