Ready For Retirement
Ready For Retirement
Root Talks: Spend Your Way to a Happier Retirement: 5 Pillars of Better Spending
Many great savers hesitate to spend once they retire—unsure how to shift gears after years of discipline. In this episode, we talk through what it looks like to use money with intention, not just someday, but now.
Prompted by a thoughtful note from a Root Collective member, we share stories—personal and client-based—about the small upgrades that matter: better experiences, more time, stronger health, and generosity that deepens relationships.
We also walk through five areas where spending often brings clarity and connection: experiences, time, giving, health, and environment.
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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for general informational purposes only and should not be construed as personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Advisory relationships are established only through a signed agreement. Any examples discussed are hypothetical and for illustrative purposes. If client experiences are referenced, no compensation was provided and their experience may not be representative of others. Root Financial does not provide tax or legal advice. Tax planning topics are discussed in the context of comprehensive financial planning and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional advice. All investments involve risk, including possible loss of principal. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Watching or listening to this content does not create an advisory relationship. Comments shared publicly are unsolicited and do not reflect the views or experience of all clients. They are not verified and should not be construed as testimonials or endorsements.
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This is another episode of Ready for Retirement. I'm your host, james Canole, and I'm here to teach you how to get the most out of life with your money. And now on to the episode.
Speaker 2:I'm going to guess that the majority of you watching this content or listening right now are good savers. That's why you are where you are. That's why you're listening to this content, thinking of ways to further optimize your finances. Now, some of you are thinking my partner is a great spender. Okay, well, we're not talking about them right now. We're talking about you in this savers mindset, and one of the coolest things that we have right now at Root going on is this community.
Speaker 2:It's called the Root Collective, and in this collective, there are certain prompts that I'll see that will catch my eye or James's eye, and that's how we come up with what we want to talk about today, and so today is a really interesting one, and this was prompted by Tommy C, who says the following for those who are great savers before retirement and are now retired, what are the little splurges that you now spring for that you wouldn't before retirement? And he has a couple in here that might make you think a little differently about how you want to save or potentially spend or give, or X, as we'll talk about today. James, when you're seeing someone talk about, oh my gosh, what are some of these things that maybe I wouldn't normally do, but now that I'm retired I'll consider doing what's coming to your head.
Speaker 1:Well, first thing is number one let's not wait until retirement to do some of these things. This isn't like a binary you don't do these things before you retire, do these things after you retire. But number two I think that we've heard a lot of cool things, a lot of cool tips, if you want to call it that, spending strategies. What a lot of cool tips, if you want to call it that. Spending strategies of what are some examples that people, of things people spent money on and they haven't regretted it, because no one wants to spend money. And then regret it like, why did I buy that stupid thing? I never ended up liking it. What a waste of money. I feel dumb for doing it.
Speaker 1:But there's other things people spend money on and they say I, that was one of the best things I've ever spent money on. And so I, I think that I, broadly speaking, categorize things into one of five buckets where we see these are like some pillars of good spending and so we'll go over those. And then you have some personal things. I know, I have some personal things. I know and I, you know, when we're talking to clients, I think one of the fun things is because our advice isn't just about money, money, money. It's really about how do you have a, how do you live better lives, how do you live more intentional lives Like these aren't things that are unique to age 65 and above. These are really principles that all of us can try to live better by, and things that you and I personally try to live better by, so we'll share some of those stories as well.
Speaker 2:We certainly will. We talk about this phrase of goalpost planning one more year, one more bonus. Oh yeah, just one more project, then I'm going to officially retire. Now, if you're doing those things, some of you are like it's because I don't know what I want to do in retirement. Others of you are like you know now that you've actually brought it up. I think you're right and I think when I'm hearing you guys talk, it's resonating because I'm doing that, but I wasn't even aware, am I doing that? So what we want to do today is really shed some light as to some of these ideas, which hopefully will make you think a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Intentional is the way I would say it. So, if it's okay, excuse me, james, I'd like to start with a quick story, because it's a funny one and my clients like when I share it. So some of you guys already know this, but for those who don't, my dad loves his phone to an unhealthy degree and I love spending quality time with my dad. My dad loves surfing. I'm not a huge surfer, but I will go out with him in the water because it's when I get time with him. Now he actually has his Apple Watch, so sometimes he takes calls when we're in the water which he knows he's not allowed to do, and I feel like I'm the parent when that occurs but calls when we're in the water which he knows he's not allowed to do, and I feel like I'm the parent when that occurs. But my brother and I were thinking for a long time how do we get more quality time with our father? And we can't surf all the time if waves are up or it's windy or whatever it is, and so we bought a sauna to intentionally ensure that his phone or Apple watch would overheat, so he's forced to talk to us.
