How to live
A Better Life After 50
Broke at 50 - What to do? (3 Steps To Retire)
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I got a pretty interesting email last
week from a viewer and the title of the
email read broke at 50 what should I do
I never responded to the email so I made
this video instead hey my lovely frugal
people welcome back to another video
hope you had a great week and today I
want to read to you this email that I
got from a viewer so it reads hey Andre
my name is John not his real name that
was a real name guys money was never a
driving force in my life I've moved
around and changed jobs as I got bored
like a lot of people retirement and
savings seemed like it was something
that would happen eventually and I
didn't care about having things as long
as I could pay rent eat and have some
cash on me I was fine when I was 35 I
ended up having a kid not planned and my
moving around stopped I found a job that
I've been with since and now I'm 50
broke and terrified my annual income is
50k a year living in Sacramento
California and 50k does not go far at
all
I have $500 in savings approximately
23,000 in a 401 K which I didn't pay
into as much as I should have and now
I'm living paycheck to paycheck how in
the world can I ever afford to pay rent
when I'm 65 or 70 years of age stalks
are new to me I'm trying to find as much
info on dividend investments as I can I
got a little overzealous and bought a
few stocks already do you think it's too
late for me to spend any extra money I
can find to invest would you recommend
going a different route so the good news
is that you're only 50 years old and I'm
not just saying that to make you feel
better because this next part won't and
that is that you have 15 working years
still ahead of you and there's a lot we
can do in the next 15 years to really
juice up those retirement savings and
get you where you need to be so first
thank you so much for reaching out and
asking me this question and secondly I
don't know the entirety of your
situation and at the other day
just a youtuber you may not want to
listen to me I don't know whether or not
you're married whether or not you
support your kids or your expenses are
or any other costly hobbies you may have
like paying for loot boxes on Star Wars
Battlefront 2 so with that preface out
of the way I'll give you my thoughts and
my advice to the best of my abilities as
far as what I would do if I were in this
same situation so let's get started
right away so starting with step number
one is I feel like what most guides are
missing and that is the money part so
step number one we need money come a
genius I'm done here that's a wrap
smash the like button subscribe and just
kidding
so we can do this one of two ways the
easy way or the hard way
now the hard way is probably the most
obvious which is just make more money
right boost your salary but that is
dangerous because you're risking what
little you have in a very potentially
competitive job market where there's a
lot of young whippersnappers like myself
who are willing to take a pay cut so
doing that is a little risky unless
you're absolutely confident in your
abilities so be careful when treading
that ground the easy way on the other
hand is something that I did when I quit
my job so basically I boosted my savings
by getting rid of all unnecessary
expenses and taking on some side hustles
so specifically here's what we do so
take a look at some of the smallest
things that you pay for right now but
you don't even think about I'm talking
about non essentials like your cable and
TV services the Netflix is that Hulu's
my patreon page so this is exactly what
I did when I left my job I had zero
income and I still had bills to pay and
I started to call around and
aggressively ask for competitive rates
on everything I paid for my car
insurance my health insurance my phone
bill my internet bill everything and I
know maybe you're thinking to yourself
laundry this is a waste of time but
you'll be so surprised just how much
money twenty dollars here and thirty
dollars there will add up so fast and I
saved a lot of money doing this but
Andre I don't have any of those
subscriptions I already live on ramen
noodles bro and so in addition to
calling around and asking for
competitive rates you can also start to
take up side hustles on the weekends
here's what I would do for these I
highly recommend taking on something
like Airbnb I did Airbnb as a super host
and I was earning roughly
nine hundred to a thousand dollars a
month which was almost enough to cover
my entire rent expense I know living in
Las Vegas has its perks and is worth
moving out here just for that reason
alone also no state income tax what up
but be careful if you don't own your
house because subletting is not allowed
but there's legal loopholes for that too
another one is uber or making deliveries
for post mates uber eats or Amazon and
the last pro tip for making some serious
extra cash on the side is being a
caregiver believe it or not my dad
actually did this it was a very
lucrative side hustle for him and
basically what it does is I believe it
uses an app and it connects you with
senior citizens who need help doing
their normal day-to-day activities and
there's very little upfront costs to
getting involved and you get licensed
relatively quickly and when that happens
you'll get paired up with somebody and
you'll get paid so it's kind of a cool
way to do some good for the world
something that's actually worth your
time and maybe you'll get to make some
old grumpy friends who farts sometimes
but seriously look into it it's actually
really good and step number two while
you're looking for those side hustles
and saving some money I want you to
smash that like button because that is
literally my health insurance and
speaking of I want you to immediately
look into and open up any employer
sponsored retirement programs true story
my parents who are in their early 50s
didn't open their 401ks until they were
about mid 40s and that's only because I
opened it for them in my early 20s which
i think is hilarious
