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HandoutHandout 2: Your Cheat Sheet
Handout 2: Your Cheat Sheet
This is the one page I'd want taped inside a cupboard door. Nothing fancy. Just the core numbers and moves from class, so you're not digging through notes when you actually sit down to do this. I read the whole thing so you don't have to — here's what actually matters.
First Fix, Always
Get the full employer match before anything else. If your work matches retirement contributions and you're not putting in enough to get all of it, that's free money sitting on the table. Fix that before you think about Roth vs. traditional, before fund choices, before any of it. This was my own biggest mistake — three years of an unmatched match at Rockwell because nobody explained it and I didn't ask.
The Accounts, Plain
- 401k (or 403b): through your employer, often has a match, comes out of your paycheck before you feel it.
- Traditional IRA/401k: you get the tax break now, pay taxes when you withdraw in retirement.
- Roth IRA/401k: you pay taxes now, withdrawals in retirement are tax-free. This is the one I think gets skipped too often, mostly because it doesn't come with automatic payroll deduction. You have to set it up yourself. That's the only real barrier.
Rough Numbers to Know
These are sunday-best estimates, not gospel. Use them to get moving, not to get paralyzed.
- A common target: save 10-15% of your income for retirement, including any employer match.
- Rule of thumb for "how much do I need": a lot of planners use roughly 25 times your expected annual expenses in retirement. It's a rough number. Hold it loosely, the way I hold a Hansen birth year that three records disagree on.
- Fee check: anything over about 1% in fund fees deserves a second look. But don't get so busy arguing about 0.1% that you forget to actually contribute. Fees matter more than people think and less than the internet screams.
The Habit That Actually Moves the Needle
Write your numbers down by hand at least once. Not the spreadsheet, not the app. A pen and paper, once, so the number actually lands. I've kept a handwritten ledger going on eighteen years now and it still catches things the spreadsheet lets slide past.
Three Things to Do This Week
- Find your plan document or your last statement. Open the envelope, if it's still sealed. Oh my heck, so many of these just sit there.
- Check your match. If you're not getting the full amount, bump your contribution up even one percent.
- If you don't have a Roth IRA started, open one this week with whatever's left over, even if it feels small. Small amounts count. Fifteen years ago I opened mine with fifty dollars and felt a little silly about it. It's not the account I feel silly about now.
What I Won't Tell You
I'm a bookkeeper, not an advisor. I won't tell you which stocks to buy, and if backdoor Roth conversions or complicated deductions come up, that's a CPA question, genuinely not my lane. What I can do is help you read the paperwork you already have without feeling dumb about it.
You don't have to fix it all at once. Just don't leave the envelope sealed. 💛
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JENNIFER: —and that's really the whole point of the match. It's not a maybe. It's just money sitting there.
JESS: Okay wait, back up, because I walked in mid-sentence. What were we on?
JENNIFER: Employer match. Again. I know I harp on it.
JESS: You do harp on it.
JENNIFER: Because I lived it. Here's the thing, I went three years at Rockwell not maxing my match. Three years. Nobody explained the plan document to me and I didn't ask, because I figured somebody would've said something if I was doing it wrong.
JESS: Nobody said anything?
JENNIFER: Nobody said anything. I finally read the actual plan doc one January, cover to cover, and felt a little sick. Like, physically. That's real money I just didn't collect for three years.
JESS: How much are we talking?
JENNIFER: I'm not going to do that math out loud, it upsets me. But it's the mistake I bring up the most in class, if that tells you anything.
JESS: That's a strong contender for most-repeated Jennifer story.
JENNIFER: It's up there. I read the whole thing so you don't have to, that's basically my whole teaching philosophy, and I learned it by not doing that for myself first.
JESS: Okay, so give the podcast people the tip. Somebody's listening on their lunch break, not signed up for the class, what do they do today?
JENNIFER: Go find your plan document. Not the app summary, the actual plan document or the enrollment paperwork. Look for the word "match." Find the percentage. Then go look at what you're actually contributing right now.
JESS: And if there's a gap—
JENNIFER: Close it. Before you think about Roth versus traditional, before any of that. If your employer matches 4% and you're putting in 2%, that's the first fix, full stop. It's free money you're leaving on the table, and I mean that literally, it's just sitting there.
