Speaker 1: Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I'm Matt,
Speaker 1: and today we're asking the question why aren't we saving
Speaker 1: for retirement again? Joel. Not only are we going to
Speaker 1: be talking about again why we're saving for retirement, but
Speaker 1: at the end of the episode we're gonna launch into
Speaker 1: how like what steps you need to take to ensure
Speaker 1: that you're saving for retirement. And Joel, I know this
Speaker 1: is a topic you wanted to discuss and kind of
Speaker 1: cover again. I think for you in particular, this is
Speaker 1: something that seems to come naturally. I feel like it's
Speaker 1: a strength of yours that you have the ability to
Speaker 1: look kind of like further down the road maybe than
Speaker 1: most folks, and start making changes now that sort of
Speaker 1: leads you to where you want to go. Do you
Speaker 1: feel like that's true. Maybe it's actually in your d
Speaker 1: n A, maybe it's a Norwegian thing. It could be.
Speaker 1: I think it is kind of hard for me to
Speaker 1: pinpoint exactly why that's the case. I think it's a
Speaker 1: blend of personality and personal history, and so I think
Speaker 1: it's kind of baked in at this point that I
Speaker 1: think a lot about the future and what I want
Speaker 1: my life to look like. Ten, fifteen, twenty years from now.
Speaker 1: And I think in a lot of ways that's really helpful.
Speaker 1: It's really helpful when it comes to to saving up
Speaker 1: and to putting more of my money towards long term goals.
Speaker 1: But I will say sometimes it has its drawbacks to
Speaker 1: and it lends me to think about what's coming next
Speaker 1: a little bit more than I should, and a little
Speaker 1: bit less of enjoying what's currently happening, the good things
Speaker 1: that I'm currently surrounded by. So I've realized that, and
Speaker 1: I'm trying to do better about living in the moment
Speaker 1: and enjoying what's currently happening even while I am looking ahead.
Speaker 1: But I do think that this is an important topic
Speaker 1: for us to cover because I don't think it comes
Speaker 1: naturally for most folks, kind of like it does for me.
Speaker 1: I don't think it comes naturally to me. But over time,
Speaker 1: it is something that I've've worked at and it's it's
Speaker 1: more like a discipline, I guess, and it's something I've learned,
Speaker 1: you know, I've learned to implement in my life. So yeah,
Speaker 1: excited to talk about this with you today. Man, the
Speaker 1: girls are our wives. Got together today, got the girls together,
Speaker 1: and they all went to the zoo. Yeah. The zoo
Speaker 1: is pretty much the closest awesome thing that we can
Speaker 1: visit in our part of town, just because it is
Speaker 1: so nearby. We love being members there, and it's got
Speaker 1: the splash pad too. With it being summertime, it's it's
Speaker 1: nice to hit up that splash pad. Oh yeah, the
Speaker 1: girls are obsessed with the splash pad, especially in this heat.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I know they had a great time today,
Speaker 1: and it just made me want to take more advantage
Speaker 1: of the membership that we have to use it to
Speaker 1: its full extent because there are so many cool things
Speaker 1: happening at the zoo and every time we go there,
Speaker 1: we have a great time. So yeah, if you have
Speaker 1: a membership, like a membership to a zoo or an
Speaker 1: aquarium or or whatever you do as a family that's local,
Speaker 1: just remember to use it to take full advantage of
Speaker 1: the money that you've paid. Yeah, and if you're not
Speaker 1: taking advantage of it, I mean, that's something that's worth
Speaker 1: considering cutting from your life. Reassess if this is something
Speaker 1: that you actually enjoy doing, if it's worth the money. Otherwise, Man,
Speaker 1: that's just something you can you can cut from your life.
Speaker 1: Reduce your expenses and put more of that towards retirement,
Speaker 1: which is what we're talking about today. Yeah, because those
Speaker 1: memberships can be sixty seventy hundred bucks a year pretty easily.
Speaker 1: And if you've got two or three and a few
Speaker 1: of those stacked up, man, that's a that's a lot
Speaker 1: of money. It's a lot of change, that's for sure.
Speaker 1: All right, man, let's mention the beer that we're having
Speaker 1: on the show today. We're drinking Prairie Artist and Nails
Speaker 1: Christmas Mom. We're drink an awesome Prairie beer on Monday's episode.
