Burned Out and Really Want to Quit

Summary

Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger — “Burned Out and Really Want to Quit”

Episode Date: January 16, 2026
Guest: Jennifer from Washington State

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jill Schlesinger takes a call from Jennifer, a 62-year-old nurse feeling burned out and ready to retire. Together with her producer Mark, Jill unpacks Jennifer’s finances, options for early retirement, and emotional well-being, offering insight and guidance on how (and whether) to hit the “eject” button on work without jeopardizing long-term security.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Jennifer’s Background and Burnout

• Jennifer is a single, child-free nurse with 30 years’ service.
• She worked through the COVID pandemic and now feels exhausted, even though her current job is no longer direct patient care.
• She expresses a strong desire to quit soon due to burnout.
  • “Well, I’m 62 years old and I am wanting to retire. I’m one of those burned out nurses from the COVID days... I’m ready to be done with all of it.” (03:37)

2. Financial Snapshot

• Pension:
  • From a previous employer, eligible for Tier 1 pension.
    • $1,670/month if taken now at 62; $1,993/month at 65.
• Retirement Savings:
  • $530,000 in IRA rollover (pretax)
  • $66,000 in Roth IRA
  • $37,000 in taxable brokerage
  • ~$38,000 in cash management
  • Additional $10,000 to roll over
• Other Income Streams:
  • At 65, eligible for an additional $700/month stream
  • Anticipated Social Security at 67: $3,500/month
• Annual Earnings: About $146,000–$148,000
• Monthly Spending: $5,000–$6,000 (Jill recommends planning on $7,000 to include health insurance)

3. Key Challenges & Questions

• Managing the gap before becoming eligible for Social Security and Medicare
• Dealing with high health insurance expenses pre-Medicare
• Supporting her elderly mother (financially and with care), who is on a fixed income
• Potentially needing to draw down retirement accounts before age 67

4. Addressing Healthcare (Post-Work Options)

• Lowering reported income via pension could help qualify for cheaper health insurance ($700–$800/month, high deductible plan)
• The ACA health exchange would be $1,300–$1,400/month
• Option to do COBRA for 18 months, then ACA exchange

5. Retirement Feasibility Analysis

• Jill’s Perspective: Cautiously optimistic but not a “slam dunk” to retire immediately

  • “I think it can work, but it’s not easy breezy.” (11:57)

• Key risk: Spending down retirement accounts too fast before Social Security and Medicare kick in

• Jill suggests:

  • Consider working a bit longer (even at lower capacity) to reduce financial pressure
  • Explore part-time options — even outside current employer, to minimize IRA withdrawals

• Mark’s Take:

  • “I’m not as concerned as you are. I think it works. We really gotta get from now until, you know, 67ish.” (11:38)
  • Stresses that after age 67, Social Security and pensions will cover most expenses

6. The “Halfway” Solution

• Jill suggests splitting the difference:
  • Take a part-time or shift work role, even if only for a couple years, ideally making ~$70,000/year
    • “Could you make half as much money? … Then I’d feel better about the plan.” (15:15)
• Jennifer is open but notes her employer prefers full-time staff and only recently allowed her to cut to 70 hours biweekly

7. Retirement Contributions and Management

• Mark advises Roth contributions over pretax at Jennifer’s stage
  • “I certainly wouldn’t do pre tax. I don’t see the need for that. I would do Roth.” (15:51)
• Jennifer pays a Fidelity advisor ~$4,000/year, feels comfortable not managing investments herself
• Jill is okay with that as long as the advisor is proactive with comprehensive planning

8. Estate Planning Gaps

• Jennifer has not completed her own estate planning
  • Jill urges updating beneficiary designations and drafting necessary documents
    • “Go call the attorney right now. That’s what happens.” (17:32)
• Mother’s house unlikely to have equity due to a reverse mortgage

