Imagine being 65 years old and finding out that your spouse lost all your retirement money. Now, you’re dealing with a broken marriage and serious concerns about the future. What can you do in that situation?
Sadly, this is the situation that Karen is facing. Karen is a caller to The Ramsey Show, and she explained to Ramsey that her husband moved their retirement money into an investment account, started day trading, and lost $500,000 by going “all-in” on a big bet.
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Now, Karen is trying to figure out what’s best in a situation that seems hopeless, and she called hoping Ramsey would have some tips on how best to handle her precarious finances. Ramsey offered the advice she was looking for, but also something much more important. Specifically, he called for a mindset shift that could make all the difference in Karen’s future.
How to move forward from a major financial loss
Since Karen has been left with very little money, she called The Ramsey Show to ask Ramsey for advice on what she can do to achieve some measure of financial security in her later years.
“I have no debt. I have a $300,000 house. I had to get a job. I have a little bit of alimony, a little bit of Social Security. I have about $70,000 from money that my mom left me, and I’m just wondering how to move forward,” Karen said to Ramsey. “Do I sell the house?”
Ramsey was able to answer that question quickly. He said from a pure math standpoint, the logical thing to do would be to sell the $300,000 home, buy a $150,000 condo, and invest the difference. He also advised Karen to save $20,000 of her inheritance as an emergency fund, and invest the other $50,000.
He pointed out that this would leave her with around $250,000 or more invested by her mid-70s, even if she added nothing to the account, so she could still be in a strong position to salvage her future.
For Ramsey, the math was obvious on what Karen should do, but he also picked up on something else Karen said during her call.
“Because I’m 65, I don’t want to start a career again,” Karen had told Ramsey. “I’m a receptionist. I’m bringing in about $1,600 a month.”
It was this piece of information Ramsey seized.
“I’m going to reset your narrative in your head, of ‘I’m 65, I don’t have time for another career’ — yeah, you do,” Ramsey said. “You’ve got plenty of time. In the world we live in today, things spin up so fast and make so much money so quickly, I would not take somebody as bright as I’m talking to and make them only a receptionist because ‘I’m 65 … and I make nothing.’ Instead, I’d try to figure out how to go make some money.”
Ramsey also told Karen that he thinks she has “got chops.”
“I think there’s something you can do,” he said.
Now, Karen may be reluctant to take a leap of faith and look for another career, in part because of the after effects of what her husband has done.
“The important thing to recognize is that the loss of money is secondary to the breach of trust and security within the relationship,” Dr. Lea Haber, Ph.D., a clinical sexologist, relationship expert, and founder of Dr. LoveLea, told Moneywise.
But while it can be scary to actually pursue a career that allows her to make meaningful money, especially if it feels like another risk after such a huge loss, this shift in her mindset could make all the difference. And other financial experts agree.
“Reset and rebuild are two separate things, and the reset has to fully happen before the rebuild starts,” said David Talley, CFP® and founder of Talley Wealth. “The reset works like an inheritance in reverse. When you receive an inheritance, you reset your bearings. When you lose half a million dollars, you do the same thing: Figure out what you want out of your life and marry that with what’s actually possible with what you have now.”
If Karen can move past the betrayal, let go of the emotions, and let go of her expectations of what she thought life would look like — and take Ramsey’s advice to pursue opportunities to create a better future — she can do more than just struggle to live on $250,000 for the rest of her life. The extra income she could earn can open the door to truly getting back that security she lost.
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