Ep 147 | 3 Retirement Myths That Are Keeping You Stuck

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I’ll never have enough to retire,” “I’ve got too much debt to pay off,” or even “It’s too late for me to catch up”? These thoughts feel true, but they’re actually myths that quietly keep you stuck. 

In this episode, I’ll help you uncover the sneaky stories your brain tells you to keep you “safe,” and how to start rewriting them so you can move toward the retirement you want.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

✅ What limiting beliefs are and where they come from

✅ Why your brain holds onto myths (and how it thinks it’s keeping you safe)

✅ Three common retirement myths you may believe

✅ Why these thoughts stall your progress toward retirement

✅ Simple steps to rewrite your story and rewire your brain

✅ How pairing new beliefs with small actions builds confidence and momentum

💜 Book your free Retirement Ready Q&A Call

💰 Join the Retirement Ready Workshop

✨ Connect with me on Instagram

Transcript

 Welcome to the Wealthy After 40. Today we're tackling one of the biggest hidden roadblocks to retirement miss and limiting beliefs. You know, those sneaky thoughts like, I'll never have enough to retire, or It's just too late for me. And so you don't take action. You don't feel inclined because these stories, these ideas feel true.

But they're not. By the end of this episode, you will understand how these thoughts, how these beliefs are keeping you safe, but truly making your outcome worse. So what are myths or also called limiting beliefs, and regardless what you call them, they come from your experiences in life. And how you perceived that experiences and multiple experiences at the time.

The perceptions may or may not be true, but the way your brain interpreted them, and this is due to age, maturity, trauma, et cetera, these thoughts and ideas are now a part of your life. These are how money stories get started and can happen as young as age three. This is a story I've shared fairly often.

About a 3-year-old who is with his dad. When he opens the door, he opens the door. This man is in a very nice suit. He's angry and he's demanding payment for a doctor's bill. He's the doctor. The three-year-old realizes, and so he kind of looks out and he sees a very nice car. This three-year-old hears this rudeness and the dad going, ah, we're just doing our best.

And really making some deductions due to age, due to the experience, the yelling, all of these things. You may have had something similar, and this is what creates these, you know, really these thoughts in our head that are unconsciously there. And these are okay. Because at the time everything about that was true to that 3-year-old.

That was true. I was working with a client and we were making good progress. Then all of a sudden she became very reserved and leery about making progress in one area. We began to dive into maybe some past ideas, past thoughts, and she remembered, which I know can sound probably. Crazy for some of you, but she remembered a fire from her teen years where they did lose pretty much everything.

Her parents were also entrepreneurs, so you know, businesses struggle, businesses come and go. She just realized that sometimes, and at some PI point, probably she would lose everything just like they had. Those were her experiences as a child. That's what she heard. And these, you know, these stories are true and these experiences are true at the time, but they don't have to be true and carried forward with us.

These ideas, these thoughts are holding you back in achieving what you truly want. And this is true in any area of life as you begin to change or do better in some area. Ideas, thoughts, beliefs, as you take action are going to pop up and it's very, very important that you actually resolve these and replace these to be able to make progress moving forward.

As you are moving ahead in planning for retirement, I'm pretty sure the reason why you sought out my podcast and I thank you for being here. You have may, you may have had any of those following of those thoughts. You know, or the following thoughts of, I'll never have enough to retire. I have too much debt to pay off.

It's too late to catch up, or somewhere in between. You've probably like, yep, this is what I'm telling myself. These ideas, beliefs, thoughts, they're popping up because it's hard for your brain to want you to change as you begin to change from what you've normally done. Your body experiences a little stress, you know, you get a little worried and it's hard and your brain wants to keep you safe.

It gives you these thoughts and these ideas as alerts. To keep you safe, but it's important that you not let them stop your progress. I just wanna share quickly inside my make retirement possible four day life challenge. Coming up at the end of September, we are going to go deeper into identifying these types of myths and then replacing them with empowering beliefs and actions.