9. Care Obligations & Sibling Dynamics

• Jennifer helps care for her 87-year-old mother and is the primary support (sibling unable to help due to health issues)
• Discussion about possibly moving in with her mom to reduce costs is mostly in jest, as Jennifer prefers her independent, below-market rent

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Burnout:

  • “If you are so fried and you just gotta say, I’m done, then, like, you’ll have to maybe say that you’ll do some shift work every, you know, so often if things go wrong.” (12:21) — Jill

• Mark’s Pragmatism:

  • “You have to spend down for a few years.” (11:56)

• On Emotional Readiness:

  • “I’m not the kind of person who desperately wants to make you do stuff you don’t want to do. That’s terrible.” (14:57) — Jill

• On the Limits of Planning:

  • “The path of least resistance does not get you where you want to go.” (17:37) — Jill

• Financial Fundamentals:

  • “You have a profession that is highly desirable. Everybody needs a nurse all the time.” (15:01) — Jill

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Timestamps of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |:----------:|-------------------------------------------------------| | 03:37 | Jennifer introduces her burnout and desire to retire | | 04:35 | Pension options detailed | | 06:05 | IRA rollover, Roth, and brokerage account breakdown | | 07:34 | Spending and budgeting for post-retirement | | 08:47 | Health insurance costs and ACA exchange discussion | | 10:19 | Exploring reduced work hours vs. full retirement | | 11:38 | Mark’s perspective: “I think it works...” | | 13:36 | Jill’s risk assessment: market downturn, longevity | | 15:16 | Jill suggests part-time/less work to bridge gap | | 15:51 | Roth IRA and financial management discussion | | 16:41 | Advisor satisfaction check | | 17:32 | Urgent estate planning reminder |

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Key Takeaways

• Jennifer is close to being able to retire but must carefully weigh the tradeoffs, especially with rising health costs and possible market volatility.
• Continuing any form of work, ideally part-time, will significantly reduce risk and stress on her retirement assets, especially over the next five years.
• Emotional well-being and readiness for change are as important as the math.
• Updating estate plans and beneficiary designations is urgent, given family dynamics and care responsibilities.

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For listeners facing similar burnout or retirement dilemmas, Jill emphasizes the value of honest assessment, incremental changes, and professional planning. Her accessible, conversational style keeps the discussion reassuring while delivering hard truths.

Transcript

[Jill]

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[Jennifer]

Thy ticket, lady Jennifer of Coolidge. Well, many thanks, good sir. Here is my Discover card. They accept Discover at Renaissance fairs? Yeah, they do here. Discover is accepted at the places I love to shop. Geth with the Times. With the Times. You're playing the loot. Yeah, and it sounds pretty good, right? Discover is accepted at 99% of places that take credit cards nationwide, based on the February 2025 Nielsen report.

[Jill]

Welcome to the Jill on Money show. It's Friday, January 16th, and we are here trying to help you navigate your financial journey. Just think of me and Mark as your Sherpas. We are going to point the way. Maybe we'll take some of that baggage off of you. We'll carry it for you. We'll see what's possible. And hopefully at the end of a conversation, you'll feel better for having thought through a lot of the issues that might be keeping you up at night. The way to get in touch with us is very easy. Go to our website, jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, it's in the upper right hand corner. And write us a note if you'd like to join us on the air live. Check the box. Mark will do everything else. Now while you're on the website, we encourage you to sign up for our free weekly newsletter comes out today, every Friday. And by signing up, you'll also get the blog post that I put up, you know, one, two times a week. Just depends how, how, how the wind is blowing in my life. You can also check out our subscription service. It's called Jill on Money Live. That's where you have access to quarterly live webinars, the back catalog of those webinars, bonus audio and video content, all for 45 bucks for the next 12 months. Our upcoming webinar is with the famous, the fabulous Ed Slott. He is a CPA by training, but he's really the man that I credit with opening my eyes and Mark's eyes to the power of the Roth a long time ago. He is a fan favorite and so he will be our first webinar of 2020, so six. And if you don't want to sign up for all four of those webinars, you can buy a webinar just on its own for 15 bucks. So maybe you want to buy ed slot. 15 bucks. That's all it's going to cost you. All right, let's get on with the program. We are joined by Jennifer from Washington State. Hello, Jennifer, how are you? Great.

