How to Balance Retirement Planning With Enjoying Life Now
Should you accelerate retirement savings or increase contributions to your child’s college education fund? Should you invest more aggressively or finally book that family vacation? Should you prioritize future security or enjoy the life you’ve worked hard to build today?
For many high-earning families, money scarcity isn’t the reason retirement planning feels difficult. It feels difficult because there are more opportunities than there are clear priorities.
You’re earning well, saving consistently, and making thoughtful financial decisions, but without a cohesive strategy, it’s easy for important goals to compete with one another. College savings, retirement accounts, travel, a larger home, aging parents, charitable giving, and creating meaningful experiences for your family can all begin pulling you and your finances in different directions.
That’s the challenge. How do you balance everything in a way that supports both the current enjoyment of life and your long-term financial goals?
The answer isn’t choosing one over the other or eliminating joy today in favor of security tomorrow. It’s about building a strategy that allows both to coexist.
Why So Many Millennials and Gen Z Professionals Feel Stretched Financially
If retirement planning feels overwhelming, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong.
Today’s adults are balancing more financial priorities at once than previous generations. In fact, up to 74% of younger workers report struggling to save for retirement due to rising housing costs, childcare expenses, student debt, and inflation.1
But this doesn’t mean retirement is out of reach. It simply means the traditional idea of focusing on one financial goal at a time no longer reflects reality.
Many people are simultaneously building careers, buying homes, raising families, paying down debt, saving for college, and planning for retirement, all while trying to enjoy the life they’re living today.
Every Stage of Life is Happening at Once
This balancing act is why many Americans say retirement planning feels more challenging than it did for previous generations. According to CNBC’s 2024 Your Money retirement survey, 82% of workers believe achieving a comfortable retirement is harder than it was for their parents.2
Being pulled in multiple directions doesn’t mean you’re failing or behind. It doesn’t even mean you need to start doing everything simultaneously. It simply means you need to consider charting a thoughtful financial plan that prioritizes what matters most today while steadily building toward the future you want.
Is “Max Everything” the Right Strategy for You?
If you’ve spent any time researching retirement planning, you’ve probably come across some version of the same advice: Max out your 401(k). Max out your IRA. Max out your HSA. Invest every extra dollar. And for some people, that approach genuinely works.
A wave of “super savers,” including a striking number of people in their twenties, is doing exactly this and building real wealth early.3 Some open a Roth IRA in college and max it with internship money, then pivot to maxing their 401(k) once they’re working full-time, reaching six figures saved before 25.
CNBC reports that Gen Z holds the highest share of super savers of any generation, and for those who frame it as buying future freedom rather than depriving themselves today, the aggressive path is a feature, not a sacrifice.4
So the question isn’t whether maxing out works because it clearly does. The question is whether it fits your life right now. The savers it works best for tend to share certain conditions.
The Profile of a Super-Saver
- High or fast-rising income
- Few fixed obligations
- A temperament that finds saving energizing vs. restrictive
A 24-year-old with no mortgage and no kids must do very different math than a 38-year-old paying for childcare, a home, and aging parents on a fixed household income.
For some people, high intensity is perfectly consistent. For a family in that second situation, the strategy may look like adopting a plan built for a different life stage. Sustainable retirement planning may help break this cycle by replacing all-or-nothing thinking with a plan that’s designed to evolve alongside your life, priorities, and financial goals. The goal is to uncover which kind of saver you are.
Enjoying Life Now Without Derailing Retirement
If “max everything” is the wrong target, what’s the right one? The answer is a plan built to survive contact with real life, the one that assumes there will be a broken water heater, an unexpected medical bill, a wedding to attend, and a kid who suddenly needs braces, and still keeps moving forward anyway.
Sustainable retirement planning rests on a few simple principles:
Savings are automatic. The plan shouldn’t depend on you making a choice forty times a month. The right amount leaves your paycheck before you ever see it, so staying on track requires no willpower at all.
It leaves room to live. A plan that funds zero experiences for the next twenty years is fragile because the first hard month gives you a reason to quit. Building in guilt-free spending is what makes the savings durable.
It bends without breaking. Life will interrupt the plan. A good one flexes when you need to pause an extra contribution rather than collapsing the moment something goes sideways.
It’s measured against your life, not someone else’s. The “right” savings rate is the highest one you can maintain consistently while still living a life you don’t resent. For most families, that’s a number they grow into over time, not one they hit overnight.
The families who reach retirement on their terms are the ones who built a plan they never had a reason to abandon. The rest of this guide is about how to design exactly that, starting with the question almost every young family wrestles with.
The Travel Now vs. Later Debate
A common assumption is that travel and big experiences are something you “earn” in retirement. But some experiences are time-sensitive. Hiking with your kids, taking your parents on a trip while they’re still healthy, or traveling as a couple in your forties can’t simply be rescheduled to your seventies. The people, the energy, and the season of life are different year by year. This doesn’t mean spending recklessly. It means recognizing that some experiences have an expiration date that a spreadsheet can’t see.
