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Episode #642 - Decluttering for Retirement: It's More Than Cleaning Out Your Closet?

ROGER INTRODUCES RETIREMENT AS A “REFRESH” MOMENT AND EXPLAINS WHY DECLUTTERING IS ESSENTIAL TO STEPPING INTO A NEW IDENTITY.

Roger: It's hard to imagine a life in retirement when we are surrounded by the remnants of past versions of ourselves. There are a few times in life, however, when we get a chance to hit a refresh and leave behind the things that don't serve our new identity. Maybe we can look back at our life and maybe it was from high school to college, or college to the workforce, maybe moving to a new city, starting or ending a new relationship. Retirement is the next big refresh. Decluttering can help you look at retirement with fresh eyes so you can rock it. And this is what we're going to talk about this month on the show.

Roger: Hey there, welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence to lean into that new identity and rock it. My name is Roger Whitney. I'm a practicing retirement planner with 35 years of experience, co-founder of a retirement firm called Retire Agile with my good friend Tanya Nichols.

ROGER OUTLINES THE MONTH-LONG DECLUTTERING SERIES AND INTRODUCES THE THREE KEY DOMAINS: THINGS, MONEY, AND RELATIONSHIPS.

Roger: Today, we are going to kick off a month-long series on decluttering our lives. Not just the physical stuff, which we all may have a lot of, but also decluttering our money, decluttering our relationships and our obligations so that we can look at our life with fresh eyes. Because it's easy to get trapped by what was, and let that basically create a funnel for all of our future decisions. And in retirement, you can literally look at your life with fresh eyes.

Roger: Our intent with this episode is to empower you to have the confidence to lean in and rock retirement. That means to lean into this new season of freedom, give it your best shot because you're intentional so you can minimize regrets. And to do that, we want to bring the good from all of the years that you've been alive, but shed the things that don't serve you anymore so you can step into this next version of yourself as your best self without all the echoes of the past.

Roger: Here's the plan for the month. Today, we're going to define the problem. Next week, we're going to talk about the opportunity that awaits you if you're willing to hit a refresh in this decluttering exercise. In week three, we're going to explore some of the challenges we face, because this stuff isn't always easy. And then in the last week, we're going to bring in an expert from Marie Kondo's organization to talk about an action plan to walk the journey. We're going to look at three domains: your things, your money, and your relationships and obligations. So that is the plan for today.

ROCKING RETIREMENT IN THE WILD

Roger: Before we define the problem today, let's hear from someone that's taking this journey and rocking retirement in the wild. Today we got a submission from Will. Will said: 'A super subtle thing you shared on today's podcast was about decluttering, or letting go of previous versions of yourself. I recently sold a BMW Z3 Roadster that I owned for 20 years. A lot of past versions of myself in that car. After I sold it, it took me a few days to understand I was mourning the loss of my past self far more than the loss of the car. It's given me a lot of momentum to seek out more stuff that is of my past self and let it go. Thanks for the insight.'

Roger: I love that, Will. A lot of times it's not the physical thing, it's the memories and the pictures of different versions of yourself that sort of echo that you want to hold onto and maybe relive at some point. And it's all captured in this thing. Great job on leaning into that. And I love that insight. Good luck on your journey, buddy.

ROGER DEFINES THE CORE PROBLEM OF CLUTTER, EXPLAINING HOW ACCUMULATED DECISIONS CREATE OVERWHELM AND LIMIT FUTURE POSSIBILITIES.

Roger: In this first installment on decluttering for retirement, I just want to explore the problem of what clutter looks like in our life so you can start thinking intentionally in the three domains we're going to review, money, things, and relationships, about where you might have clutter in your life that is defining how you view what your life can be.

Roger: It really comes down to this: at this stage where we've been in multiple seasons of life, early career, mid career, we may have relocated, we may have gotten married or divorced, we may have children, we may have a different relationship, all of these things happening over the years and the decades means you just pick up clutter along the way. You're like a magnet walking through a bunch of metal, just picking up stuff. And this clutter unconsciously forms your choices. It funnels your thinking to what your life is and prevents you from seeing what it could be because you're surrounded by it.