[Jennifer]

Good morning. How are you guys? Thanks for having me on.

[Jill]

We are terrific. What's up? How can we help you?

[Jennifer]

Well, I'm 62 years old and I am wanting to retire. I'm a one of those burned out nurses from the COVID days. You know, I'm not having to do a direct patient care job now, but still it's just, I'm ready to be done with all of it. So I have, I have some brokerage money and a pension and I'm just wondering sometimes I'm wondering whether I should, maybe I'd like to retire as soon as possible.

[Jill]

Of course, I mean, because you're exhausted, that's why. How long have you been a nurse?

[Jennifer]

This is my 30th year.

[Jill]

30Th year. Let's do it this year. That's that. There's great symmetry to that. So let's start with some basic facts. Okay. Are you married? Partnered? Single?

[Jennifer]

Single.

[Jill]

Kids? No kids.

[Jennifer]

No kids.

[Jill]

Oh, this makes the mic calculating a lot easier. Okay. Pension. If you, if we give your, your notice, like would you, I don't know where you, how long you've worked there, but you give your notice. What is the pension amount that you would receive?

[Jennifer]

Well, the pension, the pension is from an old job that I had years ago. I qualified for their Tier 1 pension, but it would be, you know, it depends on when you take it. So you can do the lump sum and stuff, but I always just figured I'd take the monthly. But if I, if I started taking it this year I think It'd be about 1670amonth. If I waited till I'm 65, it'd be. It'd be about 1993amonth.

[Jill]

2000Amonth. Okay. Does your current employer. There's no benefit, no pension benefit, right?

[Jennifer]

No pension, no.

[Jill]

Okay, got it. Are you saving money in a retirement plan for your current.

[Jennifer]

Yes, Fidelity. It's all in Fidelity.

[Jill]

So tell us about the retirement savings you've accumulated there.

[Jennifer]

I have about, I think altogether, about 680 in the brokerage altogether.

[Jill]

With, when you say brokerage, are we include. Is that, are we talking about retirement or a taxable brokerage account?

[Jennifer]

I think the taxable brokerage account.

[Jill]

Okay, so we have 680 in a brokerage account. Got it. And then what about in like a 403B, a 401K. What do you got going there?

[Jennifer]

Okay, wait a sec. So the 403B. Well, the, the. I have it professionally managed. So the 403B right now is only. It's just this year's accumulation, which is almost 17,000, and then another 3,000. So it'd be about 20,000 for this year. But I had rolled it all over into an IRA last year.

[Jill]

Okay, how much is in the IRA rollover?

[Jennifer]

529. About 520. About 530.

[Jill]

530 in the rollover.

[Mark]

And that's all part of the six something.

[Jill]

That's not part of the 680, right?

[Jennifer]

It is part of the 680.

[Jill]

Okay, so you got an IRA rollover with $530,000. Hasn't been taxed. Any Roth assets?

[Jennifer]

Yeah, 66,000.

[Jill]

Any other money in a brokerage account that's already been taxed? Not a retirement account, just a plain old brokerage account.

[Jennifer]

$37,000 in some. That was some. That was in a cash management account that I put half of that into the. Just another account for. To make some money.

[Jill]

And what about other cash?

[Jennifer]

I have about $38,000 in cash management account. And I have another. I just found out I had some ten thousand dollar account somewhere that I can roll over into the Fidelity stuff. And then eventually when I'm 65, I have another little 700 that'll be coming in a month.

[Jill]

Oh, in addition to the. That pension, do you have another $700 a month stream of income?

