At age 13, in the blazing heat of central Florida, my dad, Melvin Brown, started “working” as a fruit picker in citrus groves. Nearly 57 years later, just before his 70th birthday, he kissed involuntary work goodbye.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been nearly a year since my dad retired. He flirted with retirement for about a decade, then when he finally decided to get serious – BOOM! – a global pandemic hit. I’m quite certain COVID-19’s economic collapse was not part of the plan, but he persevered and stuck to his timeline. Since the concept of retirement seems like a myth to me, I decided to interview my dad on this monumental achievement. Here’s what I learned:
What have you been doing since you retired?
I would recommend retirement for everyone! I’ve enjoyed it and it’s been a lot of fun. It took planning – not only financially, but quality of life structure – to get to where I needed to be. It was a big change from going from the structure of work to going to being retired.
Was the initial transition from work to retirement difficult?
It was difficult and challenging. Everyday work is very structured. In my job I had scheduled meetings, conference calls, document reviews, and deliverables. A lot of that scheduling was me but a lot of it was other people setting those things up. When you walk out of the office and retire all of that structure is gone. There are no more deadlines, no more 10 a.m. meetings, no more late deliverables causing you to work extra hours. All that goes away.
In the middle of the first week of my retirement I had no idea what day it was. You lose consciousness of time. I had to look at my watch to find out it was Wednesday. I can’t imagine someone retiring without a plan. If you don’t you have to build all that structure for yourself – deciding what you want to do, when you want to do it, etc.
The second thing I did was start using a whiteboard to stay on task. I write down all the things that need done around the house. It’s a revolving list that I constantly update.
Before I retired, I started thinking about what I was going to do that I never really had a chance to do when I was working. I planted a garden and spend more time outdoors. I take hikes with my dog at least once a week at the local parks. The wife has an ever-growing, honey-do list, but I enjoy doing things like that.
How has your quality of life changed?
I used to spend nearly two hours a day commuting to work. Now I probably don’t spend two hours a week in a car. That stress is gone. Another thing that’s changed is if I had something planned for the day, for example if I had to mow the yard, and I didn’t finish it I would not be able to get it done until the end of the next workweek. And now I can just finish it tomorrow. In retirement you have the flexibility of not having the crunched schedule packed with deadlines.
How did you know when it was time to retire?
There were two boxes that I looked at – one was financial, was I finally able to retire? Have I reached my financial goals that I could live comfortably with the money I had sat aside? The other one was work. I was involved with some very large and important projects with our clients and I wanted to make sure to leave at a time that I would not disrupt those projects.
What challenges did retiring during a pandemic present?
This sounds flippant but it is what it is. It’s something that was out of my control. I reached out to my financial planner and said let’s keep going with the planned schedule. The pandemic did impact some of the activities I wanted to get involved with early on in my retirement such as doing volunteer work and joining a gym. I look back now and realized that was a good thing because I was probably not ready at that early stage of retirement to commit to things. Many people that I talked with who also recently retired told me not to plan anything for at least the first six months. Some even said to wait one year.
Do you feel you made the right decision (timing wise)?
I do. The pandemic was out of my control but I just moved forward with my plan. I feel like I left work at a good time and I was ready financially. I put a plan together for retirement and I decided to wait until turning 70 to collect my social security, which gave me the maximum amount.
How much money is enough for a comfortable retirement?
I remember when everyone said, “You have to have a million dollars to retire.” That was the benchmark. I took that and backed into it and looked at how much I was making and how much I was spending. I created an Excel spreadsheet and tracked all income and expenses on a monthly basis. For the younger generation the savings numbers are going to be different. So much is going to change over the next five, 10, 20 years. I don’t think that a million dollars 20 years from now is realistic. Our financial planner’s goal for our investments was to consistently earn 4-5% in interest. If we only draw off 4-5% we’ll never touch the principal. It’s also the quality of life you want to live. I’m a simple person. I don’t have any debt.
I worked hard for many years to get out of debt. When you get yourself out of debt, now you can work with cash.
What happened with your company stock?
I made the decision to cash it out. I look back on that and feel it was a very wise investment for me. The company did very well and the stock grew very well. I have no regrets about investing into the company and their stock. I was able to cash it out after I retired and was able to move it into one of my retirement funds. The primary reason I did that was because it gave me access to those funds.
What was the process of getting Medicare?
When you retire you lose your employee-based healthcare benefits. So, I enrolled into the government’s Medicare plan. I started researching this for nearly a year before I retired, along with social security. Bless the government’s heart they have a portal now that brings both social security and Medicare together. Once you register for an account, social security and Medicare work together on your behalf. It’s good to start this process six months ahead of time because some of the items can take 30-40 days to be completed. This was a much easier process than I thought it was going to be but you have to start early.
What was the process of claiming your Social Security? Explain the strategy of waiting to claim at 70.
I looked at the bump I was going to get when I turned 70 and it was worth waiting for. My wife claimed her social security at her 66th birthday. We each get a monthly direct deposit from social security and I get a monthly direct deposit from my retirement savings. That’s basically our income.
What other things do we need to plan for in retirement?
When I look back, it was always very difficult to save money during the time when I had young children. I always contributed to my 401(k) plans at work and it’s important to do that. You should start saving as soon as you can and as much as you can. It was difficult for me to get out of debt because you make habits with credit cards. To get out of debt and start saving you have to have discipline.
What do you miss the most about working?
I miss the people, not only my coworkers but the clients. I was blessed with working on a very large project my last four years. It was great project run by great people with great leaders, and it was manned by a super team of people. I miss those people and working through the successes and challenges. The company I was with was a great company. They treated their employees great and provided us with great opportunities.
What do you enjoy the most about retirement?
The stress level is down substantially. It’s also getting up in the morning and being in control. In retirement if you don’t want to mow the lawn today you can do it tomorrow, but at work if you have a deliverable due today, you can’t wait till tomorrow. The schedule isn’t nearly as tight and you have more latitude and freedom. And you also have the opportunity now to have the time to do some of the things that you’ve wanted to do but couldn’t do.
Are you sure you don’t want to go back to work?
I miss all those people greatly and I appreciate them remembering me and asking about how I’m doing. I’ll get back and have lunch with them soon. This might sound selfish or self-serving but I feel like I worked hard all my life…and I deserve this and I’m enjoying it!
Jason is the author of Margin Matters: How to Live on a Simple Budget & Crush Debt Forever and IT IS POSSIBLE!: How I Earned Two Debt-Free Degrees…and How You Can, Too.