Hopefully you'll join me in that challenge. You can find that link and registration for a small investment of $9 at Elevate Finances us slash challenge. It's important to recognize what these thoughts and ideas are. And then to put rules and boundaries in place to help you feel safe as you begin to make changes.

What do I mean by that? Well, I wanna use the example as I have a lot of debt to pay off. 'cause I think this is one that's pretty self understanding by anybody, whether they're in this situation or not. And you're like, well, I have a lot of debt to pay off. Reminds like. You can't do this, you can't do this.

What you need to do in the reverse side of it is tell your brain that you're going to do just a little at a time. As I was thinking of this, I remember not only my child, but several other, you know, nieces, nephews, when they want to start. You know, expanding their wings and start going somewhere.

And I specifically thought of the swimming pool, you know, and they want to go in the deeper end, and they're like, you know, they're, they're looking at their mom or their dad, and they're like, just a little bit. Just a little bit. And you as the parent aren't quite ready. So a parent is like the brain, but they're telling you.

Just a little bit. This is the same idea that I want you to do with if you are somebody looking to pay off a lot of debt, even if you're looking to save a lot of money, just a little bit pairing this new thought, this new idea with action, positive action will get your belief to begin to change, and soon it will diminish.

It's not gonna be. Right now be done resolved. But as you keep going and keep you know, moving ahead, taking these small safe steps forward, your brain is going to see new evidence and it's like, oh. And then the old belief that it keeps telling you begins to lose its power. This is how you are able to get past it and not let it hold you back.

I wanna give you some practical steps. I know we've talked about it in general, like what they are and how kind of, but I wanna give you three steps to begin working with these myths, reducing them, getting rid of them, but knowing how to do that. Name the myth when it shows up. What do I mean by that?

Well state it out loud, write it down. Acknowledge. What it truly is, thoughts can be so passive. We can be like, oh yeah, I'll never have enough. But until you acknowledge it, you can't take action. Again, call it out loud, write it down somewhere, and then I want you to think, so step two, how can I make a small change to begin removing this thought?

You've got to retrain that brain to start being okay with it and start seeing that evidence that you are going to be fine. Set a small boundary or rule, just a little bit is the rule we did in the example you know before, but it depends on the myth. And again, it's something we'll be diving deeper inside the challenge, but a few ideas to give you, as you're thinking about your myth, your limiting belief is rewrite it.

You know, instead of it saying, I'll never have enough, rewrite it in the belief that you're going. And then use that as a positive affirmation or think about it as what is truly standing in my way and how can I get past this? How can I prove that this thought that I am believing is fault and moving with it that way?

Pairing it again with that positive action, those small steps. Over time, this is how your myth will fade and your confidence will grow. Step one, name the myth. Number two, make a small change by setting a boundary or a rule. And number three, pair it with positive action, but small action, we don't need to jump overboard.

If you're ready to take this work deeper and put it in sync with the other four steps of my milestone method, I hope you will join me in my make retirement possible four day live challenge. September 23rd through the 26th, and again, I will share all five steps of the milestone method that will help you take these blocks along with your big goal and dream, and help you define and create 90 day wins over and over, and tell you reach your dream.

Head over to Elevate Finances US slash challenge and reserve a spot for just $9. Here's what I want you to take away from today's episode. Those limiting beliefs are just stories from your past. They don't define your future when you call them out. Understand why it's true or false. And if it's false, you've gotta remember that.

Create a safe boundary and pair that with small, positive actions. You will start building a new path toward retirement. It is with these episodes that I share with you every, you know, twice a week now. Helping you take these small steps and helping you take these small actions and move yourself closer to the retirement that you really dream.

And if you want to get there quicker than just these small doses twice a week and you know, doing the action yourself, I really invite you to book a free call with me. Let's chat about what that will look like. I always start. Everybody in a retirement roadmap session, but I can share all about that with you on the Clarity Connection call.

You can head over to Elevate Finances us slash connection and book a call with me there. Thank you for listening and we'll see you next episode