[Jennifer]

Yes, but not until I'm 65 on that one.

[Jill]

Yeah, don't worry. Do you own your home?

[Jennifer]

No, I rent. I just rent.

[Jill]

Okay. Now if you look at all the rental, the price that you're paying for rent. You add up your expenses, your food, you have some fun, you live in a beautiful place. You're like, oh, I live at this OUTDOOR Life. I love doing this. That and the other thing. What are we talking about in terms of your spending?

[Jennifer]

I would say five to six thousand dollars a month, depending.

[Jill]

Let's say six. Okay, so if you retired, burned out nurse for the next three years, what would we do for health insurance?

[Jennifer]

Well, that's the thing. If, if I, if I took the purse, if I took the, the pension thing, now, I could qualify for some less expensive health care for that. Seven or eight hundred a month, but it'd be high deductible. So I'd have to be like, oh, I hope nothing bad happens, you know.

[Jill]

Or you'd have to like, go on the exchange for three years.

[Jennifer]

Yes. Or I'd have to go the exchange, which I was talking to somebody about that, and that'd be about 13, $1400. Or I could do cobra for the only 18 months and then go on the exchange.

[Jill]

But, oh, then I have to have you work for an extra 18 months, you know, like I did, you know. Right. I don't want you to do that. Okay, so if we, let's say that of the 6,000amonth in spending, at least in the beginning, how about if we make it 7,000 just so we have some health insurance built in there? What do you think?

[Jennifer]

Well, we can do that.

[Jill]

Yeah, let's do it. Okay. Do you have to take care of anyone? Sibling, parents, anybody?

[Jennifer]

Yes, I'm taking care. I'm helping take care of my mom, who's, you know, she's 80, almost 87. She's had some health issues, and so I'm over there a fair amount, and I, I give her some money every month and plus, you know, just regular stuff, taking her doing stuff, getting stuff done. She's on a fixed income, so I pay for a lot of stuff.

[Jill]

And it's just you. Do you have siblings or.

[Jennifer]

No, I have a sibling, but he's got health problems and so he doesn't. He's not involved with. Okay.

[Jill]

And she lives on. She lives in her own home.

[Jennifer]

She does. She's, of course, wants to be independent for as long as possible. I don't blame her.

[Jill]

That's fine. But I don't want you to pay rent, so maybe you could just move in there. I'm just kidding. How much is your rent, by the way?

[Jennifer]

Well, I have a really good deal with this right now. 1450.

[Jill]

Oh, that is good. All right. I will not make you live with your mother, I promise. What about your Social Security benefit? What does that look like at your, let's say, 67.

[Jennifer]

67. At this point it'll be 3500.

[Jill]

Okay, 3, 500. Are you maxing out your retirement contribution right now?

[Jennifer]

I can't remember. It's like, it's like 15. I think it's like 15.

[Jill]

But you're putting a bunch of money in there, right?

[Jennifer]

Yeah, like $20,000 a year or something.

[Jill]

And how much do you earn right now?

[Jennifer]

About 146. I think it was 148, something like that.

[Jill]

Let me ask another, like a little last question. I think you're very close and you probably can do this, okay, but is there any world where you would say, I'm burnt out now, but I. If I just reduced my hours or I went from full time to part time, is that something that is interesting to you or possible for you?

[Jennifer]

Well, I could, I could. I. I could manage that. I mean, I really would rather just not. But. But they don't. I'm trying to do this. I'm trying to do this at work, get to part time, but they're like, no, we want you to work full time. I just cut some hours. I work 80 hours, but I cut it down to 70.

[Jill]

But 80 hours, I know.

[Jennifer]

I'm working full time. I know. Well, now I'm only working 70. I mean, you know, holy moly. No, I'm working full time. I mean, you know, just 40 hours a week, you know.

[Jill]

Okay, I think you're working 70 hours a week. That's.

