Retired Broke. Here's What Happened.

[00:00:00]I'll never forget this moment. I'm sitting having dinner with my parents and their friends, Roger and Joanne, and Roger goes, "I retired with nothing.

[00:00:10]No nothing in savings, no 401k, just social security.

[00:00:15]Now, I'm struggling and trying to figure things out."

[00:00:19]And honestly, I don't think we talk about this type of situation enough.

[00:00:24]I mean, on this channel, I typically try to encourage people to retire early if they're able to.

[00:00:29]But I know that a lot of you watching aren't in that situation.

[00:00:34]You might be facing retirement with little or no savings.

[00:00:37]And that's why I think Roger's story is important to tell.

[00:00:42]Thing is, Roger wasn't making a big deal out of it, either.

[00:00:46]He was just kind of explaining it, walking us through what happened.

[00:00:54]And the part that stuck with me wasn't even the no savings part. It was something else that he said.

[00:01:00]See, there was a stretch, few weeks, maybe a little bit longer, where he genuinely didn't know if he was going to lose the house.

[00:01:08]Not like might have to sell eventually, but actually lose it. See, the mortgage company, they don't care that your social security paperwork is stuck in processing.

[00:01:19]Now, before you assume, "Well, Roger must have done something wrong along the way."

[00:01:24]Hang on a second.

[00:01:26]Roger spent most of his career as a warehouse forklift operator.

[00:01:30]Steady job, decent pay for what it was, but no company match, no 401k packet on day one, nobody in HR nudging him towards a retirement contribution.

[00:01:43]And I can remember him saying, kind of apologetically, that saving just wasn't built into that kind of work.

[00:01:50]Money came in, money went out, kids, a car repair, a medical bill here and there.

[00:01:58]Not recklessness, just a working life where the plan, as far as anyone told him, was work hard, pay into social security, and that'll be enough.

[00:02:09]And that's the part that I think we tend to skip over too fast.

[00:02:13]We tend to picture people who retire broke as people who made bad choices.

[00:02:18]And sure, a lot of times that's true.

[00:02:22]But Roger, he didn't blow through a fortune.

[00:02:25]He simply never had a job that made saving easy in the first place. So, he's 62, still working, everything is going fine, and suddenly he loses his job.

[00:02:37]And that's really when his age starts mattering because of what happened next.

[00:02:42]He said he had a bunch of interviews that seemed to go well.

[00:02:45]Good conversation.

[00:02:47]They'd say they'd follow up, and they just wouldn't hear back.

[00:02:51]He figured, well, maybe it's something on his end.

[00:02:54]So, he did what most of us would do.

[00:02:56]He updated his resume, and he kept trying.

[00:02:59]But after a while, he noticed that people interviewing him seemed to keep getting younger.

[00:03:04]And he started putting it together.

[00:03:06]Nobody's going to actually tell you it's your age, he said.

[00:03:10]You just get, well, we went with someone else, or overqualified.

[00:03:14]And after enough of that, you know what's really going on.

[00:03:17]He's out of a job at exactly the age where social security becomes an option.

[00:03:22]But it's also the worst possible age to actually take it. Because as we know, filing that early locks in a smaller check for good.

[00:03:30]So, he's stuck.

[00:03:32]Too old to get another job easily, but too young to claim social security benefits without taking a permanent hit.

[00:03:45]Unfortunately, with no income and bills that, well, they don't wait around, Roger felt that his only option was to file Social Security at 62.

[00:03:55]And not because it was a smart move, but because it was well, like he said, the only one left.

[00:04:02]And the part that you could tell that was bothering him the most was that filing early instead of waiting for full retirement age locked in a permanently smaller check, up to 30% smaller for life.

[00:04:13]So, this wasn't some crisis that he just pushed through and moved past.

[00:04:17]If any of this sounds familiar, if you're staring down retirement without the cushion that you thought you'd have, say so in the comments because trust me, you're not the only one.

[00:04:27]Losing a job, that was bad enough.

[00:04:30]But, honestly, the waiting after he filed might have been worse.

[00:04:35]See, it's not instant. It can take a month, sometimes two or three, before that first check actually shows up.

[00:04:42]And the mortgage company, they don't care where you're at in that process.

[00:04:47]Honestly, I don't think it's the hardship itself that breaks people in moments like this.

[00:04:53]I think it's more the not knowing.

