Retire Before Time Runs Out – What Are You Waiting For? (128)

Retiring at 65 sounds safe until you look at one overlooked number: Healthy life expectancy. 

If the average American starts facing meaningful health limitations around the same age most people leave work, the biggest risk to your retirement might not be the market or your savings rate, it might be the shrinking window of time when you can actually do the things you dreamed about. That’s the wake-up call we dig into, along with what to do before “later” turns into “too late.”

We talk through the difference between being alive and truly living, using real retirement planning experience and global data to show why the United States lags other countries in healthy years. Then we get practical: how to treat health like a retirement account with simple, repeatable habits that protect mobility, independence, and confidence. Because a perfect financial plan on paper is meaningless if you can’t travel, carry luggage, play with grandkids, or enjoy everyday freedom.

On the money side, we challenge the drift of status quo planning and ask a question that changes everything: what would it take to retire at 55? That mindset exposes the levers that build financial independence, including spending less than you earn, avoiding lifestyle creep, protecting relationships, and building a portfolio that matches your real risk tolerance. We also unpack why asset allocation matters more than stock picking and how a written plan and steady guidance can keep you from panic decisions during market crashes.

If you want more healthy years with real choices, hit subscribe, share this with someone who keeps saying “someday,” and leave a review so more people can find it.

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If you or someone you care about could use the help of a financial advisor and sees the value in establishing a financial plan, please reach out to me. 

Thanks for Listening! 

Jonathan

Transcript

The Trap Behind Retiring At 65

SPEAKER_00 0:03

So, what's the hidden danger of waiting until you're 65 to retire? How bad can that actually be? That's when most people retire, right? It feels safe, responsible, normal. It's what we're told through media and the rule of thumb is real retirement 65. And honestly, I wish that was true. But after more than 20 years of working with people planning for retirement, I can tell you there's a major trap that catches people off guard all the time. It has nothing to do with the stock market crashing or running out of money. The biggest risk of retiring at 65 is that you may already be out of time. Not time to live, but time to truly enjoy your retirement, your golden ages, the remaining life that you have. In fact, I say that time is in fact your largest asset. There's a number most people have never heard of, and it may be more important than your net worth, your social security strategy, or even your investment returns.

Healthy Life Expectancy Explained

SPEAKER_00 1:10

It's called your healthy life expectancy. And once you understand it, you may never look at retirement the same way again. You see, most people obsess over one question: how long am I going to live? But honestly, that's the wrong question. The better question is, in fact, how long will I be healthy enough to enjoy my retirement? Because there's a massive difference between being alive and truly living. Retirement isn't just about existing, it's about traveling, hiking, golfing, spending time with grandkids, being out on the lake, having your energy, independence, your freedom. There's a lot to retirement that you want to enjoy. And once you lose the capability to do those things, you're not really living, you're just existing. So eventually, for most people, there comes a point where their health starts to limit those things that we just talked about. And that's what healthy life expectancy really measures. Not when you die, but when the average person becomes begins experiencing meaningful health limitations.

Why The US Number Shocks

SPEAKER_00 2:26

And when you look at the global data, the United States has a serious problem. There's a data compiled from the World Health Organization that tracks healthy life expectancy across countries. And honestly, some of these numbers are incredible. In Japan, people stay healthy into their mid-70s. In Singapore, 73, South Korea, 73, Switzerland in your low 70s, Spain, France, Italy, Israel, all of those have uh clustered around the low 70s. So naturally you'd think, okay, the United States has to be somewhere close, right? No. The healthy life expectancy in the United States is roughly 66 years old, not mid-70s, 66. And when I first saw that, I stopped me, uh it stopped me in my tracks. I I really struggled with grasping that data. But because most Americans retire right around 65, that's where this becomes terrifying when you think about retirement at 65 coupled with your healthy life for Americans being kind of 66, really starts to cause you to think about you know, your retirement, what that plan is, and how this stuff

Working Longer And Feeling Stuck

SPEAKER_00 3:54

works. So Gallup has actually tracked uh retirement trends for years in the US, and the pattern is pretty obvious. Very, very, very few people retire in their 40s. Not many retire in their early 50s either. We do have a lot of clients that uh conversations around wanting to retire in their 50s, it takes a lot of commitment and effort and strategy to pull that off. So we don't actually see a ton of people do it. Um, and so even the number of people retiring in their late 50s has been shrinking. And Americans are working longer and longer and longer. Now you see a huge number of people still working at 65 and 70, and sometimes even into their mid-70s. So for many people, that's not because they love working. Uh, in fact, we see a lot of people that are working because they have to, they feel trapped, they need the paycheck, they need the insurance, they need more savings, uh, or they're simply just not comfortable leaving the workforce. What I would sum this up as, they they never truly built a plan that gave them the options. And so when you overlay retirement age with this healthy life expectancy, the average American retires right around the time major health decline often begins. So think about that for a second. You spend 40 years working, saving, grinding, stressing, delaying, dealing with bosses that you don't care for, or customers that are hard to deal with. And then you're finally retirement arrives. You're dreaming about this grand uh travel you're gonna take, or retiring on the lake, you know, just north of your town, and spending time in a rocking chair, uh, you know, overlooking the water, maybe you know, spending time uh with your grandkids, taking the family to Disney. There's all kinds of dreams that you envision when you think about your retirement and that that arrival. But right as your healthiest years may be ending, that's that's the trap you're you're retiring into when your healthy years start to diminish. And so that's where you should be thinking about time, the biggest asset that that you have, and how do you maximize those healthy retirement years to do the things and be around the people you love

