My Friend Raided Her Retirement, and I’m Fine With It.

When is it ok to break “the rules” with money?

A new friend confided she'd raided her retirement fund.  “I'm not mad at you for that,”  I said.  Want to know why?

My friend “Sue” (not her real name), recently confided that she'd withdrawn money from her retirement fund to pay for training.  Normally taking money from retirement when you aren't retired is a huge money mistake, because you lose not just that money from your retirement fund, but also all the growth that would come on top of that money.  She expected me to chide her.

So why did I, as a money coach, actually think it was ok?

 You see, Sue has a background in working in banking.  She knows all “the rules” of how money works (the rules I teach in my Change Your Financial Operating System course).  She's seen first-hand the “Millionaire Next Door” types who live in blue collar neighborhoods below their means and become self-made millionaires.  She's also see the middle class and upper middle class professionals who earned good money, yet were drowning in debt because they'd committed themselves to loan after loan for toys (RVs, boats, jet skis, second homes) or shopped til they'd dropped on clothes, shoes, and jewelry and had the credit card debt that came as a consequence.

So what's the difference between “Sue” and most people?

 Sue fully understands the rules.  She understands the risk she has taken in breaking them.  But she is making an informed and conscious choice to take a financial risk now in the hopes of making a career change that could lead to a better quality of life and, oh yeah, the opportunity to make more money in a new field.

It may not work out.  She may have set herself back.  But in my mind she hasn't liquidated an investment, she's shifted a small portion of her overall portfolio from one investment to another.  It's a higher risk investment, but it also has the potential for outsized rewards.  And because she understands enough about money to know she's taken a risk, she's going to be very focused on making that investment pay off and on re-building her retirement fund as soon as she can.

 Your money is your money and you are allowed to do anything you want with it.  I just want you to make an informed choice the way Sue did.

Are you ready to learn the rules of money – and when to break them?  If so, I'd love to work with you.  Schedule a call for a free session in which we will uncover your #1 money block and lay out a solution.