Ep 150 | Why ‘Too Late’ Thinking Hurts More Than Starting Late

It’s not about when you started, it’s about when you decide to start, and the longer you wait in fear, the less progress you’ll make. Confidence begins with choosing to start today.

In this episode, I will share 3 (actually 4) tips to help you make getting started late no longer a factor.

What You’ll Learn:

✅ How to Embrace the Late Start

✅ The Importance of Starting Now

✅ 4 Tips For Overcoming the Late Hurdle

✅ How to Define Your Starting Point

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💰 Join the Retirement Ready Workshop

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Transcript

 Welcome to the episode. I'm excited to dive into the topic of starting late. So obviously you found me because I talked to women and couples over 40, and with that comes a lot of thoughts about starting late and it's too late, and you know, I'm sure you're thinking, yep, that's why I'm here. And this episode is going to help you acknowledge that, understand that, but be able to take action in moving forward.

Please stick with me. This is part one of a three part series. Several episodes back. I did cover one about starting late, specifically for savings. You can go look for that one as well. But I really want to help listeners. I kind of find a neutral position with this idea of starting late. Prior to having the thought about, oh man, I've gotta get started, you know, planning for retirement and oh my gosh, I'm late.

Because we probably see with social media and all of that, 25 year olds, 30 year olds, they're planning, they're preparing, but that's okay. We are a different generation, and it's okay if you feel like you're starting late. You've probably been raising family, maybe a caregiver, maybe stuck between, you know, sandwiching of caregiving children and your parents.

There's a lot of things that our generation, number one is dealing with right now, but number two. We didn't have a lot of the accessibility to the knowledge, accessibility to the information for everything money. We also dealt with a generation prior and maybe even one prior to that, where talking about money is, was very taboo.

It's not what you did most of the things. You know, prior generations dealt with in life on a scale of, you know, handling their life and moving ahead. They didn't speak of that, you know, so this was money, obviously sex and obviously politics. It's just not something that was discussed. And now, on the flip side, today, this, these things are talked about quite often, but money does still have that.

Well, we're not gonna quite talk about it. If you are that individual who was like, yeah, my parents didn't talk about it, I want you to understand their, their placement as well. A 401k. Was not new until the boomers were, you know, coming into the workforce and getting up there. So the generation, if you were raised by a boomers, that was new.

My dad did participate. One, my parents were silent generation as I'm a younger child to them, but not everybody. Oh. Probably understood what a 4 0 1 was. The availability may not have been there. Pensions were the huge thing, and this was the way to kind of start segwaying away from that to help companies be more viable.

And so the reason I say that is the Roth was new to our generation, and as I was on my planning journey, when it came out, I'm like, okay, what is this? It's not making sense and I'm trying to learn about it. And, you know, I was like, I, I don't get it. Your parents may have done the same with a 4 0 1 and even if they were open to talking with you about money.

They, you know, this accessibility to the knowledge and the understanding wasn't there for them like it even was for me on a Roth. So putting that aside, you have a different starting point than generations now, and what I really wanna challenge you with right here at this point is don't let your children.

Have a late start like you, and it's okay to be at this point and starting realizing that it's time to get something going is step one, we've, we've got to realize that, okay, we are here, we've dealt with what we've dealt with and we've gotta get going. Really being stuck in that idea of it's too late can really cause you to.

Pause to delay action to think, well, what difference is this going to make? This episode is one of three to help you move through all the points of quote getting started late. And what I want you to do in this episode is I want you to recognize your starting point. It's okay that you didn't start saving at 25, or maybe you did haphazardly.

But retirement isn't only for those who started saving in their twenties or their thirties. Retirement is for everyone. And if you stick around long enough or you've been here long enough, you know that I say retirement is possible for anyone. The first thing that you need to do is lose the idea that you're starting late, and I want you to reframe that to, I'm starting now.

Starting now is better than never starting. While it can be easy for me to say, and I'm not saying that that's what I want it to be, but you've got to stop thinking about starting late. And it's going to take, you know, some ideas, some reprogramming of your thoughts and ideas as things pop up and like, ugh, well there's another reason and I'm too late.

We've gotta squash that. This is your starting point, and so I'm going to give you actually four steps in the intro. I said three, but I've got four steps, four tips to help you begin seeing your starting point and begin looking ahead and taking the advantages that you have now. . You are mature, you're able to do things.

Whatever it was that had you go, I need to start my retirement planning and it back ended with this. I'm starting late. That's okay. But we're starting now. Tip one, get serious. It's time for you to realize this is your starting point and you're going to just get serious about doing this. In a sense, if you are an empty nester or nearly an empty nester or feel like you now have the time to get the planning, this should be a quote job that fills that time.

It's that seriousness about it, but it's, and I'm gonna give you some different ideas, to fill this, get serious thing. But it's if you want retirement to happen. Tip one, make that retirement happen. You phrasing in your head, I am going to retire. And if you can add on a, you know, year or a date or you know, something more solidly, that means you're serious.

And that is tip one. That is step one. That is getting your mind to believe like I am starting now and I'm getting serious. I think of the individual who has learned how to swim. They swim over in the two foot all the time because you know, it's easy to, oh, I think I'm struggling. I'm gonna put my feet down for them.