The “Memory Dividend” Concept
There’s a useful idea worth borrowing here: the experiences you invest in earlier in life pay a “memory dividend” for years afterward. A trip you take in your thirties isn’t a one-time experience. You replay it, retell it, and draw on it for decades. Viewed that way, intentional spending on meaningful experiences isn’t the opposite of investing. It’s a different kind of return, and one that compounds in its own way as long as it doesn’t compromise the security you’re building.
Designing Guilt-Free Spending
Frankly, guilt is a terrible budgeting tool. When your only relationship with money is “I probably shouldn’t,” every purchase becomes a small argument with yourself, and the plan holds you back from living. The alternative is to decide in advance what you’re genuinely happy to spend on, like travel, dining out, your kids’ activities, a hobby that matters to you, and then spend without second-guessing. The work happens once, when you set the framework. After that, the spending is already approved.
Balancing Spending and Saving
The 80/20 Retirement Planning Mindset
If guilt-free spending is the goal, you need a structure that makes room for it automatically. That’s the appeal of the 80/20 approach: it draws one clean line between the money working for your future and the money meant to be enjoyed today, either as an investment portfolio approach or a budgeting approach.
A Sample 80/20 Investment Portfolio
An 80/20 investment portfolio5 (80% stocks and 20% bonds) offers growing families the ideal balance of high growth potential to outpace inflation, alongside moderate downside protection.
The 80% (stocks/equities). Allocated to high-growth assets like S&P 500 index funds, ETFs, or individual stocks. This provides the engine for compounding returns and outpacing inflation over the long haul.
The 20% (bonds/fixed income). Allocated to lower-risk assets like government or corporate bonds. This smaller slice helps cushion your portfolio against extreme market volatility and sudden crashes.
Who it’s for: Best suited for those with a long time horizon (15 to 20+ years) before retirement. If you are close to or already in retirement, this mix may be too risky because you won’t have time to recover from market downturns.
A Sample Budgeting Rule
Budgeting rules are different based on your specific portfolio. There are variations designed to put your financial future first without micromanaging every purchase. Here’s a sample budgeting breakdown that could help you in conversations as you determine your specific approach.
The first 10% (impact others). Whether it’s investing in your faith, your community, or the larger world. We see those who put generosity first change the lens on how they see themselves, money and others.
The 20% (pay yourself first). Dedicated strictly to financial goals. This portion primarily funds retirement accounts (like a 401(k) or IRA), but can also include emergency funds and debt pay-down.
The 70% (everything else). The remainder is yours to spend on both necessities (housing, groceries, utilities) and lifestyle wants (dining out, travel, entertainment) without strict line-item budgeting.
Think of it this way: Retirement planning shouldn’t force you to scrutinize every coffee purchase. It should give you a framework that makes generosity, saving, and spending feel intentional.
What It Takes to Retire Early at 60
Many families and individuals want to retire before the traditional age of 67, but this introduces variables that don’t apply to people working into their late sixties. To figure out how much you’d need to retire at 60,6 you have to account for your desired annual spending, the multi-year income gap before Social Security, healthcare costs prior to Medicare eligibility, taxes, expected lifespan, and any guaranteed income sources.
The factors that matter most:
The early retirement gap. You can typically only draw from tax-advantaged accounts like a 401(k) or IRA without penalty starting at age 59½, so you’ll need to map out how living expenses are funded until then. You also can’t claim Social Security until at least 62, and claiming early will permanently reduce your monthly benefit.
Healthcare costs from 60 to 65. Medicare eligibility7 doesn’t begin until 65, which leaves a multi-year window where you’ll need to budget heavily for private health insurance premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.
Your desired lifestyle. Experts frequently suggest having roughly 6x to 10x your annual salary saved by 60, but the right multiple depends entirely on how you’ll live. Will you downsize or pay off the mortgage? Travel extensively, or keep expenses close to where they are today?
Life expectancy. Retiring at 60 may mean your portfolio has to last 25 to 30 years or more. It’s generally wise to plan conservatively through at least age 90 to 95 to reduce the risk of outliving your money.
Inflation and returns. Assuming an average annual inflation rate of 2% to 3% helps project how much more you’ll need later to maintain the same standard of living.
Guaranteed income. Pensions, annuities, or rental income can meaningfully reduce the lump sum you need to draw from personal savings.
Retiring at 60 is achievable, but it rewards planning that starts well before your fifties.
Creating a 20-Year Lifestyle Runway
Planning early pays off most when you know what you’re actually planning for. And retirement isn’t one long, unchanging stretch. Retirement is a series of seasons, each with its own rhythm and purposes. A “lifestyle runway” is a way to plan ahead for those seasons. In other words, how long your money needs to last, and what you’ll actually be spending it on along the way.
