Today we conclude my “interview” with one of my Millionaire Money Mentors who detailed his journey into retirement.
If you missed the first two posts in this series, check out Retirement Countdown Interview 3, Part 1 and Retirement Countdown Interview 3, Part 2.
If you’re getting close to retirement, actively working on several steps in that process, and interested in doing an interview, please drop me a note.
Now let’s continue the story from “Mickey” and his wife, “Minnie”…
March 22nd, 2022 – T minus 11 and counting!
Medical / Dental / Vision Needs
As I draw towards my last W2 day on April 1st I realize so VERY clearly how important it is to get ahead of any preventative measures you can take regarding your medical, dental and vision needs (or potential needs). I always kinda knew this but I cannot stress this enough to everyone.
Be proactive and schedule every checkup under the sun even if only to have the doctor re-assure you that all is well. That piece of mind alone is well worth the copay!
Yesterday I had my 1st ever Dermatologist appointment. Never been before and never had a driving reason to go see one. However, I am 56 years young and I have moles and blemishes like most anyone of that age. So, I made the time to get an appointment (took 5 weeks) with a recommended doctor and had her check me out. All good and hearing “all good” was worth every second of the hassle and copay cost! Just do it!
Funny side note – at the start of our visit she asked me why I came to see her yesterday. I explained that I was retiring at the end of the month, my insurance would soon change and not for the better, so I thought it wise to get a check up now. Her reply with astonishment was — you are too young to retire! I said, “Well, I am 56.” Her further response was, “I have your charts, I can see that you are 56 but I am 53 and I don’t think I will retire in 3 years.” My final response was, “Well, you better get working on that.” Haha!
March 25th, 2022 – T minus 8 and counting!
Well, I am within 1 week of my actual retirement date of April 1st. Mentally, it is getting very real (in a positive way).
I had a new epiphany to share today. I have been having some pretty detailed personal finance discussions these past 4 weeks with all kinds of coworkers and friends. Apparently when you can retire at age 56 suddenly people think you might actually be pretty smart! 😉
My epiphany has two related parts:
- The FIRE community and personal finance savvy people in general live in their own world. It is like a bubble separate from the realities of most of the population. This is 100% true for me. I just thought I was quirky but I guess there is more to it. 99% of the US population does NOT have their crap together on managing their finances. OMG the stories I have heard! What is that — you have tens of thousands of dollars on credit cards that you can only pay the minimum on monthly and yet you went on vacation last month? Say again – you have personal loans at a 15% rate because your credit score is so low. Huh, you owe the IRS $20K in back income taxes because you have screwed up your withholding amount for 5 years in a row (and working on year 6 this year)? What, you drained all your retirement accounts when you were out of work to feed your family since you had no emergency funds at all saved? Holy crap!
- My dear wife and I are even more fortunate than I even imagined. I know we worked hard at this but we are soooo very fortunate on so many levels! You realize that when you have gritty talks with others. We have been very fortunate. Note to self — never lose sight of that fact!!
March 28th, 2022 – T minus 5 and counting!
401K Crusade Update:
In the past 2 weeks I have either strongly nudged or actually set up 12 people for the company 401K. The most rewarding portions have been helping some of the warehouse workers set up their very 1st ever retirement account. Extremely nice people who are very appreciative of a helping hand.
On a very small scale, I think this is a fair example of how a passion project can easily replace grinding away at a W2 role.
March 30th, 2022 – T minus 3 and counting!
One of the more interesting aspects of giving an extended retirement notice is that you get to see who in the workplace sincerely cares for you both professionally and more importantly personally. I have found this true when I moved throughout my career but it is greatly magnified as I retire. Spoiler alert — it is not always who you think would care for you! 😉
Last week our small company held a really sweet best of luck event for me. Overall, it was genuine, sincere and from the heart. The entire onsite facility of 80+ people halted work for 3 hours to wish me well.
They themed it 100% to Disney with everyone wearing generic Mickey ears. One coworker actually made 100+ Mickey-themed cupcakes for the event (OMG). A few people even dressed up fully. It was incredibly sweet.
