H3: Ryan Wrecker discusses retirement readiness with strategist Perry Lunsford.

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Transcript Ryan Wrecker: And welcome back. Thanks for being with us here. And joining us now is a business strategist, passionate about helping people. Maybe he can help you today! Perry Lunsford, thank you so much for joining us on WORD. Perry Lunsford: Right—morning, Ryan! Thanks, man. Ryan Wrecker: I'm glad that we can connect here on Labor Day. I think being the topic of working, some people are afraid they're going to work till their 90s in order to like pay for things, which really scares me. I'm 43, and I feel like I've done a lot of things that I'm supposed to, but then you read articles online and it says, "This is where you should be at 43," and I think to myself, "You know what? I might be one of those people. I might not work till I'm 90—God forbid I live that long—but I might have to work till I'm 80," which I don't like the idea of that either. So, maybe you can kind of help me and help people listening here today: Where are we right now when it comes to the workforce and people retiring at the official government retirement age? Perry Lunsford: Well, I think where we're at is that the government came up with this official government retirement age back when people were living to 70. You know, I'm a couple of years older than you, but my grandfather retired at 65, watched episodes of Matlock for five years, made a few birdhouses, and passed away. You know, now we're living to 85, 90. We're, you know, we've figured out—we've got peptides that are keeping us alive longer, making us feel good. I turned 50 last year, and a couple of days ago I was looking at a picture of my father's 50th birthday. He was old, man! I'm not old; I look good! But I'll also say that, you know, every—when you say you're "one of those people"—well, guess what, man? "One of those people" is one of almost every person. You know, every one of us, for the most part, were taught about compound interest when we were 18 years old from some uncle. And every one of us didn't take that money that he gave us for Christmas and put it in compound interest. So we're—most of us are in this same boat. Ryan Wrecker: I get it. And— Perry Lunsford: Yeah. Ryan Wrecker: Well, I was going to say, because being in that same boat, some people are saying, "Okay, the cost of living is going through the roof." It seems like every five years now, we get a big jump in cost of living. We had a big one during COVID; we saw a big one happening right now, in the sense that these adjustments happen, and then the idea of how much money you should have saved gets readjusted, and now we're worried, "Did we put enough money aside?" So, maybe you can kind of help me in the sense that, what do you think, let's say, someone retiring within the next five years, how much money do you think they'll actually need to have set aside in order to live the rest of their life without having to worry about going back to work? Perry Lunsford: Man, that's a difficult question. Here's what I'll tell you: The cost of living is going up. For instance, the cost of housing has completely spiked, right? But the costs per square foot compared to the average income has stayed pretty much the same. The problem with us is how much should I have depends on how much I spend. You know, my—back to my grandfather, you know, when he raised four children in a two-bedroom, one-bath house, they were all happy, they were all comfortable. He wore two pair of boots his entire life. You know, he got the bottoms resoled a couple of times. And here I am walking around in Lululemon shorts and some overpriced tennis shoes, and from the waist down, I'm $500, which is just absolutely stupid. And I justify it; I go, "I only got a bad pair of shorts every other year." My grandfather would have worn these shorts his whole life, right, and was happy with his Levi's jeans. So the real question isn't, you know, if I'm completely liquid and I live in a place that doesn't have property tax, I could probably live o ...

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