Charles: Hi, I am Charles Parker, and this is "The Art of Retirement" podcast, a show about life and retirement and the challenges, opportunities, and unique stories related to it.

Howard: You kind of get to a point where you kinda think about what's really important and you're not so caught up in, you know, who has the most toys, who's got the most expensive toys...

Charles: Today. We're speaking with Howard, who retired early and has found new passions that make the days go by just as fast as when he worked a 40-hour week.

Howard: I did pharmaceutical sales for a little over 32 years.

Charles: Wow.

Howard: Worked in the mental health field for patients who had schizophrenia and bipolar illness, medications to treat those type of illnesses.

Charles: Very commendable. I know quite a few people who have bipolar and I appreciate the work that you did. When did you start thinking about retirement? What age?

Howard: Probably late...I retired at 59 and a half, so probably around 58, I would say. Just started thinking about, maybe a year in advance, that it might be something I wanted to do the following year.

Charles: Were there any sacrifices you had to make in order to have the retirement you wanted, or?

Howard: You know, luckily I didn't. I had done some of the things financially, as I said, you should do, you know, like, participating in 401(k) plan and things like that. And we also had a yearly visit, if you will, with the financial planner who can tell you whether or not you were on target or not on target. So, all of my ducks were starting to starting to line up and it's like, you will have enough money to last you throughout your retirement where you should be, even surpassed it. And I said, "All right, then I'm in pretty good shape." And, you know, the other thing is I was one of the fortunate ones to be able to have a pension as well, so that made it even more doable at that age.

Charles: I gotcha. So did your company match 401(k)?

Howard: They did. They matched the 401(k). They did.

Charles: That's always nice.

Howard: And, you know, toward the end, I think maybe the last five years, the regulations changed a little bit where you could add another $5,000 per year. So, I took advantage of all of that. If you were over 50, I forget what it actually was called, but if you were over 50, you could actually contribute another $5,000 a year. And I think I probably did that for about five years.

Charles: Okay. And the company...

Howard: So I maxed out the 401(k) as well.

Charles: Do you feel like that would be a good idea to meet with a financial person for anyone, or?

Howard: I do, you know, because you don't wanna just go into retirement to just say, all right, I'm stuck and working. You wanna be able to, at least in my mind, I was going with the perspective, I want to be able to maintain pretty much the same standard of living that I had. Even though you're on a fixed income, it's like, I wanna still be able to do the things that I was doing while I was working. And there's some things that, you know, if you don't sit down with the financial planner, you might not be thinking about certain things. Or, you know, for instance, when I first started thinking about it I had planned on staying in the Northeast, you know, and the guy mentioned to me that the high taxes, he says, "You know what, if that's what you wanna do, that's fine. But your taxes are gonna be so much higher if you stay here versus going to a state with lower taxes." And that was a big reason why I did decide to move out of the Northeast due to the high taxes, you know, I wind up saving about $6,000 a year in taxes alone, just by relocating.

Charles: You moved from the Northeast to...?

Howard: To the Southeast. From, you know, New Jersey to North Carolina.

Charles: Oh, okay. And is it just as good, or better?

Howard: Well, it's, you know, it's different in New Jersey, definitely, I'll say that. But it's a different style of living, it's more of a, what I call easy living, just kinda laid back, a little more relaxed, lifestyle. And I'm close enough to the Northeast, New York City where all the action and excitement is when I want to get there and be there within two hours and can head back within a short trip as well. But, you know, taxes are lower and the weather is a lot, you know, I don't have to worry about snowstorms coming through or noreasters, or, you know, things of that nature. So, that was another consideration versus going someplace like Florida, where, you know, it's extremely hot with the humidity. But North Carolina, the weather's pretty good most of the year, you have maybe two months out of the year where the weather, it gets a little chilly, but it doesn't last long.

Charles: So when you were getting closer to retirement, you said you started planning it out six months out. Did you have any reservations or concerns like in that period?

Howard: You know what, in all honesty, I didn't. And that kinda was the thing that kinda let me knew that what I was doing and the timing of it was right. It's like, everything was starting to fall into place, the financial piece of it, the relocation piece, finding an, you know, an ideal spot someplace that you like. Everything was starting to line up. And I really didn't have, you know, any apprehensions or thinking that, you know what, I hope I can do this, or I hope I'm gonna like this, or, you know, it's gonna be a big change for me. I knew that I was gonna try to do some things that I was always doing. I would maybe try and increase my participation and things of that nature. But I didn't have any concerns about whether or not I should retire.

Charles: Okay. Can you tell me a little bit about your transition from working to retirement, what that was like?

Howard: Yeah, well, you know, I just wanted to find enough things to do to try to fill my days. So, I mean, basically, I think the first three months, I just kinda didn't do much of anything, just kind of laid back and kinda relaxed and just took it all in. And, you know, as people say to me now, "How do you like retirement?" It's like, well, what's not to like about it? If you, you know, if you keep yourself busy and you're doing things. So, you know, after three months I thought about taking up golf. I had gotten a gift certificate for a golf lesson. And I took a lesson and like a lot of other people, I kinda got the bug for it. And so, I've been taking a lesson for like the last two years, probably the last three years maybe. And I try to play at least once a week. And, you know, when I'm not doing that, I try to practice in between because it does take a lot of work to get anywhere decent with the game.