The interesting part was how many sincere smiles and laughs there were from the hourly workforce (vs management). There is no doubt in my mind that the workforce knows that we will miss each other more than any of the finicky management. Throughout my career I have, for some reason, always bonded way more closely with Joe/Jane 6-pack on the warehouse/manufacturing floor. Very heartwarming and completely humbling as a person.
March 31st, 2022 – T minus 2 and counting!
Actually really only 1 work day left so I am pretty stoked. I will say that my excitement has grown as the final week has wound down.
It is amazing how many people have come out from all over our small organization to ask to speak with me about personal finance. Beyond the now thirteen 401Ks that I have helped to set up, people just want to pick my brain about how to improve their financial life. Very diverse questions and I am happy to help. This has been a very rewarding portion of my final 8 weeks.
My formal work contributions have basically ceased. It is like I am invisible professionally. Really an odd feeling after so many years of being a “go to” person. No worries on my end, I will be the one smiling on Monday morning while others in management deal with the new product launch. 🙂
Will update in AM with my final day kick off thoughts!
April 1st, 2022 – T minus 1 and counting!
Happy April Fool’s Day Everyone!! I still think it clever that I am retiring on April Fool’s Day! I am actually very funny in my own head!
Survive the next 7+ hours and I am a free man (other than that whole Dear Wife as my true BOSS thing)!
I think the best word to describe how I feel is “giddy”. Kinda like when you are a little kid and you are waiting for summer vacation to start.
A dear family member Facetimed last night and said the funniest thing (at least to me). She is 32ish years old and already a Director with lots of direct reports, climbing the corporate ladder. She said, “Remember what I tell my team — winners only cry on the inside…well, and sometimes on the outside”. 🙂
I want to share one of my favorite and likely lessor know quotes with all of you who are on your FIRE journey:
“Human beings are works in progress that mistakenly think they’re finished.”
This is actually from a brief but excellent TED Talk that is well worth the watch:
Dan Gilbert: The psychology of your future self | TED Talk
FYI, it stuck for me at about 2:15 but if you drag it forward a few seconds it continues.
Wishing all of you a Magical Day!!
BLASTOFF!!!
April 2nd, 2022 – T plus 1
Well, I am officially retired from W2 World. It feels a bit surreal.
My last day was surprisingly, incredibly busy and went super quick. It was like listening to a podcast at 1.5x speed.
I helped a few more people tidy up existing retirement plans. Said a ton of long goodbyes. Had a wonderful team lunch and BAM, the day was over.
The lunch was a surprise as I had my official goodbye party last week. There is an iconic, ancient hot dog joint only 2 miles away from my work. Their hot dogs are insanely tasty. What started out as a road trip for a few people just grew and grew.
Some 20 people wanted to go so instead my dear coworkers took any petty cash the company had (we run an ecommerce business – there is no cash around) and bought as many hot dogs as we had money for and brought them in for an impromptu team lunch. Perfect!
I was a complete pig and ate no less than 4 of these for lunch!
Additionally, I amazingly received just a zillion congrats text messages. Very heartwarming.
Overall, all went as well as it could go. I resisted the urge to cry like a babbling idiot. This could have easily happened as I am a pretty emotional guy. But as a family member jokingly remined me the night before, “Remember, winners only cry on the inside”.
I did come super close to bawling at one point. I think it is worth sharing as it shows how much you can positively impact the lives of others.
Late in the day, Maria, one of the porters (janitors) came to my office with young sidekick to translate her feelings. Maria does not speak any English. Maria is a lovely, super hard working person. She tends to be ignored as just the “cleaning lady” which IMO is a complete miss by so many people. Despite the fact that we communicate through nods, smiles and my terrible attempts at Spanish — we have always shared a mutual friendship. She came over and through her interpreter friend, thanked me for treating her so kindly and making her feel special all the time. This was a super special moment.
My dear wife, who honestly is always wonderful, was super lovely as always. I think she is more excited for me than I am.
