3 Reasons To Retire Now (Or As Soon As Possible)

Many people put off retirement longer than they should because it can be a source of anxiety and uncertainty, but how do you know it’s time to retire? It’s a question we get asked all the time when someone isn’t quite sure they’re in a position to retire.

Today we’re going to give you three compelling reasons why you should consider retiring now or as soon as possible. If you are unsure about your retirement readiness, this episode will help you evaluate your financial security, address potential burnout and health considerations, and ensure you have a purposeful plan for your retirement days.

If any of these reasons resonate with you, it’s worth having a conversation with a financial professional to see if you’re ready to retire. You might be closer to retirement than you think.

Here’s what we discuss in this episode:

0:00 – Intro

1:38 – Financial security

8:41 – Burnout or health considerations

13:26 – What will you do Monday morning?

20:10 – Final thoughts

Full Transcript:

Ben (00:00):

A lot of people want to know when can I retire, when should I retire? And some people drag their feet when it comes to retirement because they aren't quite sure if they are in a position to retire. Well, today we're going to give you three reasons why you really should consider retiring now or at least as soon as possible. We'll do that with Ryan Cravitz coming up next.

Announcer (00:16):

This is Candid Conversations Retirement Talk with Ryan Cravitz of Cravitz Financial & Insurance Solutions.

(00:25):

Well, hello and welcome in. This is Candid Conversations Retirement Talk with Ryan Cravitz. I am Ben George. We've got a good episode for you today. If you are someone that maybe is not quite sure, if you're in a position to retire, just haven't really decided to pull the trigger yet, just aren't sure what your future holds. Today's episode's going to be for you because Ryan, we lay out three reasons why you really should be thinking about retiring now or at least as soon as possible if one of these three reasons applies to you.

Ryan (00:51):

And today, I'm definitely a math guy. I like the numbers, all the financial stuff, and we will talk about financial a little bit, but this episode here today is going to be a little bit different, but it's going to be really important as you're thinking about pulling the trigger and actually retiring and when you should do that.

Ben (01:09):

Yeah, it should be a very helpful episode. And if you want to follow up, if you maybe start thinking now, okay, maybe I am in a position to try to retire. I want to be more serious about the conversation, about my planning. You can always get in touch withRyan at CravitzFinancial.com over the phone. It's 714-462-9155. Of course, all that will be in the show description, so check it out below. And if you're watching on YouTube, we thank you for that. But also please hit subscribe. We'd really appreciate that for the growth of the channel. Alright, Ryan, so let's jump into this conversation. Again, this is about, hey, if you aren't quite sure these reasons today should get you thinking about, maybe it is time. Maybe you should have that discussion with a financial professional like yourself. So what's the first reason for us?

Ryan (01:50):

Yeah, so I mean really there's several reasons why you should consider retiring or really why you should retire now if you can afford to do so. I've just broken this down into three main reasons and I'm going to share some stories here with you and conversations that I have had with clients over the years and other people as well. But the first thing is the financial security. A lot of people I find, don't think that they can afford to retire even though they can. And one of the most challenging things I find is if you've been a great saver over the years, if you've been saving and investing, maybe maxing out your 401(k )plan or whatever other types of retirement account, now you get into retirement. For a lot of people that have done such a good job, that have been pretty frugal about doing that, it makes it very difficult to then make that transition and actually become that spender.

(02:54):

And so many people I find, just don't think that they can afford to retire. And so that's why it's so important to run the numbers, do the planning, do the income plan, the tax planning, everything like that. And once you get confident in your plan, that's really the key that gives you that confidence to then go ahead and spend in retirement. So let me share a story of a couple that I've been working with over the last couple of years, and I'm sharing this with you because it's not unlike a lot of people that I talk to when they make that transition into retirement. But it can be tough if you've been working for several decades, maybe three, four decades or more, and now all of a sudden you retire and now you've got to figure out where the income is going to come from.