and sad I do love my parents but the
point I'm trying to make is that I'm
intimately familiar with this situation
so if you haven't already opened up any
qualified employer sponsored programs
your 401 K s your Roth IRAs and get
started
put your money there immediately before
putting your money anywhere else and
that's because the rate of return on
that money is better than any other
investment you can find it is 100% rate
of return on your money so forget
investing in individual stocks forget
dividends put your money here first find
out what the limit is and max
out like a boss and also for health
insurance look into any HSA programs
that your employer might provide HSAs
are amazing think of them like your IRA
except they're also 100% tax deductible
lowering your tax burden and money that
goes into an HSA goes in tax-free
it grows tax-free and withdrawn tax-free
on qualified medical expenses and if you
somehow find yourself with having more
money in that fund than you can spend by
the age of 65 you can actually start to
withdraw from it like a traditional
traditional what is traditional
traditional IRA now as far as what to
invest in this can get really
complicated but it doesn't have to be
when I was doing this for my parents I
looked at the list that their company
provided and I was just blown away by
the complexity I saw everything from
small cap companies middle cap large cap
shower cap mushroom cap they have it all
so it doesn't have to be this
complicated when selecting a fund here
are some things to keep in mind the best
one that I would do for myself is
something like Vanguard retirement index
fund for a target date of 2035 that's
gonna give you a really great
diversification you'll be diversified
like a boss and the portfolio will
rebalance itself accordingly as you get
closer to retirement date and the fees
are extremely low so if your company
doesn't provide that specific one from
Vanguard which by the way I love
Vanguard I used it for my index fund
investing and I think they're amazing so
look for them but again if your company
doesn't have it with them just those are
some of the criteria to keep in mind
when selecting specifically what to
invest in so step number three emergency
funds now you don't seem to have any
debt and you have $500 in your savings
account which as my parents would say is
very good so now that hopefully you are
making more money you are saving more
money and you are investing more money
into the right places let's protect what
you have let's protect your nest egg
from the number one enemy of this entire
plan yourself believe it or not people
who don't have an emergency fund are
substantially more likely to take out
loan against their 401ks and I'm sure
you guys are aware right now there's a
lot of fear and panic about an oncoming
recession so what I don't want happening
to you is the thing that happened to a
lot of people during the last recession
back in o8 when the unemployment rates
spiked and as many as 46 percent of
people who lost their jobs took out and
liquidated their entire 401k savings to
pay for emergencies I don't want that
happening to you
so let's boost your emergency savings to
$1,000 this is your emergency fund only
and it needs to be at least $1,000 to
cover that temptation when inevitably
during the next 15 years something will
happen
so here's what I don't want you to do I
want you to not gamble with your money
trying to find the next hot investment
or the next hot growth stock and I
promise you're gonna hear a lot of this
from newsletters and emails and the
media screaming this is the next company
that's gonna take you to a retirement
sooner I promise none of them will no
one has any idea what they're talking
about don't take their advice don't even
take my advice just remember you don't
have time on your side to make up for
losses in an unpredictable market so
keep that in mind and regardless of what
the market does don't fear don't panic
just keep contributing to those
retirement programs that we just talked
about earlier and if you're thinking of
paying college for your kids then don't
do that just prioritize your finances
first and my parents didn't pay for my
college and I still love them it's not
like I resent them for anything I don't
hate them it's fine it's fine I'm fine
if anything it made me more into an
independent thinker and I understand
their situation they actually taught me
how to properly and where to invest my
time and my money and besides colleges
are gonna be around to take tens of
thousands of dollars from people for a
very long time they're not going
anywhere
and stop eating out just entirely and
the trick to tricking myself that I use
is I will have a pizza just chilling in
my fridge at all time I just tricked
myself I was dumb I don't know why I did
that but see you see I have a pizza in
my fridge waiting to go at all times
just in case I get that urge to go out
into a restaurant and eat some junk food
a pizza is my secret
and also just don't ever spend money on
eating out and just learn how to cook
and/or eat playing cards it works so
after you finished these first three
steps I want you to go ahead and create
a savings of three to six months of
essential expenses like your food and
your rent and that way in case you get
fired or something bad happens you could
just find another job and also consider
moving to a lower cost of living area
and still keep your same job maybe in
another state or maybe literally in
proximity to your job that way you can
get rid of your car and just bike to
work I know it sounds silly but trust me
it's possible my dad is 53 years old and
still does push-ups and handstands
anything is possible so thank you guys
so much for watching this video
smash that like button and subscribe
remember my life depends on it no big
deal okay guys love you all bye
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climb the hillside
you
you
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like everything's wrong everything that
we could
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