Ask the Expert: ​Personal finance expert Dominique Broadway on retirement planning

It’s never too early to start preparing for retirement, especially in this uncertain economy. Luckily, LifeSpeak users had the chance to pose their retirement questions to finance guru Dominique Broadway. She’s an award winning personal finance coach, speaker, finance expert and the founder of Finances Demystified & The Social Money Tour. Dominique has received various accolades such as the Top 30 Under 30 in Washington DC, the DC Future Business Leader of America Businessperson of the Year and the Top Financial Advisor for Millennials in the US. Dominique’s demystified financial advice, has been highlighted on Yahoo!, Huffington Post, Forbes, USA Today, Black Enterprise, Marketwatch.com, Ebony Magazine, Levo League, Refinery29 and other media outlets. She has a strong passion for working with young professionals, entrepreneurs and people of all ages to bring their Dreams2Reality.

Here are the highlights from our user webchat with Dominique. Please keep in mind all user participation is anonymous and confidential.

General saving tips

QUESTION — “What is the easiest way to save money? What tips would you suggest?”

Dominique Broadway — “When it comes to saving, the first thing you want to do is determine how much you can afford to save each week, every two weeks, or every month. Then you want to AUTOMATE IT! Set the amount to go automatically into your savings account in an account that you cannot access easily.”

Calculating the amount of money you need to retire

QUESTION — “What is a good method to estimate how much money you need to live on in retirement?”

Dominique Broadway — “I think a great place to [start is] to look at how much you need to live on now. Your expenses should be lower in retirement as your mortgage and car may be paid off by then, but ideally, you can take the amount you need to live on now and multiply it by the estimated amount of years you would be retired. Example if you live on $50,000/year now and would be retired for 20 years that is $1,000,000. Here is a great retirement calculator to help you get closer to your exact number. https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/retirement-calculator"

Avoiding frivolous expenditures

QUESTION — “What is the biggest waste of money in your opinion, like phones, restaurant food, etc.? What shouldn’t I be spending my money on?”

Dominique Broadway — “The biggest waste of money for most people is eating out! Many people spend $20–50/a day just on food, and that can quickly add up. I would recommend looking at your overall budget to see what you are spending most of your money on, and if it is food, put an eating out budget in place and try to eat at home more and look for deals like happy hours to save some money when you want to eat out.”

Paying off debts

QUESTION — “I’ll be retiring next year. Should I be trying to pay off my car (my last big debt)? Or because the rates are slow I should leverage that?”

Dominique Broadway — “If you have the cash, you should focus on paying off your car, as that will be one less bill in retirement. If using your cash to pay off the car would put you in a bind, then continue to pay the car note as normal.”

Downsizing

QUESTION — “I’ll be retiring in the next two years. Do you recommend downsizing right away? I’ll be going from a three bed room house with a large yard to hopefully a small one bedroom condo.”

Dominique Broadway — “I would say downsize when you are ready to. Downsizing now would allow you to save more money each month towards retirement, however, you have to decide when you are personally ready to make that move.”

Don’t miss our next Ask the Expert session!

If you weren’t able to catch our webchat with Dominique Broadway, you can always sign into your LifeSpeak account to read the transcript. And be sure to log in October 16 at noon EST to chat with psychiatrist Dr. Nik Grujich. He’ll be answering questions about bringing mindfulness into your life. If you don’t have a LifeSpeak account, please have your HR team reach out to us.

What is Ask the Expert?

Our Ask the Expert sessions allow our users to have regular access to our experts in real time, which allows them to have their pressing questions answered. This opportunity provides our users with practical and easily implemented tips to help them make real changes in their lives. To learn more, don’t hesitate to book a demo.

Originally published at LifeSpeak.