Roger: The core issue here is overwhelm. Overwhelm leads to deferred decisions. All of that stuff you're picking up like a magnet, it's not annoying you enough to deal with it, so you just defer the decisions. You might say things like, 'Well, I might need that someday,' or 'That has some sentimental value that I'm not willing to process yet,' or 'That cost a lot of money and it's really good, so it's worth something even though I never use it.' For me, that would be suits. I have maybe ten suits that were relatively expensive, very nice suits. Haven't worn them in years. Don't want to wear them ever again, but they're nice. They cost money. I don't want to just throw them away. They're worth something. But are they? They're just sitting in my closet.

ROGER EXPLORES PHYSICAL CLUTTER AND HOW DECADES OF POSSESSIONS TIED TO PAST LIFE STAGES CAN PREVENT YOU FROM ENVISIONING A NEW LIFESTYLE.

Roger: Let's start with the obvious when it comes to clutter: our things, the stuff we have. Now, if you live in a house or even an apartment, it's likely that where you live was greatly influenced by where you work, the commute you had to your office. The size of that house is probably defined by whether you had children or not and whether you were getting married. And where that house is located may have been influenced by the school district you were going to raise your children in. All of these outside influences sort of force you like a funnel down a certain path to find the apartment or the house in the particular city, in the particular location, because it served that version of you.

Roger: Well, in retirement, if you're not working anymore, the commute doesn't matter. If your kids are grown, you may not need as big a house, and you don't have to worry about school districts. You could literally be anywhere you want in the country or the world. But it's very hard for us to see that because we have decades building this castle of ours and organizing our life.

Roger: Within that castle, we likely have had decades of accumulation. Think of early life interests. In your 30s and 40s and 50s, you've had art you've hung, hobbies you're doing now or old hobbies you've abandoned, furniture you inherited or refreshed once or twice, clothing, your work uniforms, your hobby uniforms, gifts you received, different sizes you may or may not fit into. You have tools, duplicates because you couldn't find that flashlight, so you bought three others. You bought a tool for maybe a one-time use and never needed it again, but it still hangs around. I literally think I have a hand riveter that I used when I was in my twenties to hang gutters on my first house. I still think it's in my toolbox.

Roger: Technology is another one. I have a computer that has all the photos from when my kids were young sitting in my attic because I haven't gotten around to getting the photos off it so I could throw the thing out. And then if you got married or got a partner, you have two people's stuff, and some of that comes together and some of it doesn't. My son Spencer is engaged and he had art in his single apartment that his fiancée won't allow in their joint apartment, so it's all stuffed in a closet. These things accumulate.

Roger: There's also a lot of sentimental things. Photo and artwork that children or nephews and nieces created for you. Things you inherited from your parents that were very special to them. Mementos. At this stage, there may even be clothing or tools that a spouse had who has passed away. Those things have to be processed. It's hard. It doesn't feel right to throw them away. Every thing has a story and a remembrance, so we defer those decisions. And then the practical things, tax returns, legal documents, manuals for things we don't even own anymore, financial statements. All sorts of things.

Roger: A lot of stuff in this physical realm that goes into a home may or may not serve who you want to become. These are the things that pile around us and become barriers to leaping to a different version of ourself, because we don't know how this stuff will fit into a new version, or maybe we can't even see a new version. This is a problem.

HE BREAKS DOWN FINANCIAL CLUTTER, INCLUDING SCATTERED ACCOUNTS AND LEGACY INVESTMENTS, AND WHY SIMPLIFICATION BECOMES CRITICAL IN RETIREMENT.

Roger: Let's talk about money, the second domain. If you're in your 50s and 60s, you may have had a few jobs, which means you may have a few 401(k)s. Maybe you never cleaned them out. It seems like, 'It's doing well enough there, I'll just leave it.' And then you start your new job, get your new 401(k), then you leave that job, and then you get another one. These things accumulate. Multiple IRAs, multiple investment accounts, multiple bank accounts because you got a CD for a teaser rate or they had a great money market rate for a while, and you left some money there, then moved to the next one. These things happen in little decisions that accumulate day after day, week after week, year after year, decade after decade.

