Jean: What are the most important things that I need to do at this point?
Jane: When you retire you have to say, “What is my future income?” And you say, my Social Security, my pension if I have one, my annuity if I choose to take it or not, or my 4.5% that I’m going to take from my savings.
Rightsizing means, you start with that future reasonable income number, and then you look at your expenses. And if it’s more, you say, “You know? I should downsize right now. I can’t retire.” Well maybe it’s true. Maybe you should work another 5 years. So that might be the right answer: You don’t retire.
If you do retire, or if you’re forced to retire, you have 2 options. Either overspend or rightsize your life immediately. Downsize right away.
And it’s sometimes very emotionally hard to do, and you also think you’re the only one doing it. Your friends are all fine, and you’re struggling with this. No! Everybody does it. It’s what people do in retirement.
The sooner you do it and bring yourself peace of mind, then you can stop thinking about all this money we’re talking about and get on with the things that really matter in life; like what you’re going to do when you’re retired and making friends and having projects. Get the money out of your mind. Rightsizing your life is where it all starts.
