It's insane that this is my last episode of the year because I feel like there's so much going on all the time. There's just no way time moves this fast, but I know that's cliche. It's just how I feel. So I had to mention it to start the episode. But I have a question for you. And I thought of, what do I want my final episode of the year to look like? I want it to be something that really makes you think differently going into the new year. So I hope this is the episode that does exactly that.

But of course, happy holiday. my final episode of the year to look like. I want it to be something that really makes you think differently going into the new year. So I hope this is the episode that does exactly that.

But of course, happy holidays to all of you who are celebrating whatever it is you choose to

celebrate during this period. Now, let's get into it. So regarding the saving for retirement,

which I know is what all of you are thinking during the holiday period. You're just thinking about finances.

You wake up in the morning.

You're smelling, not bacon, but you're smelling Roth conversions.

Oh, yeah.

You're not smelling those new cookies or any of that.

You're just thinking about when should I collect Social Security and health care subsidies.

Now, jokes aside, here's actually something I'm going to urge you to think strongly about, which is, should you stop saving for retirement? How weird is that? That's coming from an advisor. Most people think, advisor's just going to tell me to save more. And so I don't really want to go to my advisor today because they're going to think I'm behind or they're going to tell me to save more, but they don't really know me and how hard I've already saved to get to this point. So I kind of feel bad. I'm explaining the situation of many clients who had shared this with me, their previous advisor, before they work with either route financial or another firm, was, you know, I didn't feel that close to my advisor. I felt scared sometimes to bring things up because they didn't want to disappoint them. Many of you don't feel that way with your advisor, which is awesome. You want that to be a true partnership. But if they have not pressed you in the sense of, hey, why don't you stop saving for retirement? I would ask you to ask yourself, why do you think that is? And most of the time, advisors want you to save more and work longer. Why? It's safer on their end. It's easier. I could just say, hey, why don't you just work till you're 80? It's going to be way easier. And you're like, well, I don't want to work until I'm 80. But from an advisor perspective, our goal is to make sure you don't run out of money most of the time.

That's not my goal.

Let me be clear.

That's one of my goals. But most advisors, their goal is to make sure you don't run out. So it's easier to say, why don't you work one more year and one more year, one more bonus. It makes a big difference. You can see what you actually want to do in retirement first. Spend more time learning. But there becomes a point where, just like with saving, it doesn't make sense to keep working. And you might just be working because it's what you know. It's what you're familiar with. And I joke that I'm the meanest advisor on YouTube and on the podcast app. But I'm not. I'm just transparent and I don't want you to run out of money

and I don't want you to be mad at me when you're 80 with $5 million going, that wasn't my goal.

Why didn't I retire earlier when I had more of my energy and health? And so here's the example

I'm going to illustrate today that connects on many different fronts in my opinion, but specifically

saving.

If you have a million dollars in your 401K, what's the most you can contribute today?

I believe today, you know, let's assume you're over 50.

You're at 30,500.

I'm not talking about mega backdoors or any fancy stuff.

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