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| Stat Of The Day |
| $30 |
| Would you let a robot give you a mani? It’s now a thing at a handful of Ulta stores and other locations across the country and it’ll run you $30 (no tip necessary) for a full, five-step manicure in about 30ish minutes. Here’s a peek at how it works – the results are surprisingly precise. And don’t worry, the human nail tech isn’t out of a job – they’re on standby for touchups. |
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| Why Spending Your Retirement Savings Is Harder Than Saving It |
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You've maxed out your 401(k). You've invested wisely. You hired someone to help you plan for retirement. You did everything right. So why are you terrified to spend a dime of it?
A new study from Corebridge Financial found that 60% of retirees said their assets had actually grown since they stopped working. And yet the words they used to describe drawing down those savings were uncertain, anxious, and vulnerable. Only about one in four said they felt comfortable spending their own money.
On the HerMoney Podcast, Jean sat down with Terri Fiedler, President of Retirement Services at Corebridge Financial, to dig into why this transition is so hard – and what to do about it.
The top fears keeping people from spending in retirement, according to the Corebridge study: healthcare costs, inflation, and market volatility. Those fears aren't irrational – they're especially real for women, who live an average of five years longer than men and have to fund more years of retirement. But Fiedler cautioned against letting fear turn into paralysis.
"All of those are legitimate risks, and I would not minimize any of them," she said. "But the problem is when you freeze, and every possible future risk begins to dictate how you actually live."
There's another risk that gets talked about far less: underspending, or getting to the later years of retirement and realizing you could have done more of the things that mattered to you. "Financial security shouldn't mean being afraid to use your money," Fiedler said. "The answer is spending with purpose, a thoughtful plan that balances future security with present-day enjoyment."
If you haven't started planning yet, here are three questions to ask before you build your strategy. |
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| Your Next Step: The Forever Paycheck |
After spending decades saving for retirement, your spending strategy isn’t something you can afford to get wrong. If you want help putting a plan in place, Jean’s new book, The Forever Paycheck, is the next step.
The Forever Paycheck takes the freeze-up so many retirees feel – letting fear dictate how they live and spend – and replaces it with a framework for turning savings into a paycheck you can count on. Preorder your copy here. |
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| This Week In Your Wallet |
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Peanut butter pay raises are going out of style. As CBS News reports, employers are shifting away from peanut butter pay raises – the kind spread out evenly across every employee – back toward a merit-based system that rewards top performers. Just 32% of employers say they are planning a standard, across-the-board increase for workers in 2027, down from 36% in 2026. "The size of the compensation budget pie is not getting bigger, but there's a shift in how employers are choosing to slice it," explains Ruth Thomas, chief compensation strategist at Payscale. Want to make sure you get your piece of the pie? Here’s your cheat sheet.
Americans are sitting on a record $35 trillion in home equity – and a growing number are tapping it to pay off credit card debt. In the first three months of this year, homeowners withdrew an estimated $47 billion in equity, up 2% from a year earlier, according to The New York Times. Second mortgages accounted for $25 billion of that (up 1% year over year), while cash-out refinancing jumped 18% to $22 billion. Home equity can be a real cushion, but strategy matters. A home equity loan or HELOC lets you borrow against your equity without touching your existing mortgage. Cash-out refinancing is different: it replaces your current mortgage entirely – so if you locked in a low rate years ago, refinancing means giving that up. Still, as the Times notes, "a home loan at 6.69 percent – the average rate for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage, according to the mortgage finance giant Freddie Mac – is a better option than credit card debt with an interest rate in the double digits."
Torn between helping your kids pay for college and saving for your own retirement? We’ve got some tough love for you: protect your retirement savings first, even if it feels unnatural to not put your kids ahead of everything else. "The problem with pulling from your retirement accounts to pay for college is that once you take that money, it won't benefit from time in the market during which it can grow, so you potentially miss years of compounding interest," writes Rebecca Jones for HerMoney. "Also, if your employer offers a match, and you've reduced your contributions or taken a loan against your account, then you're missing out on the free money that your employer contributes on your behalf." Click here for more on balancing college savings with retirement. |
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| Things That Make You Money |
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| Ask Jean |
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| Q: |
Today’s question comes from Kim. She writes: "If you’ve been at your job for 30 years, how do you not break the hearts of your bosses and coworkers when you announce you’re retiring?" |
| A: |
After a long career at one place, it’s normal to feel this way, Kim. Your colleagues, really, become like a second family.
What I can promise you, though, is that they don’t expect you to keep working forever. They know retirement is coming, and while it will be sad for them (and for you), they have to know it’s inevitable. I’m betting that if they knew you were this nervous about it, they’d probably feel pretty bad, too.
So, if you have a timeline in mind for retiring, schedule a meeting with your boss and rip the Band-Aid off. Getting it over with sooner rather than later gives you more time to actually enjoy your final phase of work with your colleagues. And in the meantime, start making plans for staying in touch after you've collected your final paycheck – maybe it's lunch once a month, maybe it's stopping by with snacks for the office now and then. There are plenty of ways to keep those connections alive while still fully enjoying the retirement you've worked for. Good luck! |
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| Submit your questions to Jean here. |
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