(03:46):

It can feel unsettling from a psychological standpoint to know that that check isn't coming from that paycheck or the money that you need in order to meet your living expenses isn't coming from that paycheck. So now it's all about where are we going to get that? And for most people it's Social Security, maybe a pension, maybe other retirement account savings, other investments, whatever it is. But how do we best utilize that to then provide the income that we need Now still, I mean that's kind of talking about the planning and the math and putting together the plan and the investments to make this all work. But from a psychological standpoint, what can still be very, very difficult in making that transition into retirement...and in their case, they both retired right around the same time, so they had no income coming in. The paycheck had stopped their only income, they didn't have a pension, they didn't have Social Security starting yet.

(04:44):

We were going to start hers, but it was still in the process. That one hadn't started yet. They shared with me that it felt a little weird, a little uncomfortable even though they felt confident in their plan still because spent a lot of time with that going through that, that they didn't have that income to meet their monthly expenses. Now, in reality, we had her Social Security check coming in soon and they had over a hundred thousand dollars just sitting in savings alone. That's not counting the other retirement savings and investments. So there are plenty of money there that was in savings, just wasn't in checking. But now it's just about making that psychological shift in thinking as to how we're now going to meet our living expenses in retirement and it can be unsettling. Here's the thing Ben, is too often I find that people just don't think that they can afford to retire.

(05:39):

So they continue working even longer. They want to have a certain amount saved and then they get to that amount and then they think, well, maybe I need to get that number a little bit higher and I'm going to get it to this amount instead and then I'm able to retire. It's so important to do the planning, look at the numbers, understand that it's all about the net after tax income. It's so important to put together the budget to figure out how much you're actually going to need to meet those living expenses. And believe me, I know most people hate putting together a budget. It's like going to the dentist and getting that root canal. It's not a fun thing to do. And if you're in your working years and you're saving plenty and you have extra money on top, I am not a big advocate for saying that you have to put together a budget.

(06:30):

But when you're making that transition into retirement or thinking about that, it's very important to identify what your expenses are because then you're able to develop a plan around that to help meet your living expenses. And that's what really helps to give that confidence to spend. Maybe you have Social Security, but then you're also going to withdraw, let's say $5,000 from your retirement portfolio. Well, if you don't have that real confidence to spend, you might withdraw that five grand and say, well, maybe I could get by on 4,000 instead and I'll put that in savings. And then you get older and then you don't end up actually spending as much money as you actually could. So, so much to say there, Ben. But if you are financially able to retire, it's important to identify if you are and if you are and you want to retire, do it. Right.

Ben (07:31):

Yeah. Well, I mean I think most people, if you pulled 'em and said, Hey, if you can retire five years earlier or four year, whatever that number is earlier than you anticipated, would you do it? I think the majority of people would say, well, of course that's a no-brainer, but to your point, people haven't sat down, put the plan in place, looked at the numbers, done the math, seen where their income's going to come from to have that confidence to do so. And that's why you have to actually sit down and go through these things with someone like yourself where you can look through all the pieces of your financial puzzle to make sure you are in a good spot. And if you are, you're right, let's go ahead and do it.

Ryan (08:05):

So well said. Just like you're saying a few years earlier. The other thing I say sometimes, well, if you had an extra 10 million in the bank, would you retire right now? Yeah, absolutely. Often I'll hear that response. Okay, so let's see if you're financially able to retire and what type of lifestyle that you're able to have in retirement. And if you want to boost your lifestyle and it makes sense and you want to continue to work, then that can also be part of that conversation of course.

Ben (08:33):

Yeah, no doubt. Well make sure you had that conversation to see if you are in a place because hey, you might be able to retire now, and if you can, that'd be a great spot to be in. All right. That's the first reason. Ryan, what's our second reason you might want to think about retiring now,

Ryan (08:46):

This is another one. So this is the burnout and/or health considerations. And I've kind of combined this because I find that oftentimes one kind of ends up going with the other. Unfortunately, I've seen people working in a job, they're not enjoying it. They would like to retire perhaps going back to the first one, they don't feel financially that they're able to retire. And then this burnout leads to some sort of health issues, just the different stress that you, because of the stress, and of course I'm not a medical doctor here, but that stress causes people to feel more or causes them to get that stress and it's very, very uncomfortable. So that's a huge one. I have one client that I had worked with and for several years, I want to say three, maybe four, I don't think it was five years, but it was over an extended period of time where we had worked together.

