Ep 448: Money Goals For Every Decade
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So today is the day. It's my day. I woke up and I found out that somehow I am sixty years old. I just don't even like the sound of that.

While getting older is definitely not for the fate of heart, there's good things about IT, and that's just not my opinion. Lately, we have been talking to some incredible women who have shown us that getting older. Can we say that way rather than getting old? Let's just say getting older.

I prefer that it's actually a life of firming experience. I loved my conversation with temps for here IT on reinventing your career in your fifties, also on all things monopoles. He was amazing when the bounds took up spartan racing at age forty seven, bunny hammer started a family in her forties because that's just when I worked out for her.

And these women are showing me that there is no timeline for accomplishing all of your dream. So with that inspiration in mind, I thought I would be fun. I thought I would be interesting to talk about my money goals for my sixties.

How are things gonna change as I age? How are they gonna change for you as you are similarly aging, getting older, not getting old? And the person that I wanted to talk to is Michelle singletary.

You know, her SHE has been here before. He is the author of a wonderful award winning syndicated column that originates in the washington post. She's a personal finance rockstar.

She's also just hysterically funny and she's got two years on me, which means that she's got just this slight little window into what's coming ahead so much. So first of all, thank you for doing this with me. I'm very, very grateful and looking forward to IT.

Well, first of our happy birth day, ky, and is always a pleasure to talk to you. You are my SHE rose.

So how how was IT for you turning sixty? Yes.

you can absolutely say .

it's suck IT. IT was a translation .

on a since that your body does think that I never did before. IT makes sound that IT never did before. So there's both a physical and even some of the mental. You go to a room, you just stop me.

Go, what was that? Come in here. And my kids gets so non plus, because i'll mixed names, trying to call one of them.

And theyll look at me and I go, you know what your name is? I don't get IT right. You know what your name is, just a sir. So it's a lot of that stuff. But I like when my husband, when I complain, he says, when you know what, IT bees, the alternative and so he helps to keep me grounded in the fact that the other side of getting older, I guess they would decided that I would yes, is that you feel, at least I can say for myself, I feel more confident and more able to say no when I want to say no. My nose or nose, my yes as or yes is and there's just disappoint in your life where you like, I don't have to take this crat um not going to do this.

I don't say that to me and this just the confidence that you have because you have less year ahead of you to waste and so you don't do do is many things there might be, hopefully you don't do as many things that you don't want na do. And i'd love that. I love being self confident. You ve got a whole career, the moments of doubt of fewer, I think, and it's just great. And my husband retired a year ago and so having him around is really cool.

We're gonna talk about that too because as you know, my my husband is is closer to retirement than me. And it's it's been a thing. IT has definitely been a bit a thing.

But but I love that because I did feel when I turned fifty that I got braver, that I that I was able to start saying things that I wanted to say without really censoring myself and wondering what other people were gna. Think about them all the time. And if you get more of that with sixty, that's fantastic.

Also, the no thing is really big. I am not particularly good at that. Never have been. I say yes too often, but I I mean to try to channel a little you and and embrace that and make my nose truly nose, because sometimes, even when I say no, I end up doing in anyway. And that just pisses me off.

I'm there too. I do IT too. And I now have to continually talk to myself. And because of who you are, you get invited to places people want you to speak, and you feel like you want to be there to help them. But you only have so much.

And i've just took much, much Better at, and not just saying I know, but making no a complete sense because then I would say no. And then I was then you so if i'm writing a note, three or four graphic explaining in my note and when you do that to give people in in because i'll signal I have too much to do this weekend and I know what about next week. I don't want to signal period.

yes. And so now I don't know. I just i'm sorry I can do that and that's IT. I don't have to apologize. I don't have to qualify. I don't have to say i'm doing all the other stuff because you just want you don't want people to feel bad, but I don't have to explain I know anymore if no and I you just take IT is no is a complete set.

Last year, you published a really entertaining and informative series of money milestones for every decade. And there were there were a lot of really great specifics. I'd love to touch on a few of those before we focusing on those that we should be focusing in, on our our sixties. So if we've got folks who are listening in their thirties, what are the top couple of things that need to be on their so one of the things.

you know, dean will be talked about, there's so many times I hate, I hate that so bad. If IT was a person, I slap IT. So I try to get them to.