They've gotta choose a point to get serious to swim in that 10 foot. Now headed straight to the 10 foot without learning how to swim is not a wise idea. That's what I don't want you to do, but I want you to get serious about educating yourself, learning, growing, understanding what all of the steps are in retirement planning.

I have a checklist down in the show notes. Go grab that. It will get you started. Very basically. But you know, those are the areas that you need to start learning and growing. I have several episodes covering a lot of the different, you know, things with Social security, Medicare you know, all the different types of savings.

But understanding where to start is important as well. We're gonna get serious. We're gonna learn how to swim in that 10 foot, but not before we have a knowledge base that is going to help us make wise decisions. You know, making wise financial decisions at the point, what we're getting serious is very key.

We don't need to just jump all in and cause havoc and problems in the future for us. Even though I say get serious, it doesn't mean that we're all in quite yet. Okay. This is your head. You're all in. In your head. Tip number two, it's time to start thinking about trade offs. In purchasing now more than ever.

When you wanna spend your money and you know, maybe you have a remodel or you wanna buy a new car, or you know, things like that that maybe aren't quote broken and you're like, well, I just would like a new car. What is the trade-off and waiting? . I love the word delaying purchases, but what is the trade off in waiting a couple of years?

Your car's fine. You want a new car, but do you need a new car? How does this fit in your plan of getting serious about retirement? ? I hear a lot of people, well, I'm just gonna buy a new car right before I retire. It'll last me, it's gonna last you for 20, 30 years. . That's a whole different mentality, a whole different episode, but it's important to start thinking about those trade-offs, the remodel.

Okay. Is it necessary, and it might be if you've been in your home for a while, and I get that, but start evaluating your purchases, especially the big ones. Especially the big ones, and what is waiting a year for that, or what is doing it in a different way? Really exploring the power of your purchasing.

The power of your money at this point is going to support you in that tip one of getting serious and, you know, reaching your goal. Think about trade-offs. Tip number three. I get this with my clients a lot. I hear it a lot on free calls and it is time for you. And everybody listening time for you to quit using the word only.

I hear this on both sides of, well, I have some money left over for savings, or I have an expense. It's done on both sides, and they're like, well, it's only $10. Okay, and if you only times 10, how much does that equate to? So if it is 10 times 10, that's a hundred dollars a month, a hundred times 12, $1,200.

So quit using the word only and start exploring what that $10 can mean, if you can invest that $1,200 into. Whatever. Again, not a financial planner. Not a financial advisor here, but if that is in the stock market, on average, you're seeing a rate of return of 8%. And I know I'm low balling that for those people that are financial advisors, financial planners, but for those of you who are maybe scared of the stock market or things like that, don't understand that that is how you compound your money.

You take that 1200 and it is going to grow. It's not gonna grow in 20 days. It's going to grow in five and 10 years. That $1,200 at 8% can turn into who knows what. That is the mentality that you've gotta start thinking about. You've gotta start looking forward to. And I wanna throw in, since I've talked about.

You know, you gotta get serious and this is where you grab your knowledge. I wanna throw two terms in here. Asset allocation and risk tolerance. Those two terms, understand those. When you're working with a financial advisor, a financial planner that you understand, don't let them tell you what to do. Understand what they want you to do and understand if it fits who you are. Those two terms, kind of some homework, but get your get your knowledge growing about these types of things.

Again, back to my tip, quit using the word only that is limiting you. Just like starting late is limiting you. We're getting rid of the limiting here. We've done a lot of limiting episodes and really that is just negativity. It's holding you back. It's not allowing your brain and your mind to believe in what you truly want, and that's where I want you to go.

Tip number four. It is time for you to create a values-based spending plan. And what do I mean by that? It is so important at this stage that you need to identify truly those expenses that bring you the most joy, joy in now, and joy in the future understanding. Where you can draw lines, boundaries, give yourself rules, give others rules.

I heard one of my previous coaches say, I spend three to $400 a month on wedding gifts and baby showers and this or that, and I'm like, I just wouldn't do it. You've got to understand what brings you the most joy. And maybe there's people you would do that for, but every, every invitation I receive if I can't afford it, not doing it, and we've got to learn to draw those lines.

We've got to learn what is supporting our joy now and our joy in the future. We've covered a lot, but I hope I have helped you understand that it's not about starting late. It's about this is your starting point. I invite you to book a Clarity connection call. There's a link down in the show notes or head over to Elevate Finances us slash Connection, and let's chat about all of your thoughts and ideas about starting late.

Let me support you in getting over those hurdles so that they're not limiting you so that you can find success. So again. Elevate finances, us connection. It's clarity, connection, call all the information's there, schedule a 30 minute call. Let's chat about what's going on, and let's see what steps you can take to resolve those thoughts and ideas.

Again, it's not about starting late, it's about defining your starting point and your starting point is essential. For you. It's not essential for anybody else. It's not important to anybody else. It is what it is. It's just like qualifying for track and qualifying for a race. I hope you will take me up on that call.

I hope you have enjoyed this episode. Stay tuned for the next two episodes as we dive a bit deeper in the starting too late Ideas and how to help supporting those of you over 40. Worried about that and being able to be successful and make retirement possible.