December 1, 2020

Retiring into a Pandemic

Everyone has their idea of the perfect retirement.  Mine was to retire around 68. I would tool around the country part of the year with my Travel Trailer.  I would read, write, and pursue my nerdy hobbies that I never had time to do.  And never totally retiring was the path I had already chosen, so a part time job, business or maybe some consulting would also be in the picture.  Nothing fancy, but there was a plan.

World is Closed Movie Theater Sign
Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash

Well, as they say the best laid plans never turn out as planned.  Two big things happened.  This article is about them and how I am still learning to adapt to the unexpected changes.

My career had almost reached its end.  I was 64 and had reached as far as my career was going to go.  It was an all too typical story.  I started out in banking and then moved to banking software at a small fast-growing company where things were great.  Small company is then gobbled up by a big company that proceeds to keep getting bigger and bigger by gobbling up more companies, getting rid of half the staff and cutting to the bone.  I actually did well in the crazy environment.  As a manager I worked with some great people.  We stayed together for a long time and managed to keep things tolerable in our own little world.  But the writing was on the wall.  When the big company offered several months’ severance for anyone over 60 that would agree to leave I took the offer.  I was grateful that I could set my retirement date for several months out which meant that by the time the severance ended I would be full retirement age for Social Security.

So that was unplanned change number one.  I retired earlier than planned.  My financial situation wasn’t ideal, but I was pretty sure I could pick up some good paying part time income with some combination of part time jobs, part time consulting, or maybe a side hustle or two.

My retirement date was 5/1/20.  We all know what happened around March – my second big unplanned event – the Great Pandemic of 2020!  That last six weeks of my job were spent managing my team from home.  My retirement party was a Zoom affair.  It was great, but not exactly as everyone expected!  As I write this in the fall of 2020 the world is still grappling with the pandemic.  Many places are closed, and we are afraid to go anyway.  Face masks and social distancing is the new normal.  The economy sucks.  Everyone is hoping for a vaccine and for things to return to normal.  My guess is it will take some time, probably more than everyone thinks.

So how are we adapting to all this?

The cross-country trips have been delayed.  I know some people have gone anyway, especially those with RVs.  But I don’t think that is for us, at least not yet.  Many things are still closed, but most importantly I just don’t see how to avoid a lot of people contact, and this is especially important since we are in the high-risk category.

Our getaway spot has been some land we own in the Pennsylvania countryside.  We have our travel trailer parked there, rather than cruising around the country.  I’m writing this from the trailer on a beautiful Sunday morning looking out at green and sunshine.  The weather is perfect right now, but it is not always that way.  A good part of the summer it was unusually hot and humid.  The trailer is airconditioned but who wants to sit in a metal tube all day without venturing outside.  I’ll just enjoy the day.  Probably taking one day at a time is a good plan during a pandemic.

Everyone has certain things they miss while adapting to the pandemic.  For some it is eating out at restaurants.  For others it is not being able to go to large gatherings like concerts and sporting events.  My wife and I miss going out to the local diner for breakfast.  We planned on doing that regularly, and retirement meant we could go whenever we wanted, including during the week.  While we’re not major shoppers we miss browsing at the bookstore whenever we wanted.  Of course, we’ve adapted by going during senior hours, it just means getting around earlier in the day.  Have you noticed senior hours are always early?  I guess they assume all the seniors get up at 5AM so they can grocery shop at 6AM!  Again, I’m not seriously complaining, we have lots of food, which is better than some of our fellow citizens.

I have been able to enjoy my hobbies.  I’ve been busy writing, playing around with computers (my love for decades,) building some websites, and generally doing things I always wanted to have time to do.  When not away my usual routine is personal and dog chores first thing in the morning, followed by a couple hours of “work”, which right now is writing and building websites.  The middle of the day I try to reserve for “fun.”  That might mean reading, watching old sci fi movies, or just fiddling.  Around 3PM or so I usually fix myself some good coffee and do a couple hours more work.  So I’m not really complaining, it’s not a bad life, just not as varied as I hoped.

The financial situation looks kind of murky right now.  At the beginning of the pandemic stocks crashed, along with retirement accounts.  That was a scary way to start a retirement.  Things have recovered somewhat as of when I am writing this, but the future is very uncertain.  Small businesses are not doing well and so many people are unemployed.  It must have a long term effect and probably won’t be good.  I had planned to take some time off before trying to earn any income, so we’ll have to see how that goes. I started writing about retirement about 7 years ago.  As a side benefit of writing those articles I thought through lots of possibilities.  That has been a good thing as we all learn to adapt.  I will continue writing and hope it provides benefits to others and myself!

Filed Under: General, Money Stuff, Personal Development, Things To Do, Work Leave a Comment
February 12, 2016

Maybe you shouldn’t retire

Retired Guy ThinkingSociety traditionally has said you should retire at 65 (or some other age.) But how dare society tell you that! Only you know what is best for you.

Many of the most successful people in the world never retire

Some of the financial titans you read about every day seem to never really retire. You see them running companies and dispensing advice well into their 80s and even their 90s. Many of them are mentally sharp and sought after by the media for their thoughts.