So — I’m off on my retirement journey. Will update as I attempt to process 4 deep fried hot dogs and move forward. I would say Happy Saturday but they are all Saturdays now for me!
April 4th, 2022 – T plus 3
My workplace does not use email as often as Slack but I could not pass up the chance to be a wise ass one last time so I set my email out of office to read the following as of Friday:
I have joyously retired on Friday, April 1st 2022 and will NEVER read your email. Have a magical day!
Funny, I think. Well at least the voices in my head thought so.
April 5th, 2022 – T plus 4
Yesterday would have been the 1st day since I retired that I would have been scheduled to work. As such I think a comparison is in order!
What would yesterday have looked like if I did not retire last Friday:
- 4:05am to 4:20 am: Wake up to alarm(s)
- 4:45am: Gym
- 5:45am: Shower and other bodily functions
- 6:15am: Quick breakfast at home
- 6:25am: Commute for 35 minutes
- 7:00am – 4:30pm: Work like a madman (launch week)
- 4:30pm: Commute for 45 minutes (always slower heading home – never quite sure why?)
- 6:30pm: Dinner with dear wife
- 9:00pm: Watch 1st half of NCAA basketball game – Gotta get to bed – Gotta work tomorrow!
- 10:45pm: Bed
What DID yesterday look like?:
- 6:30am: Wake up (no alarm)
- 6:30am – 7:00am: Catch up on some emails
- 7:00am: Gym
- 8:00am: Breakfast at local luncheonette with friends we hardly ever get to see
- 9:15am – 11:30am: Take care of odds and ends around house
- 11:30am: Watch Bob Ross paint (love me some good Bob Ross)
- 12:30pm: Short power nap (I like naps)
- 1:30pm: Shower and other bodily functions
- 2:00pm: Drop off wife’s car for servicing
- 3:15pm: 2 mile walk (gotta walk more often)
- 4:00pm – 7:30pm: Attend HS baseball game (actually got paid $60 to be the official pitch count guy!)
- 8:00pm: Dinner with dear wife
- 9:00pm – 12:30am: Watch entire NCAA basketball game – don’t have to get up tomorrow!
- 1:00am: Bed
Which day would you prefer??? 😉
April 11th, 2022 – T plus 10
Hello MMM Friends: It has been 10 days since I retired from W2 World which makes it a good time to share a few additional musings in no particular order:
- People will likely want to celebrate your accomplishment way more than you likely will want to do so. This was true in my final workplace and also my personal life. I am a pretty much an extrovert but even I am overwhelmed at how many people eagerly want to celebrate my new found freedom. It is frankly a bit exhausting. I love them all for wanting to share and I am deeply touched but it can be a bit overwhelming.
- Money finds you — I had and have no intention of trying to earn anything but semi-passive income at any level unless something amazing strikes my fancy. However, I have already somehow been talked into being the local HS pitch count official for home games. I have a long relationship with local youth sports including baseball so truth be told, I would help out for free. However, this role pays $60 a game and so, I am officiating my 3rd game since retiring later today. It is my mailbox money. Who would have imagined??
- Naps are good! I still get up fairly early. I probably have averaged a 6:30 am wake up since I retired even without any alarm clock help. One of the joys of being free is being able to take a 20 to 30 minute nap midday when I feel like it. Pretty sweet!
April 19th, 2022 – T plus 19
I am nearly 3 weeks into my early retirement and I am happy to report that all is going pretty well!
Here a few additional musings…
The 1st week+ of early retirement feels more like a vacation than retirement. At least it did for me. Not much structure in week one. As I come up upon 3 weeks, I can see some routines forming. Basically what is working for me so far is to structure my morning/early afternoon to be ambitious and then to allow the late afternoon and evening to flow more freely.
Here’s what is in my more structured mornings:
- Physical exercise – hit the gym most AMs. Will likely start jogging outside a bit when NJ finally warms up.
- Reading – been using the morning to catch on personal reading and emails.
- Physical work – mostly projects around the house. Some more fun than others but overall very rewarding to “work” for yourself for a few hours a day.