Speaker 1: I love that we're drinking a Christmas beer in July Christmas.
Speaker 1: This is a take on their Imperial stouts, but this
Speaker 1: has additional spices and flavors in it. And this one
Speaker 1: was donated to the show by Jeff over at Monday
Speaker 1: Morning Pancakes. He's got a little personal finance blog going
Speaker 1: over there. They've got a lot going on in their
Speaker 1: life right now, but you can still find him on
Speaker 1: Twitter at Monday Pancakes. And so, Jeff, we really appreciate it.
Speaker 1: You sent this one to us a long time ago,
Speaker 1: and we've kind of been sitting on it for just
Speaker 1: an occasion. Yeah, perfect a to drink it. And Jeff's
Speaker 1: a great part of our our Facebook group as well,
Speaker 1: so Jeff, thanks for being a part of it and
Speaker 1: thanks for sending this beer. And Matt all right, onto
Speaker 1: the topic at hand. We're talking about why are we
Speaker 1: saving for retirement again? And it's a great question to ask.
Speaker 1: I think for for lots of us, including you and
Speaker 1: I'm att, retirement is is pretty far off. But we're
Speaker 1: told by all the quote unquote financial gurus that it's
Speaker 1: wise to save for the future. But but how far
Speaker 1: in the future are we saving for? And depending on
Speaker 1: what age you are as you're listening to this, whether
Speaker 1: you or fifty, getting to the why behind saving for
Speaker 1: retirement and saving four your seventy year old future self, well,
Speaker 1: it's an important question to ask. It all feels a
Speaker 1: bit far off at times, and it's hard to maintain
Speaker 1: a high savings rate in our fore own k I
Speaker 1: RA or other investment vehicles if we can't visualize why
Speaker 1: we're doing it. Yeah, well that gets us to our
Speaker 1: first point, right, picturing yourself at future milestones that can
Speaker 1: be really hard, and so you might need help. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've been living under a rock
Speaker 1: for the past several weeks. But there's this app called
Speaker 1: face App, and before that there was one called old
Speaker 1: if I. But these are apps that literally you can
Speaker 1: take a little selfie and they make you look older.
Speaker 1: They allow you to see how you actually might look
Speaker 1: when you're in your old age. And I know over
Speaker 1: the past couple of weeks there's been a lot of stink,
Speaker 1: right regarding the privacy terms, the terms of service regarding
Speaker 1: face app specifically, and if you don't feel comfortable with that, sure,
Speaker 1: you know you don't need to do that. But what
Speaker 1: we think can happen if you actually were to give
Speaker 1: that a shot and to make a true connection with
Speaker 1: how you might actually look in the future. I personally
Speaker 1: think it's worth it because there are changes that you
Speaker 1: can make regarding your behavior, specifically to your finances, because
Speaker 1: there are studies that show that there are changes that
Speaker 1: you are more likely to make in regards to your
Speaker 1: finances when it comes to saving for your retirement. Yeah, Matt,
Speaker 1: I've seen a ton of fake old people because of
Speaker 1: the face app on my Instagram feed, and most people
Speaker 1: are just doing it for fun, right, They're just for kicks.
Speaker 1: Moving around, they have no intention to save more for
Speaker 1: their future based on viewing their older self to the
Speaker 1: face app But I think if you do it with
Speaker 1: the intention of facing facts and looking at yourself as
Speaker 1: a much older person, it can help motivate you in
Speaker 1: the here and now. It can help you see the
Speaker 1: reality of what is to come. And for many many
Speaker 1: people they have found that to be a motivating factor
Speaker 1: to help them start saving more. There's something to visualizing
Speaker 1: it and sympathizing with the older version of yourself that
Speaker 1: can be that kick in the pants that you need
Speaker 1: in order to start saving and investing more for the future. Yeah,
Speaker 1: oftentimes we we need that connection. Right when it comes
Speaker 1: to the charity commercials that we see. There's a reason
Speaker 1: why they showed the puppies or you know, there's children
Speaker 1: on on the TV who needs your funds. It's proven
Speaker 1: that donors give more to a charity when they hear
Speaker 1: from a victim or when they can see that victim.
Speaker 1: Pulmonologists they smoke less than other doctors and the rest
Speaker 1: of the population because they see dirty lungs every single day.