[Jennifer]

Oh, hell no. Oh, my God. Can you imagine now? I. I don't.

[Jill]

Hell no is right.

[Jennifer]

Sure. I'd be good already.

[Jill]

Okay. Mark, can we help Jennifer get out of this? She's burnt out. She's fried. So let's think about this. She's 62, and she could get this pension right now. So at age 62, what we could have is 16, 70amonth right, from her pension. And that would give her some sort of cheaper health care for a few years. She would have to start pulling money out of her IRA rollover until she would start claiming Social Security. And even then, you know, I think it's okay. I don't feel like this is a slam dunk. What do you think, Mark?

[Mark]

I'm not as concerned as you are. I think it works. We really gotta get from now until, you know, 67ish.

[Jill]

Right? So we got five years. We got to take 70 grand a year from the four from the IRA rollover. Right. Because we got to take the money out and pay the tax on it.

[Jennifer]

Yes.

[Mark]

You have to spend down for a few years.

[Jill]

Yeah. So. And that presumes that everything's cool with mom. I think it can work, but it's not easy breezy. So here's what I think.

[Mark]

What is mom's house worth, by the way? I was just curious.

[Jennifer]

Well, I'm not sure altogether, but I won't, you know, it's probably, I don't think that she'll be, you know, it's, I think she has a reverse, a reverse mortgage or something. Oh.

[Jill]

So there's no equity in there. Okay, here's, here's what I think the choices are. Okay. If you are so fried and you like, you just got to say, I'm done, then like you'll have to maybe say that you'll do some shift work every, you know, so often if things go wrong. Okay, here's, here's why I am concerned. Yes, you have half a million dollars in this retirement account, plus this 20, let's say 550 in pre tax accounts. Right. And then you've got Roth and brokerage and cash and all that. But you know, even if you spend 6,000 bucks a month or $7,000 a month, you know, your future Social Security will cover some portion of that. But we have to get you to age 67, which means we have to spend down your retirement assets and.

[Jennifer]

Right.

[Jill]

And you're young and you sound like you're in good health. So you could do this, you could be like in a situation where, you know, I'm 67 years old, you could live for 25 years and you've spent down a big chunk of your savings. It doesn't mean like, okay, yes, you'll have a, you will have a pension benefit. You'll have Social Security. Is your pension have a cost of living adjustment associated with it?

[Jennifer]

Well, I think it's already taken out. Well, I don't know that for sure.

[Jill]

Okay. I'm hopeful that you do because that would mean it. The amount would go up every year. If you had that and you had your Social Security, which is also Social Security adjusted, you'd have, you know, about 5,500 bucks a month coming in in today's dollars. And I think it's like you, if, if the market collapses and your $500,000, et cetera, goes to 330 in the next couple of years, you're going to freak out. And so here's what I think the choices are. You can roll the dice and say you're a scaredy cat. I like Mark's answer better. That's a possibility. You could say, I'd rather do this for like a year and a half and make more money and sock money away or two more years and. And do that. Or you basically say, I've got to figure out a way to work less. Right. Instead of 40 hours a week that you go to 30 or 20 somewhere whether you leave this place or not. And you do that and you try to not touch the money for a few years, and then you're in better shape. But I think that it has to do a lot with, like, kind of like constitutionally where you are. Meaning if you are really miserable. I'm not the kind of person who desperately wants to make you do stuff you don't want to do. That's terrible.

[Mark]

Terrible.

[Jill]

But you have a profession that is highly desirable. Everybody needs a nurse all the time. The question is, how can you. Could you make. Could you make 70? Could you make half as much money?

[Jennifer]

Sure.

[Jill]

For a couple years and, like, do that and grind it out a little bit. Then I'd feel better about the plan. Now the thing is, I don't. Mark, do you think Jennifer should continue to put as much money into retirement? I'm sort of inclined to be like, let's build up. Are you doing Roth right now or pre tax?