Stop Saying You Will Do It Later

SPEAKER_00 6:28

most? And honestly, this is something that I think a lot about personally. In my family, we've had people with some health issues. I have close friends and distant relatives that have had healthy issues, and it it is as I sit back and think about what this data I saw from the World Health Organization was, when I when I look back and I think about these people that are close to me, it's easy for me to say, yeah, you know, that that makes sense. What they have come up with aligns. So when I hear people constantly say, I'll enjoy life later, I'll go do this later, I can do that, you know, in a couple of years, I start to get nervous because we don't know how much time we have left. And as we continue to delay this gratification, it ends up costing us additional uh our lives, additional stress and worry and concern. And a lot of times we need to embrace some of the things that we enjoy versus just continuing to work and grind. Later is never guaranteed. Um, we don't know how long we have. So to be clear, these are averages averages. This doesn't mean your life falls apart at 66, my mother's 66 and still in great health, my father's 67, still in great health. You may stay healthy well into your 80s, and I hope you do in even longer 90s. We have clients that have lived very long healthy lives into their their mid to late 90s and and even hundreds. But I also know people that you know passed away at 63, passed away at 58, and uh you just don't know when that time comes. So build your entire retirement plan, assuming you'll always have time, that's risky. Eventually, that time becomes the asset you can't buy more of. It is your biggest asset. So you want to make sure that as you're building this plan, you're planning for embracing some of that time, that asset today, not just in the future.

Treat Health Like A Retirement Account

SPEAKER_00 8:37

So, what can you do about this? First, start treating your health like a retirement account. Health is wealth because your body may be your most valuable asset aside from time, um, those two things together. They're more valuable than your IRA, they're more valuable than your 401k, they're more valuable than the returns that you're getting in your portfolio. Uh, if you do not have your health and you don't have time, you don't have anything. What's the point of building this perfect plan, the perfect dream scenario on paper on the computer, if you don't have the things that help you enjoy it? You don't need to become some elite athlete. You need to take care of yourself. That means eating better, moving your body, get your 10,000 steps, spend a day or two a week in the gym, do some cardiovascular exercise, maintain some muscle mass. I read a stat recently that we lose three to five percent of our muscle mass every uh decade that goes by. And so that's part of the reason why we you see people shrink. That muscle matters, strength matters because that strength is what gives you the independence that you want and you crave later in life. So that provides your ability to travel, carry luggage, play with grandkids, stay mobile, do the basic things in life, like just go to the local Starbucks or McDonald's to get a coffee. That's what gives you that mobility. And ultimately, that's what gives you the confidence that it helps you stay confident and have a positive outlook on life. That's why this matters. And honestly, a lot of Americans are unintentionally sacrificing their future health for short-term convenience. Fast food, stress, another couple of hours at work, no sleep, no movement. They're solely focused on making as much money as they can and not embracing or thinking about what the future looks like. Then all of a sudden they wake up at 65 wondering why retirement doesn't feel the way they imagined.

Planning For Options Before 65

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Health alone isn't enough. You also need a financial plan that gives you options earlier. One of the questions I think more people should ask is, what would it look like for us to retire at 55? Not because everyone will retire at 55, but because asking these questions changes how you live and you think. And once you start thinking about that, it allows you to start saying, okay, how can I pivot? What if I did XYZ instead? What if I pulled this lever? Those sort of things help you manipulate and change the plan so that you're not relying uh solely on just what uh the masses do, but you're actually being strategic. What we're trying to avoid is drifting, just just drifting and status quo. So you know, you spend what comes in, you save what's left, and you hope that how hope that works out later. That's not the strategy that you should be working on. That is is gambling, it's it's just chance. So what we're trying to do is create intentionality, being intentional, uh, specific, uh, measurable, actionable, creating uh a plan on paper on purpose. That's how we we create this early retirement dream. It's not just for rich people, it can be for anybody, but it takes decision, it takes intentionality, it takes being focused in order to do those things. So it takes discipline, I guess is what I should say.