I think in your authorities, if you have a healthy hatred for debt, IT will create an amazing amount of wealth for yourself. So develop that habit early. If you hate IT, you will borrow less.

You will pay more attention to how you borrow. So that's one thing. And then you time to your advances. But the ones thing is you get older that you don't have this time.

And so when you're Younger, save as as quick as you can, as soon as you can, invest as soon as you can because you've got decades, my three, twenty years old in my household. And we just like encourage them to invest now, not just for IT, but invest to pay for the things that you want. If you feel like our kids will probably never have a carrot because we're teaching them how to save and invest.

Two of them are still driving a right ahead in high school. amazing. And they are almost in their late twenty. And so the next car, they are saving for cash. And then i'll keep that for a twenty twenty years.

And so if you develop the habit early on, you can avoid a lot of the pit fall that people have later when they wake up and realized they have a safe enough for retirement where they haven't made relief. Smart decision though, they have too much house, too much car. I just wrote a column about people being car poor, that an increasing number of americans are trading in their car. We can to fifteen thousand and dollars that I do water, meaning that the the car is not worth as much as the low and that just that you are for just continuing to be in that dead pit.

I I was driving a around phildee fia with my Younger brother earlier this week, and we were talking about his car. His, he has been driving IT for number years, has been paid for a long time, but he said, every month I just take three hundred fifty dollars and I put IT away and it's for my next car. And that way, whenever this car dies and hopely, IT won't die for a while.

But whenever IT dies, they won't have to borrow. They just sort of treated as an ongoing. And IT works really well. Also, I just gotta say, I don't understand why anybody ever buys a new car certified used. That works fine for me. How about people in their forties who had does life change when you move from your thirty years is what milestones you have to accomplish them.

So in other times in your four days, you sort of hitting your stride with your career. For a lot of people, you are at the point where you're looking at promotions and raises and maybe thinking was next, if you had children in authorities, there are sorted, is setting almost ready to go to college. And so you're looking at that cause and you may have pear IT or relatives, older relatives who you might be faced having to take care of.

So that's a bit transitional here. We sort of think about fifty six six that really the forties is that decade were so much happened. And so that's a tRicky decade. That's a decade where people tend to have lifestyle being in that they start to live with every dollar of IT comes into their household. And the more they make them, more they spend.

And next thing you know, there is not a lot left to do the things that will secure you in the later decade, if like sixty and seventies and eighty, I have the most difficult time with people in their forties to get. They want so much for themselves of the other than everything. And it's hard to say how. Wait up, you know, you've gotta pay yourself because you'll look up and you'll be in massive amounts of debt and not ready for the next term that you've got ta make. If you're think IT about a highway, you're getting off and offer him you're not going to be ready for that their retirement off read if you've been speed in the head, getting, if you will, if I continue and now we've getting around of you being tickets mean dead and parking up and living above your means.

When you look at people in their forties, me, to me, the most important thing is make sure that savings rate is up at fifteen percent, right? That long term savings rate, make sure you hit you're hitting IT consistently because I do think if you're doing that and you're not incurring debt, the rest will kind of take care of itself.

That's right. Exactly right. I mean, you should be living really or seventy or eighty percent if you can.

Now a lot of americans can't, but there are a lot who can. And that is exactly why. If you hit that benchmark first before you add in all the other expenses. Man is just smooth sAiling from there.

Yeah, fifty is the year. Well, fifties is the decade where I, but long term care insurance, I really got serious about paying off my mortgage because I always have wanted to go into retirement mortgage free. what? What are you? What are your fifty year old milestones?

So that was what we did. Did we send all about children of college dead free? So is the time when we finished that up, like the lord, we really supercharge our retirement savings.

At that point. We hadn't been maxim out and magazine are meaning the annual limit that you could in your workplace plan because we were saving for college and we were getting them through. And so then the first used by yeah as super choices. And also we had the same goal.

We are mortgage free and we did that before my husband retired that was out all in our fifty said neither one of us were retired with a mortgage and we met that and that met just so in massive ve amount of money to get that off of our uh network statement. The liability that is and that's what we've caucus on in our fifties, everything that we could so that we wouldn't have the largest experts going into retirement, which is housing, obviously, you to have to pay taxes and home and shorts, but still that healthy payment. And we just agreement of sire released two years now without a mortgage.

