Tammy

Sample plan

Hairdresser · 58 · Knoxville, TN

divorced, booth-rent for decades

Her best clients paid cash. So did her Social Security record. The plan starts with pulling the real statement — and it's smaller than she assumed.

Earns now

$47k

per year

Saved

$25k

nest egg

Spends

$43k

per year, incl. health

Retirement income

$17k

SS + pensions

The outcome as-is

Runs short in her 70s as-is — the plan is how you close the gap

Income streams

Behind the chair (booth rent)work

active now → age 62

$47,000/yr

Two days a weekwork

starts age 62 → age 66

$19,000/yr

Social Securityretirement

claim at 66

$16,560/yr

Brokerage (taxable)$5,000

401(k) / IRA (tax-deferred)$20,000

Living budget$3,000/mo

Health bridge (pre-65)$583/mo

Total, pre-65$3,583/mo

12 months out
Pull the Social Security statement and face it on camera: $1,380 a month at 62, not the $1,900 she assumed. The cash decades left holes, and old years generally can't be fixed. The next years CAN.
9 months out
The response: report every current dollar. At this record, each fully-reported year replaces a zero year in the benefit math — her check is still growing fast per year worked.
6 months out
The taper: full book to 62, then two days a week to 66. Feet do two days fine; the chair lease renegotiates to part-time terms.
3 months out
Price the insurance bridge at her honest income — the marketplace math at a stylist's reported income is actually workable. Enter it and look.

Open the What-If board with Tammy’s exact numbers — drag a lever and watch the earliest age Tammy can actually retire.