Speaker 1: They've had that that dose of reality. When it comes
Speaker 1: to us and our future selves we we need that
Speaker 1: sort of dose of reality as well. We need that
Speaker 1: connection to our future selves. There's this thing called the
Speaker 1: end of history illusion, where we think that even though
Speaker 1: we've seen how we've changed in the past, right, Like
Speaker 1: we can look back at the last twenty years and
Speaker 1: see how we've changed as people, we still think that
Speaker 1: who we are today is who we're going to continue
Speaker 1: to be for the next twenty forty years whatever. It's
Speaker 1: just really interesting that we have a harder time, I guess,
Speaker 1: just looking into the future. And I guess it's not surprising,
Speaker 1: right we can look back at pictures and through the
Speaker 1: pictures were able to see the change that happens. But
Speaker 1: for whatever reason, we're not very creative when it comes
Speaker 1: to thinking ahead and looking forward. So because of that,
Speaker 1: that's one of the big benefits I see of these
Speaker 1: aging apps that make you look older. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: think even if you don't want to go through the
Speaker 1: step of actually taking the picture and seeing yourself as
Speaker 1: a fake older person, just visualizing it and thinking about
Speaker 1: the reality, or maybe even just kind of writing a
Speaker 1: letter to your future self can kind of help that
Speaker 1: reality set in. And one study from Harvard found that
Speaker 1: the average person dedicating less than five percent of their
Speaker 1: income to retirement began to invest upwards of six and
Speaker 1: a half percent on average based on seeing that smartphone
Speaker 1: picture of their older self. And in the same study,
Speaker 1: subjects that were asked to allocate a thousand dollars of
Speaker 1: their money, well, only those who saw their own future
Speaker 1: selves were more likely to favor long term rewards over
Speaker 1: the short ones. So there really is something to seeing
Speaker 1: yourself in an older state or spending a lot of
Speaker 1: time truly thinking about what life will be like at
Speaker 1: that point. That is a helpful motivating factor that you
Speaker 1: might otherwise be lacking right now when it comes to
Speaker 1: saving for retirement. So yeah, visualizing, Joel, that's just an
Speaker 1: incredible tool. It's an incredible sort of approach in a
Speaker 1: way to think about the future. And so after the break,
Speaker 1: we're going to cover some more reasons why you should
Speaker 1: be saving for retirement. Alright, Matt, we're back, and the
Speaker 1: whole point of this episode is to talk about why
Speaker 1: we're saving for retirement. Right, So let's get into the y. Well,
Speaker 1: one day you are going to be old, hopefully, right,
Speaker 1: we hope you live in the old age, and that
Speaker 1: actually saving for retirement is really helpful to you in
Speaker 1: your old age that you have more than enough to
Speaker 1: live on. If you're not a visual person, well, maybe
Speaker 1: list out the specific personal financial goals that you want
Speaker 1: to accomplish by specific ages and begin to work towards
Speaker 1: those goals now. And a lot of folks may not
Speaker 1: actually have like specific goals like that, Joel, but even
Speaker 1: just the goal of being financially independent, which is your
Speaker 1: investments being able to support your cost of living without
Speaker 1: you having to work, and to figure that out quickly.
Speaker 1: We've talked about the multiply by twenty five rule, which
Speaker 1: is just take your annual expenses, multiply that by and
Speaker 1: that's basically your number. Just gives you a ballpark figure
Speaker 1: of the number that you need to have set aside
Speaker 1: in order to be financially independent. All right, So let's
Speaker 1: get into some of these specific reasons that you have
Speaker 1: to consider when it comes to why you're saving for retirement.
Speaker 1: And the first one is that nobody else is going
Speaker 1: to do it for you. There's a good chance that
Speaker 1: social security isn't gonna be enough for you to live
Speaker 1: the way you want in retirement. Pensions, for the most part,
Speaker 1: are a thing of the past. The burden has become
Speaker 1: more and more on us as individuals. Times have changed
Speaker 1: and the way we save for retirement has changed. And
Speaker 1: so don't think of social Security as this thing that
Speaker 1: is going to cover all your needs. That's just not
Speaker 1: going to be the case. And when it comes to
Speaker 1: your kids, right you you might want to live with
Speaker 1: your kids when you're older, but you don't want to
Speaker 1: have to live with them, right because you have to,
Speaker 1: and they also might not want you to live exactly um.