JESS: I like that it's a five-minute task. You don't need the class for that one.
JENNIFER: You don't. Small amounts count, but this isn't even small, this is just... collecting what's yours.
JESS: Okay, tell me you have a folder thing to plug for next week, because I know you've been building something.
JENNIFER: Next session we're doing the sunday-best number. Like, the rough estimate of what you actually need for retirement. Everybody wants a precise answer and I don't have one, nobody does, but I'll show you how I get to a number I'm comfortable using anyway.
JESS: A guess you can actually work with.
JENNIFER: Right, a guess you use beats a perfect number you never calculate, because the perfect number doesn't exist and waiting for a financial planner to hand it to you isn't a plan, it's just waiting. We did this with the Hansen genealogy records too, actually, half my family history dates contradict each other and at some point you just have to hold the estimate loosely and move forward.
JESS: Bring the ledgers again next time?
JENNIFER: Bring the ledgers. And a pen. I know everyone wants to do this on their phone and I'm going to make you write it by hand at least once, because the pen makes you feel the number in a way the spreadsheet just doesn't.
JESS: You say that every session.
JENNIFER: Because it's true every session. Alright, I've got to go pick up Declan, he'll ask me tonight why I'm writing in the money book again and I'll give him the same answer I always do.
JESS: Which is?
JENNIFER: So nothing surprises us. 💛
HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List
Before we do anything with numbers, let's get you set up so class actually works for you. You don't need much. Most of this is under twenty dollars total if you don't already have it lying around a drawer somewhere.
Here's the thing — I could tell you to just use an app for all of this. But I want you writing some of it by hand, at least at first. A spreadsheet lets you not feel the number. The pen makes you feel it. We'll talk more about why in Lesson 2.
Budget Tier (what you actually need)
- A notebook or ledger book. Doesn't matter if it's fancy. Mine's a plain composition book from the school supply aisle, going on eighteen years now. Anything with lined pages works.
- A pen you like writing with. Sounds silly. You'll use it more if it doesn't skip or smear.
- A calculator. The one on your phone is fine. I use mine constantly and I'm not embarrassed about it.
- Your most recent 401k or retirement account statement, if you have one. Paper copy or a printout of the online version. If you've never looked at it, this class is exactly for you.
- A folder or envelope to keep your statements and worksheets together. Doesn't need to be pretty. It needs to exist.
That's genuinely all you need to follow along and do the work. I read the whole thing so you don't have to, but I do need you to bring your own paperwork. I can't read it for you.
Nice-to-Have Tier
- A second color pen, for correcting entries without scribbling them out. I use red. Aaron found my $340 arithmetic error years ago because I'd made it too easy to hide in black ink alone. Learned my lesson.
- A three-ring binder with dividers, if you're the type who likes things sorted by year or by account. I am not that organized and it's fine.
- A small accordion file for receipts, if we get into the budgeting side later and you want to track spending alongside saving.
- Sticky tabs or flags, for marking the page in your plan documents where the fee disclosure lives. You will want to find that page again.
None of the nice-to-have stuff changes whether you succeed in this class. It just makes it more pleasant if organizing things makes you feel calmer. If it doesn't, skip it.
Shopping Notes
You don't need a special trip. Most of this is sitting at any grocery or discount store you're already going to, or in a drawer at home. If you're doing a Costco or Macey's run this week, the notebook and pen aisle will have everything on the budget list.
Don't buy a financial planner software package or a "retirement tracker" app before class. We'll talk about tools in a later lesson, and I'd rather you not spend money on something before you know what you actually need it to do.
One more thing. If you can't find your 401k statement, that's not a failure, that's just where we start. Call your HR department or log into whatever portal your employer uses and print or save a copy before next week. If you truly can't get one in time, come anyway. We'll figure out a workaround together.
See you next week. 💛
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Retirement Snapshot
Handout 3: Your Retirement Snapshot
Here's the thing — you can't fix what you haven't looked at. This worksheet is just you and your own numbers, in your own handwriting. Fill it out here in class, not "later." Later doesn't come.
