Mid-Year Money Reset: How to Get Back on Track Before 2026 Slips Away

TPIR Ep 125 Full Show.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

TPIR Ep 125 Full Show.mp3: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Speaker 1:
Any examples used are for illustrative purposes only, and do not take into account your particular investment objectives, financial situation or needs and may not be suitable for all investors. It is not intended to predict the performance of any specific investment, and is not a solicitation or recommendation of any investment strategy.

Speaker 2:
Welcome to Take Pride in Retirement, the podcast dedicated to helping members of the LGBTQ plus community protect and grow their hard earned money. Get set for a show full of education and insights with your host and advisor, Matt McClure. We recognize every family is unique. The goal of the show is to help you achieve financial freedom, so you and your loved ones can have the retirement you've always dreamed of, a retirement you can take pride in. No matter who you are, where you're from, or who you love. So now let's start the show. Here's Matt McClure.

Speaker 1:
Well, hello there and welcome to another edition of Take Pride in Retirement. Matt McClure here with you, your host, your advisor, your friend, your pal and your confidant.

Speaker 2:
Yes. And I am Josh Rhett Noble, the attache to the advisor, aka co-host, aka Matt's hubby.

Speaker 1:
He is indeed. He does not tell. He's like George Washington. He could not tell a lie. And, um, you know, this time around, uh, we're a lot of people kind of lose their motivation, right? We're talking about like first of the year people make those New Year's resolutions and they're gung ho about it. And what was it your mom always used to say lose weight and get more organized? That was always her New Year's resolution. Right. And by this time of the year, I feel like a lot of that has really gone by the wayside. Um, but what we're gonna talk about is, you know, kind of really how to overcome that because, you know, people are, they're, as I said, they're very gung ho about at the beginning of the year, right?

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And then summer rolls around in this heat, which I can't stand. By the way, I don't know where all of you listeners are. But where we are, it's hot. Yeah. Then then not so much. It's almost like their plans are just kind of gone.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, they really do go by the wayside. And today we're talking about why that happens, why so many financial goals lose momentum by the middle of the year, and why June is kind of the perfect time to reset and to refocus and to finish the year strong like we've got coming up the latter half of the year. So after this month is going to be the halfway point of the year, right? So we've got the last half of the year to make a difference in the whole yearly thing. So before we get into all of that, though, if you would like help building a retirement plan that's built for you as a member of the LGBTQ plus community or an ally especially, I would love to, to help you achieve the goals that you might have for yourself. Go to take pride in retirement.com. Take pride in retirement.com. Schedule that complimentary consultation. You can also call 8552469211. If you would like if the phone is more your thing. Um, and also if you're listening on your favorite podcast app, please subscribe to the show there. Also leave us a good review. Really would appreciate that. That would really help us grow and also help us grow our YouTube channel. You know, if you're watching there, please, please, please like this video and subscribe.

Speaker 3:
Subscribe, subscribe.

Speaker 1:
It was a low subscribe kind of a day. We'd really appreciate it though. It really would help the channel grow and help us spread the word about how people can get a retirement that they can take pride in. No matter who you are or where you come from, who you love, how you identify, or how much money you may have. So reach out.

Speaker 2:
Send a message. I'll go ahead and do it. All right, so let's get started with this obvious question, which is why do so many financial goals just seem to fall apart by summer?

Speaker 1:
Yeah. I mean, the, the, um, the road to, you know, where is paved with good intentions, as the old saying goes. But I think, um, you know, people do begin with good intentions at the beginning of the year and enthusiasm. And it's like that reset point, you know, but they do that. I feel like a lot of times without a sustainable plan to actually achieve the goals that you want to achieve, because the motivation can be temporary a lot of times, right? Like if you say, okay, well, it's a new year and I'm going to do this thing. Well, before you know it, it's again June and you haven't necessarily done it. And so the systems and habits are the things that you need to maybe achieve those longer term goals. Life happens, you know, it's vacations, you've got family obligations, you've got unexpected expenses. Uh, the Hvac goes out in the middle of summer. Um, if, if you know anything about that and I'm, I don't, I, I wouldn't know a thing. Um, there's also work related stress, the, the financial goals that you might have feel less urgent in the day to day when compared with some of those things, because the consequences aren't necessarily immediate, especially if we're thinking about, you know, planning for something that's far in the future, perhaps something like retirement or something that feels far in the future, like retirement. And so saving for your retirement and investing for your retirement is super important. But again, we're human beings. It doesn't provide that instant gratification that we like. And, you know, spending money really kind of does because you get the new thing or the, you know, the new gadget or even those unexpected expenses come up and you fix the Hvac, which is a great thing in the summer heat.

