Episode 144: Mailbag – How Can I Convince My Husband We’ve Saved Enough?
Today’s Prep:
Are you and your spouse not seeing eye-to-eye when it comes to saving (or spending) in retirement? David shares his thoughts on how to improve the situation for this person and two others seeking financial advice.
Equipping Points:
When can you be confident you have enough tucked away for retirement and start enjoying your money? David answers this question as well as two others from the mailbag on today’s show.
Joel says he knows he needs an emergency fund. Instead of saving money in a savings account, can’t he just use his home equity line in a pinch? David says his advice might not be agreed upon by all advisors, but that could be a possibility, especially if you’re saving on the side already. David explains some of the ins and outs of how this could work and says he used this strategy himself. You do have to have this in place though before the emergency strikes.
Miriam says her husband saves like he’s from the Depression era. She thinks they’ve saved enough for retirement while he thinks they can’t indulge on anything and should work forever. Is there any way to fix this? The way to fix this is to have a good plan. Having a plan is going to give you and your husband the confidence that you’re not going to run out of money. Once you have a good plan, make sure to update it annually since things are prone to change. Make sure your plan also includes a number of what-ifs.
Grace’s dad unfortunately died a few months ago and now she’s worried about her mom who is handling the investments. What should she tell her 70-year-old mom to do? Start by finding somebody you can trust like a fiduciary to get good guidance. Are her assets sufficient to take her to the end of her life? Look at the beneficiaries. Has she named a power of attorney? Make sure the assets she has won’t go through probate. Don’t forget that her tax bracket will go up next year when filing single. This might make it a good year to do a Roth conversion.
Do you have a question? Reach out to David to get the answer!
Today’s Takeaway:
“When you have a good plan in place, you need to do an annual (or so) update of that plan because things change.”
– David Dickens
KC Financial Advisors Blog