It is amazing how busy your social calendar can be when you actually give it some planning thought (versus just trying to squeeze in crap around working 50+ hours a week). I cannot tell you how many times I see something neat to do only to realize that it is on a day that I already have plans to do something else neat. Basically not enough free time. Is that possible for an early retiree??
Everybody digests the retirement process differently. My dear wife is somewhat struggling with her transition. I am being as supportive as possible but it is interesting to see it unfold for her emotionally. I think the challenge of working somewhere for 40+ years is much more daunting than working at half a dozen places over the same time period. Stay tuned…
Good People make your world so much better. Went to a wedding this weekend for someone who worked for me 2 jobs ago (about 2 years ago). I got to spend time with some great friends from that workplace. Super great to catch up. Those relationships are everlasting. The work was the work but the relationships are timeless.
—————————–
What a great story, huh!?
I’m looking forward to his Retirement Interview in a few months! 😉
The Crusher says
As always welcoming all questions and comments!
Chris says
Congratulations on winning the game and realizing you don’t need to play anymore. I too, retired on April 1st. However, it was 2020 and covid was in full swing. Offices were closed down and so, I went out like a lamb. What makes it even more surreal, the campus never truly reopened and has since been sold! Silver lining, jobs were saved as worker productivity increased as home-based employees.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope it inspires others to plan for and execute their own personal FIRE plans.
The Crusher says
Thanks Chris! April Fool’s Day seems like the perfect day to FIRE! Kudos to you for being 2 years ahead of me!
MI-226 says
It was such a pleasure to read this particular series. It was like reliving every exciting, tantalizing, and wonderful memory of my own FIRE, now 5.5 short years ago. Your description of the last day of school before summer vacation was spot on! I still feel that excitement every Sunday evening 5+ years later (replacing many years of “Sunday night blues”)…never let that excitement go…it’s one of my favorite parts of retirement!
So many similarities in experiences and emotions. Thank you for sharing! One word…
Awesomeness…
The Crusher says
Hello MI-266:
Thank you so much for reading along. I am so happy to hear that your are thriving 5.5 years into your early retirement. I already am embracing the time independence aspect of our early retirement!
All the best !!
BSue says
Maybe this perspective will help your wife’s transition. Due to a classic consolidation from a corporate merger, my “retirement” was a forced layoff along with a lot of others five years ago. I had worked virtually for the last 15 years, so there was no great send off other than a few emails and instructions on shipping back the laptop.
I hunted for a new full-time job for several months, but I found I was quite particular in what I would not accept – 1 1/4 hour commutes twice a day, 100% in-office work even though the work was world-wide, etc. Fortunately, my financial ducks were in a row, so I just did some parttime marketing work for two remote clients.
Since then, I’ve been able to devote the time needed to deal with two family deaths and managing the estate of one. I’ve also volunteered to the point it’s a 3/4 job.
It’s been an interesting transition, and I’m about ready to drop the part-time marketing work. After all, I don’t want to stay “too long at the fair” and provide obsolete service to the clients.
Please plan to give us a five-year update. I’d love to know how your transition goes longer term. Have a great retirement!
The Crusher says
Thank you BSue. My dear wife is slowly warming to the transition and especially our plans to move from our home of the past 31 years. I think she is finding herself busier than she thought she would be which is a blessing.
Applaud you for not falling into the trap of One More Year syndrome by accepting roles that really do not jive with your desires. Kudos on having your ducks in a row!
MI-285 says
Congratulations on your retirement! Thie line really resonated with me:
The FIRE community and personal finance savvy people in general live in their own world.
I retired/ gleefully recieved a displacement on July 14th. I’m on week 5 of my retirement and it’s glorious! What I also didn’t expect to happen was many friends and old coworkers starting to ask how we acheived this. It’s been awesome to see them start to talk to their planners & significant others about how they too can retire early. I’ve also had countless people say “you’re too young to retire”; however, I just smile and say I’m fortunate to have had a plan.