It's oh my god, you just wake up. Just just you just wake up. Yeah, they break on my back there.

There are people, other financial experts like you and me, and journalists who who do what we do, who would be listening to us and say, those women are crazy. You know, you've got a low rate mortgage. You could take that money.

You could invested in the market. You could do significantly Better dollar for dollar by not paying off that mortgage. why? Why make that decision? And I think I made IT similar emotional reasons that you did.

I don't like that. I don't want the feeling of knowing that this rock could be pulled out from undermine. Perhaps that's because when I got divorced, I was the one that moved, and I never wanted to have to do that again. How do you explain the decision?

So I love this question because I wrote to call limn about how we paid off from Morgana. And we had a two point seven five one. Morgan ry, so right now, our people too, I tell you, people lost that ever less in my, you would have thought, as somebody baby, I could not not fair them, that I would give up what they called sheet debt, and questioning my credibility as a financial al writer to say that I was giving up cheap debt.

But two point seven, five of a large a lot of money like do the map. And so we did not just make that decision based on emotions. We looked at everything.

And so what we decided was okay. One, we didn't want to continue to pay interest that we didn't need to pay as a guarantee. And then secondly, we always pay attention to our sh flow.

People forget that right now, fortunately, we structured our mortgage so that one of us could afford IT on pretty much out one salary. But IT even doing that means that we would climb out cash flow, meaning that we wouldn't be to take maybe the vacations that we want IT or help of other family members. My husband, I give a great amount of money to charity.

We tie ten percent about growth income. And so that would have impacted those things that are of value to us. So two point seven, five, even of a big mortgage.

We live in a what A D, C area is still a lot of money. We paid attention to the clash though. So because we didn't have a mortgage, we haven't had a mortgage.

My husband has had to dip into neither us into our retirement account. And the last year, the market has been right where I return account. So not of that money had to be pulled out.

So that's one thing. He could live on his his federal pension. We can live on my salary and still not change our lifestyle and saw that was the other thing.

And then we just we're living what we preach in terms of not having debt. And finally, if what there was an emotional piece that I don't have to give a bake my money every month. And at there is freedom.

If anything happens, one of us can sickle whatever excites but the taxes and the home and showers. We we have a permanent roof over our house. We do not have to worry about somebody come on and foreclosing on our house.

And that is a very tangible thing, although there's an emotional the part about IT is very tangible. We created a housewares. People have come to live when they needed to recoup financially and emotionally.

And so this is the place of everybody. My family lost their house. Everybody can come here and there's plenty of room and we have situated ourselves that way.

And I think lastly, when we talk about what you can get in the market, that's over time, right? So any one year, the market can be down. And in twenty and one, twenty two eight was like twenty thirty percent if you were all in ages as we are.

And that's another conversation because you don't want to invest the way we did. But we have four new and he between us so we can be more aggressive in the market. But any one year, the market may not return those returns.

And so we knew that and we just said, okay, let's get rid of the because dead and and an expense one on our budget and brand. So we looked at this both emotionally and financially and make the best decision for our family. Other thing is people who say that so that I actually work with individuals, oh, you know, put IT in the market.

Most of them actually don't do that thing.

I need the people who are is like, you know, i'd like to watch people and we have Foster the courter back. What though this wait, you will get out on their fields if you could vote a ball. And so they're say things like put the market, but we know most people who are best aren't investing correctly, just they're either too risky or not risky enough.

They're not putting enough in the market. They don't even know what's in their retirement account. So I just discount those fools because they don't actually work with anybody. You know how people actually have their money?

Well, I think that I think that's the thing. It's human behavior. People say they're going to buy term insurance and invest the difference, and they never do.

We're going to get to people in their sixties, specifically women in their sixties, in just a sec. But before we do that, we're gonna take a quick break. Her money is proud dly, sponsored by adult financial engines.

Preparing for the unexpected tomorrow is what gives us the piece of mind to live a life of freedom today. Protecting your family is about so much more than just saving and investing. Having a conversation about your wealth is an important part of your protection puzzle.

