Life in Order: A Girlfriends’ Guide to Retirement

 March 2023 Issue  |  Life in Order
By Priscilla Johnson

I did not learn the importance of financial wellness until I was in my late twenties. It wasn’t a topic of conversation in school, or in my home with my parents.

My husband, on the other hand, had a completely different experience. While we were dating, being the engineer he is, he would write down everything he spent money on down to the penny. We would be getting gas, and he would be writing down how much he spent. If he bought a soda, he would write that down, too. To makes things worse, he insisted he pay my debt off before we got married, because he didn’t want any debt going into our marriage. I viewed his value of money the wrong way. It wasn’t until later that I began to appreciate his passion of thoroughly knowing our expenses and being debt free, as this was the foundation on which we started saving for retirement and making it a priority.

I had to connect with my “WHY” before I bought into the idea that we needed to save. I enjoyed shopping, and like so many, I was more about my quality of life right now. I figured the future would work itself out. My “WHY” finally came with a full understanding of how being financially well would change my life—our lives—both now and in the future. Once I made the connection, I was able to set short-term and long-term goals and be excited about it. I could envision the vacations I wanted to take with my family, the money I wanted to give to my church, and most importantly, the lifestyle I wanted to have in retirement.

Had my husband not set that foundation for us, we may not have been able to make any of our priorities a reality, or reach our goals. Now, as the owners of Simply Stated Retirement Solutions, we have a passion to educate those who want security in retirement, and for those who want to plan but don’t know where to start. One of our goals as a financial firm with a different approach is to make things simple. Being in the industry for more than 15 years, we noticed how financial planning was too complex, and often times, single-sided.

Financial planning can be really simple when explained with your “WHY” in mind. Our firm has a proprietary process that addresses the five key areas of concern in retirement. Retirement planning is not just about insurance and investing, its much bigger than that.      

Life’s experiences can spark a passion to make a difference, and back in 2011, it was placed on my heart to educate women on financial wellness. Taking on financial planning steps through a financial-wellness lens can take the intimidation away and make a world of difference. It can keep you on track and actually help you feel excited and confident about your financial future!

That’s how Girlfriends’ Guide to Retirement was created. It is a financial and retirement process I created specifically for women to feel comfortable to talk about the beginning steps to financial planning. We start with the basics, and we connect your “WHY” to your journey to retirement.  

When you connect to your “WHY,” you begin to see the bigger picture of your life and start to understand why and what you are working for. Is it to just pay your monthly bills, or do you dare dream of a life ahead that has been financially planned out to achieve your life’s desires? While some of you may think this impossible, it is absolutely possible with a solid financial wellness plan. Are you ready to see what’s possible for your financial wellness? Are you ready to start believing retirement can be an option one day? If so, let’s talk and get your journey to retirement started today.

Priscilla Johnson is the Co-Founder of Simply Stated Retirement Solutions with offices in Bluffton and Charleston, SC. Her company is dedicated to educating families to help them best position themselves for financial success by keeping things simple. In pursuit to empower people (especially women) and simplifying one of the biggest, most important, part of life—financial wellness; Priscilla founded and created the “Girl Friends Guide to Retirement,” “Medicare in a Box,” and “The Simplicity Financial Roadmap.” In addition, she is an experienced insurance professional and certified financial planner candidate (CFP®).