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Its listener question Friday!

Linda,

My husband is the major bread winner and plans to retire in 2 years. He wants to buy a new TV and sectional. Im advising against it, but he insists we buy them. What can I say to show him why its important not to be making purchases like this right now?

Although you are close to retirement and some of our listeners are too and some are younger, theres a good point to be made here.

Youre probably looking at a $3,000 to $6,000 purchase. Is it really going to improve your life?

Spending wisely is one of the traits that will make you wealthy. Spending foolishly is one of the traits that will make you poor.

I have a friend who keeps buying new furniture, redecorating, remodeling and while some remodeling will improve the value of a home, once its updated, re-updating it doesnt help! Changing from vinyl to granite is an improvement, but changing the granite countertops to different granite makes no improvement and just wastes money!

5 things you can do to spend money wiser:

1. Sit your husband down and talk about retirement. Bring him into the reality of what will happen in 2 short years. There will be no more income from his job and you will be relying on savings for the rest of your life! Do you have the amount you will need already saved or do you need to save more?

2. There are some things that will add quality of life to your standard of living, such as moving to a state that has better weather. Some purchases are like rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, and this is one of them! Having a new TV or sectional will not add happiness or a better quality of life. The thrill might last a week and after that youll just have bills to pay.

3. If youre spending $3,000 to $6,000 on the TV and sectional, think about how much that will grow to in 20 years. Using the investment calculator, at 8% it could become almost $14,000 to almost $28,000! Thats the opportunity cost of what youre buying.

4. When youre a few years from retirement, you want to avoid making large purchases on household items, cars, RVs, anything that depreciates. You want to be focusing all your efforts to getting your retirement savings as large as possible! Theres a hard deadline to retirement and its coming soon!

5. Create a plan. Where do you plan to live when you retire? Are you going to be downsizing and moving south? Are you going to stay where you are? Is your home paid off? Housing and medical expenses are your 2 major costs when close to retirement age (besides elective travel), so you want to be sure you have adequate coverage for both. If you home is not paid off by age 65, that is a worthwhile goal to focus on instead of furnishings!

Also, create a plan by estimating what your retirement income will be. Take your retirement funds and multiply by 4%. That is the amount of income you can have without outliving your money. Add your Social Security (and pension) benefits onto that and then you will know how much income you will have. Most people are not real happy with that number! That may wake your husband up to the reality that he needs to be saving, not spending until he retires!

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