Explore your options with a complimentary wealth check up, visit plan E F E dot com, flash her money, or call eight, three, three, three or four P L A M. We are back and back with Michelle single Terry from the washington post. SHE writes the amazing colour of money column.

We're talking about money milestones in the honored of my sixty birthday. So you get here sixties, and you think, okay, I don't love as much time left as I used to have, but I still might have an awful lot of time. I might have thirty years. I might have forty years. What are the big boxes that we don't think about checking off during our sixties that we should be thinking about?

I will say the number one box. And this might surprise me because where money ladies is health, i'm embarrassed to say that I did not pay enough attention to my help, meaning that I didn't get enough to sleep. I ran on empty all the time to make everything work in a day.

I'd be up to two, three or more, and then get up at six or seven in my twenties and thirties and forties. I mean, I had three kids balls right back to the same weight. I mean, I just could eat anything I want IT.

I think this was like living a and the city think we here is your body was like, girls, you go for all of that now as though I am paying for IT. Now I have more health chAllenges because I didn't take advantage of my healthy yourself. I didn't pay attention that I didn't get enough sleep too much, rest over working, saying yes, too much.

And so now the number one concern is getting that back. So eating healthier, getting rest. And so now I try, I haven't been completely successful, but I go to bed now, I want my watch of my little phone is electra said, you need to go to bring IT and I have a little.

I talk to my family. I time to go to bed IT. And so I think this in another thing and that because if you don't if you're not healthy, you didn't indo spending more of your retirement money taking care of those health chAllenges.

Yeah and and my hasn't. I want to travel and we want to climb mountain in and, you know, swim the ocean. And we not going be able to do that if we don't take care of our bodies.

And so both he and I on his mission to just eat healthier, go to bed out, stress, get massages, and that's really what we're focused on for right now. That's the big thing as the money thing is good. We're good.

We go with them many. We're good with what we would probably take if we need on term care. We were not work good, Better. Now is our health.

Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. I rote a book years ago with a doctor, and we outlined the cost of chronic diseases, right? People think that we spend so much money taking care of really, really old people in the last years of their life, and we do.

But the amount of money that people spend taking care of diabetes and asthma and the other chronic diseases that we Carry around with us for decades can really not be discounted. And a lot of those things, or if not avoidable things, that you can minimize if you take care of yourself. You said the money thing is is good, which is fantastic.

But I also know that your has been retired. You're not retired, which is very close to the scenic that i've got going on in my own house. I am not retired.

My husband is working part time and we're fine financially, but that's not the same as necessarily being on the same page financially. You you wrote an article that I loved about your fear of running out of money in retirement. Now that he has retired, when he is all too eager to spend, how's that going?

Is chAllenge. He my husband is such a baLance individual, which is going to be I love him so much and he says i've spent and it's true, the last thirty, forty years saving with this moment and i'm going to spend he's not a reckless spender. He's not a calling spender.

He is smart about spending. And so he wants to do things. And I was just like that, don't. And so it's very hard for me to spend because i've been in the same thing mode for so long and after time is financial.

In this financial space, we talk about how people will draw down their money, but what we don't talk about is the emotional impact of joy down, even if where the three percent of four percent or two four. And what that IT is IT just take picking out when you're not pretty so much in. And that is very stressful for me.

We've to have some intense publishes because you get because I have a lots about about everything, accounts and something. Girl, I know you might ask to me about the fifty I don't like go ford thinks will get a shared whatever. And so that is a chAllenge. I am not going to lie you. And so we have had to come up with rules just to get other net so that I don't drive him .

in what kind of rules.

We have a weekly family meeting, he and I just, he and I and we thought to go over what we're going to do for the weekend, the kind of expeditions that we're going ahead. And that way I know ahead of time so that he'll go, well, you know, GTA go off this week.

So we we create like a spending plan for the week so that i'm not like surprise and he can say i'm gonna go get the car west or i'm going to a go get in a sides or something to that extent. So we talk about IT a lot so so that I feel comfortable. And then one of the rules is that when I start to panic and going into my spiral, this is this Prices has let's just look at the network statements.

Everybody should reuse that term. Those of us who are not spend, those who are us who are spend, what you say for use, that on the other person met would be me. So he said, let's go to the network statement. And when he does that, we all almost have the time, don't have to go, because I know what is going to say. He says, look at bad part of number and I can go to the car wash.