Speaker 1: And another reason that you need to be saving for
Speaker 1: retirement is because we're just living longer. The life expectancy
Speaker 1: in the US. I mean, we're looking at close to
Speaker 1: eighty these days, and by the time you're that old,
Speaker 1: who knows what kind of scientific or medical advances that
Speaker 1: will have, we might be living closer to ninety or
Speaker 1: even a hundred. So just making sure that we're prepared
Speaker 1: for our old age is incredibly important. Yeah, and having
Speaker 1: more money saved up for the future, saved up for retirement,
Speaker 1: it just makes you overall mentally healthier. Having that money
Speaker 1: saved up for your future decreases current anxiety and increases
Speaker 1: flexibility that you may have. It makes me. Think of
Speaker 1: an animal storing up food for winter, right, and how
Speaker 1: good does it feel when they've got a kind of
Speaker 1: all lined up and they're ready for that long hibernation.
Speaker 1: But man, if you that's a healthy looking ship monk, right,
Speaker 1: he's got a ton of acorn saved up in that tree.
Speaker 1: Did you see? It's the same for us, right that
Speaker 1: it just feels better when we have our ducks in
Speaker 1: a row and we are saving. It makes us feel
Speaker 1: better and it's better for our overall long term financial
Speaker 1: future chedule. And speaking of the future, our money is
Speaker 1: going to be worth less in the future due to inflation.
Speaker 1: And so when we uh invest our money in retirement,
Speaker 1: we're not just saving for the future. We're actually investing
Speaker 1: our money because our dollar today is actually going to
Speaker 1: buy less in the future, so we need it to grow.
Speaker 1: That's the whole point of investing. Yeah, we have to
Speaker 1: save for retirement or invest for retirement because as if
Speaker 1: we don't, inflation is going to eat us alive rights. Right,
Speaker 1: And we're also, by the way, not just saving for
Speaker 1: the far distant future. We're not just saving for that
Speaker 1: face app older version of ourselves, but we're also saving
Speaker 1: and investing and planning ahead for other near term possibilities. So, Matt,
Speaker 1: we talked a lot about investing for retirement, but creating
Speaker 1: more of a gap between what we save and what
Speaker 1: we spend helps us achieve other goals that are much
Speaker 1: closer than just the far off goal of retirement. Buying
Speaker 1: a home is an example of that. Maybe your partner
Speaker 1: or you want to stay home with your kids, maybe
Speaker 1: you want to go back to school or just change
Speaker 1: jobs or fields. The more you've grown that gap between
Speaker 1: what you save and what you spend, the more you've
Speaker 1: allocated towards saving for the future. It just gives you flexibility,
Speaker 1: It gives you options, and it also gives you a
Speaker 1: cheaper lifestyle that you have to fund. So saving for
Speaker 1: retirement is obviously super helpful for seventy year old you,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, it has real and immediate
Speaker 1: impacts for what your life looks like inn three, five, seven,
Speaker 1: ten years. It really does impact kind of your immediate
Speaker 1: future at the same time. So Joel, we've talked about
Speaker 1: the why right, the reasons that we should be saving
Speaker 1: for retirement. Next we're gonna talk about the how, the
Speaker 1: nuts and bolts we're gonna get to that right after this.
Speaker 1: All right, Matt, we're back and we just covered the
Speaker 1: y about saving for retirement, and of course that's the
Speaker 1: whole reason for this episode, but I think we should
Speaker 1: also talk about the how, because there are some nuts
Speaker 1: and bolts that are important to consider once we've realized
Speaker 1: the why that it is for our future self. But
Speaker 1: it's starting to save more now actually gives us really
Speaker 1: immediate benefits. At the same time, well, thinking about your
Speaker 1: time frame helps you determine where to invest so that
Speaker 1: you know how you can access those funds when the
Speaker 1: time comes. So let's talk about now the best places
Speaker 1: to park your money. The best places if you're looking
Speaker 1: at keeping your money stashed away for a longer period
Speaker 1: of time, is going to be a four one K
Speaker 1: with a match. If you have a work sponsored plan,
Speaker 1: it's almost always going to be the best option. There's
Speaker 1: ways to tap your retirement funds early without a penalty,
Speaker 1: but we would only recommend this if you are in
Speaker 1: an early retirement scenario, and if you are, like, congrats,
Speaker 1: that's fantastic, that's awesome. Otherwise, taking money from your retirement
Speaker 1: account early it's typically going to be a bad move.