I'm a bookkeeper, not an advisor, so nothing here is telling you what to do with your money. It's just helping you see it.
---
Part 1: What You've Got
My employer retirement plan (401k, 403b, etc.):
Current balance: ______________
Do I know my employer match percentage? Y / N
If yes, what is it? ______________
Am I contributing enough to get the FULL match? Y / N / Not sure
(If you circled N or Not sure — that's your homework this week. Full stop. Free money sitting on the table is the first thing to fix, before anything else on this page.)
My IRA (Roth or traditional), if I have one:
Current balance: ______________
Type: Roth / Traditional / Don't know
Other retirement savings (old 401k from a past job, pension, etc.):
______________________________________________
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Part 2: The Sunday-Best Guess
This is not a real number. It's a rough one. A sunday-best estimate you actually write down beats a perfect number you never calculate.
My age right now: ______
Age I'd like to retire: ______
Years until then: ______
What I'm contributing monthly (all accounts combined): $______
(Don't do math here. Just look at a pay stub or account statement and write what's actually there.)
---
Part 3: One Honest Question
Circle one:
I have never opened the envelope / logged in / read the plan document for my retirement account.
I opened it once and didn't understand it.
I check it sometimes but don't really know what I'm looking at.
I actually feel okay about this one.
No wrong answer. I circled option one myself for the first three years at my job, and it cost me actual money I can't get back. That's the mistake I bring up the most, so you're in decent company.
---
Part 4: One Small Thing
Not ten things. One.
Something I will actually do this week (check the match, open a Roth with whatever's left over, tell my spouse a number, read one page of the plan document):
______________________________________________
By when: ______________________________________________
---
Keep this page. Pull it back out in six months. You don't have to fix it all at once — small amounts count, and so does just knowing where you stand. 💛
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide — Common Beginner Problems
Here's the thing. Everybody hits the same handful of snags when they start doing this. You're not behind, you're just at the part where it gets slightly annoying. Here's how to get unstuck.
Problem: "I don't know what my employer match actually is." Fix: Find your plan document or benefits portal and look for the word "match." It'll usually say something like "50% up to 6%." Call HR or the plan provider and ask them to say it back to you in plain English. I read the whole thing so you don't have to, but for your specific plan, you're the one who has to go look. This is the single most important number in this whole class.
Problem: "I'm not contributing enough to get the full match." Fix: Bump your contribution percentage to whatever gets you the full match, even if it means your take-home pay drops a little this month. That match is free money. Oh my heck, I left three years of it on the table before I understood this. Don't be me.
Problem: "Roth or traditional, I don't know which one." Fix: If you think your tax rate will be higher later than it is now, or you just genuinely can't guess, lean Roth. If you're in your peak earning years right now, traditional might save you more today. There's no perfect answer, just a reasonable one. Pick one and move.
Problem: "I keep putting off opening a Roth IRA because it feels complicated." Fix: It's complicated to research and simple to actually do. Pick a provider, open the account, put in whatever you have, even fifty dollars. Mine started at fifty dollars and I felt silly about it at the time. Small amounts count.
Problem: "I don't know how much I need to retire." Fix: You don't need a perfect number, you need a sunday-best estimate. Take a rough number, run it through a basic retirement calculator, and adjust every year or two as things change. A number you actually use beats a perfect one you never calculate.
Problem: "The fees in my plan seem high and it's freaking me out." Fix: Check the actual percentage on your fee disclosure. Under 1% for a target-date fund is normal. Over 1.5%, it's worth asking questions. But don't let fee anxiety stop you from contributing at all. A tiny fee difference on money you're not investing is not the problem.
Problem: "My spouse and I don't talk about this stuff and I don't know how to start." Fix: Bring it up before you have the numbers figured out, not after you've quietly solved it yourself. I cut our grocery budget one winter and didn't tell Aaron until I had a new number ready. That was a mistake. Say "I want to look at this together" and start there, messy is fine.
Problem: "I opened the account, now what, I feel like I'm supposed to be doing something." Fix: Mostly you leave it alone. Check it once or twice a year, adjust your contribution when you get a raise, and otherwise let it sit. Watching it daily just makes you anxious and doesn't change the math.