It's so funny. It's like a football analogy, right? It's like an announcer from a football game saying, let's go to the video tape, right?

It's like, let's look at the real, let's look at the real story. Let's look at the real information. Do do you think that the fear of running out of money is a woman thing? I mean, that I have IT more than my husband has IT.

I don't know if it's more of a woman thing. Is that post to more of a how you grew up saying, and I think IT might slightly to toys women because we tend to live longer. And so we there is the more concern that we have to make our money stretch longer than the men because we all live them.

But I also think that a great deal of a vit has to do with how you were raised and the fears that you experienced. Even though my grandma there was a great money manager, money was tight. And before I went to go live her that he was IT was pretty bad.

I mean, we weren't being fired. There was in food, in house. And so I Carry those memories.

Even now I read is a ridiculous, because i'm nowhere near that now, right? I mean, when I was in college, I head of ball scholarship, but I did. There was no extra for me.

I couldn't cheat myself because I had to work even though I had a scholarship because my grandmother couldn't send me money. And so I still Carry that. And so a lot of that fear is that I won't have I would be without, or maybe i'll be that little girl who remembers not having food.

And so I have to continually battle that feeling, and is a struggle steal to this day to let go of those memories. And because i'm in this space, I am constant meeting people who are struggling or who are in, got the voice and is just ruin their finance. And i'm always in that space of hearing other people's trouble finanical story.

And I take that onto my spirit. I'm not going to be like that. I'm not going be responsible. And so I have to to be careful not to take on other people's trauma and drama onto midlife. And that's that's, it's hard.

IT is hard. Our money stories are, are, are very powerful. I I grew up comfortable. We were solidly middle class, but there were not a lot of extras either.

And and I remember I I have this vivid memory of A A, A trip that we took. My father was a college professor. We drove across country during the summer and saw the national parks and things like that. But I I remember we didn't go to mcDonald for lunch.

We went to the grocery store, we bought a love of bread, and I think of baloney and meet in ches, right? And that was, that was sort of the work around, and we did everything that we wanted to do. But you hold on to these things from your childhood, and they, they, they come back to you.

You are still working. He is not working. How do you look at your future? How do you think about slowing down? If you think about slowing down? How do you think about stopping if you think about stopping?

So we have a plane, I will have to say the great thing about our marriage is my has both my has in our planner. And so we had pretty much planned out everything even though he retired little sooner than we had plant because of some outside forces. So we adjust that, that met.

And so the plan now is that I don't know how many more years I have, but it's going to be a little bit longer before i'm ready to retire. But we do have a window in which that is going to happen because we do both want to be retired at the same time. Now our former retirement is not networking.

I use that double make IT of side of those really be like those do you double make? But so he's, for example, he have a part of job and with our church, but that's because they asked him he wasn't trying to seek IT out. He and I do a lot of volunteer work in one of the things that we do is work in prisons to teach financial.

Literally, we we volunteer prisons. We go into the facilities. And so that is something that we also want to do.

So we're gonna plan to do that and we're gonna a plan and travel. So so now one of our plans is that we take a nice trip every quarter of the year. And yeah, right.

So because that look before, when you just had that one summer vacation, you just live what I want to or one week and then you have the way of phone another year. And we like now when I doing that, as so our planet is every quarter to take a trip some place. And I can do that because I can read just my schedule.

I'm unfortunately to be able to do that. So even though i'm working full time, I can build in that time to take those vacations. I don't have to be in a physical office and punch clock.

And so that's the plan. And and eventually, the plan is that we'll be able to go to whatever we want you next week. Go let's go to bake to know we'll be able to go.

And so we are planning for that period. And IT will be difficult for me to stop. I've been working for the washington post for thirty last year.

Like to help people. I look, twenty IT will be hard for that, for me to stop that. But I have so many other things that i'm doing in my life that IT won't work itself.

One stop, I do speak and engages. We have a ministry at our church. We work in the prisons and sell the transition to that. That second sort of the season of our life won't be as difficult because we have put in police things to keep ourselves occupied and put in place things that we can do together.

