Ep 141 | 5 Smart Tips for Saving for Retirement Without Sacrificing Joy

If saving for retirement feels like one big question mark, this episode is for you. In this episode, I am sharing 5 tips for saving for retirement specifically to help you save more. So if you’re looking for ways on how to save enough for retirement, these tips are for you. Some might sound familiar, but I promise a few will surprise you. 

What You’ll Learn:

✅ Why chasing the “perfect” strategy delays real progress

✅ How to save enough for retirement using small actions

✅ Tips for saving for retirement without cutting what you love

✅ The hidden cost of investment fees (and how to take that money back)

✅ A simple way to challenge yourself and boost savings consistently

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Transcript

 Welcome to the episode. Before we dive in, I just want to remind you, last episode, we discussed how to start saving. For retirement or for anything really. And that episode was for anyone who is struggling either to get started or staying consistent. It never hurts to go back to the basics to help you build the foundation stronger because if that is laid into place, your action steps from today's episode will help you find more momentum more quickly.

But nothing is an overnight success. As you add these tips, I'm going to share with you in this episode to help you save enough for retirement. I'm going to share some you've probably heard before, but I hope and maybe can guarantee some of them. You may have not. And if you have heard them, hopefully I will share them in a way that.

Makes sense to you or is speak, you know, speaking to you in a different way than what you've heard before. Why do we need to save for retirement or how to save enough for retirement? The first thing you need to remember is that saving for retirement will not and cannot be an overnight success.

The minute you quit looking for a quick fix or that one thing that will get you there in a short amount of time. And I've heard people say this but you've gotta get past that. And once you do, you will feel more settled and you will find yourself actually making progress, actually having success with the savings.

You've got to live in the moment, like I said in last episode. This is a long game. There is no instant gratification. Just like with help, we have got to find the wins and those celebrations at every little point. If you continue to search and search and search, this will only delay you in taking action.

After listening to today's episode, I want you to promise me one thing. That you will take at least one action from either episode to help you get into that consistent saving mindset, and once you get those into place, go search for something else. Go search for something else. In my story, I share that.

That was like my step number eight, I believe. Where I continued to learn and I continued to refine what I had was already doing. It was gaining more knowledge, but don't gain knowledge if you're not putting anything into, you know, into action. A reminder from the last episode, learning to save is crucial for your financial health.

It's the one skill most of us neglect. Is the one skill that should be cultured until it is one of our best habits with money. Why is this important for retirement? Well, first off, exactly what we're discussing today. It will help you save enough for retirement. But second, when you reach retirement, it's still very important that you know how to save.

It is crucial for your financial health learning. That skill will just transfer into retirement because in retirement you will still have those ill irregular and unexpected expenses. Money, life doesn't necessarily change. It's just our trading time for the money is the only thing that's changing.

The more we can learn on this side, the better off we will be on that side. And I know that's another fear. A lot of people are worried about having enough running outta money. Get this side of life right, this side working, figure it out. And I promise you retirement will be easier.

Learning to set aside money for all of the things that you can anticipate, those irregular and unexpected expenses will protect your retirement lifestyle. Having the money ready for those quote emergencies won't take away from what you are desiring to do. It is very crucial to build your savings in such a way that it will support.

You know, support you in maintaining that lifestyle. All right, how can you save enough for retirement? I'm gonna share five ways, five tips to help you save a. Save for retirement, save more for retirement, however you wanna look at this. And if you're looking for more strategies or to dive deeper into the strategies I shared last episode and this episode book a Clarity connection call during the month of August.

You will receive a bonus video training called The Fastest Way to Build Savings. Head over to Elevate Finances us slash connection, and book that call today. Tip number one, know your specific target goal. Just amassing savings without really knowing what the end goal is, is kind of difficult to go.

Okay, I gotta keep saving. How much, how long? To know your specific target goal. This is your FI number. This is covered in episode one 16, and if you're looking for support in creating this number or a range, as I talked about, you know, a couple episodes of, couple episodes ago about a range with dates.

I can also help you define that in the retirement roadmap session with a, with a range on the FI number. So knowing your annual expenses. That are estimated for retirement and multiply them by 25 basically gives you that FI number. Once you know this number, you now have an end goal. You now know what you're working towards.

It kind of gives that specific to it. It's not. You know, just saving and hoping it's enough, and then one day asking somebody, and it's also not going to a random calculator that really doesn't take in your financial situation. Now the more clear, the more clarity you have on your situation, the better this number will be.

You're gonna wanna continue to shape this number and recalculate this number, but it, it gives you the finish line. That's where you're gonna reach for it. That's what you're, you know, working towards. And then break that down into mini goals and celebrate along the way. 'cause you know it's going to be a while.

Set yourself those mini goals within to get yourself, you know, closer and closer and closer to that end goal. Honestly, once you achieve one, you're gonna wanna achieve another. And I know that sounds silly, but it's not. Once we find we can do something, we'll keep going and you know, things seem to work out better.

Tip number two, you need to find extra money. I know you heard this before, but without sacrificing what you love. Without sacrificing what joy and happiness with your money. It's not about cutting the eating out or the lattes or those things, it's about understanding your spending patterns.

And these patterns can be monthly, seasonally, or annually. You know, learning about all of that through the seasons, how your expenses are going to ebb and flow will help you understand what quote extra money is there. What you enjoy spending on when and where it really defines and can free up, you know, 50 to a hundred dollars without that stress of, well, you can't do this and you can't do that.

