It's Not How Much You Have, It's How Much Can You Live On

One million, two? I saw a recent article that says five.

Clearly, the majority of us don’t or won’t have that much.

So we all have to ask the question; Have we saved enough? How much do we really need for retirement? The answer is this - as much as we can save from this moment on. You don’t want to look back and say “I didn’t save enough”, you want to say ”I saved as much as I could.”

Actionable steps to increase retirement savings:

4 MLM Pieces: Material, Financial, Physical, Mental/Spiritual

4 MLM Pieces: Material, Financial, Physical, Mental/Spiritual

  1. Set a goal. Make it reasonable and attainable. If you’ve got $90K saved, make it $150K. If you have $40K, make it $75K. Retirement planning is a key component of Midlife Minimalism. Learn and then know how much you have, how much you’ll need and how to get there. Set reasonable short term (i.e. you have $100K and want to make it $120K), mid term (in 5 years you want $250K) and final goals (when your done for example, you’d like a million). Make progress your motivation.

  2. Take action. How do you increase savings? Perhaps increasing your 401K contribution is a good start. Review the budget, what can be eliminated, what can be reduced. What do you have of value that can be sold? We’ve had great success eliminating clutter by using sales apps that make objects available locally (search Mobile Marketplace on your favorite app store). Make a goal to sell 5 things a month and save 3% more than you did last month. It will accumulate quickly.

  3. Know how much you need. Attempt to figure out how much you’ll need to live on if your income did not exist. This will vary from household to household, but the goal is to find ways to manage this number. For example if that vintage Mustang in the garage costs $X to insure and $XY to repair, it might be time to release that hobby and bask in some piece of mind. If you can afford it, enjoy it but if not, please consider opening the barn door and letting that thing go. It’s not how much we make, it’s how much we can live on. Someone who earns little can live a comfortable life if they live on less than they bring home. It isn’t about the stuff we have its about the life we live and the peace inside.

As we’ve discussed in the past, it’s an ecosystem. We should balance our physical well being, spiritual focus, health and material/financial stability.

Increase the peace,

Jim