Speaker 1: With with very few exceptions. Yeah. Man, it turns out
Speaker 1: that almost of Americans have access to a four owne
Speaker 1: K where they work, but only of Americans opt to
Speaker 1: participate OUCH. So like literally half the amount of people
Speaker 1: that have access to a four ol one K actually
Speaker 1: put money into it. And that's hard to stomach because
Speaker 1: it is typically the easiest account for people to take
Speaker 1: advantage of. Right, So, if your employer does offer a
Speaker 1: four OW one K and it particularly if they offer
Speaker 1: a match, then you're going to want to make sure
Speaker 1: you're contributing up to the full match amount. The great
Speaker 1: thing is, when you contribute to a four oh one K,
Speaker 1: the money almost feels invisible. You barely recognize us that
Speaker 1: that money has even gone because it comes straight out
Speaker 1: of your paycheck. Every two weeks or twice a month. However,
Speaker 1: you get paid. And we said that four O one
Speaker 1: ks are really great for long term investing, and that's
Speaker 1: totally true. If you consistently contribute to the four oh
Speaker 1: one K that you have access to through work, you'll
Speaker 1: be incredibly surprised at the results that you'll garner from
Speaker 1: decades of consistently investing inside of that vehicle. It just
Speaker 1: the effects are are massive and we can't even really
Speaker 1: overstate how big of a deal it is to start
Speaker 1: contributing to your four oh one K and in particular,
Speaker 1: if you do have access to a company match. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they A few other vehicles that you can invest
Speaker 1: in over the long term but that also have great
Speaker 1: short term flexibility would be your roth Ira accounts, which
Speaker 1: is one of our favorites as well as an hs A.
Speaker 1: You can open a roth Ira account on your own,
Speaker 1: either through M one, Vanguard or Fidelity, and you can
Speaker 1: check and see if you qualify for an h s A.
Speaker 1: We would recommend checking out lively for them. You know,
Speaker 1: we've talked about the RATH and the hs A and
Speaker 1: the flexibility that they have. Of one of our favorite
Speaker 1: reasons for investing in these is the easy and early
Speaker 1: accessibility that you have to some of that money and
Speaker 1: so being able to tap into some of those contributions
Speaker 1: for you know, current investments or other life goals that
Speaker 1: you might have is one of the nice benefits to
Speaker 1: these accounts as well. Yeah, Matt, and we have to
Speaker 1: mention one of our favorite retirement savings vehicles, and that's
Speaker 1: investing in real estate, and in particular investing in actual
Speaker 1: single or multifamily housing close to where you live preferably,
Speaker 1: and real estate offers some great flexibility by providing current
Speaker 1: cash flow, good current tax benefits, while also giving you
Speaker 1: appreciation and increased cash flow over time. So yeah, real
Speaker 1: estate is great for so many reasons. But I love
Speaker 1: it because it's a vehicle that in my mind I
Speaker 1: consider as a saving tool for retirement, but I also
Speaker 1: see it providing income and stability for me, like right now.
Speaker 1: So it is such a great blend of future of
Speaker 1: saving for my eventual retire but it's also giving me
Speaker 1: something present day, which that's what I love about investing
Speaker 1: in real estate. Yeah, it's awesome because it's almost like
Speaker 1: a bridge that gets you from here and now to
Speaker 1: old Joel in retirement. Either way, though, you know what's
Speaker 1: key to a great retirement in building the future that
Speaker 1: you want. It starts with a good savings rate. And
Speaker 1: you may have heard this term before, but I mean
Speaker 1: your savings rate is just simply the percentage or it's
Speaker 1: a ratio of the money that you're saving divided by
Speaker 1: the money that you are earning. And so if you're
Speaker 1: just starting out, you may not have a savings rate.
Speaker 1: But you know that's something you want to get started,
Speaker 1: and it's a good goal to increase your contributions every
Speaker 1: six months or even every year. If you have a
Speaker 1: one percent increase, you're going to be able to massively
Speaker 1: increase the amount of money that you're putting away towards retirement.
