Gen X: You May Not Get to Choose When You Retire

Gen X may not get to choose exactly when retirement begins. _________________________________________________________________________________________ 📊 PLAN YOUR RETIREMENT WITH BOLDIN I use Boldin to model retirement scenarios, spending, taxes, and other long-term financial decisions. If you want to build and test your own retirement plan, you can check it out here: https://go.boldin.com/scottunlocked Disclosure: This is an affiliate link. If you purchase a paid Boldin plan through my link, I may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. _________________________________________________________________________________________ A lot of retirement planning assumes we’ll work until the age we have in mind — 60, 62, 65, or whatever date is built into the plan. But life doesn’t always cooperate. Health problems, layoffs, restructuring, caregiving responsibilities, or changes in a spouse’s health can force retirement to begin years earlier than expected. For Gen X, that can be especially important. We’re close enough to retirement that a major career disruption can be difficult to recover from — but many of us may still be planning as if we control the exact date we stop working. In this video, I explain why I think Gen X should stress-test retirement plans for the possibility of retiring 5 years earlier than planned. I cover questions like: • Could you access your retirement money early enough? • How would you handle health insurance before Medicare? • Could your portfolio support additional years of withdrawals? • Do you have enough cash reserves? • How much flexibility do you have in your fixed expenses? • What would you change if retirement arrived sooner than expected? The goal isn’t to scare anyone into retiring early. It’s to make sure that if life changes your retirement date, you still have choices. That’s one of the biggest reasons I believe retirement planning should include more than just asking, “When do I want to retire?” The better questi