Three Wealth Rules That Matter

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Let's talk about a few wealth rules that matter most. These are some patterns I've noticed over the last, you know, close to 20 years of helping people build retirement plans and move into their retirement years. Rule number one, spend less than you earn. This sounds painfully obvious. Dave Ramsey preaches this, and yet it's the it's the rule that most people break. You can't make $200,000 and spend $500,000 a year and not end up financially stuck. It's a roadblock and a jam from the get-go. Income alone doesn't create your wealth, your behavior does. People who gain the freedom are the people who consistently save and invest and avoid the lifestyle creep. That's what creates your options later in life. A little bit of sacrifice. Rule number two, protect your relationships. Retirement isn't just uh a financial. It's not uh success, it isn't just a financial success, it's emotional. And one of the biggest financial destroyers I've seen over the years is divorce. Now, obviously, not every marriage can last or should last, but relationships are salvageable, and part of being married uh is the ebbs and flows of life. You're gonna have low spots, you're gonna have high spots. It's important that you continue to pour into each other and so that you invest in your relationship just like you would your health, your investments, uh, your life, your work. It's another aspect that you want to make sure you're spending time. It's wise to do to do this. And stable relationships can often create more stable financial lives in retirement. Don't build a lifestyle that owns you. This is risk number three or rule number three. I've seen people buy you know giant homes, vacation properties, three and four different properties, expensive toys, and suddenly their lifestyle requires them to keep working forever. Meanwhile, some of their happiest retirees I know have flexibility, freedom. They're not beholden to all these expensive toys and four properties across the country. They actually live very simple lives, and that's what makes it refreshing and fun is that they're not carrying this extra stress. That's the goal. Uh, you're not trying to impress people, you're buying your time back so that you can enjoy doing the things you love with the people you love.

Asset Allocation Beats Stock Picking

SPEAKER_00 15:18

So now when it comes to investing, the investing mistake that hurts people the most is most people think retirement success comes from picking the perfect stock, and it doesn't. One of the biggest drivers of long-term investment success is asset allocation, meaning how much you have in stocks, how much you have in fixed income, how your portfolio is structured, how much you're saving. And this becomes really important during market crashes because everybody thinks they can handle risk until they actually experience. It's like the uh, you know, the old saying where, you know, everyone thinks you can handle it until it punches you in the mouth. Uh, you know, it's it's one thing to think you can handle the situation, uh, financial risk or crisis. It's another thing when it actually happens and you don't have a plan for it. So in the great financial crisis, you know, 2008 time frame, we've had you know the pandemic, we had 2022. Um, but in the great financial crisis 2008 time frame, the SP 500 dropped around 50%. If you imagine watching half of your retirement savings disappear emotionally, that changes people. That makes people um very anxious and nervous. And that's why we're seeing uh, number one, people working longer because they're scared to let go. Uh, but we're also seeing more people make panic decisions and make these catastrophic decisions that have a material impact on the long-term success of their retirement plan. And they'll sell low, they'll move to cash, they'll lock in those losses, and then as the market rebounds, they've missed out. So it's important that you have a plan on paper, on purpose, and something that you can stick with. Because as these markets fluctuate, you have to have something that grounds you to good decisions. Good financial advisor, guidance, having someone that can provide guidance. They don't just manage the investments, they help manage your behavior. Because when markets get ugly, logic disappears first, fear takes over, and retirement is too important to guess your way through. An experienced advisor has watched hundreds of people navigate recessions, bear markets, retirement transitions, health scares, uh, unexpected passing of a spouse, unexpected life events, essentially any situation that you could think of, we have helped hundreds of people navigate these exact situations. So those perspectives and those insights can help you. They matter, they can help you weather the storms and prevent you from making the mistakes that other people have made, especially when the emotions

A Thousand Healthy Weeks Left

SPEAKER_00 18:17

are high. So even with the perfect financial plan, urgency is still real because once you're hit 60, most people have fewer than a thousand healthy weeks left. And a thousand healthy weeks sounds like a lot until you realize how fast moves. The weeks become holidays, birthdays, summers, anniversaries, trips that you keep postponing, and eventually the window starts closing in on you. So this isn't about fear, it's about awareness that maybe you should take your healthy life more seriously, your health more seriously, save more intentionally, simplify your lifestyle, stop delaying your meaningful experiences. Again, time is your biggest asset. And finally, create an actual retirement plan on paper, on purpose, specific for you. The goal is not just about retiring someday. The goal is to retire while you still have health, energy, and freedom to fully enjoy it.

How To Get Help And Next Steps

SPEAKER_00 19:28

If this hits home with you, please reach out. We'd love to have a conversation. Like and subscribe to this channel. See you on the next video. Be confident in your retirement. Have a wonderful day. Thanks for joining me on another episode of What the Wealth. If you enjoyed the episode today, smash that subscribe button. It helps me more than you think. Also, if you found this episode insightful and a light bulb went off, share it. Your friend Aunt Judy, the random guy in the office who's always talking about investments. Wealth isn't about just the chick chain. It's about our choices, chances, and changing our financial futures.

Important Disclosures And Disclaimer

SPEAKER_00 20:04

The information in this podcast is informational and general in nature and does not take into consideration the listener's personal circumstances. This podcast is not intended to be a substitute for specific in financial, legal, or tax advice. You should consult the approved qualified professional prior to making a final decision. Security is offered through LPL Financial, remember FINRA SIPC. Paradigm Wealth Partners is the other business name for Independent Advisor Alliance. Investment Advice offered through Independent Advisor Alliance, a registered investment advisor, Independent Advisor Alliance, and Paradigm Wealth Partners are separate entities for LPL Financial.