That will save you a hundred dollars. Let it happen naturally. Let it happen naturally, and I hope my clients. Find their initial savings bucket in the very first session inside that retirement roadmap session. And then with additional coaching, we, we explore these spender spending patterns, and we actually lay out a plan for how the savings is going to be applied, where it's going to fit into, you know, your priority and get you saving for what you truly, truly, truly want.

Saving doesn't have to mean doing without or sacrificing everything. You've just got to prioritize with joy and purpose, and you will get there quicker and happier. Tip number three. This one, I'm I, unless you attended my bootcamp I had in June, those individuals have heard this, but you need to dig into what fees are you paying for your investment portfolio.

What does it cost you if you have a portfolio that is heavily managed, meaning somebody's keeping track of, you know, rebalancing that you know, if it comes out of order, if you don't know what I'm talking about, that's fine. That's why we have them. But you may be paying upwards of 2% a month. If you are making a return of 10%, you are only receiving 8%.

And then you need to reduce that for inflation. Fees do matter. Here's a place you can explore having a greater impact on how much money you keep without having to go and look into your budget or your bank account. You can go and explore. With your with your HR or with whoever is servicing it, and just say, what are the fees for all of my options of investing?

And explore that and learn that and understand, you know, what the return is, how that affects, and how much of your money are you going to keep in the end. Last episode, we talked about how to get started and being consistent. Tip number four. Now it's time to challenge yourself.

If you remember in the last episode, we talked about making sure you were serious, getting serious, starting small. This tip, I want you to push yourself to the limit. Now, if you've been here for a while or you've gone back and found it. In my episodes, I talk about my savings challenge. On occasion, it's what I used to grow my savings rate from.

I think I was around 10%, up to 22%. Yes, it was not overnight. That was my ultimate journey, but. I was amazed by the fact that if you increase your contribution by 1% every month until you're looking at your budget and going, ah, I gotta pause, and then you kind of sit with that much money that you have, you've eed out, you know, probably three, four, maybe even 5%.

But if you think about 1%, it's really not a lot. It does amass to be a lot, but you're not going to fill the pinch very quickly, so I'm challenging you to increase your contribution amount, 1% starting this month and every month to follow until you feel like the household doesn't have, you know, quite the buffer, the boundaries that you like.

And then just pause for six to nine months and then remember to come back. What you're gonna wanna do is you're gonna wanna calculate your savings rate, this is total monthly savings divided by your gross pay. This is your starting savings. Percent. This is another way to measure how much you're saving, even when you're putting into those sinking funds that seem to disappear often.

But we need to have those, we can look at our savings rate and know we are saving 10% every month, the totality on this side is like, oh, it's slow growing, but oh my gosh, I've gone from 5% to 10% in just six months. It is such a good way to see the progress you are making and trying to have on your savings.

Tip number five. The last one I have for you today is I want you to start thinking today. How much of your next pay raise hoping you do have one coming. I know not everybody does. But you can do this with one time monies as well. But I want you to decide today before anything like this happens, how much of that you will put be putting towards savings.

Of your raise, are you going to commit 50% to savings or 25% to savings? Write it down, and then when that event happens, you're not caught up in the, oh, I could do this or I could do that, or, you know, getting lost in that work. You still have 75 or 50% of it that will support you in your, you know, spending on your budgets and growing that way.

But make sure you don't neglect how it's going to support your savings. You get a promotion, you have a raise, you change jobs and it comes with a higher pay. Be ready with this idea in mind before that happens. Leaning into other saving strategies instead of just cutting expenses will empower you and motivate you.

And I believe instead of telling you where to cut or what feels like a lot, you already know this. I will just help you explore those thoughts and help you see how they fit in your goal best. Sometimes we just want somebody to discuss this with us in a way that makes sense. If you want to solve the problem, if you need to save enough for retirement, my coaching program does exactly that.

We start with the retirement roadmap session. And in that session, as I said earlier, we will define your FI number. We will find your initial savings bucket amount, and I will also help you map a saving strategy to, number one, build stability and grow your retirement savings. We'll solve all of those irregular and unregular expenses and also help your retirement account to grow.

So if that interests you, book a free call. Again, that's at Elevate Finances us slash connection, and let's discuss how the retirement roadmap session. And my aligned money method can help you build savings. And remember, for the month of August, if you book your call during this month, you will receive a bonus free video training called The Fastest Way to Build Savings.

I'm gonna go deeper into strategies, explain a little bit more, and give you some extra ones that we have not covered in these two last episodes. To summarize the episode. There are five tips I gave you today. You are ultimately looking for how much you need for financial freedom. Having that end goal, tip one, right then freeing up as much money.

And again, if you remember last episode, it doesn't matter the size of that, but free up some extra money by exploring your expenses. Without the mentality of I need to cut or else, we get stuck in this. I've gotta make it happen. So I'm gonna cut this, cut that, and then we're not happy and we can't stay consistent.

Explore how much you're truly paying in portfolio fees. You will be surprised. You'll be surprised and if you book a call and get that video, I'm gonna explain more about how to do that, why you should do that, and different reasons for different packages that you're investing in with your employer can make a difference.

And then make sure you are challenging yourself to grow your savings rate in the next three months by a minimum of 3%. You will amaze yourself at if you can go past that, but at least a minimum. And last, make a rule for how you will contribute part of your next pay raise, promotion, raise whatever it is to your retirement savings.

I hope you found this episode helpful. I thank you for listening, and I hope you'll join me in the next episode.