Roger: And then within each one of those accounts, you have accumulated investments. You thought something was a great idea 20 years ago, so you put money into it. Maybe you hired an advisor and they had a strategy that seemed to make sense at the time, but then you got disenchanted with it. So you left that advisor but took the investments, then started to add to it because you were going to self-manage it. And then maybe you added another advisor and they didn't really clean up the other stuff and added all their strategies and great ideas. Or maybe you just had a bunch of great ideas over the years that have come and gone, but the things often remain, either because they've made some money and you don't want to pay taxes, or they're good enough investments.

Roger: And then we have credit cards. We go down the points-nerd rabbit hole for a while, get a bunch of different cards, then get tired of it but still have them. Or insurance policies, very easy to get into, very hard to get out of, and a little complicated, so we defer that decision.

Roger: This is very normal. Oftentimes we call it a cluttered closet. It can serve us well enough when we're in accumulation stage because we just want stuff to grow and we don't want to pay a lot of attention to it. But when you're near or in retirement, it really can be a problem. When you're in retirement, now we actually have to have a purpose for the money, to fund your life when you leave your job in the near term, and then 10 years from now, and 20 years from now. So it's really important to take this cluttered closet of money and simplify it, to get a nice tidy closet where every dollar has a purpose.

Roger: The biggest case of money clutter I can think of is we've had clients with 20 different accounts scattered everywhere, and within those accounts, hundreds of different positions, most of them not big enough to make a difference, but collectively just creating this mind-boggling, I-don't-know-what-to-do-with-all-this-stuff situation. Decluttering that, just like decluttering your home, brings peace.

ROGER DISCUSSES RELATIONSHIP AND OBLIGATION CLUTTER, EMPHASIZING THE NEED TO BE INTENTIONAL ABOUT WHO AND WHAT YOU INVEST YOUR TIME IN.

Roger: The last domain I want to talk about when defining the problem is relationships. And when I say relationships, I mean people in your life and organizations that you've had a relationship with and maybe have served over the years. Who you allow in your life generally happens by default. Obviously your family is the most normal default, whether you want them in your life or not, we feel an obligation at some level to keep them in our life, whether they serve us positively or not.

Roger: And in other areas, we have work relationships, family, friends, and organizations we've served. It feels weird to defriend somebody. But let's be honest, over time, people change. And it's really important that we are intentional about who we have in our life. Who is in your inner circle, who is in the next circle outside of that, and who is on the periphery? And who do you want to spend the most time with, people that are fueling and supporting who you want to become in this season of retirement?

Roger: One example I can think of: we've had a number of friends over the years that we've just slowly stopped doing things with because it didn't feel healthy. It didn't feel like our values or interests were aligned. We still like them as people, but we've moved them from more of the inner circles to the outer circles, always friendly with them and wishing them the best. But we're trying to be intentional about who we bring in and who we're spending all our time with, because that's who we're going to be like. And we want to be like people that are supporting the things we want to do.

Roger: From a much less deep perspective, it's just time management. You only have so much time for the people and organizations you allow in your life. And rather than spreading your energy and diluting it, you want to make sure it's focused to really invest in the relationships that are most important to you. This includes civic organizations, book clubs, different churches, and yes, even the Rock Retirement Club. We have members that come in for seasons, and then the season's over and they move off. And that should be a celebration, because it should be serving you.

Roger: The high-level concept here is that in these three domains, things, money, and relationships, we're old enough that we've accumulated some things. And these things can constrict the choices we see for ourselves when we're thinking about what we want for this one and only shot at retirement. The intent is that we give it our best shot with some intention so that when we're old and gray, we don't look back with regret. Next week in this series, we're going to talk about the opportunity that awaits if we're able to navigate this problem.

LISTENER QUESTIONS

A WIDOW SHARES HER EXPERIENCE NAVIGATING LONGEVITY RISK AND LOSS, PROMPTING A DISCUSSION ON PLANNING FLEXIBILITY, SPENDING, AND BUILDING A SUPPORT NETWORK.