Speaker 2:Now some of you are thinking well, that's silly. Why don't you just talk to your dad for dinner? And if it was that simple we would do that. But we all know some of us have these family members where it's just more difficult to get them engaged, whether it be game night or you just have to take them out to dinner, because at home they're going to kind of be watching TV. So I am literally paying thousands of dollars along with my brother to just get quality time with my father, and that's something that I could wait to do until I quote unquote have millions of dollars retired. But I want the time now, while it's valuable. So we'll certainly get into, james, your stories, we'll get into what prompted today. But that's a quick story about just financially, why doing the right thing might not always actually lead to the right result.
Speaker 1:Well, I think that's a perfect example of the. Here's my five pillars. There's nothing magical about these as much as when I hear great stories like that, by the way, of what people spent money on, that they feel really good about spending money on. The first pillar is experience. No one is ever upset that they spent money to buy an experience, and in this case, the experience was simply quality time with your dad and that theoretically, could have happened on the sofa. That could have happened. Surfing, that could have happened driving a car. But, like you're saying, there's a, there was a roadblock to that happening. You needed to eliminate the roadblock, which was overheat, the phone so it couldn't be used. But experiences, that's what travel is no-transcript aisles and it's just not a fun experience. And so that's a couple hours of time back that I now have. So time, how do you spend money on time? The third is giving. No one's ever upset that they gifted money. This could be gifted to a charity, to church, to family, to friends, to whoever it is. You're not going to feel like that's a great thing. To quote unquote spend money on is giving.
Speaker 1:Then you have health. No one's ever upset that they spend a lot of money on health. You tell a lot of stories about this, ari, of getting the best doctor, of the physical therapy, of the things that you do, and health is one of those things. That what's the saying? A healthy man has a thousand worries, a sick man has about one, or something like that. Like, until you don't have your health, you don't think about it. But health is. Health is what allows us, of course, to enjoy everything else that we have. So spending money on your health gym memberships, good food for you, eating good food, spending money to do things that makes you healthier is a great thing to spend money on.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, I'll just broadly talk. Call it environment. Like, you want to live in a beautiful environment, you want whether that environment is aesthetically pleasing, and this is about people who like to decorate their home a certain way or do certain things for their home. This environment could be proximity to people you love or you care about. The environment could be proximity to things you enjoy doing. So I think those are categories that, broadly speaking, we should be spending money on. I like your example. For me, an example that comes to mind is not so much spending money but spending time is.
Speaker 1:You mentioned goalpost planning just a bit ago and it's a sense of oh, I'm going to work one more year because I'm going to get one more bonus, or I have some more stock vesting, or it's one more year of social security benefits increasing, or it's one more year of maxing. There's so many good financial reasons we can use to justify that, and what we always point to is, hey, at some point you could take that to the extreme, keep working forever, keep maxing your 401k forever, keep getting bonuses forever. But you missed the whole point, you, you. You missed the movie Like it's your. Your life passed you by because you spent it working. Now I'm assuming you're working at a dead end job not dead end job, but a job that you don't like, a job that's not bringing you fun and fulfillment in the things that you love doing. So we try to help clients be very intentional with that of.
Speaker 1:Money has a purpose, a very important purpose, but at some point the money needs to not be the main thing. At some point you've crossed this threshold where there is enough that it can now support you doing the things that you actually want to do, and continuing to work to get even more of it is actually pulling you away from what you're actually trying to do. To work to get even more of it is actually pulling you away from what you're actually trying to do. I face that too, not because I'm trying to retire. I love what we get to do. This is one of my favorite things in the world. To me, it's not a goalpost planning of okay, I'm going to stay at root for one more year. Two more years is man. I can get one more thing done, two more things, three more things done.