And so then the plan was needed that we both retire at the same time, he has always said that he would probably be a little bit more ready than me, and then i'm gone to follow shortly after him and that the major plan is to have complete control over our schedule. So we get to decide when we work or when we don't want to work. Right now, I don't have that. I have to produce the colum every two weeks, and I do want to transition out of that so that I would be the master of my schedule completely.

Boy boy, I knew that you were the right person to talk to today. I am taking this idea of quarterly vacations away with me and and i'll take us a little while to get there. But I think that, I think that sounds pretty amazing.

A Michelle, thank you for being such an open book and a good friend. I really appreciate you. And thank you, as always, for the amazing work that you do.

Thank you. And welcome to the sixties girl, you looking good. And I really the good thing about IT is you just have a wonderful spirit and just think of IT is just a new adventure and just always you give me a personal vives.

The thing that you do to help other people to help with their money is uga could take that is got a selves. So cypher to you're great because you have changed people lives by your information and in your sexy. You can be so proud of that.

I mean, I always is good, my Christian, but is sort of like when I make my maker, whoever your maker maybe, but when I make my maker, I know he's going to say you good and favor sermon and he will stay that whoever this to you as well, good and faithful served over not just your own money, but help IT other people with their money. And so for your sixty of birthday present to yourself, that's what you should say, that I spent my life journey, not just trying to make money for myself self, but just trying to make sure that other people are secure. And that is the best birthday gift ever. Thank you.

my friend. We'll be right back today's podcast sponsored by middle health. If you listen to our recent episode with temps for all, also known as the midlife mentor on instagram. You know, having hot flashes at work is no joke. When thomson had a hot flash on the air, SHE couldn't finish the news for the first time ever in her thirty year career.

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And we are back with your male back. Kelly, healthcare is in the house. He can actually to your house. You're not in.

We're in the virtual house together.

You know what I was? I was thinking about this as I was taping with Michelle. I have known you since you were twenty one years old.

That's right.

And just in the last, like I don't know, three years, you got married. Do you bought a house or you bought a house and then you got married? I mean, it's just time really passes. How old are you now? Are you thirty five yet?

No, I am thirty three turning thirty four in january. So i'm close. I've had so many major milestone moments with you over the past ten years now, and you listed off some big ones. But you've been around for my major career moments, my major relationship moments, my major moves, my major purchases, and you are having a major birthday yourself.

Yes, we don't need to do well.

I there's no dwelling. They're celebrating. My question for you, in terms of IT being a milestone birthday, are you in any major life changes in, in this year or in this decade?

Will definitely by the end of the decade. I expect that through this decade, my worklife baLance will probably shift a bit morning to life and a little bit less to work. I'm not gonna stop working because I really enjoy IT. But I think if I wanted stay married, i'm gonna have to back a little .

bit and travel a little .

more and and as Michelle was saying, make time for for a little bit more of that, which i'm i'm excited about doing. I'm not quite ready to do IT yet, but i'm looking forward to IT anyway. We do not have to do well anymore on on my birthday.

Let's do something for our listening ers. Let's answer some questions. Let's do IT.

Our first question comes from penny SHE. Dear gene, I am seventy four years old and fully retired. I took my retirement savings and paid off my house eight years ago and have no other debt. I live strickly on social security now. Needless to say, money is tight, so I am considering reverse mortgage in a couple of years to buy a newer vehicle and travel.

What are your thoughts on this? Oh, I wish you gave me more information, penny. So in general, because I don't know how much equity you have in your house or the value of that house, that would be really helpful information to have.

I think reverse mortgage, a have gotten much, much Better over the last decade or so, and b are going to be used a lot more in the coming decades. A reverse mortgage for people who don't know what we're talking about is basically the ability that you have to allow the bank to start buying your house back from you while you continue you to live in IT. The amount of money that you get paid on a reverse mortgage is based on interest strates.

It's based on how much equity you have in the home and it's based on your life expectorant. Cy, the older you are, the bigger the payout person twice, you're gonna get on a reverse mortgage because the bank is essentially taking a risk on your longevity. The way that these products work, they can kick at your house unless you fail to do something like keep up with your property taxes and insurance, you have to be able to do that.