You see the same in politics and academia. Jimmy Carter really hit his stride after his presidency was over. Many college professors continue their research well after the traditional retirement age.

What will you do?

Let’s not even think about retiring until we know what we’re going to do with ourselves! You don’t have to plan every minute but basic questions like where will I live and how will I spend my days need to be answered.

How is your health?

You can look at this question from a couple different angles. If your health is good you may want to retire to take advantage of that fact while you can. If your health isn’t so good you may want to retire to enjoy yourself before it gets worse. Or you may decide to keep working to keep health insurance in force until any health problems are resolved. Only you know the answer for your personal situation.

How about partial retirement?

For those that can’t stomach the idea of retirement a “partial retirement” may be the answer. This seems to be getting more popular. And it’s not always for financial reasons. A partial retirement may allow you to try new things while still keeping the social connections of your old job. And the income from working may fund some new ideas.

A variation on partial retirement might be “mini retirements.” I first read about mini retirements in “The Four Hour Workweek” by Timothy Ferris. While the author promotes mini retirements for any age I think they work well for those that are on the fence regarding retirement. The basic idea to take an extended mini retirement with the full intention of going back to work. This allows you to try some new things without fully committing to permanent retirement and all that it means.

What if money wasn’t a consideration?

It may help to temporarily forget about money when deciding about retirement. Obviously money is always a consideration, but first think about whether the idea makes sense. Money has a way of clouding the decision making process. So first decide if retirement for you works as a concept, and then work at fitting your budget to your retirement plans. There are lots of ways to do that and other articles in this blog talk about it.

Volunteer Work

While we’re on the subject of money, what if you really don’t need to continue working for financial reasons? Volunteering may be the answer to put your life skills to work, keep you busy and mentally sharp, and provide great social interaction. The right volunteer work might just be the best job you ever had that you don’t get paid for!

Some people end up loving retirement that never thought they would

We have all heard these stories and I really do believe them. Many of us will do anything to prevent change. Retirement is definitely one of those big life changes. Once over the hump of indecision you may just find retirement really is for you!

Will life be more exciting and fulfilling with or without retirement?

I guess that is the central question. Maybe it’s time to get out that pad and pencil and start listing those pros and cons. And don’t forget to include your spouse in your deliberations!

Until next time…

Filed Under: Personal Development, Things To Do, Volunteering, Work Leave a Comment
March 29, 2015

Multiple Income Streams – Part Two

Money in Hand Photo

Image courtesy of anankkml at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In a previous post (Multiple Income Streams Part One) we talked about the importance of multiple streams of income in retirement. This included the impact of multiple income streams for those with various levels of retirement assets. In this post we’ll expand on those ideas by broadly identifying where some of that income can come from and propose a general plan.

Income generally has a way of progressing from less passive to more passive during life. If you remember from the previous post we basically defined passive income as income that you do not have to devote a lot of time to keep it coming. No income is completely passive but at one side of the spectrum you might have a job that requires lots of time and effort (not passive at all.) On the other side of the spectrum you might have dividend income where the checks just keep coming (unless the company stops paying.)

In between a job and dividend you might have various business such as service businesses, where you trade your time and talent for income.

With this in mind let’s consider a mix of five income sources to look at how you might achieve multiple stream of income:

Job

Jobs are the least passive but they might have the advantage of being the most reliable and sometimes even provide benefits like health insurance. For a retiree this might mean a part time job that assures at least some fairly reliable income.

Part Time Service Business

Also not very passive might be a service business. Examples might include consulting or even babysitting. Here you are trading your time for income but you have more flexibility in when and how much you work. And as long as you do the work you usually get paid! So it is fairly reliable.

Selling things

Selling things is probably somewhere in the middle when it comes to passivity. Easiest example is selling things from around the house that you no longer need. For a little effort on EBay or Craigslist you might collect a considerable sum. Of course you eventually run out of things to sell, but it is a good way to initially establish an additional stream of income.

Recurring income product

This is a product you create that requires a lot of time up front but can provide a lasting income stream. For example suppose you write a book that you self publish on Amazon. There is a lot of work initially but you can potentially receive an income forever from sales of the book, and that income is fairly passive.

Stock Dividends, Annuities, and Social Security

Stock Dividends are probably one of the most passive forms of income. A similar example might be an annuity. The basic principal is that you invest money and receive a stream of income from that investment. Social Security is similar in that you paid in a long time in order to receive a series of payments.

Putting it all together

After thinking about the above income sources it isn’t hard to see where multiple income stream might come from. For example:

  1. You start with a part time job.
  2. You do a little pet sitting and begin establish a list of repeat customers.
  3. You start selling things around the house on Ebay and Craiglist. Maybe you start small and generate about $50 a month.
  4. You write a little book called “How to start a pet sitting business.” You sell it on Amazon and it generates some money every month.
  5. You save your money from the above and buy some dividend paying stocks and a small annuity. This gives you another income stream on top of your Social Security.

As you can see it isn’t too hard to envision multiple streams of income. The idea is to actually take action and start with the more non-passive income types and then maybe as you get older to build up more of the passive sources. Good Luck!

Until next time…

Filed Under: Budgets, Money Stuff, Work Leave a Comment