Are you mentally checking out and fantasizing about early retirement? Before you pull the plug on your career, listen to this urgent wake-up call. In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Dr. Rachael Van Pelt reveals why your 50s may be your most powerful decade for building wealth—and how coasting too early can shrink not just your income, but your brain and your future freedom. You’ll hear a real-life case study, powerful mindset shifts, and practical strategies to rewire burnout into purpose-driven momentum. Don’t downsize your life too soon—leverage this decade to expand it.
Are you mentally checking out and fantasizing about early retirement? Before you pull the plug on your career, listen to this urgent wake-up call. In this episode of Next Act Ninjas, Dr. Rachael Van Pelt reveals why your 50s may be your most powerful decade for building wealth—and how coasting too early can shrink not just your income, but your brain and your future freedom. You’ll hear a real-life case study, powerful mindset shifts, and practical strategies to rewire burnout into purpose-driven momentum. Don’t downsize your life too soon—leverage this decade to expand it.
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Chapters
00:00 The Wake-Up Call Before Retirement
00:48 The False Narrative of Winding Down
02:17 Your Earning Years are Just Peaking
04:00 Mental Retirement is Dangerous
05:11 Reframing Your Final Push to Retirement
07:50 Don't Let Burnout Be Your Reason to Retire and Downsize Early
09:07 Investing in Yourself: The Key to Lifestyle Longevity
Hey, hey, welcome back to Next Act Ninjas, the go-to podcast for mastering your health and wealth longevity. I'm your host, Rachael Van Pelt. And today's episode just might be the wake-up call you didn't know you needed. If you're getting close to retirement and mentally starting to check out, maybe you're coasting towards some idealized vision of retirement, then you may be about to make one of the most expensive mistakes of your life.
And I don't mean expensive in the cost of living sense. I mean expensive in terms of missed opportunity. Because the next decade could easily be your most powerful for wealth building. That's why today's episode is about learning to leverage, not squander, the unique financial power you have in the decade before retirement.
But let's start with mindset. There's this cultural narrative that goes something like this. You've worked hard for decades. The kids are out of the house. You've built your career. You're tired. So now, in your 50s, it's time to ease up, isn't it? Time to scale back, maybe start planning your escape route. But here's the problem. That story isn't financially sound for most people. And more importantly, it fails to recognize the compounding power of late-stage effort, especially in a world where health longevity is improving year after year.
If you stop building at 55 when you still have 10 years until retirement and yet another 20 to 30 years after that, you're easily looking at a 40-year time horizon. Maybe more if we reach longevity escape velocity. That's a long retirement to fund, but it is also plenty of time for the power of compounding to kick in if you invest in those early years.
Unfortunately, in our 50s, many of us start playing defense right when we should be playing offense. We start feeling the fatigue of perpetual work stress and we want to peace out. And I get it, burnout is real. If you've been hammering away at a career for 25+ years, it naturally feels like you're ready to be done. But don't confuse exhaustion with arrival at the finish line. Just because you feel done doesn't mean you can afford to be done.
It's like running a marathon. Mile 18 is one of the hardest miles to run because that's about when the fatigue sets in, both mentally and physically. And yet, at that point in the run, you still have eight miles to go. That's a lot. You feel like you should be done, but you are far from the finish line. Ironically, it's actually when the real race begins. This is where experience and mindset are crucial.
It's the same when you're nearing retirement age. For many professionals, the highest earning decade isn't in their 30s or 40s, it's their 50s. That's when experience, reputation, and seniority peak. You might not have the same hustle and energy you had in your 20s, but you've got something much more valuable. You have leverage. You've built a reputation. You've earned trust. You're sitting on intellectual capital. You've got a network that spans industries. So it isn't the time to downshift. It's the time to double down.
Even a modest increase in income or savings at this stage creates outsized returns. Let's say you bump your savings by $25,000 per year between ages 52 and 60. With 6% average growth, that turns into about $310,000 by age 70. And don't forget tax efficiency. After age 50, the IRS lets you sock away more into your IRAs and 401ks. And don't forget HSAs. So the final decade of your career is a great time to catch up your retirement savings by maximizing contributions. Those extra contributions will help extend your wealthspan.
But those are just the financial benefits of staying in the game. Let's talk brain benefits. Your brain is a prediction machine. And when you start mentally disengaging from work in your early 50s, your nervous system responds accordingly. You begin practicing retirement, and as a result, you lose your edge when it comes to problem solving. You start suppressing ambition, and the mental decline quickly follows.
I've coached clients who were still employed, still showing up, still drawing a salary, but they were mentally retired. They were chucked out, burned out, not taking on new projects, not networking, not learning, not growing. That's not rest, that's erosion.
And here's what happens neurologically, disengagement reduces your dopamine signaling. You literally become less motivated and less reward-sensitive over time. Your cognitive edge dulls. And the longer that you coast, the harder it is to restart. Your brain begins to atrophy, just like muscles do when they aren't used. That mental decline doesn't only sabotage your wealthspan, it worsens healthspan.