For most people, that means planning for the stretch from around 65 to 85 or beyond. This baseline helps financial planners tailor withdrawal strategies and investment allocations to match a retiree’s changing energy and health levels.
Planning breaks down into three distinct lifestyle phases,8 each with completely different spending patterns and financial needs:
Age 65–75: This active early phase features high travel and leisure expenses. Retirees often spend more in this decade than they anticipated due to bucket-list trips and hobbies.
Age 75–85: Activity levels and international travel typically taper off. Routines become more localized, and daily living expenses often decrease.
Age 85+: Later in life, mobility declines and health becomes the primary focus. While general entertainment budgets shrink, healthcare, medical, and potential long-term care costs rise significantly.
How to Calculate and Fund Your Lifestyle Runway
Most financial professionals build for a 20-to-30-year runway so you’re not at risk of outliving your savings. A few tools do most of the heavy lifting:
The 4% rule.9 A common starting point where you withdraw 4% of your initial portfolio in your first year and adjust for inflation annually; historically, your nest egg should last 20 to 30 years.
Multiple income streams. Layering your portfolio drawdowns with guaranteed income sources, such as Social Security, pensions, or annuities, takes pressure off your portfolio and lowers the risk of running out of money.
A health savings account (HSA).10 Utilizing an HSA throughout your working years provides a tax-free pool of funds to tackle the rising healthcare “sticky expenses” costs that show up later in life.
If you want to evaluate your own runway, think over these questions with a financial consultant:
- When do you want to retire?
- How much have you saved for retirement so far?
- What do you expect to spend each year once you’re retired?
Instead of starting with a big retirement number and squeezing life into whatever’s left, a lifestyle runway lets you map the experiences and milestones you care about over the coming decades. The trips you want to take, the family traditions you want to make, the season of having young kids at home, and then build a savings plan that protects your future and funds the life you’re living right now.
Live Well Today, Secure Your Tomorrow
Effective retirement planning isn’t about choosing between living today and preparing for tomorrow. It’s about creating enough intentionality that you can confidently do both.
At TrueNorth, we help individuals and families build retirement planning strategies around real life. We believe our clients’ financial plans should account for the life they’re living now while preparing them for the life they want later.
That philosophy extends beyond retirement planning and into how we think about long-term financial success overall. Building a secure future often isn’t about making dramatic moves or chasing the latest trends. Instead, it’s about consistently making thoughtful decisions over time by saving early and regularly, understanding the purpose behind your investments, avoiding the temptation to follow the crowd, and staying patient enough to let time do its work. In many ways, successful retirement planning follows the same principles. Small, intentional actions taken consistently can create meaningful results over decades.
Looking for a Financial Advisor?
TrueNorth offers a complimentary 60-minute discovery meeting with Bryan and Troy — a real conversation about where you are, where you’re going, and what you want it to mean.
Schedule your complimentary discovery meeting with our investment advisors at findtruenorth.com or call 417-434-9400.
This article is for educational purposes and does not constitute individualized financial, tax, or legal advice. Investing involves risk, including potential loss of principal. Consult a qualified professional about your specific situation. TrueNorth does not provide tax or legal advice.
References
- Greg Wilson, “Retirement Survey & Insights Report 2025,” Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Oct. 2, 2025. https://am.gs.com/en-us/advisors/insights/report-survey/retirement-survey#xd_co_f=ZDk2OTM2ZGYtN2IzOS00ZWIzLWExNWYtMmM4MTFhY2MyNzY5~
- Sam Gutierrez, “CNBC | SurveyMonkey Your Money Retirement August 2024,” SurveyMonkey, Sep. 3, 2024. https://www.surveymonkey.com/curiosity/cnbc-retirement-2024/?utm_source=cnbc_2024
- Jennifer Liu, “Meet the Gen Zers maxing out their retirement savings: ‘It’s no longer chasing money; it’s chasing time’,” CNBC, May 29, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/29/gen-z-retirement-super-savers.html
- Lorie Konish, “Retirement ‘super savers’ tend to have the biggest 401(k) balances. Here’s what they do differently,” CNBC, Jun. 25, 2024. https://www.cnbc.com/2024/06/25/heres-how-to-be-a-retirement-super-saver.html
- PortfoliosLab. “Stocks/Bonds 80/20 Portfolio.” https://portfolioslab.com/portfolio/stocks-bonds-80-20
- Fidelity Investments. “How much do I need to retire?” https://www.fidelity.com/viewpoints/retirement/how-much-do-i-need-to-retire.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. “Original Medicare (Part A and B) Eligibility and Enrollment.” https://www.cms.gov/medicare/enrollment-renewal/original-part-a-b.
- Michael K. Stein, The Prosperous Retirement: Guide to the New Reality (Emstco Press, 1998).
- Bengen, William P. “Determining Withdrawal Rates Using Historical Data.” Journal of Financial Planning, 1994.
- Internal Revenue Service. “Publication 969 (2025), Health Savings Accounts and Other Tax-Favored Health Plans.” https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969.
