Retirement Planning: Balancing Early Retirement and Travel Goals

Couples must communicate and prioritize retirement goals to achieve a harmonious balance between early retirement and travel aspirations.

### Balancing Early Retirement and Travel Goals in Marriage
* 💑 Kevin B poses a dilemma about early retirement versus extensive travel in retirement, highlighting the need for couples to **align their financial goals**.
* 💰 He wishes to retire early while maintaining their **current standard of living**, but his spouse desires to travel, which may require a **higher budget**.
* 🗣 Effective communication is essential in marriage; understanding each partner's **expectations regarding finances** can prevent misunderstandings later on.
* 📊 Couples should discuss their retirement plans in detail, including **travel frequency and financial implications**, to find common ground.
* 📝 It's important to create both an idealistic "**dream plan**" and a realistic "**down-to-earth plan**," considering market volatility and potential health issues.
* 💻 Utilizing resources like the "**Know Your Number**" course can help couples **assess their financial standing** and run various **retirement scenarios together**.
* 🤝 Prioritizing shared goals and compromising on individual desires will lead to a **more efficient approach** to achieving both **early retirement and travel aspirations**.
* 🛤 Ultimately, collaboration and understanding in financial planning can help couples enjoy a **fulfilling retirement that meets both partners' dreams**.

[Music] All right, we've got a question from Kevin B up next. Um, this is a little different. I don't know. It's just, it's finance. It's definitely finance, but it's also saying something to entertain herself a little bit. I mean, it's a good question, I'm sure. Here's the thing. I know that you guys have seen this before, so I'm just interested to hear what you say to Kevin. He says, I want to retire early at my current standard of living, but my spouse wants to travel extensively in retirement. Should she continue working after I retire, or should I work longer too? Classic, right? It's What's the goal? What's the why in a marriage? How do people handle this when it comes to retirement? Because, again, it's a very personal thing. So, he wants to retire early and maintain current standard of living. She wants to travel when she retires. So, I'm assuming that means that in order to travel, it's going to increase standard of living. Is that the assump? What I would think, seeing a

camper in their future. I'm seeing plane tickets and all kinds of expensive travel, and so his thought is, Sweetheart, I love this idea. What I want you, I'm going to go and retire. You just keep working, keep adding to the pot, and then when you retire, we'll travel around. Is that what that is? Is that the way that you're interpreting this? Well, I think I would encourage him, as being a man that's been married for 26 plus years now, we might want to reframe how we position that question. Because this is one of the beautiful things about marriage, is that we all come in different shapes and sizes, we have different motivations. But this is why you have to understand that money is just a tool, but it's important for you to have good communication on what you each expect out of this powerful tool. Because if you just stick your head in the sand and one of you is one or both of you start making the decision of retiring without having this conversation, it's going to be an oopsy.

or an uh-oh moment, so it's much better while you're in the control structure of you're both making good livings. Um, measure twice, cut once. Y'all go start talking about this, figure out where is the common ground. Are we going, do you want to go on a trip once a quarter, or are you planning on going on a trip once a month? Let's actually put pen to paper. You know, I always talk about putting on your 3D glasses. It's primarily B life decisions. It can be stting a but in this Cas. It could be trying to plan ahead to know what your future retirement is going to look like. Let's put on your 3D glasses. Let's put in the dream plan. This is where, man, we have so much money. The stock market just keeps going to the moon, and we're making so much. Not only do I get to live my current lifestyle, but I'm throwing you in first class as we fly overseas. This is going to be the best part of our

life ever that's great. Do the day, do the dream plan, but I also want you to do the down-to-earth plan where you guys go, Yeah, this is probably what's going, but realize our stock, our investments are going to have volatility. We probably need to pay attention to that. We're also going to probably have some health issues somewhere along the line. We need to take that into account. So, let's put a plan that's very down to earth, and then let's not forget the do plan. You've got to do the negative plan as well, and you'll do actually pen to paper, or is probably even a spreadsheet to do this, or even better yet, go check out if you go to learn.money.com. We have a know your number course, so you can actually have a tool as well as the education that you can use as a great communication tool to figure out, Are you ahead of the curve, behind the curve? and run these different scenarios with the different assumptions, and that way you guys can come together because um

You got to have good communication on this because if you just go into retirement and hope the best will happen, I think you're setting yourself up for a lot of failure and a lot of discomfort. You know what? I don't like throw pillows. I said it. It's out there. I don't like throw pillows. I bet you have a lot of throw pillows on your bed. Zero ROI on throw pillows. They go on the bed on the days the bed gets made the fancy way, and then when you go to bed, you pull them off, you throw them on the floor, you put them in the whatever. I don't like throw pillows, but you know who likes throw pillows? Your wife. My wife. My wife likes throw pillows. I bet. Hey, can you tell me how many throw pillows are on your bed when it's fancy made? We got a lot. There's a lot of... But so, but here, but I... We... I think we have... It's either five or six. I'm trying to visualize if that

other pillow makes it. We got throw pillows and chairs around the house. That's a we got. Anyways, I digress. We had this conversation around pillows. You have to take the pillows off to sit in the chair. We had this conversation on, hey, what matters to you. I said, hey, sweetheart, there are zero ROI on throw pillows. It is a pure cost, pure expense. This $1 throw pillow just cost me $88. They're more than $1. But she said, hey, I like them, and I like pretty. And so we recognized that there had to be a compromise here where there was something she valued that maybe I didn't value as much. And so we met there, and she has done the same thing for me. Well, when it comes to retirement goals, you have to do the exact same thing. It sounds like you really value, you want to retire early, you're ready to leave the workforce, you want to, okay, well, you guys have to put that on your couple whiteboard and say, okay, what is our priority around

retiring, retiring early, and then okay, what is our priority around traveling, and how do we prioritize those goals? And you guys have to drive and agreed-upon prioritization around those goals, 'cause then the behaviors that you carry out will then align with how you prioritize those goals. Until you're able to do that, it's not going to be as effective working towards those goals because there may be a chance, just like Brian said, you can actually do both. You can accomplish both of those things, but I think you're going to find more success doing it together than being at the place, okay, well, I want to retire early, that's my goal, I'll do that. You want to travel, that's your goal, you do that. I just feel like you're going to have an inefficient system to achieve both those goals where there's a chance, okay, maybe you work a little bit longer, and maybe you guys retire a little bit more, or you travel a little more modestly, and then it's a win-win for all parties involved. I think that would be the way that I

I Want to Retire Early, But My Spouse Wants to Travel Extensively!

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The Money Guy Show

Kevin wants to retire early while maintaining their current standard of living, but his spouse desires extensive travel in retirement.

The potential increase in living expenses from travel raises the question of whether she should continue working after his retirement.

Effective communication and understanding each other's expectations are crucial to navigating their differing retirement goals.

It's important for couples to discuss their financial goals and find common ground, whether it's planning trips or preparing for retirement.

Creating a dream plan and a down-to-earth plan can help balance aspirations with potential challenges.

Utilizing tools and courses, like the "Know Your Number" course, can aid in running different financial scenarios and improving communication between partners.

The Importance of Communication in Retirement Planning

Good communication is essential when planning for retirement to avoid failure and discomfort.

The speaker shares a personal anecdote about differing opinions on throw pillows, highlighting the need for compromise in a relationship.

Setting clear priorities and goals as a couple is crucial for a successful retirement plan.

Retiring early and traveling are common goals that require agreed-upon prioritization.

Aligning behaviors with these priorities can lead to more effective goal achievement.

Working together to find a balance between retiring and traveling can create a win-win situation for all parties involved.