I hope you and your wife are enjoying your freedom! All the best!
The Crusher says
Congrats MI-285! Welcome to the club!!
I think sharing in a sincere, heartfelt way is about the most noble thing an early retiree can do. After all there is plenty of room in our club. 🙂
All the best!
MI-169 says
Great writeup and congratulations on your retirement! I retired on April 1st 2018, and your story brought many memories of my retirement. Like you I experienced the surrealistic feelings the last month on the job, received many well wishes from employees and vendors I haven’t talked to in years and was bombarded with financial advice questions/requests. I retired from the same company that gave me my first professional job after college. The last building I worked in was just a couple of blocks from the first building I started my carrier in. I had a sense of euphorbia the last working week, but the last few hours were very emotional, I had a very hard time to hold back the tears, after all I devoted over 34 years of my life to this company. As I walked up to my car and turned to see my building for the last time, the tears started pouring.
Enjoy your retirement!
Dan M says
Great story, thanks for sharing.
The Crusher says
Thank you Dan M for taking the time to read my modestly interesting transition story. Glad you enjoyed it.
MJ says
Beautiful write up. It is filled w suspense and anticipation. I enjoyed following along. Looking back, is there anything else u miss about w2 employment, big or small? Also, anything you wished u had done clerically ( optimizing vaca time, bonus timing, etc) prior to officially retiring? Enjoy your much deserved retirement
The Crusher says
Thank you MJ. Mostly I miss seeing many of the wonderful people who I worked with and this is true for most of my career. I try to stay in touch and visit when possible. To me that door never shuts. They are in my heart and surprisingly I am in many of theirs.
I will likely miss some of the engineering problem solving aspects but we are soooo very busy selling our home and relocating to Florida that I have plenty to keep me busy.
In terms of clerically, i think that only thing I would change is I would not give as much advanced notice. I did so to be helpful but in the end my organization squandered the time and made me obsolete prematurely. No hard feelings but lesson learned.
MI 228 says
I, too, enjoyed every word of this. Congratulations and thank you. I agree with the idea that FIRE people live in their own little world. I am on track to retire in 2 years at 55. But I WAS in that other world once upon a time – the world where I thought tens of thousands in credit card debt was normal. I listened to hours of podcasts and followed ESI and Ric Edelman for 5 plus years and then turned things around. #grateful #financialeducation
The Crusher says
Kudos MI 228! 55 is a stunning age. I always have a special chill when anyone beats my FIRE age (56) so kudos!
It was a long journey and a process for us as well. Very exciting!
D says
Well… after my last day of work… I cried all the way home. I loved my career and am incredibly grateful. But, I had a fun bucket list ready to act on… and ran as fast as I could… no regrets what so ever!!!
But anyway… as for working after I retired… I just didn’t want to. I accidentally did get a paid gig playing the harp at a local wine bar for Valentines Day… (basically in the real Mickey’s back yard). The local wine bar wanted a Harpist for Valentines Day, so my neighbor volunteered me. (It’s fun having retired neighbors.) They actually paid me $500 (and free wine… Whaaaaat😮)… I had to keep telling myself how much fun I was having, because I really don’t want to work anymore.
You are right, most people don’t have control of their finances. Sometimes it is so sad to watch, but you can’t help anyone that doesn’t want help either. When they want help, I am all over it.
Great job and hope you and Minnie have a wonderful retirement!!!
The Crusher says
Hi D – I completely get the emotions that you felt. I felt them as well.
I agree that it is hard to watch the financial train wreck of some friends but I do feel a great sense of pride as I help others along their personal journey.
Thank you!
Paulz says
The part about the porter Maria is all I needed to read. I always say watch how people treat the waiters, janitors, and others that serve unnoticed and that will tell you so much about the person.
The Crusher says
Thanks Paultz! I agree completely. I have always bonded with the amazing “worker bees” in the organizations far more than the “stuffed shirts” of senior leadership. The “Maria’s” of the world are the heart of every organization. Funny that of all the people at my last organization, she was the won who brought me closest to a tearful goodbye.