And there are some other risks as well if you leave the house at any point because you need to move some place perhaps where you can be cared for after, I believe it's a six months period, the house can be sold and the bank takes what is old in and you get essentially the rest, which may be very little depending on how long that reverse mortgage has run its course. But if you're looking to simply access a stash of cash, IT can also work really well. Reverse mortgage can be structured in a few different ways.

You can take the money as a monthly payout, you can take IT as a lump sum, or you can take IT as a line of credit, which I think is generally the best thing to do, so that you just draw on IT. When you need IT, you would establish a reverse mortgage. You take out only what you need for that car and that travel.

You'd leave the rest in the house. As a question, if there is appreciation on the house, you will gain from that. But IT could give you the ability to use this one asset that is sitting and looming large on your baLance sheet.

So I think it's something that you should begin to I like the fact that anybody who wants to take out a reverse mortgage has to go through federally Mandated housing counseling. So you're gonna to sit down with a housing councillor and run the numbers and they're gona show you what IT would look like for you and that'll give you the ability to make a decision. Last point on this, they're not free.

There are origin costs with a reverse mortgage. They can run ten thousand dollars and you don't have to pay IT at a pocket. They can come out of the transaction. But just know that there is a cost to doing this deal.

Thank you, jean. Our next question comes from Charlotte. He writes, I just turned sixty and got divorced after thirty two years of marriage. I have about five hundred thousand in cash, retirement funds broken down after my settlement. I should have about one hundred thousand various for one k funds, and around four hundred thousand dollars in cash.

I currently earn close to hundred thousand dollars annually, and my work offers a four one k which they will match when I become eligible. Mortgage fully paid off, and i'm planning a retiring at age sixty seven. My goals for retirement are to be financially secure and to make wise investments. With the four hundred thousand dollars worth the cash that I will be receiving, i'm not sure where or how to invest that money and scares me. What should I be doing to increase my retirement funds and to safeguard my investments?

So charlott, first of I am sorry that you've gone through this. As you know, I have been there and done that. And I I really hope that you're doing OK financially.

You're doing well IT looks like especially because you have that paid off mortgage and you have a nice chunk of cash. But you're right, you can't just leave at sitting in cash. You've got ta put IT to work.

And the way to do that is to make a plan for that money by sitting down with a financial advisor who can give you a breakdown of how that money should be invested. IT can be very simple. IT can be just a mix of different index funds and E, T, S, that will keep your costs low.

But you shouldn't be doing this without a plan for what you're going to need to spend, if anything, out of that mistake. And when IT actually does make sense for you to retire based on your needs for spending in retirement. With that said, when you look at your assets across your four one k and your other accounts, you're gonna want want to come up with an asset allocation, a level of risk based on your years of continuing to work, based on your risk tolerance, based on your age.

And you're probably going want that to be consistent, whether you're talking about money in your four one k or your directionally accounts or other places, the investments themselves may differ slightly. There are certain investments that we put in taxi ble accounts. There are certain investments that are Better off in tax effort or tax free accounts.

But this is just one of those times where you've got a substantial chunk of money and you don't want to invest IT without doing some considerable planning. So I would say, look for a planner. If you don't want somebody to work with you forever, you can look for one that will work with just to build a plan or for a bundle of hours, however long IT takes to build that plan.

There's a network of planner called the garret planning network that are available to work by the hour. You can also look at napfa dot org and A P F. A dot or gue.

That's the national association of personal financial advisers. These are the only financial advisers, and you should be able to find ones who will work with you by the plan. You will see that there are some advisors who want to take a percentage of your money to manage IT for you.

That mayor may not be attractive to you. IT may may not be something that you need, but you're onna want to compare costs across different types of advisers before you make a decision. And I hope that's helpful.

Thank you, jean.

absolutely. If you've got any other money related questions we'd love to hear from you, you can send him our way by emAiling us at mailbag at her money that com. Thanks to Michelle single tary for sharing what we should all be thinking about financially as we enter each new decade of our lives and for spending my birthday with me.

If you love this episode, please give us a five star review on apple podcast. We always value your feedback. And if you want to keep the financial conversations going, join me for a deeper dive.

Her money has two incredible programs, finance fix, which is an eight week program designed to give you the ultimate money makeover and. Investing fix, which is our investing club for women that meets by weekly on zoom. With both programs, we are leveling the playing fields for women's financial confidence and power.

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