I'm 57 and Never Thought About Retirement

Brought to you by the Every Dollar app. Start budgeting for free today. >> I never thought about retirement. It was just something not in my in in my vocabulary. Um, I spent my 20s and 30s having a good time. Um, very unusual. But now that I'm 57, I'm starting to think about things I should have thought of a long time ago. So, I have a little bit in savings. I have a little bit in an IRA. And my question is, is it too late for me to think about retirement? >> Yeah, it's over. You're just so old. You're so >> sorry, Susan. >> You're so old. You can't do anything. >> You need to go to the bar and find you somebody cuz it's over for you. Of course not. Of course not. Now, obviously, it would have been better if you started when you were 27, but that's in the rearview mirror, so let's just deal with what we got. What do you make a year? >> I make $50,000 a year. >> Okay. So, if you save 15% of that, that's 7500 fully fund a Roth IRA tax-free growth in a good growth stock mutual fund. And if you do that for the next um 10, 15 years, you're going to have a pretty sizable chunk of money. >> Okay. >> Probably a million dollars. >> Seriously? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, $7,500 a year into a Roth IRA >> in good growth stock mutual funds. >> Okay. >> Jump online with at ramseysolutions.com and click on smart veester. And those are those are investment advisors that we uh uh endorse. They don't work for us, but we vetted them and they have the heart of a teacher. And I want you to become a student of this. It's not rocket science. You can do it. I can do it. Everybody can do it. And just sit down and learn how that mutual fund works and learn how that Roth IRA works and have it automatically drafted out of your checking account. And if you get any raises in the future, and you probably will, increase the amount that you're saving, clear your debts, get the house paid off, and if you come into 70 years old, 13 years from now with a pile of money in your Roth IRA and a paid for house, you're going to be in really good shape. >> Okay, sounds good. >> But you but you're going to have to concentrate on it, like you said, for the first time. >> Well, one of the things, too, is that I don't own a home anymore. I sold my house. Um, so I rent I Well, I will be renting right now. I >> Why? Um, I don't know to be honest. It was I was living it was just getting too crazy. Um, >> what was crazy? >> Well, my business suffered dramatically during the pandemic. I had a catering business >> and so when the pandemic hit, I lost $4,000 a month in income in a blink of an eye. >> And I had a very difficult time bouncing back. >> Are you bounced? >> I'm still I'm still trying to get back on track. >> Why? Five years later. >> It's when you're in the hospitality industry and I >> No, honey. We we we pay thousands and tens of thousands of dollars to caterers every year. I don't know one I don't know one that hadn't bounced back. >> Yeah. I don't know why. I I I don't That's one of the mysteries that I don't know why. Um I think I've been making some poor decisions. >> Yeah. Like you're still living in the trauma and the pain. Got PTSD from the pandemic. Me too, by the way. >> But um I mean every time I hear the word Fouchy, I still want to flip. So, um, you know, it's just, uh, somebody if I see somebody in a mask, I just go crazy. So, I mean, I understand. But, but anyway, all right, Susan, I did the math for you. Okay. How much is in your IRA right now? >> 50 57,000. >> Oh, 57. That's even better. All right, check this out. You ready? >> Uh-huh. >> 57,000. I'm going to put in here 75. I'm on the Ramsay investment calculator. >> 7500 a year. at 7,500 a year. At 77 years old, okay. >> Uhhuh. >> If you put 625 bucks a month, that's $7,500 a year. You're going to have $1,50,000. >> Okay? And that's going to be enough for me in retirement. >> It'll be more than you have now. >> Okay? Okay. >> And you're going to have more than that because you're going to get the catering business moving again. You're going to get over the PTSD, start smiling and cooking again. I appreciate that. >> Yeah. You got you go get this. Go get those customers back. Don't let some other caterer have them. >> Okay. >> You want me to give you I want to give you a wild homework assignment. You ready? >> Yes. >> Do you live by yourself right now? >> I do. >> I want you to write a letter to your 77year-old self and tell her about what you decided to do at age 57 so that she could have a million dollars in retirement. >> Okay, I can do that. >> Called these weird guys on a podcast. I went to their website. I got a Smart Invest Pro. I got my business kicked in the butt and moving again. And I put started putting 7500 a year away. And I even put more than that away because later on I started making so stinking much money. I wanted to have a million faster than 77. I didn't want to I wanted to get it at 67. So, you know. Yeah. Yeah. That's going to get you there after it. Pretty cool. That's a good idea. Write yourself a letter. There's something powerful about getting out of your body and putting it on the on imagining yourself at 77 sitting in that same crummy recliner you got and thinking I can go to sleep tonight cuz I got a million dollars in retirement right now. >> Yeah. And let's talk about owning a home during that time again. >> Yeah. >> When when it is appropriate for you. Yeah. So yeah, it it's um it's very real though to emotionally uh still have scars from the economic damage that was done to your life during the Fouchy pandemic. >> Well, it it it's you can't you can have everything in line and then all of a sudden you wake up on a Monday and you can't go to work anymore. Yeah. >> Or all of your business goes away. Right. And that that could be the same. I know people are panicking all over the country about AI, like I'm just going to wake up tomorrow, my job will be gone. And um that could be paralyzing. And that goes back to the thing we were talking about in an earlier segment. Feel that. That fear is real. Fine. And then get on about the next right thing, which is get after it. I tell you what, man. We spend so much time with millennials and Gen Z's that um the every article I I've read probably five different things this week that were credible. I think I'm really starting to believe there are going to be more millionaires created by AI than any other technology disruption to come along. >> There's a very real possibility. >> I think some people are going to use AI like people, you know, people use the internet and digital to access and to start a business that they never would have dreamed prior to that and became millionaires. This is exponentially >> that times a billion. Yeah. >> Exponentially larger. >> Yeah. And so I think the opportunity of AI is so huge that it offsets what little bit of pain is going to come from that. That's the plan. Wow. Yeah. Go get you some. That's a plan. Create your free every dollar budget today. The simplest way to budget for your