Ep 135 | Saving for Retirement at 40? Budgeting Isn’t Enough

If you feel like you’re late to the retirement game and don’t have much saved… you’re not alone. But here’s the truth. This isn’t just about balancing bills and savings anymore. You’re on a mission and every dollar you spend (or save) matters. The solution isn’t another tight budget. It’s clarity, alignment, and strategy.

In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

✅ Why your retirement savings problem isn’t just about needing to “save more”

✅ The key mindset shift that helps you stop feeling restricted

✅ Tips for saving for retirement that actually work 

✅ The 4-step process I use with clients to find hidden savings

✅ How to align your spending with what matters most without sacrificing joy

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Transcript

As I said in the intro, if you're feeling late to having enough money saved get started late for many different reasons. It's really time to look at how you're handling your money. It's not just a balancing act anymore, and you're on a mission to look at every dollar. As an opportunity to grow your retirement savings, but it's not the time for you to feel hopeless or abandon your efforts.

It is the time to get serious, and that's what I'm going to help you dive today. You can't balance now and later the same way someone with 500,000 in retirement savings can. If you have less, you wanna stick around, keep on listening, and I will guide you through what you need to do to increase savings without aches and pains.

Most people think the problem is just I need to save more. So in an attempt. And this is probably you. You just throw money at savings and then you find yourself with quote money problems. You don't have enough to pay the bills, or there's a lot of shuffling on money, or you're dipping into your emergency savings if you have some, or reaching for that credit card because you don't.

This causes an imbalance with your cash, with your money, and creates problems. But the real issue with that is lack of clarity, lack of understanding where your money is going and. How much you truly need, IE how much money you truly have available for savings. Clients after working with me in session one, find anywhere from 400 to $800 of savings each month.

That range depends on how much you're making but they didn't know that the savings was there. I help them find the savings using my aligned money method inside the retirement roadmap session. If you're ready to increase savings and you want an outcome similar to my clients book, your free call at Elevate Finances us back slash connection to learn more.

We'll chat about what is the next best move for you. So if you're still buying everything that brings a little joy, but you're feeling panicked about retirement, you're spending like somebody who has margin, who has extra, but really you just need to spend, I'm not gonna say it's time to stop spending, but you need to spend like somebody with purpose, and that's what I'm going to help you create today.

If you're behind. It is time to view every dollar as an opportunity, it's not just a dollar. It's an opportunity, and every dollar you earn is an opportunity to grow your savings and get you closer to retirement. It's time to lose the words where it's just this much or it's only this much. As any amount and all amounts quickly add up and help you move closer to retirement.

It's not about no spending, I don't believe in that. If you stuck around here for a while, it's intentional spending, aligning your spending with your goals and values, opens up your opportunities more easily. This is how you lose the, I don't want to feel restricted, but you find savings that can help you move closer to retirement.

What can you do? I'm gonna give you four action steps to begin seeing your money differently and start saving more. All right, step one. I want you to take some time, and you might wanna do this over two to three days. I want you to write down every expense you have. What is the expense? That is it.

Just list 'em down. Don't edit it, just get it all out. Don't have any thoughts about it? I know there's a lot of shame and guilt around spending especially with women or people knowing they should quote, be saving more. But I want you to just write it down and I say take two to three days. 'Cause if you have not been tracking, you are going to not remember everything at one fell swoop.

I want you to spend a little bit of time, you know, thinking about, well, where do I spend? And in those two to three days, you're gonna spend money. And it's also gonna help you be aware, all right, you've got that list down, you've exhausted, you might've missed something and that's okay.

Step two, we're going to group each expense into a group A, which which is basic necessities, and group B, which is discretionary and enjoyment items. Going back to group, a basic necessities are things that give us shelter, you know, warmth. So our utilities make sure we have enough for food. And fuel or transportation.

If you have a car payment, that's going to be in there as well. 'cause that's how you get to work, that's how you get around, that's how you are able to earn the money that you're earning. Everything else goes into group B, which is discretionary. Now discretionary means we can choose. How much to spend or not.

Now, I want you to listen. I said food in group A, but why do so many people lean into their grocery budget to find savings? It's not where I want you to go. Group B is discretionary. It's the items you spend for joy. And again, I don't want you to, I don't want you to be like, oh, I shouldn't be spending this.

I just want classifications. For those in group B, this is step three, there are two things I want you to do. I want you to add the dollar amounts to group B. How much are you spending monthly? Wild guess. If you're not sure, maybe take a little bit of time to find out. But really, this is where you're going to add the dollars.