Problem: "I found an old 401k from a job I left years ago and forgot about it." Fix: Find out if it's still with that old employer's plan or if it got rolled somewhere. Track it down and either roll it into your current plan or an IRA. Old, forgotten accounts are more common than people admit, and they're worth chasing down.
Problem: "This all feels like too much and I don't know where to start." Fix: Start with the match. Just that one thing. You don't have to fix it all at once. 💛
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but that's the part people don't believe, that you actually almost didn't teach this.
JENNIFER: I almost didn't. I'm not a crowd person. Standing in front of a room, even a small one, it does something to my stomach. Still does a little, honestly.
JESS: So why'd you say yes.
JENNIFER: I kept thinking about my own 401k. I worked at Rockwell for three years before I actually read the plan document. Three years of not maxing my employer match, because nobody sat me down and explained it and I didn't think to ask.
JESS: Wait, three full years.
JENNIFER: Three years. When I finally read it I felt a little sick, honestly. That's free money. Not "maybe if the market does well" money, actual guaranteed match, and I just left it sitting there because the envelope felt like homework I didn't want to do.
JESS: This is Retirement Basics for Beginners, by the way, episode one, in case anyone's wondering what show they wandered into.
JENNIFER: Right, hi. I'm Jennifer. I'm a bookkeeper, not an advisor, I say that a lot and I mean it every time. I'm not going to tell you which stocks to buy. I read paperwork so you don't have to, and then I explain it in a normal room to normal people.
JESS: So for someone listening right now who isn't even signed up for the class yet — what's the one thing.
JENNIFER: Here's the thing. If your employer matches your retirement contribution and you are not getting the full match, that's the first fix. Before Roth versus traditional, before fees, before any of it. Go check your paystub or log into your plan tonight and see what percentage you need to put in to get the whole match.
JESS: That's it. That's the homework.
JENNIFER: That's the homework. It sounds too simple to say out loud on a podcast but that's exactly why I say it first. People want the complicated answer because it feels more like progress. The boring answer is usually the right one.
JESS: Okay, and for the money nerds, or the people who are already contributing and want more —
JENNIFER: A Roth IRA is the easiest first move for most people in their twenties and thirties. It doesn't come out of your paycheck automatically, you have to actually set it up yourself, and that's the only reason people skip it. I opened mine with fifty dollars. That's genuinely what was left over that month.
JESS: Fifty dollars.
JENNIFER: Fifty dollars, and I felt a little silly about it at the time, like it wasn't a real enough amount to count. Fifteen years later that's the account I point to whenever someone tells me small amounts don't matter. They do. You don't have to fix your whole financial life in one afternoon.
JESS: I love that you still remember the exact number.
JENNIFER: Oh, I remember all the numbers. That's kind of the whole thing with me.
JESS: Okay, so what happens when people actually come to class. Are they gonna have to do math in front of strangers.
JENNIFER: A little, yeah, and I know that sounds like a nightmare to some people. But we go slow. I'll read the worksheet out loud first, we go through it together, and I'm watching faces the whole time. If someone's lost I'm going to notice before they raise their hand, and I'll circle back without making it a whole thing.
JESS: You're not gonna call anyone out.
JENNIFER: Never. I remember what it's like to be the person who hasn't opened the envelope yet. I'm not going to make anyone feel behind for that. Most people in that room haven't opened it either, they're just better at hiding it.
JESS: So next session, what are we covering.
JENNIFER: Next time we're doing the actual math on "how much do I need to retire," which sounds terrifying and isn't, because I'm going to tell you upfront it's a sunday-best guess, not a guaranteed number. Nobody has a guaranteed number. We're going to write down a rough estimate you'll actually use, instead of waiting around for a perfect one you never calculate.
JESS: A guess you can hold loosely.
JENNIFER: Loosely, exactly. I do family history research on the side, tracing my husband's family back a few generations, and half the dates in those old records contradict each other. You learn to hold an estimate loosely there too. Same muscle, different paperwork.
JESS: I did not expect genealogy to show up in a retirement podcast but here we are.
JENNIFER: It shows up more than you'd think.
JESS: Alright. So, homework before next time.
JENNIFER: Check your match. Tonight if you can. That's genuinely the whole assignment, and if that's the only thing you do this month, you're already ahead of where I was for three years.
