Why You Should Stop Saving for Retirement 3 Years Early (SB1826)

About this episode

Jamie Hopkins discusses why saving more for retirement in the final years may be counterproductive and offers alternative strategies.

Retirement expert Jamie Hopkins has spent 20 years helping people plan for retirement, and his most counterintuitive advice stops most savers cold: in the final years before you retire, putting more money away might actually be hurting you. This week he joins Joe and OG to explain why, and what to do instead. In this episode: Why financially prepared retirees still end up miserable, how to practice spending before you retire, the home bias that quietly tanks your portfolio and your quality of life at the same time, and what to actually do with all that home equity when the time comes. Biggest takeaways: The last three to five years of extra contributions barely move the needle on your retirement portfolio. Working six months longer matters more. So does learning to spend. Take that money and actually use it, so you're not hitting retirement having never practiced. Retirement isn't a math problem, it's an identity problem. The people who struggle most aren't broke. They never figured out where their purpose and community would come from once work disappeared. Over half of Americans are forced into retirement earlier than expected. You need a plan for that scenario now, not when it…

People in this episode

Hosts: Joe, OG

Guest: Jamie Hopkins

Topics covered

• retirement planning
• financial advice
• spending habits
• portfolio management
• identity in retirement
• home equity

Keywords

• retirement
• savings
• financial planning
• spending
• home equity
• portfolio
• identity
• retirement advice

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stacking Benjamins, Stacking Benjamins scorecard, The Vault

Books & works: Retirement Sketchbook

More episodes of The Stacking Benjamins Show

• 40 Ways to Take Control of Your Money -- Which Ones Actually Work (SB1839) · May 8, 2026 · 35 min
• How to Save Your First $25,000 -- The Roadmap Most People Get Wrong (SB1838) · May 6, 2026 · 1h 6m
• Thinking in Bets: Annie Duke on Making Smarter Decisions When You Don't Have All the Facts - Greatest Hits! (SB1837) · May 4, 2026 · 1h 3m
• Invest Like the 1%? What to Steal, What to Scale, and What to Skip (SB1836) · May 1, 2026 · 57 min
• Mrs. Dow Jones on How to Become a Future Rich Person (Without Giving Up Your Life) SB1835 · April 29, 2026 · 1h 4m
• Mrs. Dow Jones on How to Become a Future Rich Person (Without Giving Up Your Life) SB1835 · April 29, 2026 · 1h 7m