Speaker 1:
And so, you know, there was a study that fidelity did about these kind of things. And a lot of Americans really report feeling confident in January, but then less engaged with financial goals as the year progresses. So the data really does show that this is it's not just an anecdotal thing. It's it's a, you know, backed up with data that this is a thing that happens. And so, you know, you might feel confident in your ability to achieve those goals. But confidence alone doesn't create progress. It's got to be consistency and maybe doing some little things along a period of time as as time goes on and even, you know, for Lgbtq+ folks, there can be more challenges. A lot of us didn't grow up seeing families that looked like ours looked like ours represented in financial planning conversations. And so, you know, a lot of us may have experienced career interruptions, discrimination, periods of some instability there that delayed saving and investing. And the good news is that, you know, your starting point doesn't determine where you end. It's like right now, if right now is your starting point, great. The important thing is that you just you get started. It's not like, you know, if you're behind, you're never going to catch up. That's, that's not the case. You can still achieve that retirement. You can take pride in.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. So if someone feels like they've fallen off the wagon financially this year, they're definitely not alone.

Speaker 1:
Now they're in good company. So not alone even just a little bit. I mean, the numbers really do bear that out. And, and don't feel bad or be down on yourself because this may be the, the way that your year has gone. Just take the initiative. Take this time almost at the midway point, turn things around. And as I'm saying, like the middle of the year really is an important and kind of a natural checkpoint.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. When you say natural checkpoint, why is that important?

Speaker 1:
Yeah. I mean, you know, you think of retirement planning. Um, if you want to think about it this way, think of it as kind of a road trip, you know, like, like you're on the road, you're going to a destination and you don't wait until you arrive to see whether you're on course. Right. Hopefully, maybe you've got the GPS going. I like to always say that that financial planning, the way that I sort of try and think about it for the long term is like a financial GPS, right? So you don't wait until you're there to see if you're on course to getting there. You have to at least at the very least, check along the way. If you don't have the GPS on all the time, maybe you know the route that you're taking and you're just, you're going along that road and you get to, oh, well, maybe we're about halfway there. Let me check the GPS again. Make sure we're on track. Make sure there's nothing coming up that might be a roadblock or an accident or something where we have to take a bit of a detour because, you know, things happen in, in life. And so this is sort of that midway checkpoint. The middle of the year is a chance to review the savings rates that you are taking advantage of.

Speaker 1:
Hopefully, um, evaluate your investments and your investment allocations. Make sure that you check the retirement account contributions, especially those at your workplace retirement plan. Because you know, if you have 401 K or a 403 B or a TSP or whatever, it's easy to like when you start a job, you set it up, you kind of forget about it, and then you don't make any changes. Even after you get a raise or something like that, you never increase those contributions. So make sure that you do that. Just check in. Right? It's kind of like when they tell you a couple of times a year, when the clock changes to change the batteries in your smoke detector because you know, you're supposed to change it twice a year, it's a convenient time to do that. This is kind of that time for your finances. Revisit the goals that you actually established in January. See how far you are along, if at all to, um, you know, achieving those goals and make adjustments because there's still plenty of time this year. You know, if you feel like you've fallen behind, don't worry about that. Don't get down on yourself, like I said a minute ago, and just refocus. Take the time to actually just, just renew that focus on what's important.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And what's one thing our listeners could be reviewing right now?

Speaker 1:
That whole, I think the most important thing is that whole retirement contribution percentage sort of conversation and not only, you know, increasing when you get a raise or maybe there's something like that, but if you, you know, have a workplace retirement plan, make sure that you are contributing enough to take advantage of an employer match because so many of the plans include an employer match. And that means that if you contribute, say, just throwing these numbers out there, this is only an example, 5% of your weekly earnings to the retirement account, your employer will match that 5%, let's say in this particular example. And so a lot of people can improve the long term retirement outcomes just by increasing the contributions 1 or 2%. You don't have to do some big, huge overhaul and say, I'm going to contribute X, Y, z amount. That's like 80 times the amount that I'm contributing. Now. Um, first of all, you'll probably hit your contribution limit for the year. Secondly, it doesn't take a big overhaul, just maybe some, some small steps here.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And what if the markets have been volatile. What do people do then?