Roger: All right, now it's time to answer some of your questions. If you have a question for the show, you can go to askroger.me. If you leave an audio question, we try to bring those to the top, they're like a FastPass at Disney World, because we love to hear your voices. Today we're going to answer a few questions related to longevity. Bobby and I are actually talking about writing a deeper article on that topic because I think it's something that literally nobody talks about in the planning community. Let's go to our first one. This is from Liana.

Liana: Hi, Roger. This is Liana. Your topic this week of longevity risk versus leaving money on the table really hit home for me. My husband died of cancer four months ago, in December. He had been diagnosed in 2020 and we knew statistically that he would likely die in two to ten years, a pretty big time span. It was hard to plan for. Fortunately, he was a firefighter and was able to retire with a pension at age 50. But having two major surgeries and chemo and radiation, of course, affected his ability to enjoy that time that he did have.

Liana: I'm a nurse and I was able to gradually decrease my work hours as he became more ill so that I could spend most of my time with him, especially in his last very debilitated year. I tried to convince him to spend more in those years because I knew we were overfunded, but he was really concerned about me, and also, he was really kind of a homebody guy who would have preferred to keep working. It's really sad he wasn't able to do the things that he dreamed of doing. I'm glad I had joined the club and made a plan of record in 2021. It really eased my mind.

Liana: I do wish he would have considered some Roth conversions while he was alive, because he died right at the end of the year and we really didn't have any time for tax planning at that point while we were still filing jointly. The widow's penalty is a real thing. But we were well-funded and I'll be fine. I'm of course still figuring out what my life can become from here, since I'm from a very long-lived family and I'm currently quite healthy.

Liana: My cautionary tale to others is: if you can, be realistic about timelines and stress-test your plan. I did have a plan for long-term care for him, which we didn't end up needing. Now it's a whole new plan I'm trying to set up as a single woman. And long-term care for me sometime in the future seems more likely down the road. As much as you can, talk honestly as a couple when there are health challenges, not only about how to take care of things now, but for the single survivor down the road. Do you have some good resources you'd suggest for this kind of situation? I really appreciate your deep dives and thought-provoking conversations. I think without your help over these years, I would feel much more lost financially than I do. And having some financial peace of mind when you've lost a spouse is just really so valuable. Thank you so much.

Roger: Liana, thank you so much for sharing your story and your wisdom in such an articulate way. Obviously, I'm so sorry for your loss. Losing a spouse is devastating. One thing I want to affirm to you, and I don't know if you're in a position to hear this or not, so if not, wait until you are, is that as sad as it is to lose your husband, at some point you want to affirm that you're going to have a great life. This sucky thing happened, but you're still going to have a great life. It's going to be different than maybe what you imagined, the two of you and the things that you were going to do. It's definitely going to be different, but it's still going to be great. And you're going to renew from this in a time that's right for you.

Roger: In terms of resources, when it comes to long-term care planning as a single person, it's important to do an assessment of not just the mechanics and money part, but the social network aspect of aging alone. Who's going to come over and check on you? Who's going to help you get to doctor's appointments? There are services outside of our social network that we can hire over time, and those are more in their infancy but growing because there's such a need. But there's definitely an opportunity as you reinvent yourself to intentionally build a social fabric of people where you can help each other. I know a number of single friends who have done that here in Colorado and in other places.

Roger: If you're referring to resources about recreating a whole new plan for Liana by herself, it sounds like you're well funded, so you feel confident there. You were involved in building that plan of record, and it sounds like you were the lead on that. That goes a long way. You know you're financially safe. That gives you space to process. Your new single version of your plan of record is going to change a lot because you're still in the process of shedding some of the skin of who you were. You're going to have to experiment with what Liana's life looks like as a single person. I would give yourself time. Play for a while with different versions of what your new life could be, and ultimately you'll start to settle into a version that really feels comfortable, and you can slowly start leaning into that.

Roger: I know you can do it, because I can think of two or three clients just in the last three or four years that have walked this journey and have come out with a great life, a different life, but a great one. And roger@rogerwithney.com, if you have any questions or are looking for more specific resources, just shoot me an email and I'll do my best to help you.

ROGER RESPONDS TO A LISTENER’S APPROACH TO MODELING LONGEVITY SCENARIOS AND EXPLAINS HOW TO USE PROJECTIONS TO INFORM BETTER LIFE DECISIONS RATHER THAN JUST OPTIMIZE NUMBERS.

