Aging with Intention

Retirement advice often starts with a percentage. "Save 10%." "Save 15%." "Increase your contribution every year." "Max out your retirement account if you can." Those numbers can be useful for someone with plenty of money left after the bills are paid. They can feel completely disconnected from reality when your income is already being consumed by rent, utilities, groceries, transportation, insurance, childcare, medical expenses, or other necessities. If you have $40 left at

There is a particular kind of panic that comes with realizing you should have started saving for retirement years ago. Maybe you are 45 and have very little saved. Maybe you are 52 and finally looking closely at your retirement accounts. Maybe you are in your late 50s and retirement suddenly feels much closer than it used to. Whatever your age, there is one thing you already know: you can't go back and make yesterday's contributions. You can, however, figure out what the year

Few retirement-planning moments are more uncomfortable than adding everything up and realizing your savings are not where you expected them to be. Maybe you checked your retirement account after years of barely looking at it. Maybe you ran a retirement estimate and discovered that your projected income falls short of what you expect to spend. Maybe you always intended to save more, but housing, children, debt, emergencies, and everyday expenses kept getting in the way. Now re