For decades, you trained one financial muscle: save, invest, don't touch it. Then retirement arrives and asks you to do the opposite. Nobody teaches that part. There is no course on how to spend the money you spent a lifetime building, so the discipline, the caution, and the watchful eye on every balance don't switch off just because your career did. The Switch Most Savers Struggle to Flip Researchers who study retirement have been paying...

How often do you set new financial goals? How often do you achieve them? Most of us aren’t very successful with our goals, even when we have the best intentions and strong willpower.1 Sometimes, that’s because we’re setting unattainable goals. Other times, we’re missing the big picture and setting our goals with blinders on.

What do you do when you earn well and have generally dialed in the fundamentals: save, invest, reduce debt, stay protected? The challenge was never knowing what to do. It's knowing what to do first, and in what order. That's a harder question than it looks. Each of these priorities is sound on its own. Max out the retirement contributions. Pay down the balances. Build the cushion. Put money to work in the market. But...