Speaker 1:
Yeah. And and they have been lately. I mean don't the biggest thing I feel like is don't confuse market volatility with the failure of a plan. I have to, you know, check in a lot of times with clients of mine who say, well, you know, I this is not performing the way that I had hoped or the way that I had thought over this three month period or six month period, whatever the case may be. And I'm like, well, that's, that's a very short term period. And we've seen a lot of market volatility. Give it time. We're playing the long game here. We're not playing the short game. So focus on that long term strategy. If you do need to rebalance. I just did this a couple of weeks ago for a different client. If you need to rebalance then rebalance. We move this particular client into a more conservative, uh, allocation so that he didn't experience all of those crazy ups and downs in the market that we've been experiencing here lately. And his, um, account values are the better for it. So that's, that's a thing that you can do. Just just refocus on that rebalance if needed. Stay disciplined. And you know, again, I know I've emphasized this on a recent podcast, but review, if you're a member of the LGBTQ plus community, take this time at this halfway point of the year. It's like, it's like sort of a milestone, the midpoint, um, review, those beneficiary designations, they're so important. They override a will. They are super, super important to make sure that the people that you want to get your things, if something were to happen to you, get your things and get your, um, your assets that you may have in, in retirement accounts or life insurance, whatever it might be, make sure that partners, spouses, chosen family members, the intended heirs are properly listed there and, you know, mid-year reviews. That just brings home that it's not just about investments, right? It's about making sure that your entire plan still reflects where you are in life and still reflects your wishes, uh, both currently and in the future.

Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, this next section. I love this because you've said this before. Progress beats perfection. So with this I think people tend to think they're either succeeding or failing. Right?

Speaker 1:
Yeah. It's not a pass fail thing. Um financial progress is not a linear deal. It's not just just I'm always making progress and things are always great. If you miss a savings goal for a few months, that does not mean that you failed. What it means is life happens. And maybe things came up that were unexpected. But if you're able to make small improvements, those can compound over time. So things like increasing the 401 K contribution, like I said, maybe just increasing that 1%. And then that goes into that retirement account. It grows with whatever market index that's tied to, um, you know, setting up an automatic monthly transfer into maybe an IRA or something or a high yield savings account, something like that, paying an extra $100 toward your debt every month. Those are the little things that you can do. Completing your estate planning documents, making sure that you've got a will in place, not something that's all that complicated. It's just something that you've got to do. And what can help you, you know, seek that out, you know, with someone who's a qualified professional in that area and, and pair you up with somebody who understands you. Right. And then scheduling that retirement consultation, I cannot emphasize enough how important that is to make sure that your plan is something that's going to work for you.

Speaker 1:
But also, um, you know, just making sure that it has you in mind and not, it's not just some generic plan. Like somebody went to the retirement big box store and picked it off the shelf. Um, it's something that is tailored to you specifically, you know, a lot of households, according to the FDIC, struggle to maintain emergency savings. That's something that's super important. Building the habit though, toward getting there to, you know, to that 3 to 6 months of expenses, at minimum in a savings account for emergencies. Making progress toward that is more important than achieving that perfect number immediately. You don't have to be perfect immediately. So, you know, a lot of people really do abandon their goals because they feel like they can't do everything. And we can't. We're human beings. We can't do everything all the time. So my thing is, I'd rather see somebody do something than nothing. And, you know, I mean, if you feel like you need help in that area, take pride in retirement.com is the website. I'd love to take a look at things where things stand now get you a plan going for the future.

Speaker 2:
And I always say Matthew is the advisor that cares. So reach out to him. He's always have your best interest at heart, unlike a lot of other people. I mean, let's talk about the numbers.

Speaker 1:
They shall remain. No, I was just going to say they shall remain nameless. Um, but no, I.

Speaker 2:
You know, there's people out there anyway, he's not going to take advantage of you is what I'm saying. And he's a good person.

Speaker 1:
Why? Thank you.

Speaker 2:
Yes. All right, let's talk about numbers. Let's put this into perspective.