[Jennifer]

Yes, I've been doing. I've been doing 8,000 in Roth and then whatever, 20,000 into the 3,403B.

[Jill]

Okay. Mark, what do you think about having a little bit less of a contribution right now?

[Mark]

I don't know about less, but I certainly wouldn't do pre tax. I don't see the need for that. I would do raw. I mean, you know, she's at the age where she can tap he's a kid accounts. So, yeah, I would do Roth.

[Jill]

I would do Roth. Also. Do you like the person who's managing your money?

[Jennifer]

Yeah.

[Jill]

Okay, how much you pay for that?

[Jennifer]

Well, that's a good question. I know it's. I don't know exact. I think it's about $4,000 a year.

[Jill]

Okay, so about. Maybe it's 0.8% or something like that. It sounds like.

[Jennifer]

But, you know, I don't want to, man. I'm not a. You know, I'm not one of these people that wants to manage this stuff. I don't. I don't.

[Jill]

Not a problem. If this person is good and you're.

[Jennifer]

Happy, why do you have a suggestion? Do you have something else? I mean, do you. No, no, no, no.

[Jill]

I just want to make sure that the person's doing, like, the kind of conversation that you and I just had. I want you to be having that with someone who's charging you a fee.

[Jennifer]

Right, right.

[Jill]

That's what I want to have.

[Jennifer]

I believe so, yes. The guy at Fidelity. Yeah. He's a good guy.

[Jill]

Yeah. So good. All right. I think we're good. Do you have your own estate planning done?

[Jennifer]

No, I haven't. I haven't done any of that. How about your mom?

[Jill]

Has your mom?

[Jennifer]

I did, yes. I went several years ago. I went and made her do that with me because, you know, that's a whole different thing with her.

[Jill]

Oh. Yeah.

[Jennifer]

So. But no, I don't.

[Jill]

You know, I haven't cancelled your money when you die. The brother.

[Jennifer]

No, no. Probably. I don't really know.

[Jill]

Well, who's the beneficiary on the retirement account right now?

[Jennifer]

Just my mother. And then. And then I have one of my best friends, probably is the other one.

[Jill]

And then be like, brewster's Millions. Leave it to somebody. You shouldn't leave it up. If you leave it to your mother, if something happened to you, Right. And she inherited your money, then all the money then goes to your brother. Are you happy with that?

[Jennifer]

No.

[Jill]

Bye. Go call the attorney right now. That's what happens. Okay.

[Jennifer]

Yeah.

[Jill]

The past path of least resistance does not get you where you want to go.

[Jennifer]

Right.

[Jill]

Okay. If you are burned out, exhausted, if even if. You know. So funny, Mark. I was talking to one of my nephews who was like, he wants to make this big change. He's 30 years old. He's like, I was doing this. This one path for like seven or eight years now. I want to do something totally different. And you know, that totally different is scary. So if that's you, get in touch with us. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note. And if you would like to join us on the air live, you just check the box. Mark does everything else. And don't forget to sign up for the free weekly newsletter, which comes out today, Friday. Fantastic. And you can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. If you would not mind, please leave us a rating and review wherever you listen. Our music is composed by Joel Goodman. Mark Telercio is our executive producer and king of all things web. And we are distributed by the lovely folks at Odyssey. Please put your hands metaphorically on someone's back. Someone needs a little boost, a hug, something. Change your work. Change your wealth. Change your life. Thank you for listening. We'll talk to you on Monday.

[Richard Deitch]

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[Jennifer]

Host of the Sports Media Podcast. If you're interested in what's happening with all the places where you consume sports, the Sports Media podcast has you covered.

[Mark]

I've been turning down interviews all week. CodeCAPI reached out. Oprah, George Stephanopoulos so I said no. I was booked on the Deitch podcast before the Taylor Swift phenomenon. I must live up to my responsibility.

[Jennifer]

Listen wherever you get your podcasts.