Spend Your Money

In the words of the great Kenny Chesney, “summertime is finally here”. We had a brutal (but much needed) winter here in Utah and over the past couple of weeks the weather has finally started to turn. It’s warming up, kids are out of school, trailers and boats are being de-winterized, and pools are starting to open.

A few years ago, someone told my wife and me that we only get 18 summers with each of our kids and to make each one of them count. We took that to heart and do our best to pack our summers full of camping trips, vacations, hikes, and other family activities.

Some of these trips and activities can be expensive and we typically find ourselves spending way more in the summer than we do any other time of year, and that’s okay.

Many of you are in a different era of life than we are. Regardless, summer is a time to enjoy yourself, get out, be active, and spend time with your loved ones. A lot of the activities you enjoy may not cost much, but some definitely do.

My message to you: spend your money.

The vast majority of the financial plans for each of my 150 clients show them passing away with a significant amount of money in their portfolio.

Some of you I’m almost begging to spend more.

Research shows that one of the hardest parts of retirement is spending the money you so diligently saved over the years. A study by Black Rock found that the vast majority of retirees still have at least 80% of their savings after two decades in retirement.

I pose the question, what is the point of hoarding all your money in the first 20 years of retirement when your health is better than it will ever be?

It goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) you need to be responsible. As your advisor we’ve given you guardrails and estimates on how much you can safely spend monthly or annually without running out of money. We’ll continue to adjust, update, and converse about that as we meet.

But if you’re having trouble spending what we advise you can spend, you have some work to do!

Enjoy the summer and make some memories!