Announcer:
You're listening to the Women's Wealth Canada podcast with Glory Gray. Be sure to download and subscribe using your favourite podcast app and ‘like’ us on Facebook.
GLORY GRAY:
Welcome to Women’s Wealth Canada — the show where we help Canadian women like you take control of their money and build YOUR life YOUR way.
I’m your host, Glory Gray — Financial Planner and Wealth Manager.
In the last episode, we talked about retirement as a redesign — not an ending.
Today, I want to talk about something that causes a lot of unnecessary stress for women when they’re thinking about retirement.
And that stress usually sounds like this:
“Do I have enough?”
“How much do I need?”
“What’s the number?”
In this episode, I’ll revisit some past conversations — and share a few short clips — to help reframe that question in a way that’s more useful and less stressful.
Let’s get into it.
We’re surrounded by headlines that tell us we need a certain amount of money to retire.
One million dollars.
Two million dollars.
Some magical number that’s supposed to make everything feel safe.
But here’s the truth.
A number on its own doesn’t tell you anything.
Here’s how many of my first conversations with new clients actually begin.
“When someone comes to me for advice for the first time, it's usually to ask me, When can they retire, Can they retire now? To which I reply, I don't know, can you? Now that may seem like a flippant remark, but my point is this. So often we hear in the media. Oh, everyone needs a million dollars to retire or 2 million. No they don't. Everyone's journey after they've spent years raising their children and working various careers, their journey is unique to them.”
That question — “Can I retire?” — sounds simple.
But it skips an important step.
Because retirement isn’t funded by a headline.
It’s funded by your life.
Before you can know how much money you need,
you need to know what your life will actually cost.
Not what someone else’s life costs.
Not what you think you should spend.
Your real life.
Before we can talk about numbers, we have to talk about spending — and here’s why.
“Just like if you're calculating how much money you need to save for your children's college or trade school education, you look at the cost of tuition for the school they want to go to. You look at the room and board, you start with those costs, and then you figure out how much you need to save and go from there. So if someone tells me they have a million dollars saved and asks me, ‘can they retire,’ I don't have enough information yet to give them an answer.”
I want to share a small shift in language that often changes how people feel about this process entirely.
There’s a reason I don’t like the word “budget.”
Budgeting sounds restrictive.
It sounds like punishment.
I prefer a different phrase.
“When describing your expenses, I prefer to use the term mindful spending plan, rather than using the word budget. And that term isn't just spin, it emphasizes the fact that you have the power over your future, it speaks to the fact that you have choices and what is important in your life, and therefore, what you spend your money on. A wise client once told me, I've finally come to the realization that I can have anything I want in life. I just can't have everything I want.”
Using that different term changes everything.
Because it puts you back in control.
You’re not depriving yourself.
You’re choosing.
If retirement is within a few years, estimates aren’t enough anymore.
You don’t have twenty years to guess.
You need real numbers.
Here’s an example of what it looks like to get specific when retirement is close.
“Let me make this clear, estimates and percentages aren't a good method to use when you're thinking of downsizing and retiring in the next few years. That might work if you're not retiring for 20 years, but when you're retiring next year, you really need to get more specific data.”
“...Let's use the example of my client, we'll call her Maria. Maria came to me and was planning on retiring the following year. She wanted to know if she had the means to do it, to retire. What's it going to cost for her to live in retirement?
“So I sent Maria home with some homework. She was to come back with a list of one month's worth of household expenses.
“Once Maria had this information, a month's worth of expenses, She went through and crossed off all the expenses that she wouldn't be spending money on during her first year of retirement. She didn't have to think about the next 30 years just, what will she need during the first year that she retires?
“Next, now that Maria knew what she wouldn't be spending money on her first year of retirement, what would she be spending money on that she could add to her current annual expenses? She's not going to be working but maybe the money she sets aside for hobbies and sports may go up.
“She may not be home as often, she may also need a house sitter and that is an expense. So to summarize, Maria wrote down her current annual expenses for the current year. She scratched out the expenses she wouldn't need during her first year after she retires and added back the expenses, she'd be increasing during the first year she retires. Maria now had a spending plan for her first year of retirement.”
That’s something else that’s important to understand: your spending won’t look the same every year of retirement.
Here’s how I talked about that in Season One:
“Research has found that expenses in our late 60s are usually much higher than in our 80s. In our 60s and 70s We're traveling more visiting grandchildren, checking off our bucket list as fast as we can. By the time we reach our 80s Most people, not everyone, but most have kind of been there, done that. And they're content to stay at home more often. However, research shows that out of pocket health care costs go up in our 80s and particularly in our 90s.”
This is not a one-and-done exercise.
It’s an ongoing conversation between your life and your money.
And doing this properly takes time and planning. It’s what I do every day for my clients.
But if you want a simple rule of thumb, there is a starting point. It’s called the 4% Rule.
The 4% rule is a retirement planning guideline that says that if you withdraw no more than 4% of your portfolio balance every year, you will have a high probability of your money lasting for 30 years.
Here’s how that works with our example.
If you were Maria, and you wanted to use the 4% rule, you would know that your expenses in retirement would be $4,000 per month. You would have some retirement income coming in to help pay for that. She had government benefits, plus her teacher's pension, and those would cover $2500 of the $4000 per month that she needs, so she needs to make up the $1500 per month difference with savings, and that's an annual amount of $18,000. So we take 18,000, we divide it by 4%, and we come up with $450,000.
She needs to have $450,000 saved in order to be able to support the lifestyle that she wants to in retirement.
What matters most isn’t whether the number feels big or small.
What matters is knowing where you stand.
Because clarity — even when it’s uncomfortable — is empowering.
Clarity doesn’t come from guessing or comparing — it comes from understanding your own life, your own priorities, and your own choices.
You don’t need a perfect answer.
You don’t need to compare yourself to anyone else.
If you’d like help thinking this through on your own time, I’ve put together some resources on my website. You’ll find links to them in the show notes. There’s no obligation — just tools many clients tell me helped them get clearer.
Thanks for listening.
I’ll see you in the next episode.
Announcer:
This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be construed as investment, tax or legal advice. It is not an offer to sell or buy or an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any entity or security cited. Mutual funds offered through Portfolio Strategies Corporation. Other products and services provided through Glory Gray Wealth Solutions.