Roger: We have one more question related to longevity. This one comes from Eric.

Eric: Hi Roger. This is Eric from Seattle. First of all, I'm a long-time listener and I want to thank you for your show, it has been fundamental to my planning process. With respect to your show this week, I just want to congratulate you on an excellent show with Dr. Du Bois. This is a subject that I've given a lot of thought about and I thought I'd share the approach I've come up with.

Eric: I'm 60 and I've been retired for five years. I use both my actual actuarial age from an actuarial table as well as 90 as a longevity age. And I calculate both my Monte Carlo probabilities of success and fundedness ratio from both of these longevity estimates. So for example, at age 60, the actuarial table I started using five years ago says that I have 23 more years to live, which is kind of stunning when you look at it in those terms, giving me an actuarial age of about 83. When I run my Monte Carlo simulation to age 83 under my current spend, I come up with a probability of success around 93%. If I run it to age 90, I come up with a probability of success of about 84%. And my fundedness ratios are significantly overfunded for age 83 and slightly overfunded for age 90.

Eric: Based on your show today, I may increase my spend. I'm still relatively young, so I'm kind of conservative with the amount that I spend. But I encourage you and your listeners to think about the longevity issue in terms of a probability at each age and running it each way, so you can see where your plan falls if you live to your statistical number or if you outlive it and are fortunate enough to live into your nineties. Thank you for your show. It's been invaluable to my planning process. Keep up the great work, Roger.

Roger: That's great to hear, Eric. And I think that's a good approach of running them concurrently. We don't have to be math nerds to do this either, because we can get those tables relatively easily. It's in our Important Numbers worksheet in our resource center at RogerWhitney.com, which shows you the longevity tables. But I like this idea of running them concurrently. And then as you gain more information related to your actual health, you can tweak those a little bit as that unfolds.

Roger: Where that can make a difference, Eric, is, like you said, you may be able to spend more. And if you're already relatively overfunded for both projections, you're probably even more so if we really got into the math. But when you're thinking about what to do with this information, it comes back to life choices of today. Could I retire a year earlier? Could I take less investment risk? Could I spend more? These can help inform decisions, because none of the software or spreadsheet stuff is going to give you a green light. Not even AI is going to say, 'Yes, you're okay, go do it.' It's only going to help reveal information and perspective to help you make a judgment call.

Roger: I would approach it a different way in that: look for things that pull you to do something you think is going to enhance your life, and then count the cost of that, and then run it through your software to make the judgment call. Because it's not about spending more money just because it says you could. Start to identify things that are going to pull you, so when you get opportunities that excite you and that you think are going to enhance your life, you can evaluate that one-time spend in your models. Rather than saying, 'Well, I could spend $10,000 more a year for the next ten years,' which hard-wires it and makes it more theoretical. Whereas: 'I have an opportunity to go to Bali and it's going to cost me $10,000, and a lot of friends are going and there's this event I want to attend.' Find something that pulls you, see what it costs, and just run that one number.

Roger: Those kinds of goals are a lot more achievable. One, because it's just a one-time goal that you're testing within the framework of whether you live to 80, 83, or 90. And two, it's a lot more meaningful. This is how you create experiences and memories. I love that approach, Eric, and I think there's a lot more to explore here that I have on the docket to do.

HE EVALUATES WHETHER AN ANNUITY RECOMMENDATION ACTUALLY SOLVES A MEANINGFUL PROBLEM OR SIMPLY ADDS COMPLEXITY.

Roger: Okay, we have a couple more audio questions, non-longevity related. Let's go to this next one on the advice that John is getting.

John: Hey Roger. Really love the show and the variety of topics that you have. So here's the setup to my question. My wife and I are 63 years old. I'm retired and she retires next year. We currently have about $1.5 million in investments with a roughly 70/30 equity-to-bond fund mix. I receive about $6,500 monthly in pension and disability benefits from the military. When my wife retires, she'll receive about $2,800 in retirement monthly. We don't have any mortgage or any other debt. And we will both likely collect our Social Security at 67 with a combined amount of about $5,600 per month.

