Here's When it's Time to STOP Saving for Retirement

You shouldn't always save for retirement...as you would be missing the whole point of all of those years of saving!

In today's video, you'll learn how to understand opportunity cost and compound growth and how that impacts when you should consider stopping to save any more dollars for retirement.

Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
2:43 - Portfolio Growth
4:57 - Optimizing Time
7:13 - Opportunity Cost
10:08 - 3 Reasons To Stop Saving
11:55 - Avoid Regret
13:10 - Work With Us

Learn the tips & strategies to get the most out of life with your money.

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The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

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[chessdad]

When you have read too many obituaries of folks that didn't make it to retirement. I finally reached the point where the benefits of working, were less than the what I was missing out on.

[aleem]

Totally agree with you, I’m 55.
I retired at age 45.
Watching you from Canada.
From my first job, I always saved 40% of my income.
And thanks to the power of compounding, I was able to retire early in my life.

[steves]

It’s refreshing to hear someone say you don’t have to keep saving at some point.

[jerseygirl]

I retired as of 1/1/23 after 25 years in law enforcement. I have seen too many coworkers pass away with less than 5 years into retirement. Life is too short and every day is precious. My parents are in their 80’s and I want to enjoy time with them. It is important to stay healthy and take care of yourself. You can have all the money in the world but if you need to be healthy enough to enjoy it.

[johnurban]

This is great advice if Health insurance wasn’t involved. It’s the high cost of insurance that keeps going up every year that can make you poor fast. If greed wasn’t a factor in the Health Insurance industry and would give us reasonable costs that the average person can afford, than you wouldn’t have to worry about saving so much.

[patpeifer]

My mother is 93 and is still saving. Some people just cannot change their mindset.

[jfscotch]

Bill Perkins book, Die With Zero! Great read.

[rickberdan]

Great show as usual. Im 63 and recently reduced my 401 contribution from 16% to 8%. Im trying to build up my cash emergency fund while still getting the free company match. Your show always seems like good advice and thank you for putting all this info out there.

[andrewroth]

Great perspective! So true James, best savers are the worst spenders. It’s difficult to change gears for the retirement squirrels out there. Another way of phrasing it is “money unspent is life unlived” …..Let’s live a little you deserve it!

[everlastingarms]

Your #5 "tax benefits" are the reason I kept saving full-on until I retired (i.e. I was in a high tax bracket when working). However, the rest of your video is why I went part-time at 57, and retired at 59:

The young person has lots of time & energy, but little $$.
The middle-aged person has $$ & energy, but little time, always looking at the watch.
The old person has lots of time & $$, but is sitting on a park bench leaning on the cane with no energy.

I wanted my time while I still have my energy & plenty of $$ because I learned about compounding 35+ years ago.

[tomj]

An interesting video and this is something I've struggled with. For me, I keep going for the tax savings and because we really don't need the money now. Thanks to our continued saving for retirement our tax liability is completely eliminated and I can make substantial Roth conversions completely tax free. Additionally, I can't seem to find ways to increase our spending in ways that meaningfully increase our happiness. I finally decided to stop worrying about it and that if something comes along we'll do it but I'm done trying to find things.

A perfect example is that a few years ago in the midst of the pandemic we saw a documentary about supper clubs. I asked my wife if when the pandemic was over if she'd like to start going every week to a supper club. She wasn't interested as I'm a pretty good cook and she said "When you can cook this good at home, it really is just stupid to eat out". Instead I decided to recreate the experience at home. I was already making NY strip steaks and bone in pork chops once a month each so this was a natural to expand in the "Supper Club Dinning at Home" evenings. Starting at 4pm I head into the kitchen to make a relish tray with crudites, made from scratch dip, crackers, cheeses, sausage, etc and salads with a homemade dressing. We then enjoy these and chat for about 45 minutes while a classical music video with a slideshow of European art, nature and architecture plays quietly in the background. Around 5:30pm I head back into the kitchen to make the main course and sides...we're done eating at 7pm and it's extremely relaxing, a much better experience than an actual supper club. Twice a month is the perfect frequency for us. I simply identified the key aspects to recreate, such as an extended, relaxed dining experience, everything made from scratch and using high quality meats from a local butcher. I also have "Friday Pizza and Movie Nights", "Burger, Fries and Shakes" and "Soda Shop Dessert Nights" as well.

This can be applied to pretty much everything else in life too, often the less expensive option being the better one as well.

Cheers!

[musicsansnotes]

James. Thank you for the time you invest in helping older folks. You are a wonderful person. With a kind heart, like yours, you will always be successful. Thank you for clarifying and taking away some of the fear people may have to finally stop working.

[rickchandler]

That was a great feeling last year when my financial advisor said I could retire and I could stop investing. I still do the match my company provides, because it’s free money, but the rest I moved to cash in a high interest savings account to build up my emergency fund. Would like to have a year set aside of expenses.

[cashflow]

great video. Having to save & invest during the last 40 years its a hard habit to break. I understand your point. Im 68 with a 2M portfolio with no debt. But i still continue to invest because I like it, not so much for the money but the sense of being successful

[kzalaska]

So true! My wife and I hit the savings hard before we had kids, then backed way off when the kids were old enough to appreciate and remember doing activities together. It has worked out great, because we made sacrifices early I get to retire at 54 and we have lots of great family memories as well.

[ahwhite]

This opportunity cost thing is exactly the conversation I was having with myself last year, and which I re-evaluate ever time I get frustrated at work. I grew up without much money and have been obsessed with work and saving since I was 10. I realistically probably shouldn't be contributing to my 401K any more, but I continue to max out because I'm obsessed with the tax mitigation aspect of it. Worse, I can't really spend the money I make now, at least not while working full-time.

I've spent years getting to this point, and don't know how to stop. These are problems and concerns that ultimately sound like "humble bragging, " but it really has me wondering "now what?" I purposely took a few months off last year to test the waters, and did nothing but drive my wife and myself insane, so I took another job. You can't just change habits built up in a lifetime.

I feel like a dog whose been chasing a car, and now the car has stopped and I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do next. My latest obsession is travel, so that has allowed/required recalibrating how much I will need to spend in retirement and given me a new goal. I guess we'll see how I respond when I get there.

[Kristy-ouke]

Your guidance on retirement money is absolutely fantastic! Your instructions are clear, concise, and incredibly clean, making complex financial concepts feel approachable and manageable. It's evident that you put a lot of effort into delivering high-quality content. Thank you James for making the path to financial security so much clearer and easier to navigate! Love this video so much!

[MrWaterbugdesign]

Retired 21 years at 45. Didn't have a pile of money so it was a little scary. More importantly to me than a pile of money was my skill set. I had been a software engineer. Would have been super easy to jump back into earning a lot of money.

I added skills in retirement. I found I enjoyed remodeling my home and got into slow flipping my house. Now working on house #4. That's another skill that gives me security. Got into gardening/landscaping. Another useful skill.

[JayRay]

Excellent! A subject that is not usually discussed. You're giving your clients a much need perspective they will not get elsewhere.

[stephenwright]

I’m 2 years from retirement and less than $100K from my retirement goal. I’m going to contribute enough to get the match the next 2 years. It’s semi retirement time and time to balance experiences and saving for the future.