Speaker 1:
Yes, let's do it. So sometimes like like, let's say somebody's saving $500 a month. Let's just put that out there as a as a number for illustrative, illustrative, illustrative or illustrative, whichever way you want to pronounce it purposes. Um, somebody saving $500 per month starting today is dramatic, is doing dramatically better than somebody who waits to do that until January. Right. So if you're like, oh, well, next year, my New Year's resolution is going to be improving my finances. Well why not? Why not do it now? You know, if you've got the ability to do that, absolutely. If you don't have the ability to do $500 a month, heck, do $100 a month, do $50 a month, $25, like whatever you can contribute to a savings account, do that to a retirement account, do that six months of action every time is going to beat six months of procrastination. And look, I am one of the biggest procrastinators on the face of the planet. Always have been. Probably always will be. I've tried to overcome it in my life, but I tend to put things off that aren't necessarily the most fun things. Um, Josh may or may not know this about me, but.

Speaker 2:
This is true.

Speaker 1:
He can confirm, um, but, you know, consistency and building that, like building a habit is more powerful than like specific timing. Just building consistency over time is great. And so maybe before this week, if you want to challenge yourself a little bit, just log into your retirement account, right? Simple thing. Check the contribution rate there. Review who your beneficiaries are, make sure those are up to date, and identify one financial improvement that you can make before the second half of the year gets underway. And then, you know, we'll see what progress you can make, because I think you'll be surprised at how much progress you actually can make before the end of 2026.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. Nice. So I think the message today is pretty simple. It's basically if you feel like you've drifted away from your financial goals this year, there's still plenty of time to get back on track.

Speaker 1:
100%. I mean, it's the middle of the year is not the final report card, right? It's a it's a checkpoint. It's like a, um, what is it? We used to get report cards, but we used to also get like, uh, the in-betweens. Whatever, whatever the progress report, a progress report, it's kind of like that, you know, you would get a report card at the end of the term, the end of the semester or quarter or whatever it was back in the back in the day, but then you would get progress reports along the way. This is kind of your progress report. It can tell you where you are and where you need to go. And remember, progress beats perfection, right? So if you're, if you look at that progress report and it says needs improvement, as long as you are improving. Good. Good job. Like make that effort to improve going forward because you don't have to be perfect. Because here's the thing no matter who you are or where you come from, who you love, how you identify, or how much money you have, you deserve a retirement you can take pride in. And if you would like, help reviewing your retirement strategy, reviewing that plan, if you even have one, and if you don't have one, let's get you one. But if you've got one and you want to make sure that it makes sense for you, take pride in retirement.com. That's the website to go to. I'd love to help you build a plan that gets you moving forward and, and, you know, making progress, not necessarily being perfect because that's the important, important thing. Well, that is going to do it, I think, for this edition of the show. But Mr. Attache, thank you so much for, for being here and hopefully trying to keep me in between the lines.

Speaker 2:
Mhm. Of course, I think you did pretty well today. Pretty well.

Speaker 1:
Well thank you, I appreciate that. And you did well as always. And that's going to do it, as I said for this edition of the show. Really appreciate you listening and or watching. And until next time, Take pride in yourselves and take care of each other. We'll see you then.

Speaker 2:
Thanks for listening. To Take Pride in Retirement, members of the LGBTQ plus community deserve to work with a fiduciary financial advisor who puts their needs first. To schedule a free, no obligation consultation with Matt McClure and the team at Active Wealth Management, call (855) 246-9211 or go online to take pride in retirement.com. Investment advisory services offered through Brookstone Capital Management LLC, BCM, a registered investment advisor. Bcm and Active Wealth Management Incorporated are independent of each other. Insurance products and services are not offered through BCM but are offered in sold through individually licensed and appointed agents.

Speaker 1:
Registered investment advisors and investment advisor representatives act as fiduciaries for all of our investment management clients. We have an obligation to act in the best interest of our clients and to make full disclosures of any conflicts of interest. Please refer to our firm brochure, the ADV two A item four for additional information.

About this transcript

Sonix generated this transcript from the original recording using online English transcription — accurate the best mp3-to-text converter in minutes, with an editor built in. Read about the best transcription software guide to learn more.

Before you pick a platform, do the homework: Happy Scribe review, best audio to text converter, and this side-by-side comparison of transcription services cover pricing, accuracy, and workflows across the market.

Try Sonix free — 30 minutes of free transcription, no credit card required. Or review Sonix's pay-as-you-go pricing first.