The smartest financial move I ever made was to stop contributing to retirement savings. It may sound counterintuitive, even reckless. Dave Ramsey would have stress dreams about this article, but it may be time to get a divorce from your 401(k).
Here’s the truth: You actually don’t need millions to retire.
Those retirement calculators love to spit out impossible numbers: $3 million, $5 million, sometimes more. Numbers so big they make financial freedom feel like a five-decade slog.
Here’s the part they leave out. Most people following the “save for 40 years” script never hit those numbers. They keep working and waiting, but they’re aiming for a moving goalpost.
And this isn’t about only money. It’s about decades of your life you don’t get back.
The real shift isn’t stockpiling a fortune someday, but creating passive income now. You don’t need millions. You need cash flow. Changing your perspective on that changes everything.
Why the ‘retirement number’ is a mirage
Here’s the dirty secret about those retirement calculators: They’re built on a foundation of mediocre returns.
