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Hi, Friends!
I've been sitting with a question this week that I don't think enough of us ask: which birthday actually decides your retirement, the one everyone circles on the calendar, or a different one entirely?
That question is where today's edition starts. And once you see the answer, a second one follows naturally: if one birthday can quietly reshape your whole retirement, what else are we getting wrong about the small decisions in between?
That's exactly what's inside. One story on the age that may matter more than 67. Another on a ten-second habit that changes what you spend without changing how you live.
Neither one asks you to do anything drastic. Both might change how you think about the months ahead.
Warmly,
Mike Bridges
Retirement isn't about how much you have. It's about how long it needs to last
FEATURED ARTICLE
Most of us have been taught to treat 67 as the retirement age that matters most — it's the number Social Security uses, the one every calculator defaults to. But there's another birthday that may carry just as much weight, if not more: 55.
Not because retirement starts then, but because it may be the last real window to change what retirement eventually looks like. This week's article looks at why the twelve years between 55 and 67 could be the most valuable stretch in an entire retirement plan.
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Small purchases rarely feel like decisions. A coffee run, a same-day delivery, an app subscription that renewed without notice — none of it feels significant in the moment. But those small, automatic purchases are often where a monthly budget quietly slips.
This week's article looks at one simple habit that creates just enough friction to interrupt automatic spending, without requiring a strict budget or giving up the things that matter.
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