(09:56):

She realized that financially she was secure, she would be able to retire, but she continued working in the job. I think part of it was maybe still that psychological thing of making that transition. Also, interestingly enough, at her job, it was a pretty big company, but she was deemed quite important in her department because she had been there for several years. There had been some turnover. Some of the older people had retired, and so there weren't a lot of people that knew how to do certain things. So she was definitely deemed very important in all of these different areas. And she was feeling like if she retired, she would be letting people down. And noble, I guess is the right word, mean she felt she wanted to do the right thing, certainly give plenty of notice. But it was one of those things where again, this lasted over the course of a few years.

(10:57):

And I remember at one point towards the end, it was like in July or August in the year, and they said, well just stay with us till the end of the year and then help transition somebody new into the role because we need somebody that really knows how to do this. And so she did that. And then nothing really happened by the end of the year, and then they wanted her to stay until the first quarter or until the end of the first quarter. At least that's what they said at that time. And so she did, but she was upset about it. She was getting more and more burnout. She was working lots of hours, way more even going in on the weekends and things. And I'm thinking she can afford to retire. She has things she wants to spend time with her grandkids now that are now very young.

(11:47):

One of 'em was just recently born as we were going through this. And so it's a challenging situation to go through. And as I told her in this, I said, if you retire, the company's going to be okay. I know you're super important and I know that they count on you, but they're going to figure it out. They will figure it out. And your health certainly is a concern here. And your overall just wellbeing is certainly a concern. You need to do what's best for you. But I do find this quite often because so much of that meaning that we get comes from work and connections and our importance and things like that, especially amongst people that work many, many hours such as she was in her role.

Ben (12:44):

So it's important. And health is, I mean, you don't have retirement without your health and you're not able to fully enjoy it, so you want to take advantage of that while you can. I know, I think we're all guilty of that. I think if you're a good employee, you're guilty of feeling like I don't want to leave or go vacation or take too much time off because I'm putting the company at risk or making it difficult on them. But as you point out, Ryan, the company will adjust. We'll adapt, we'll move on. What's important to you should take priority, especially as you get close to retirement.

Ryan (13:13):

Yeah, 100% for sure.

Ben (13:16):

All right, so that takes us into our last thing. As you talked about work being so important for a lot of people, give 'em that sense of purpose in many cases, and when that's gone, it can be difficult. So what's our third reason here, Ryan? Why it might be time to retire?

Ryan (13:28):

So the third one is maybe a little bit different, but this one is that you know what you're going to do on Monday morning. And so what do I mean by that? Well, let's say that you retire on a Friday afternoon and now that's your last day of work. Now for the rest of your life, you now have a permanent unemployment, right? You're ready to set sale into retirement. Now on Monday morning, the alarm clock doesn't go off and you wake up and most everybody on that first Monday morning, it's going to feel good that the world is your oyster. You can do anything you want. But what happens is, is that if you don't have a purpose and know what you're going to do, not just on Monday, but on Tuesday, Wednesday, what you're going to do throughout retirement to give you that fulfillment, that's when it can get challenging. Again, the first Monday can feel great, but after several Mondays, now all of a sudden you're waking up. And if you don't have that purpose and know what you're going to do, how you're going to spend your time, that can be tough.

(14:39):

It's so different now today, I find with retirement, because people are living so much longer, we think back at a couple generations ago or so, and we think about maybe our parents or our grandparents, many of them didn't live that long in retirement. So there wasn't that need to figure out, okay, how are we going to spend or how am I going to spend the next 20 years or 30 years perhaps, and sometimes more for some people? How are we going to spend this time in retirement? I was talking to a guy once, he was 58 years old. He was an attorney, made a lot of money, did really well, worked a ton of hours, a very stressful job, and, I will never forget, he shared with me, he said, by the time I'm 60, I'm done. I'm going to retire. I'm going to call it quits.

