A brothers five year retirement plan

A Brother's Five-Year Retirement Plan

Connie, You Are Not Too Late

You have spent your life taking care of other people. Now we build a system that makes sure Future Connie gets taken care of too.

Connie,

I want to write this directly to you because this is about more than money.

It is about what happens next.

You and I have spent most of our adult lives taking care of other people. You became a nurse. I became an MRI technologist. We built careers where somebody else was usually having a very bad day when they walked through the door, and our job was to keep our heads, figure out what needed to happen, and help get them through it.

Now I want to apply some of that same thinking to you.

Not because you're in trouble.

Because I think you're actually in a much better position than you realize.

I Remember the Girl on the Bicycle

There is an image of you that has stuck with me for decades.

You were riding your bicycle over by the school on the other side of town. You fell. You hurt yourself badly enough that you eventually needed stitches in your chin.

And you weren't alone.

You were surrounded by people who loved you.

Years have passed. Life happened. Families changed. Relationships changed. One member of that little group has been a bit of a disappointment.

But the other two?

We're still here.

We stayed beside you then, right through getting your chin stitched up. And we're still beside you now.

I don't want you looking at your retirement account and thinking you're standing there by yourself trying to figure out some giant financial puzzle. You're not.

Here Is What We Know Today

Recent Annual Income

~$170K

Nursing income

Current 403(b)

~$37.8K

Fully vested

Current Savings Rate

20%

Pre-tax contribution

Retirement Income Goal

~$4K/mo

Pension + Social Security estimate

You worked incredibly hard.

Last year, you made roughly $170,000 as a nurse.

You're a workaholic. Nobody who knows you would question your willingness to work.

But somewhere along the way, nobody really taught you how to make all that work translate into accumulated wealth.

Right now, the retirement account you showed me has approximately $37,800 in it.

When someone hears "$170,000 income" and "$37,800 saved," it is very easy to concentrate on what should have happened five, ten, or twenty years ago.

We cannot invest yesterday's paycheck.
We can control the next one.

And the one after that.

And the one after that.

The Number That Gives Me Hope: 20%

There was something in those Fidelity screenshots that was far more important to me than the $37,800.

20%

of your pay is currently being directed into your 403(b)

That tells me something.

You can do this.

The problem isn't that you're incapable of saving money.

The problem has been creating a system that makes saving happen before the rest of life gets a chance to consume the money.

And that is fixable.

You Already Have a Retirement Foundation

Fire Department Pension

We have been using approximately $1,500 per month as a working pension estimate.

Retiree Medical Coverage

If your fire-department medical benefit works the way we currently understand it, you may already have solved one of retirement's biggest expenses.

Social Security

A long working career should also provide Social Security income. We will verify the exact benefit before any retirement date is chosen.

When we put the pieces together, we've been using roughly $4,000 per month as a working estimate for your pension plus Social Security.

We will verify every number before making a retirement decision.

This changes the entire problem.

You are not trying to build an entire retirement from $37,800. You are trying to build a financial fortress around an income floor that may already exist.

The Five-Year Mission

I think we should look at the next five years differently from every year that came before them.

You've spent decades working for everybody else.

For the next five years, part of every shift is going to be worked for Future Connie.

Every time you clock in, she gets paid too.

The Four-Bucket System

1. LIFE

Housing, utilities, food, transportation, insurance and the things required to live.

Job: Pay automatically.

2. EMERGENCY CONNIE

Money that exists so an unexpected expense does not automatically become debt.

Job: Stay safe and slightly difficult to access.

3. RETIRED CONNIE

Your 403(b), possible IRA strategy, and eventually other long-term investments.

Job: Grow.

4. TODAY'S CONNIE

Dinner, travel, fun, shopping and enjoying the life you worked for.

Job: Spend without guilt because the other buckets were funded first.

The Secret Is Making the Decision Once

You don't need to become somebody who studies spreadsheets every evening.

That's me.

I have spent an absurd amount of time studying retirement, Social Security, taxes, investment accounts, withdrawal strategies, healthcare, pensions, and all the strange little rules surrounding them.

Sometimes I genuinely think this may have been what I was given the ability to do and perhaps what I should have done for a living.

So use me.

You don't need to become me.

We build the machine together. Then the machine runs.

