Women, Money, & Retirement: How Can I Feel Confident Enough in My Plan?

Welcome back to the 2nd episode of the Women, Money, and Retirement series. All month long we will be discussing issues specific to women in retirement. Since I am not a woman, I have invited Tanya Nichols from Aligned Financial to co-host the show with me throughout this series. Tanya is here to provide a woman’s perspective and to help me answer your questions. If you are a woman you won’t want to miss this series that is created especially for you  What does it mean to rock retirement? If you have listened to the show before, you know that I frequently use the phrase rock retirement. I even wrote a book called Rock Retirement and I created the Rock Retirement Club, but what do I mean by rocking retirement?  When you are rocking retirement that means you are using your resources to live your best-imagined life. I want you to use the assets you have to design your ideal life in retirement. There are so many decisions to make in retirement. Many people mistakenly think that their financial decisions are separate from their life decisions, but life and money are never separate. Your money should be helping you to create the best life that you can imagine.  How do women excel in retirement planning? Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses in just about every area of their lives. This is no different in financial planning. As financial advisors, Tanya and I see the differences between the sexes every day. These differences are generalizations, but we have noticed that women excel in several areas of financial planning.  Women are more comfortable with vulnerability; they don’t try to control the uncontrollable. Women look ahead toward the outcome. Women realize the value of collaboration.  Women are more thorough and take more time to make decisions.  Women don’t mind speaking openly about their worries. Think about yourself. How do you excel in financial planning? Is it in one of these areas or in another way? How to confidently plan for retirement when you don’t have much to start with Debbie is worried about retirement. As a single woman without a huge retirement portfolio, she feels overwhelmed and doesn’t know where to start. She feels that financial advisors are only for the wealthy, but she knows that she must start learning about her finances somewhere.  The good news is that Debbie is listening to a financial podcast! That means that she has already started educating herself. Unfortunately, the financial planning industry hasn’t done a good enough job of successfully reaching average income earners. However, this doesn’t mean that financial planning is only for the wealthy.  In addition to listening to retirement and financial podcasts, there are other ways that people can educate themselves in these matters. Garrett Planning Network and XY Planning Network are 2 networks of more affordable financial planners that work on a monthly subscription basis. Listen in to hear more resources that can help you gain the confidence to truly rock retirement.  OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? [1:10] What does rocking retirement mean? PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT [3:34] What do women excel at in retirement planning? Q&A SEGMENT [11:04] Women are less prepared for retirement than men [17:12] How to tackle the feeling you aren’t good enough [19:15] How to generate an income stream in retirement [22:20] Are there common pitfalls for women in transition periods? [27:27] A Social Security planning question [33:14] Who gets to keep a death certificate? [36:28] Make sure spouses communicate regularly about finances TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT [38:43] Chat with your spouse about your net worth statement and financial plan Resources Mentioned In This Episode Episode 310 - The Pie Cake Social Security Calculators Aligned Financial Garrett Planning Network XY Planning Network BOOK - The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg Rock Retirement Club Roger’s YouTube Channel - Roger That BOOK - Rock Retirement  by Roger Whitney Work with Roger Roger’s Retirement Learning Center