John: Here's my question. I recently partnered with a retirement advisor who's a CFP, and he recommended that we put about 30% of our investments into a fixed index annuity as a risk reduction measure. I'm not a huge fan of annuities, and given our guaranteed inflation-adjusted pensions, I'm probably less risk-averse than most people. We could easily live off our pensions without touching our investments. And for what it's worth, his commission on the annuity would be about, and his management fee is roughly 1.1%, and he would not charge a management fee on the annuity. I'm wondering what your thoughts are on his recommendation and are there some other things I should be asking him? Thanks for your help. My name is John.

Roger: Hey John, thank you for the question, it's very well organized. So you're 63, you have $1.5 million in investment assets, mainly 70% stock. Between your pension and disability, your wife's pension, plus your Social Security, you have your life covered. And your advisor is recommending a fixed index annuity for 30% of your assets. You state that you're really not that risk-averse because you know your combined guaranteed payments are going to cover your life.

Roger: I would really dive in, John, as to what problem you are trying to solve with purchasing a fixed index annuity. What is the basis for the recommendation within the context of your entire plan? Because if you have a vision for your life and you know what your base-grade life costs, you know what those extra discretionary things are, and you've counted all of your guaranteed payments, and then you have this $1.5 million in investment assets after the fact, how does taking 30% of your assets and putting it into this product make your life better? And what problem is it actually solving to make your life better? Focus on those types of questions, and then whatever the answer is, ask a second or a third question related to what is the problem and how is this actually making my life better? If there isn't a sound basis or if it's not well thought out, asking that second or third question usually will reveal that the thinking isn't as deep or the problem isn't as defined as it may have sounded in the first answer.

Roger: I don't have anything fundamentally against fixed indexed annuities. I try to be agnostic when I look at something. But everything has a cost-benefit. An indexed annuity's cost is, yes, the internal cost, but the other costs are that they're easier to get into than to get out of, they're very complicated in terms of how they work, and what the illustration says relative to what actually happens can differ quite a bit because it's all a synthetic product.

Roger: In my world, it's not an organic investment. It's a Twinkie. It's a manufactured product that nobody asked for. It's something that financial engineers create in order to market that they say solves a problem, because you're taking on just different kinds of risk. Whatever risk it's solving for, you're just taking on different kinds of risk: the risk of the formula the return sequence is based off of, and the counterparty risk of the insurance company's promise. Those may seem not that important, but just be careful. I'm not a fan of highly manufactured products because I think you could have a great life with a reasonable allocation of your assets without over-complicating it, unless there's a serious problem it's solving to make your life better.

Roger: My gut reaction: I just don't like Twinkie products. But those are the kind of questions I would ask. And I'm going to give the assumption that there's no nefarious intent here, because a lot of advisors genuinely believe these things solve good problems and are good products. I'm not going to question the intent. Just go back to: what problem are we trying to solve? Why make it more complicated than it needs to be? Unless it's really making your life materially different, keep it simple.

ROGER DISCUSSES THE TRADE-OFFS BETWEEN SAVING MORE VERSUS USING EXISTING CASH, HIGHLIGHTING FLEXIBILITY AND OPTIONALITY IN RETIREMENT PLANNING.

Roger: Okay, let's get to one more question from Sue. And again, it's an audio question. Loving these audio questions, it's the FastPass.

Sue: Roger, I'm a long-time listener and really enjoy the show. I am 60 and my husband is 63, turning 64 this year. We have just under $3.5 million in assets, $2.1 million in pre-tax, $1.3 million in taxable, and $80,000 in Roth savings. We also have $300,000 in cash. I'm currently working and plan to retire at age 62.

Sue: This year I started to maximize my 401(k) Roth contributions because our Roth accounts are a little low. However, I would like to stop saving for retirement and use the cash for projects around the house, about $100,000, before I retire. Does it make sense to stop contributing to increase cash flow for the projects, or continue contributions until I retire and use the cash we currently have on hand? Your thoughts on the pros and cons would be really appreciated. Thank you, Sue.

