Don’t Retire Early | Why So Many Regret It - Erin Reacts

hey guys what's up I'm Aaron and welcome back to the channel recently Business Insider did a video boldly titled don't retire early I saw this video the day it came out because the YouTube algorithm knows me like a map and if you haven't seen it I'm going to link it down below for you to check out because I think it's a wonderful video full of very real world stories it features five situations individuals and one couple who took the time to write a letter to their younger self and give an interview to Business Insider going

over Financial mistakes they had made things they wish they did different and ultimately how retirement isn't what they hoped it would be I only have about 3 months worth of Bill payments in my savings account we make very little own Social Security I still have to work to pay my bills I'm worried that my investments won't last me I don't have any retirement funds put away at all it starts out as no surprise with the most common advice that we tend to hear is that you need to start saving for your future when you're younger

start as early as possible for the people featured in this video they made the all too common mistake of putting off saving and investing for their future and ultimately waited until it was kind of too late at that point they had to try and save as much as they possibly could and they still found themselves coming up short it's way way better if you plan plan something way ahead had a time then wait till the end like we we have and I know in the financial space maybe it sounds like we're beating a dead horse

when we repeatedly say take a portion of every single paycheck whether it's $50 or 10% of your pay or 20% of your pay and just set it aside put it in Investments and let it grow for your future but we have to say it because Common Sense isn't always common practice and a lot of times young people have the attitude of I'll just get to it eventually I'll save when I make more I don't have room in my budget right now but so often we end up putting things off too long and then someday comes

way quicker than we ever imagined I know I am on the younger side of the spectrum when it comes to life or even preparing for retirement I am 37 years old but the thing I've learned is that each subsequent year passes faster and faster and as you watch your parents age I really think it cements home the idea that we're not young forever if there's one area where tend to get a lot of push back in this channnel it's that I Center a lot of my content around preparing for retirement and people say I'm a

little young to focus on that topic but I equally want to give push back to this kind of thought process because I think if you focus on saving and investing when you're in your 20s and your 30s and you start as early as possible you're going to end up with a well-funded retirement you're going to have a retirement that is much easier from a financial perspective the earlier you start if you can find find a way to save just $200 a month from the time you're 20 years old all the way until you're 65 you

can have nearly a million dollar in Investments and if you did that roughly 90% of your portfolio would be from compounding not your contributions that's making your money work for you when you're young that's when your dollars have the most potential that's when you can put away a small amount and it can grow to an incredible amount of wealth in your future when you're young when put your dollars to work that's when you can make wealth building easy I missed one payment on the credit card and uh it just ballooned within 6 months um it

completely doubled the interest rate back then was 13 and 3/4 and it just it just grew so fast eventually uh our loan was so big we couldn't manage it the debt also played a big role in a lot of these stories and I think we can all agree that it's best just to live with your means and it's very easy for debt to snowball especially when it sits at an incredibly High interest rate you don't have to agree with everything Dave Ramsey says but by and large I think if you strive to live a debt-free

life at least when it comes to the essentials I think your wealth building process is much easier prioritize your health to avoid financial and physical hardships I think truly the best investment you can make is in your health and trying to remain as healthy as possible for as long as possible because it's an unfortunate reality that being sick or having a medical event are incredibly expensive not only from The Stance of it comes with a lot of financial strain if you have medical bills but also if you have a medical event that takes you out

of the workforce and makes it so you can't earn an income that's incredibly expensive and so many people have the attitude of I'm incredibly healthy that won't happen to me it won't happen to someone I love but a health event can happen to anyone at any time everything can change in an instant and if it does it can be devastating I always say one of the best and worst things that happened to me was getting a brain tumor at a relatively young age because it made me acutely aware that some things are just beyond our

control it also made me save like heck for the future because I never know when a medical event might happen and this past year has been incredibly difficult as I watch my father battle vascular dementia he was always a very intelligent and very hardworking man and within a matter of months things change so if you don't have your health you don't have anything so whatever you can do to preserve your health and be as healthy as you can for as long as you possibly can I think that's where you should direct your efforts in life

don't retire early I lost my job I was sort of forced into retirement the overwhelming theme of the individuals featured in this video is that they regret retiring when they did the fact of the matter is many of them were forced into an retirement earlier than they expected and earlier than they were financially prepared for but one thing is for certain most of us don't realize that being forced into an earlier retirement is far more common than we're led to believe according to a study from trans Amer 58% of workers retire earlier than they had