[00:04:56]I mean, Roger, he talked about selling the second car before the benefits letter even showed up.

[00:05:02]Not because they decided just to give up, just because doing something felt better than just sitting there waiting.

[00:05:09]Imagine having to make a decision like that under that kind of pressure.

[00:05:21]When the check finally showed up, it didn't fix things completely.

[00:05:24]A reduced check at 62, that was never going to cover a mortgage and everything else by itself.

[00:05:30]But, it did stop things from getting worse.

[00:05:32]Roger didn't act like it was some big win, either.

[00:05:35]He said it just felt like he could finally stop bracing for something really bad to happen.

[00:05:41]Things weren't fixed just because that check started coming in.

[00:05:44]They still needed more money.

[00:05:46]And that's when Joanne went back to work.

[00:05:49]Roger said that she'd been out of the workforce for a few years and she picked up a part-time job at a local pharmacy.

[00:05:55]On paper, it's simple.

[00:05:57]One income wasn't enough. So, they added a second.

[00:06:01]But, Roger mentioned something that really stuck with me.

[00:06:05]He said that it was weird hearing her alarm go off in the morning instead of his own.

[00:06:09]I don't think he felt replaced or anything like that.

[00:06:13]I think it was more like he was dealing with something that he never expected to deal with at this point in his life. Her going to work while he stayed home.

[00:06:24]Same thing with the house, honestly.

[00:06:27]When he talked about giving it up, I mean, they'd been there for over 20 years. It's four bedrooms.

[00:06:33]And he wasn't just talking about square footage.

[00:06:36]As we're sitting there having dinner, he went through it almost as if like room by room.

[00:06:41]What they plan to keep, what didn't make sense anymore for just two people.

[00:06:46]And he said that now they're planning to move somewhere smaller in the next year.

[00:06:50]And again, they're thinking about moving to one car instead of two.

[00:06:54]And Roger, he's also applying for part-time positions.

[00:06:58]I mean, it sounds like basic budgeting, but it's a lot more than that.

[00:07:03]It's them figuring out who they are now, not who they thought they'd be at this age.

[00:07:13]You would think that going through your house and deciding what has to go would feel awful.

[00:07:19]But, Roger, he didn't seem to feel that way though.

[00:07:22]I mean, I kind of expected him to sound down about it or at least like he was putting on a brave face, but he wasn't.

[00:07:30]He was just calm about the whole thing.

[00:07:33]Now, to be clear, they're not in crisis anymore, thankfully. The house isn't at risk anymore.

[00:07:39]Between Joanne's job and the smaller check, they're making it work.

[00:07:43]But, believe me, he made it so that it's really tight. And there's not much room if something else goes wrong.

[00:07:49]I think Roger kind of just stopped comparing his life to the plan that he originally had.

[00:07:54]He's more focused on what's still there.

[00:07:57]Joanne, marriage, and the fact that they figured out how to adjust instead of falling apart.

[00:08:04]He talked about his family like it was the one thing that actually held up through all of this.

[00:08:09]It's not like everything worked out the way that he probably thought it would when he was younger.

[00:08:14]Clearly, it didn't.

[00:08:16]But, he's dealing with it instead of letting it ruin him.

[00:08:19]And I think that's kind of what the whole point is.

[00:08:22]Roger's story isn't just about retiring too late or not saving enough.

[00:08:26]I think it's about what happens when you don't get to say in any of it. And that's a reality for a lot of people.

[00:08:33]But, for most of you watching, you weren't worried about losing your job at 62.

[00:08:37]You're more worried about the opposite.

[00:08:39]Working way past when you should, because, well, it feels safer.

[00:08:43]And a lot of times, trust me, it's not.

[00:08:46]Staying too long can cost you more than the extra paycheck is worth.

[00:08:50]Your health, your time, years that you don't get back.

[00:08:54]And that's exactly why you need to watch another video that I made right after this one.

[00:08:59]If Roger's story is about retirement getting forced on you too soon, that one's about the flip side.

[00:09:04]What quietly gets taken from you when you wait too long.

[00:09:07]In that video, I break down what working past 60 really costs you. Financially, physically, emotionally, and why retiring sooner actually gives a lot of people a better life. It's linked below.

[00:09:19]Go watch it next.

[00:09:21]And remember, retirement, it isn't just a math problem. Thanks for watching, my friend. I'll see you in the next one.