One of the most common and difficult questions anyone nearing their target retirement date faces is, “Should I wait just one more year to retire?” Retirement is a major life transition, and working an extra 12 months can profoundly affect both your financial security and your personal life.
In this episode of Retire Early, Sam Benson and Lynwood Freyer discuss the pros and cons of delaying retirement by just one year. They discuss how a final year of employment can boost your retirement savings, increase your Social Security benefits, and allow you to pay down remaining debt. On the flip side, they explore the non-financial trade-offs, explaining why spending your time on earth, avoiding workplace burnout, and enjoying your health while you still have it are compelling reasons to hang it up now.
00:00 — Introduction: Should you work one more year before you retire?
01:15 — The financial pros: Maximizing your 401(k) and retirement savings
02:18 — How an extra year affects your Social Security calculations and monthly benefits
03:40 — Evaluating employer benefits: Keeping quality health insurance before Medicare
05:10 — Using a final working year to become completely debt-free
07:13 — Portfolio impacts: Reducing the timeline and size of your retirement withdrawals
09:04 — Treating your final year as a "practice year" to test your retirement budget
12:11 — The cons of working longer: Recognizing that time in retirement is finite
13:39 — Factoring in physical health, mental health, and unexpected life events
15:22 — Dealing with workplace burnout and high-stress environments
16:41 — Avoiding regrets and missed milestones with friends and family
19:53 — Final thoughts and how to weigh the data for your own retirement timeline
Learn more about working with Sam Benson and Lynwood Freyer at martinwealth.com