JESS: Jennifer McGowan, everybody. See you next session.
JENNIFER: See you then. 💛
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay wait, back up, because I don't think we finished that thought before the mic almost died on us last time.
JENNIFER: Oh my heck, right, the match thing. I was mid-sentence.
JESS: You were! You said "start with the match" like it was the whole class in three words and then we just... moved on to something else.
JENNIFER: Okay so here's the thing. If your employer offers any kind of match on your 401k, that is the first fix. Before Roth versus traditional, before which funds, before any of it. That's free money sitting there and a lot of people just aren't taking it.
JESS: How do people not take free money?
JENNIFER: Nobody explains it to them. That's it, that's the whole reason. I'll tell on myself here. My first three years at Rockwell Mutual I didn't max my match. Nobody sat me down and said "hey, put in this percent or you're leaving money on the table." I just picked a number that felt fine and moved on.
JESS: And then?
JENNIFER: And then I actually read the plan document one January, cover to cover, because that's what I do, and I felt a little sick. I'd been doing that for three years. Three years of free money I just didn't pick up.
JESS: See, that's the kind of thing that makes me want to go check my own paperwork right now.
JENNIFER: Go check it tonight. I mean it. Log in, find the word "match," find the percentage they'll put in if you put in X percent, and make sure you're at least at X. That's the practical tip, that's the one thing. You don't need my class to do that part.
JESS: Okay, doing it tonight. Writing it on my hand.
JENNIFER: Write it in a ledger, even better.
JESS: Ha, of course you'd say that. Speaking of ledgers, though — was it last winter, the grocery thing? I feel like that story's been floating around waiting for an episode.
JENNIFER: Oh. Yeah. So one winter money got tight, tighter than usual, and I quietly cut our grocery budget without telling Aaron. I just did it. I figured I'd work out the new number first and then tell him once it was all figured out and tidy.
JESS: Why not just tell him right away?
JENNIFER: Honestly, pride, probably. I wanted to hand him a solved problem, not a problem. But here's the thing — he noticed before I told him. Noticed we were eating differently, noticed I was weird about the Costco runs. And it wasn't a big blowup, but it stung him a little that I hadn't said anything.
JESS: So what'd you take from that?
JENNIFER: That the not-telling part was the actual mistake. Not the budget cut, that was fine, that was smart even. But you talk to your spouse about money before you've got the numbers figured out, not after. I say that to people in class now because I learned it the slow, embarrassing way.
JESS: I like that it's not a "here's how virtuous I am" story. It's a "here's the dumb part" story.
JENNIFER: I'm a bookkeeper, not an advisor, and definitly not a marriage counselor. I just know what worked and what didn't in my own kitchen.
JESS: Fair. Okay, so, quick recap for anyone driving right now instead of taking notes — check your match tonight, that's the one thing. And if money's tight, say something to your person before you've got it all solved.
JENNIFER: That's it. Small amounts count, and so does saying the hard thing early instead of late.
JESS: What's next session, then? Give people a reason to show up.
JENNIFER: Next time we're doing Roth versus traditional, and I'm bringing actual worksheets, people fill in their own numbers right there in the room. We're also going to talk about what a "sunday-best" retirement number even looks like, because everybody wants a magic figure and I don't have one, but I'll show you how to get a rough one you can actually use.
JESS: A rough one you'll actually use beats a perfect one you never calculate.
JENNIFER: Now you're just quoting me back at me.
JESS: I'm the producer, I'm allowed. Alright, that's episode two, everybody go check your match. 💛
Videos worth your time
Hand-picked by your instructor, with notes on what to watch for.
- Plan Your Retirement in 6 Simple Steps (Beginners Guide)SuperGuy
Watch for the six-step framework, it walks you through building a retirement plan from scratch in plain language.
- What is a 401K? A Beginners guide to Saving for RetirementMoney Instructor
Watch for the simple breakdown of what a 401k actually is and why matching contributions matter.
- STOP: 5 Beginner Retirement Mistakes Everyone MakesKevin Lum, CFP®
Watch for the common early mistakes section so you can avoid the same pitfalls in your own planning.
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