That are going to create the opportunities. Then what I want you to do is I want you to rank them from one to 10. One being, oh, I just love this when I buy this. For me, it just makes me happy. It's my reward for working all of those things and going in order to 10, which is, ah, I really don't know why I buy this. And I want you to list from one to 10. Now what I want you to do is, as you're looking at the list and you've added the dollar amounts to it. I want you to find where the halfway point is. Start from the bottom and go up because if we say you've gotta look at every single one for the top to the bottom, that's not true.

We've already ranked these in what really rewards us and what we are like, eh, I could probably do without. Start with that very last item on the list, and I want you to ask yourself, can I pause this? Can I pause the purchase of this to see how I feel about it? Am I missing it? You know, anything like this, or you know what?

I'm gonna not spend half of it and kind of reducing that amount as we think about pausing and reducing. Eventually we can lean into Amil elimination, but I don't want you to eliminate anything right now. I had a client and after our first session they are tasked with making a list of all of their things as part of our money routine that we're building.

And she comes back and she says, I removed three expenses because you know what? I can do them in a better way. And it was that realization of her true spending cost that was allowing her to shift and find more money for savings. There's another way to actually see, you know, that it's not about just doing away with it.

That is not where we go. But I want you to think about and think about how she phrased it. I could do this purchase better. There's a lot of ways to explore how we're spending our money. And step four, I want you to, as you're pausing and reducing, calculate your total savings. Right there.

You have got some savings, some additional money that you can turn to either your emergency funds or your retirement savings. I would love for you to email me email address is hello at Elevate Finances us and let me know if you did this process and how it was for you. What did you find? How did you feel?

Where do you need more support? What wasn't quite clear? Where can I clarify? Send me an email. Hello at Elevate Finances us. All right, so to quickly review those steps, step one, list every expense. Step two, group them into necessities versus wants. Wants are discretionary and enjoyment. Those are the terms I use there.

Step three is to rank your enjoyment. Spending one, you know, 10 to one most joy, most joy at the top, least joy at the bottom. And then add your dollar amounts. Go to at least halfway on the list, explore these with that. Pause, reduce, eliminate. Just see what you're feeling, what you're thinking, how you're seeing your money differently.

That's the true takeaway from this episode is doing this exercise. How is it helping you see your spending differently? No shame, no guilt. That's not allowed here. All right. I received the following testimonial from a client. She says, so glad I did my workup with you. I went from paycheck to paycheck and making minimum payments on my credit cards to paying off $5,000 of debt and saving $2,500 in three months, and it's definitely helped me curb my non-essential junk spending.

The results for her came through my aligned money method. In there, there's a strategic savings system that helps you define what gets funded first. Meaning is it going to go to emergency funds? Is it you know, for quick cash or are you going to retirement savings? She did this to apply to her debt that was, you know, growing month over month.

That was a reason she reached out. So it's the saving systems. A savings system that helps you determine, you know, your mix. Meaning do I put some in emergency funds or some in retirement savings or combination of both. And really, if you come visit the Aligned Money Method, I can help you answer that question.

One of the reasons savings feels so frustrating isn't that you're doing it wrong, it's that your money likely isn't aligned to what matters to you. And when your budget doesn't reflect what you want, your goals or your values, it can feel restrictive and unsustainable. In my Aligned Money method, we walk through four powerful phases that help you budget with intention, save with clarity, and manage that money with simplicity for success.

It all starts with a financial reality checkup. Inside my retirement roadmap session. This episode gave you the tools to identify savings, but if you're ready to create a system that builds your savings and fuels your retirement. Let's go deeper together. In your session, we'll audit your spending together so you know exactly where your money is going.

Build a budget based on your values and lifestyle, restructure spending to unlock faster savings. Most importantly, give you the confidence to take action with a clearer plan. If you're ready for results like that, book your free call at Elevate Finances us slash connection, and let's determine together if the retirement roadmap session is the next best move for you.

If you've been wondering how to catch up on retirement savings or just how to make real progress, it's more than a simple balancing act between enjoying now and saving for later when you're starting late or trying to accelerate your savings. Clarity is your best tool. Every expense needs a purpose.

Every expense is an opportunity for more. We talked about how to list and evaluate your expenses, identify what truly brings you joy, and redirect the rest toward saving with intention. You don't have to give up everything, just get honest about what matters most right now. And the best part, once you gain clarity and start making decisions with purpose, retirement starts to feel not just possible but exciting.

I hope this episode was helpful. Thank you for listening and be sure to tune into the next episode.