So if you're thinking "I'm just going to hang on a few more years", I'm going to challenge you to reframe that. Ask yourself instead, "How can I leverage the next few years for maximal lifestyle longevity"?
One of my clients used this reframe recently. Mark is feeling the pull of retirement already at age 53. He's been in a demanding executive role for nearly 25 years and on paper, he still has a solid decade of high earning potential ahead of him. But lately, he's been feeling crushed by the weight of that work stress. He's burned out. He's cynical. He's distracted at home. He feels like the job is slowly stealing his soul. Some of you may be able to relate. He started fantasizing about walking away.
When I first met him, he told me, "I don't know if I can keep doing this. Maybe I'll just downshift, go part-time, move somewhere cheaper, sell the house, simplify". Now, simplification can be smart, but what Mark was really saying to me is, I'm ready to retire right now, even if I'm not financially prepared for it. And that's the problem, because retiring at 54 is not the same as retiring at 64.
If he follows through, Mark and his wife will be trying to stretch a 30-year retirement across 20 years of savings. It's not just a smaller lifestyle, it's a smaller future for them. His plan to downsize the house, slash expenses, and live lean may work short term, but it's going to come with big opportunity costs. He'd be exiting his peak earning years prematurely. He'd be skipping 10 years of catch-up contributions and compounding growth. He'd turn off the income spigot right at the time when his financial plan is still underfunded. Even more dangerously, he'd be dragging his wife into that downsizing decision. Now, she's on board emotionally, she wants relief too, but neither of them has run the numbers.
So it was a total game-changer when Mark was willing to ask the question, "What if I can rewire my career instead of retire early? What if I could find a way to love working for another five to 10 years"? That was a huge mindset shift for him. It opened him up to exploring how to manage his stress in his current role, look at new roles with more flexibility, and he even revisited what really lights him up, what makes him feel fulfilled at work.
Because here's the truth, you don't always have to leave your career. Sometimes you just have to mitigate what's burning you out. When people talk about downsizing, they often assume it's synonymous with financial prudence. But if the underlying driver is burnout or avoidance, then the move is reactive. It's not strategic. This isn't just about money, it's about mindset. Early shrinkage is often a form of unconscious retreat. It can feel like relief in the moment, but it creates long-term constraint.
So what if instead of shrinking your life to match your depleted energy, you rebuilt your energy so you could continue to expand your life? What if Mark took a sabbatical and returned to a restructured job? What if his wife launched her own, let's say, consulting practice to create optionality for them? What if they downsized strategically in their early 60s with, say, $400,000 more in the bank and Medicare just around the corner?
Early retirement can have consequences, financially, emotionally, and relationally. Most of the time, the problem isn't the plan, it's the timing. Your 50s is your power decade. Focused action in this window can dramatically extend your wealthspan.
If you want to get the most out of this decade, you're going to want to focus on five areas. The first is purpose. Double down on purpose-driven income. You don't have to stay in a job you hate, but you do need to stay in the game. So find something that gives your life more purpose if your job isn't doing it for you. Maybe you explore consulting, board positions, mentoring programs, whatever. Look for ways to monetize your wisdom. Find work that aligns with your core values. In other words, find your motivation to jump out of bed every morning.
Second, repurpose your career if you have to. Ask yourself, what parts of my career are underperforming? What can I let go of? What can I reinvest in? Maybe it's skilling up in AI tools. Maybe it's letting go of administrative tasks and focusing more on high-return activities. Maybe it's finally going after that promotion. Do whatever you have to do to stay in the game and stay inspired.
Third, max out those 401Ks and IRAs. Don't leave free money on the table. Many jobs will match your contributions. So make sure you take advantage of that. If you're married and just one spouse is working, consider getting a spousal IRA. Remember, this is your last push to grow your nest egg.
Fourth, pay down any high-drag consumer debt you still have. Don't carry credit card balances, refinance any high interest loans you may have, and don't wait until crisis mode to downsize your home. Do it while you still have negotiating power and energy.
Lastly, invest in yourself. You are your greatest appreciating asset. Take care of your health like it's your primary income stream, because it is. Strength train, sleep, address stress. If your health fails, your wealth will too.
Now here's the thing, most people don't take into account the opportunity cost of coasting. A single year of disengagement in your 50s doesn't just cost you the income you didn't earn, it costs you the compound value of that income over decades. And it's not just financial, it's energetic, it's reputational, and it's neurobiological. When you coast, you shrink your life, you shrink your mind, and the options available to you in your Next Act.
So don't shrink, keep expanding. Take this decade seriously and give it a strategy. Treat your 50s like the investment window it is. Rather than a slow glide to the finish line, think of it as a high-yield decade for building wealthspan and purpose. Invest in your future self, financially, physically, and mentally.
Thanks for joining me today for another episode of Next Act Ninjas. If you're feeling burned-out or the pull to retire early and downsize prematurely, please hop on my calendar for a free consult call. You're going to find the link in the show notes. I'd be happy to help you strategize your best Next Act. Until next time, live well, love more, age less, my friends.