Speaker 1: You might say, well, one percent, what does that matter?
Speaker 1: What does it? What does it matter if I increase
Speaker 1: my contributions by one percent? Well, the effects over time,
Speaker 1: especially if you're able to increase your contributions by one
Speaker 1: percent every six months or every year, that one percent
Speaker 1: becomes If you continue to make it a habit of
Speaker 1: increasing at that same rate, it ends up making a
Speaker 1: really big impact over a handful of years. And the
Speaker 1: reason right that a savings rate is important is because
Speaker 1: it goes beyond saving a specific dollar amount. You can
Speaker 1: have a raw IRA where you're maxing it out at
Speaker 1: six thousand dollars every year, and that's great, But what
Speaker 1: we want you to do is to identify a specific percentage.
Speaker 1: A percentage can be way more powerful because as you
Speaker 1: get a raise and you are increasing the amount of
Speaker 1: money that you're making, well, you're not just locked into
Speaker 1: thinking cool, I've got six thousand dollars set aside every year.
Speaker 1: That's going to be enough. When you've identified an actual
Speaker 1: savings rate, you can increase the amount that you're saving
Speaker 1: and setting aside every single year without sort of manually
Speaker 1: making the hard decision of Okay, now I'm going to
Speaker 1: increase the dollar amount because it naturally will increase as
Speaker 1: you say, get a raise. And you know what, man
Speaker 1: a raise is actually just a fantastic time to actually
Speaker 1: increase your savings rate as well, because not only will
Speaker 1: you be saving more, but you will also be experiencing
Speaker 1: some of the the sort of fun that you get
Speaker 1: when you would get a raise. Right. Our goal is
Speaker 1: that you're not going to just take that raise and
Speaker 1: then just blow it and and to just consume it.
Speaker 1: We think it's really important to celebrate those winds. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, and those are some fantastic opportunities
Speaker 1: and times when you can kind of ratchet up that
Speaker 1: savings rate even more. Yeah, And as you do that,
Speaker 1: the more you save, you're putting your money to work.
Speaker 1: And there's power in that. There's power in tax advantaged
Speaker 1: compounding growth that you'll experience through the decades and the
Speaker 1: easiest and best way to build wealth. That's gonna make
Speaker 1: retirement go from a pipe dream, like it feels like
Speaker 1: for so many Americans these days who have essentially no
Speaker 1: savings rate. Well, the quicker you start to change your
Speaker 1: habits and begin to actually invest for retirement, the quicker
Speaker 1: you change that narrative, the flexibility that you can achieve now,
Speaker 1: and that eventual goal of financial independence when you do
Speaker 1: want to quit work becomes a reality that you're working towards,
Speaker 1: as opposed to something that feels out of reach, so Joel.
Speaker 1: A quick stat regarding the savings rates is that in
Speaker 1: the US, the average savings rate is seven and a
Speaker 1: half percent, which actually doesn't sound terrible, right, you know,
Speaker 1: we thought maybe it would be a lot lower than that.
Speaker 1: That being said, that's a pretty far cry though, from
Speaker 1: what the top countries are saving. A lot of countries
Speaker 1: are saving over of their income, which is amazing and
Speaker 1: a little bit encouraging, hopefully not too depressing, right, A
Speaker 1: little bit of a kick in the pants. Yeah, that
Speaker 1: that is a ton of money, and I think that's
Speaker 1: amazing that somebody folks across the world are putting that
Speaker 1: much money aside for their old age, and so hopefully
Speaker 1: we take that as some encouragement and and a challenge. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think the folks in Singapore are saving close to
Speaker 1: of their income. So Singapore, nicely done. Challenge accepted, are Joel.
Speaker 1: I want to pull us back to our beer for
Speaker 1: this episode, which was Christmas Bomb by Prairie artisan Ales.
Speaker 1: This is a beer donated to us by friend of
Speaker 1: the show, Jeff Joel. What were your thoughts on this one? Man,
Speaker 1: this beer had a whole lot going on on. I
Speaker 1: really enjoyed the Christmas spices that were kind of thrown
Speaker 1: in here. There really aren't that many beers that have
Speaker 1: a flavor profile like this, and that's truly because of
Speaker 1: the spices that they toss in during the brewing process.