Speaker 1:And surfing is something I claim to love to do. I haven't done it in two and a half years and I blame it on okay, well, we have young kids and life's busy, and I blame it on well, roots growing and that keeps me busy. The reality is I'm just not making time to be intentional with it, and Wednesdays is typically when I record YouTube videos, podcasts, et cetera, and I always tell myself, okay, I'm going to record and, like the the, the reward for doing that is going to be then I'll go surfing or then I'll go, I don't know do something fun. I'll go do jujitsu, I'll go train. But I fall into that same trap that we encourage clients, not to none of of. Oh, there's one more thing I can be productive with. There's one more thing I can check off the list. Look, I have three more hours till I got to go home for family dinner. Like, look at all these things I can do, and I fall into this trap and it's and.
Speaker 1:And just last week, for the first time in two and a half years, I finally said you know what I'm going to commit to. Here's the things I need to get done today. The my enough. Like, if I get these three things done, which was filming a certain amount of videos, I am going to go surf. And I did it.
Speaker 1:And I went surfing and I was reflecting on the way back that, as much as we tell clients to do this of don't goalpost plan, don't don't keep pushing off the things you actually want to do I personally am guilty of now. I love work, and so it's not like I'm continuing to do something that I dislike doing, but there's a certain amount of intentionality that doesn't come from continuing to do the same old, same thing. Like, how, like, how do you constantly reflect on? What should I be spending money on? Like your story? What are the things I can do to create more meaningful experiences? What are the things I can do to improve, spend money on, to improve my health, to buy back my time to you know those various things I talked about?
Speaker 1:The same thing happens with how do we spend our time Not just how do we spend our money, but how do we spend our time, and sometimes it's thinking about the life that we want to live. It's thinking about what actually matters to us, and surfing is obviously not the only thing that matters. In fact, it's pretty low on the priority list of the things I actually care about. But in general, it is something that I do want to do, and it's this sense of just constantly reevaluating and reassessing where are we and how can we spend our time, spend our money, spend our energy, spend our talents, doing the things that bring us closer to the life that we want to live.
Speaker 2:Now this is interesting. What was it about last week versus any other week in the last two and a half years that made you go? Today is the day I'm going to give myself the reward.
Speaker 1:You know I didn't think that. Well, I'm glad you just asked that, because I hadn't thought about this until literally the second. An office mate came in this morning and said guys, we work four blocks away from the ocean and we never get in the ocean. How ridiculous is that Kind of like, how dumb are we that we live in this paradise and we don't actually utilize the paradise we live in? And so I said, OK, well, if I get that, you're right.
Speaker 1:First and foremost, the number two, if I do this isn't to say abandon all work and go. If I can get my enough done, if I can get my top three things that are my priorities for the day done, instead of just saying, okay, cool, there's always more things to do, so I'll just pour myself into that, Then I'm going to go do this. Other thing is that is called a reward for getting those things. I don't want to call it peer pressure, but having someone do this and I think in fact, that comment, Ari, that you started with from Tommy C mentioned that I believe. Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of his experiences, one thing he spends money on, is doing something that friends can come along, and it's that sense of doing something with someone else makes it way easier to do and way more enjoyable to do.
Speaker 2:It's so fascinating because, let's assume, you go surfing every week and now you're happier at home, and now your wife goes. We're connecting more. I don't know what's happening, but I just feel it's different and you're more present. And you can't quantify that on some spreadsheet, as hard as you try. And there are financial advisors as nerdy as us who will try, but the reality is you are not going to look back going. Oh my gosh, I'm so glad I did those 12 more projects and you know I didn't need more time with my grandkids Like we've never heard anyone ever say that, and this is all we're doing all day.
Speaker 2:So I think when we're talking to clients, we will pride ourselves on being very transparent. We are not mean, but we are transparent because, as you just saw, what prompted James to actually right now go surfing was someone came into the office and said how dumb are we? And so some of you are working right now going. I'm 60. There's no way I could retire because I've never had healthcare outside of my employer, so surely I'm waiting until 65 because, like, why not? And then you'll see a video that will might wake you up and go hey, maybe that's not the deal. And then, all of a sudden you might have years back of prioritizing health or family or friends. And next week we'll talk about an even bigger story actually two weeks from now where there's an actual woman I spoke to who was really upset that she had $3 million. And I said look, that's just. I don't want to be mean here, I just don't hear that every day. Why are you mad that you have $3 million? And she goes on to say that she didn't need 3 million and now she can't hike to the degree she'd like because of the health impact from sitting at work. So we'll talk more about that in a few weeks. But the point here is, financially, there are things that you can only do when you know your plan allows for it, but you don't have to wait until this magic date to actually start doing some of these things. So I think it would be helpful to maybe give some of you guys a few ideas here. And, james, if there's anything you wanna add, please feel free.