What Payday Should Look Like

PAYCHECK ARRIVES

↓

RETIREMENT MONEY MOVES AUTOMATICALLY

↓

EMERGENCY SAVINGS MOVES AUTOMATICALLY

↓

BILLS GET PAID

↓

WHAT REMAINS IS CONNIE'S SPENDING MONEY

Now you don't have to make a retirement decision every time you walk through Target.

The important decision was already made on payday.

Think Like a Nurse

Imagine someone arriving at the hospital.

You assess them. You get their history. You take their vitals. You determine what is urgent. You develop the plan. Then you monitor the patient.

You don't scream:

"WHY DIDN'T YOU COME IN FIVE YEARS AGO?"

Maybe you wish they had.

But that doesn't treat the person standing in front of you today.

Finance is no different.

We're taking your financial vital signs.

We found something that needs attention.

So now we treat it.

NO GUILT

NO EMBARRASSMENT

NO PUNISHMENT

JUST A PLAN

That's how you've spent your career helping people.

And after roughly three decades of working in MRI, I've learned the same lesson from another direction: you don't guess.

You gather the information. You verify what you're dealing with. You establish the conditions. Then you proceed safely.

That's exactly what we're going to do here.

Give Overtime a New Job

Here's one idea I particularly like for you.

Your normal paycheck supports your normal life.

But overtime can have a separate job.

Old Pattern
Extra shift → extra money → checking account → disappears

New Pattern
Extra shift → savings → Future Connie

Maybe a substantial portion of every overtime check gets transferred immediately.

Same with bonuses.

Same with unexpected income.

Same with tax refunds if there are any.

You don't have to save every penny.

But suddenly those extra shifts produce something you can actually see.

$10,000

$25,000

$50,000

$100,000

At some point, something psychological happens.

The money stops looking like money available to spend.

It starts looking like freedom.

The Tools We Can Explore

403(b): Continue using the workplace retirement plan and make sure every available employer-match dollar is captured.

IRA: Determine whether a traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or another IRA strategy makes sense based on income and tax rules.

High-yield savings: Useful for emergency reserves and money that needs to remain safe.

Separate "do not touch" bank: Creating friction can help keep savings from quietly becoming spending.

Brokerage account: Potentially useful after tax-advantaged options and emergency reserves are handled.

Treasuries, CDs or other conservative tools: Possible choices for money where stability matters more than aggressive growth.

We don't need some crazy get-rich-quick investment.

Save a lot.
Diversify.
Keep costs reasonable.
Capture the employer match.
Protect the pension.
Protect the medical benefit.
Understand Social Security.
Avoid unnecessary debt.
Automate everything possible.

And Here Is the Best News

Connie, you're not trying to climb this hill carrying nothing.

You have a nursing career.

You have significant earning power.

You have a pension.

You have retirement medical benefits.

You have Social Security coming.

You have a 403(b).

You are already contributing 20%.

And you have people around you who want you to succeed.

Including your brother who has apparently decided that reading retirement rules is entertainment.

So I'm not looking at this thinking:

"Connie is screwed."

I'm looking at it thinking:

"Holy shit. If she harnesses this for five years, we may be able to change the entire ending."

That's the good news.

Actually, that's the best news.

Because we don't have to invent some imaginary version of you who earns more money, works harder, or develops some incredible new career.

She's already here.

She's been working all along.

We simply have to redirect some of what she's producing.

Back to That Bicycle

You fell once before.

There were people around you.

They got you back up.

They stayed.

Eventually somebody stitched your chin together and life continued.

You probably barely think about that scar anymore.

This isn't much different.

Maybe financially you took a longer fall than you realized.

Okay.

We're here now.

You're surrounded again.

And we're going to get you back up.

This time we don't need stitches.

We need automatic transfers.

We need accounts.

We need numbers.

We need five disciplined years.

And we need you to keep doing the one thing you've proven over and over that you know how to do:

Work hard when something matters.

This matters.

I love you.

I'm not trying to control your life.

I'm trying to help make sure that after spending your entire career taking care of everyone else, there comes a day when Connie finally gets to take care of Connie.

And based on what we've seen so far?

I think we can do it.

—Your brother

Financial note: Dollar amounts in this article are working estimates based on information available at the time of writing. Pension benefits, Social Security, retirement-plan limits, IRA eligibility, taxes, healthcare benefits, and investment decisions should be verified before making major financial decisions.