Speaker 1: And I feel like, even though we're drinking it in July,
Speaker 1: it's a little Christmas in July here while we're doing
Speaker 1: this episode. Yeah, but I've got the a C running
Speaker 1: so it feels a little bit cooler and I'm trying
Speaker 1: to bring on that Christmas Christmas spirit. You know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. I feel you, And honestly, it's rare that
Speaker 1: you run the like this so exactly. I do appreciate it.
Speaker 1: I'm not being cheap today, sir, But yeah, I thought
Speaker 1: this beer was was delicious. It's like super thick, and
Speaker 1: I actually really like a thick stout, So killer spices,
Speaker 1: really interesting beer. Big thanks to Jeff for sharing this
Speaker 1: one with us. Yep, it's real thick. It's got that
Speaker 1: viscosity going on. And Joel, you mentioned the spices right,
Speaker 1: It's it's not spicy in the sense of like peppery
Speaker 1: or sort of like these sharp spices. To me, it's
Speaker 1: almost like these sort of pastry sweet, decadent spices. It's
Speaker 1: almost like I'm eating this loaded doughnut that happens to
Speaker 1: be a beer. So occasionally when we're looking enjoying a bigger,
Speaker 1: delicious beer like this, is nice to have these additional
Speaker 1: flavors to complement all the complexity that that's going on
Speaker 1: in the Speer, no doubt, buddy. All right, let's get
Speaker 1: onto our final thoughts for this episode. If you've had
Speaker 1: trouble getting the ball rolling for saving for retirement, well
Speaker 1: you're not alone. And it's really helpful if you can
Speaker 1: visualize your future, picturing yourself closer to retirement age, whether
Speaker 1: that's using something like the face app or even just
Speaker 1: writing a letter to your future self. Anything that makes
Speaker 1: the concrete reality of what life is going to be
Speaker 1: like for you in the future a little bit more
Speaker 1: real is an incredibly motivating factor to to help you
Speaker 1: get started on your path to saving for your retirement schedule.
Speaker 1: We also need to make sure we have identified the
Speaker 1: reasons why we are saving for retirement. And you know what,
Speaker 1: nobody else is doing it for us. We're living longer.
Speaker 1: It's also better for us, it's healthier for us mentally.
Speaker 1: If we can identify our goals, it's gonna make it
Speaker 1: all the more worthwhile and easy to work towards those goals.
Speaker 1: And if that sounds like a lofty task, even just
Speaker 1: think through what you want your days to look like
Speaker 1: in the future. It's up to you, but you can
Speaker 1: let any of those things kind of be the driver.
Speaker 1: Let those things be the why of why you save
Speaker 1: for retirement. Now that you've visualize your future self and
Speaker 1: you've got your why in hand, well, the next thing
Speaker 1: to do is to up your savings rate, and the
Speaker 1: best way for most folks is to do that gradually
Speaker 1: over time, So whether that's every six months or every year,
Speaker 1: stepping up the amount that you're contributing to your retirement accounts.
Speaker 1: Anyway that you can increase your current savings rate is
Speaker 1: not only going to help your long term retirement goals,
Speaker 1: but it's also going to have positive ramifications for your
Speaker 1: near term future at the same time retirement jel who
Speaker 1: thought that the that face app would have such a
Speaker 1: positive impact potentially on how we handle our money? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know who who thought right, But legitimately it could.
Speaker 1: And I think that's kind of cool. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's super cool. That's gonna be it for this episode.
Speaker 1: We appreciate you folks listening. You can check out our
Speaker 1: show notes on our website how some money dot com. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and if you've been listening to this podcast for a
Speaker 1: while and you found it helpful but you haven't yet
Speaker 1: left a review, well, Matt and I would really appreciate
Speaker 1: it if you would take just two minutes to let
Speaker 1: other potential listeners know your thoughts about this show on
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts. And Matt and I tried to say this often,
Speaker 1: but we appreciate everybody out there that's listening to the show.
Speaker 1: And if there's ever anything that you think we can
Speaker 1: do better, well, you can also go to our website,
Speaker 1: how somebody dot com slash do better. Your constructive criticism
Speaker 1: just helps us get better. All right, best buddy until
Speaker 1: next time. Best friends out, Best friends out,