Speaker 2:But this is straight from Tommy, once again in the community. But this is straight from Tommy once again in the community. These are just a couple of his ideas. And so he says whenever I have an experience. He springs for the better and the closer seats. That might not be valuable to you, but that's what he likes to do he talks about whenever he can. He gets prepaid parking so he's not worried about finding street or cheaper parking or having to walk a mile to the venue like James did when he was younger at the baseball games. He says he'll upgrade to a large or even extra large coffee.
Speaker 2:He says when I'm on a cruise, we opt for excursions that have less people and they cost a little bit more. The experiences have been 100% worth it. He tips more generously and then our favorite one that we read here is he said when I buy experiences, I buy two extra tickets. This forces us to find two friends to go with us. If they pass back, great, and if not, I'm not worried. More fun with friends is worth the additional cost.
Speaker 2:So he goes on to say what little things do you splurge on that makes you happy? I don't think those are littered things. I think those are big things and I want to tell Tommy I'm proud of you, because it's really hard unless you know, financially you're in a good spot to go. I'm going to buy two extra tickets. What if my friends don't actually join, so if there's anything you take away from today's episode, I hope you think about it and let this be. Maybe this episode, the person walking in to your office going maybe today's the day to go surfing Anything else, james you want to add no?
Speaker 1:I, james, you want to add no? That would be it. I encourage everyone listening. Just keep it super simple. How could you better spend your time and how could you better spend your money? My example was a time thing. Your example was a money thing. Now you're spending your money to get time and I think that that's how do we live better lives. We look at those two things. Where are we spending money? How are we spending money?
Speaker 1:I have five things that like to fall in those categories. Again experiences, time giving, environment or health. If it's checking one of those boxes, I'm going to feel good about it. So what is one little thing that we can do? What gym can you go sign up for Not just sign up for a gym You're probably never going to go. Can you sign up for a personal trainer to keep you accountable? Can you sign up and do so with a friend to keep you accountable, to make it fun? What are those things that you can begin doing? What are those experiences?
Speaker 1:To me, the simple experience was I'm going to go surfing for 30 minutes in the middle of the day because I got my enough done. What are those things that you can do. I'm really glad I did it. Whatever I would have gotten done in those 30 minutes pales in comparison to the fun I had being in the water, doing that, having fun with a friend. So just those little things. So what's one single thing you can do to stop? I'm guilty of this. You're actually really good about this. I bet you're not actually guilty of this. You get in the routine, you get in a thing that's comfortable and it's hard to kind of pull ourselves out of that until someone comes along and shows you those blind spots that by nature, by definition, you're not seeing in your own life and you have to go make a change to get out of it.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you, and we're going to put the thread of what Tommy said in the link below. So if you want to go comment on the exact post, which is the reason we're making this exact episode, go comment in there and let us know and we will read those ideas on future episodes. So you can check all of that out in the description, whether you're on YouTube or on the podcast app.
Speaker 1:All right. Thank you everyone for listening and we will see you all next time. See ya. The information presented is for educational purposes only and is not intended as an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and are not guaranteed. Any mention of rates of return are historical and illustrative in nature and are not a guarantee of future returns.
Speaker 2:Past performance does not guarantee future performance Viewers are encouraged to seek advice from a qualified tax, legal or investment advisor professional to determine whether any information presented may be suitable for their specific situation.
Speaker 1:Hey everyone, it's me again for the disclaimer. Please be smart about this. Before doing anything, please be sure to consult with your tax planner or financial planner. Nothing in this podcast should be construed as investment, tax, legal or other financial advice. It is for informational purposes only. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Ready for Retirement podcast. If you want to see how Root Financial can help you implement the techniques I discussed in this podcast, then go to rootfinancialpartnerscom and click start here, where you can schedule a call with one of our advisors. We work with clients all over the country and we love the opportunity to speak with you about your goals and how we might be able to help. And please remember, nothing we discuss in this podcast is intended to serve as advice. You should always consult a financial, legal or tax professional who's familiar with your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions.