planned and consider of those who retired early 43% did so because of health reasons 40% did it because company changes think downsizing and only 177% did so because they felt financially prepared I think it's important to acknowledge that we may have a Target date in mind when it comes to retirement but often things don't go according to plan and if you're forced into a retirement earlier than you expected this could lead to a decades long Financial struggle this could lead to you making more Cuts than you ever thought you would have to and I think

another really important thing that this video touched on is that so many of the participants found retirement itself to be boring they said when they were no longer working they kind of lost their sense of purpose and their sense of meaning and I think this really speaks volumes that you have to have a solid retirement plan and that goes beyond finances it goes beyond the dollars and cents you have to have meaning to your days you have to have a robust Social Circle and activities that you enjoy retirement is more than finances and as many

of those featured in this video say finding work at an Advanced age is no easy feat getting a call back when you're in your 60s or your 70s is not as easy as when you're in your 30s or your 40s when it comes to many corporations it shouldn't be the case but it's a reality for so many older Americans who are forced into an early retirement it can be very difficult to regain employment my mom is 73 and still working she says she would like to continue working but in a different job but she's not

willing to let go of the job she has because she always follows it up with a statement of who'd be willing to hire a 73y old don't retire don't retire work as long as you can no I I would do it in a New York minute man I'd go I'd go back to work and and and love every minute of it and I think there's a really important distinction to be made between the people featured in this video and those chasing a fire lifestyle Financial Independence retire early people chasing the fire movement tend to be

saving anywhere from 60 to 70% of their income during their working years they're building up a very robust nest egg and the goal is to step away from the workforce at a very young age maybe so they can travel or spend more time with family if you're forced into an earlier retirement than you anticipate it and you don't have that Financial safety net and if you don't have a plan of what you want to do with your days retirement is far less enjoyable so this video is really about the everyday American not those chasing a

financial Independence at a young age another really important thing that these retirees in this video focus on is having a job that you enjoy a paycheck is essential it's how we afford life but it's not the only thing that matters when I became a librarian I did take a pay cut from my teaching career but it was well worth it to me because I loved going to work so much every day if your days are filled doing a job you don't enjoy at all it can hardly justify the number on the paycheck there has to

be a certain level of enjoyment that you get from your job and whether that comes from enjoying the people that you work with or finding meaning in the work you do whatever it may be I think work has to serve a purpose beyond the paycheck it has to be fulfilling I think your life is so much more enjoyable when you enjoy what you do I've had many jobs over the past 20 years some I've enjoyed more than others but in each of them I've found some level of enjoyment and they've all taught me things and

I can say that I'm grateful for each of them because they brought me to today where I have two careers that I absolutely love and with Grace and gratitude I hope that I get to continue to do both of these careers for many many years to come because they bring me so much joy I think this video is a really great watch because it really drives home the importance of making sure that you're financially prepared for retirement and obviously that is something that I am incredibly passionate about but it goes beyond that it goes beyond

counting the dollars in your bank account and it drives home how important it is to have meaning to your days and have joy in your life finances are important but they're not the thing that matters most if you get them right pretty much everything else in your life is easier if you get them wrong pretty much everything else in your life is harder but they're still not the most important thing so now I have a question for you if you were to write a letter to your younger self what kind of financial advice would you

give yourself leave your thoughts in a comment down below I'm really curious and I want to see what all the comments are I post new videos every single week if you got anything at all out of this one please give it a like if you're new here please consider subscribing or if you know of someone who might get something out of this type of content please consider sharing I'll see you soon bye oh no I forgot my earrings got them in we're good to go P.S they're all purchased from like timu or temu however you

pronounce it less than $5 for like probably every earring I own amazing I love it rude oh like that video literally made me cry I laughed I cried like I can't imagine like I feel so bad for some of those situations they're heartbreaking it's also why I cannot do a live reaction when there's sad stories I will just cry and it's an ugly cry and no one wants to see it my heart is racing oh my goodness calm down but well shush I hate birds so much I hate them I know you guys probably can

even hear them but I hear them I hate them blame it on the misophonia oh my goodness I hate birds I don't like that at all let's do it again [Music]