Roger: Hey Sue, thanks so much for the question. So: should you stop saving in your Roth 401(k) in order to fund your home projects, or should you use $100,000 from the cash that you have? I'm going to make an assumption here that you have a retirement plan of record in some form, that you know you are on a feasible path for your retirement goals. So I want to make that assumption that you have enough money for retirement, and this is a tactical or optimizing decision.

Roger: The nice thing about having a retirement plan of record is that it's very easy to just create 'what if' scenarios. What if I spend $100,000 from my after-tax money and continue to save in my Roth 401(k), how does that change the feasibility of my plan? Compare that to a version where you don't spend $100,000 from your cash, but you stop saving in your Roth 401(k). How does that change the long-term outlook? You may discover, which would be my guess, that it really doesn't matter. Either one is going to probably keep you on a similar trajectory. Or you may discover that one is a lot better than the other.

Roger: But given the information I have, my thinking is it's probably better to continue to save in your Roth 401(k) and use your after-tax cash. And the reason is, it just gives you a little bit more optionality. If you use your $100,000 in after-tax cash and continue to save in your Roth 401(k), and then say three years from now you realize you don't have as much cash as you needed in your cash reserves, you can always take the money from your Roth. If you're over 59 and a half and you've had the account open for five years, you can replenish your cash from your Roth 401(k). And if you don't need the money, your Roth 401(k) will continue to grow tax-free forever.

Roger: Whereas if you stop saving in your 401(k) in order to preserve your cash, you lose that option on the money that could have been growing tax-free forever. So I would probably use the cash and continue to save in your Roth 401(k). And if you have a couple of years until retirement, you could always build up some cash in your after-tax account over the next period of time, depending on how your cash flow looks. With that, let's go set a smart sprint.

SMART SPRINT

Roger: And we're off to set a little baby step you can take in the next seven days. Not just to rock retirement, but to rock life. In the next seven days, I want you just to ponder your things, your money, and your relationships. Just start to think about the things you've accumulated in those domains and whether they are serving you and serving where you're going. What are a lot of the deferred decisions that maybe you've put off on these things?

Roger: I just want you to observe them. You can walk around and think about it, get a notebook out and journal on it, go inventory your house or your net worth statement, whatever level you want to do. But just start to think about the things that are in your life in these domains that may not be serving you. Don't do anything with it yet. Just build awareness. This is an awareness exercise. And then next week we'll talk about the opportunity if you choose to address it.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Roger: All right, I want to end the show with two little tidbits on things I noticed. We got a review in Apple Podcasts from Semi-Retired in Colorado, I think on the investment portfolio episode, how to build a diversified portfolio. They said: 'This episode starts with a what-if-I-know-nothing approach and builds up to a much more sophisticated Q&A for an investor with a $10 million portfolio. That's what I love about the 600-plus episodes. There's always a new nugget you can build upon if you stomach the redundancy or fast forward. It reinforces sound advice about timeline and building the three key buckets: contingency, liquidity, and growth funds. Thanks Roger.'

Roger: Oh, I love that, 'stomach the redundancy.' Yeah, I don't script. I think out loud. I may be redundant, but you know what? I used to have a professor that was very redundant in one of my certification programs and it annoyed the heck out of me, but it helped me remember things. Thank you so much for the review. They do help people find the show.

Roger: Last thing I want to talk about before we say goodbye is the survey on the Noodle Live. About a month and a half ago, we did a live Saturday morning event where I just had a Zoom room open and anybody could come in and join, and we spent an hour or so talking about rocking retirement and financial planning and life. We had a couple hundred people on there. The Noodle Live, so the Noodle is our weekly email where we share wisdom and tips on how to rock retirement, and it's a great way to stay connected, you can hit reply and it comes right to me. We did a live version: hey, let's hang out on a Saturday morning and chat.

Roger: So I thought it went extremely well. We sent a poll a few weeks ago on whether you'd like to see more, did you enjoy it, and how often. And overwhelmingly we heard monthly or quarterly. Less than 1% said never again. So I think it was a good experiment, a positive one. We plan on doing this at least quarterly and will figure out the rhythm. Thank you so much for the responses on that. I hope you have a wonderful day. Next week, we're going to answer more of your questions and get into the opportunity that awaits if you address the clutter in your life.

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