(15:37):

I can't do it anymore after that. And so he did. And I'll never forget, we talked again at 60. He did retire. And not too long after though, he had shared with me that he was going a little crazy. He didn't really make those plans kind of ahead of time as to like I was just talking about how's he going to spend his time? What is he going to do? Most all his friends he shared with me were work colleagues, people he might go to lunch with or other things, but it was all work related. He didn't have a ton of friends that were outside of work. And so he didn't have a lot of those types of different connections, different outlets there. He was single, he was divorced actually, didn't have kids. So for him, it was just about getting involved maybe in the community or whatever else.

(16:32):

And I'm not sure what ended up happening with him. I don't know if he ended up going back to work. I do know that's one of the things he was actually considering maybe in a different role or something, just trying to figure out what to do to give him that same type of purpose. And it is tough too because if you go from a situation where you're in demand and you're important and you're needed and there, there's projects and there's all of this. And then again, it's you retired on Friday and now Monday, there's just nothing that you have to do psychologically that can be tough. So I always say before you retire, it's important to think through what are you going to do in retirement? Maybe you have those answers. Maybe you have grandkids you're going to be spending a ton of time with, maybe you're going to be traveling and you have a lot of things on your bucket list, so to speak, that you want to make sure that you do.

(17:32):

But just having an idea of what that looks like. And one other thing, kind of on that note too is if you're married, this is another thing that I see comes up is all of a sudden now you're probably going to be spending a lot more time together and you might love each other, but all of us like our separate time and everything else. And so it's all about just figuring out how you're going to make that work, what you're going to do on a day-to-day basis. And again, what's going to give you happiness once you retire?

Ben (18:08):

Yeah, I think so many people, Brian, if you ask them, they're like, I don't know. We're doing retirement. I'm going to have free time. I'm just going to enjoy the freedom. Don't have to go to work anymore. But it's really not that simple. And I think that is a common problem. People go to retirement without a true plan on what they're going to do, how they're going to spend that time, get the quality time in, and it ends up coming back. And it can be very frustrating and give 'em some very negative feelings in retirement.

Ryan (18:32):

And the other thing here too, Ben, is that, again, because retirement is so different today, it doesn't necessarily mean that if you retire that you're not going to work again. I know that sounds strange because it doesn't retirement, you're not working. But I have a lot of clients and just a lot of people that I talk to that might retire from that main job that provided the good income and all of that. And now they might work, maybe they'll work at the same company, but much reduced hours, maybe less responsibility or work in a different profession altogether. Even something that doesn't pay a whole lot, but again, provides that fulfillment to do that. I'll never forget one client several years ago, he said, I like to talk and I like to drive. So I'm thinking about working for Uber. And this guy did not need any more money from working, but he was just figuring out what he would like to do with this time. So again, the answer is always going to be unique to you and your situation, but these are important things to consider.

Ben (19:36):

Absolutely. Well, if any of these strike a chord with you and you got you thinking, maybe it is time for me to really strongly consider retirement and maybe do so as soon as possible, get in touch with Ryan. Sit down, start thinking about it and looking at your situation. See where you stand, what you need to do, any change you need to make, or maybe you're ready to go right now. That's absolutely a realistic possibility is that you are in a position for retirement. So the only way to find that out though is to have the conversation. If you want to talk with Ryan CravitzFinancial.com or 714-462-9155, everything again, down in the show notes. Ryan, any kind of final thoughts to wrap up this conversation?

Ryan (20:13):

Final thought would just be, again, if you can afford to retire and you want to retire, then do it. Make sure that you do the proper planning. All that needs to be put in place so that you have the confidence to spend, but you can't get those years back. And that's the other thing too, is that let's say you're planning to retire at 65, but now you're just not feeling confident to do that, and you keep pushing it back and you get older and older and now you're retired, and now you may not feel as healthy and is active to do the things that you would've liked to do. You just can't get those years back. That's the big thing.

Ben (20:55):

That's true. Time you can never get back. So make sure you take the time now to look through your situation if you're determined, if you are in a position to retire, hopefully this helps you out. Hopefully it motivates you. That's the goal. Again, if you want to learn more, all the contact info is down in the show notes. Please subscribe to the channel as well. We'd appreciate that support. You got a lot of new subscribers since our last video, so thank you for being here on the channel. And Ryan, as always, thanks for your time.

Ryan (21:20):

Thank you. Good to see you, Ben.