And then as time went on, I think maybe the following year, I thought about...I wanted to kinda give back to the community somewhat, and a neighbor of mine had told me about a program at one of the local schools or at the public schools that could use volunteers to help the children read. And so that was something that I thought I'd be interested in because early on in my career I had thought that I wanted to be a teacher. But I didn't go that route. So this was a program where I go in two days a week, I spend about an hour and a half with two or three different kids for about 30 minutes each and just work with them on their reading skills. For the last three years, you know, it's been...the school that I work at is a school that's in a predominantly poor area. A lot of them don't have a male figure at home. And so, I'm kind of paired with them and just try to make a positive impact on their lives and, you know, hopefully they'll come away with how important it is to know how to read and to read well and how important that their education is.

Charles: So you were saying early on before you went into the pharmaceutical industry, you thought about teaching and now this sort of fulfills that need you've had when you were younger?

Howard: Right.

Charles: That's great.

Howard: And I think that's, you know, one of the things about...you know, I was talking to somebody recently about retirement and they had also retired after 30-plus years, but they felt like they hadn't really given anything to society, the type of work they did. And so, I said to her, "Well, you know what, in some respects, I kind of feel like that too, but this is another opportunity that you have to do that. So you can volunteer and just give back in your retirement, even though you weren't able to do that when you were working, as much as you would like." And that's how I kinda, you know, took on this task. And, you know, I don't look at it as something I have to do my entire retirement or that type of thing, but I'll do it as long as I feel like, you know, that I get something out of it. I think it works. And then maybe perhaps at some other point, I'll just move on to something else, maybe, you know, another type of thing to volunteer and give my services too.

Charles: Sure. Do you travel too since you've been retired?

Howard: Yeah. Quite a bit. Well, I traveled pretty frequently even when I was working. I'd go on about two major trips a year. But I would say within the last four years, you know, I've been to Cuba, Israel, and Dubai and in this coming February, I'm heading to Thailand. So, yeah, I knew that travel was definitely something I was gonna continue to do internationally, as well as, you know, a little more. I've done more international travel in my life than domestic. So, I wanna kinda pick up on the domestic too and see a lot of the United States that I haven't seen as well.

Charles: Very cool. Is there anything that stands out about those trips in your mind? I know Dubai's got some huge buildings, very modernist and Israel.

Howard: Yeah. It's kinda like being in a science fiction book or story, you know? It's like everything is the biggest, the best, the fastest, and everything's new. So, it's like, wow, you know? There's no two buildings there, with all those tall buildings, no two buildings look alike. It's an incredible place.

Charles: What might you have done differently?

Howard: Just thinking about like what type of community you wanna live in. So, you know, do I wanna live among other retired people versus being in a community with mixed-age people, or what type of town do you wanna, you know, do you wanna live in? Those type of things. But mainly it's just pretty much about, do you wanna be around younger people or a mix of people or do you just wanna have all your activities surrounding other retired people and people who...you know, like-minded people? That type of thing. I might have thought about that a little bit more. And then the other thing I said, again, I don't know if the outcome would've been different, I think I probably would've still relocated, but maybe taking into consideration the politics of the two states, the state that I'm moving from to the state that I'm moving into. I might have thought about that a little bit too.

Charles: Okay. What advice would you give to someone who's transitioning into retirement?

Howard: Well, I would definitely say you need to start planning at least a year out. That's number one. And I think that you can't wait until you get retired to try to think of things that you want to do, hobbies or interests or things like that. I think the closer you get to retirement, if you're not someone who's already have hobbies or interest, then you need to start developing them close to when your retirement. So that you'll actually know if you're gonna like it, you know? Sometimes you hear stories about somebody say, "I thought I was gonna take up fishing when I retired, but then when I tried it, I really didn't like it." So then you're kind of caught, now you don't know what to do.

So I think what people should do is you get closer to retirement is to start, you know, testing the waters a little bit and doing some of the things that you think you might wanna do in retirement and see if you actually enjoy it. And then if you do, you know, again, you wanna take into consideration if you're gonna relocate or stay where you are or how accessible are those activities where you are, that type of thing. Is that something you can do if you relocate to a certain area, will I be able to do that? If not, then maybe, you know, you might wanna change your options or look at some different options. But I think planning is key for it. And the biggest piece I think, is to have your healthcare. You don't wanna shoot yourself in the foot and not have healthcare. And I think if you retire too soon and don't have healthcare, whether it's Medicare or that your company provides a healthcare for you, I think that's a big mistake. So, I think you need to make sure that that piece is also in place.

Charles: So find activities that you're passionate about and make sure you have enough to cover your healthcare expenses. That makes sense.

Howard: Exactly.

Charles: Okay. Right. So you retired recently and you seem to have a very positive outlook about retirement. I know a lot of people who are going into it are hesitant. They don't know if they're gonna find that passionate thing that they can do for the rest of their life, or they think they wanna do that one thing. And you're still early in there, do you have any plans on how you're gonna continue enjoying your retirement? Do you have other activities that you're looking forward to learning about or other passions too?

Howard: Well, yeah. I mean, like, I always wanted to go back to, not necessarily get another degree or anything, but I also do wanna take some courses. So, you know, I recently found a program at one of the local colleges here for people who are 50 and older. And, you know, they have a number of different...the curriculum changes every six months I believe, but there's a number of different things from, you know, bird watching to wine tasting, to photography and things like that. But I'm actually starting the end of this week for three weeks, taking a course on cinematic perspectives of the African American history. So, this is something I've been kinda looking forward to as well, just finding a course and especially about African American history, something of that nature, that I can take for a couple weeks and, you know, get some more education about certain aspects of the culture. Intrigued me was that it was about African Americans and the cinematic perspective of African Americans in history.

So I'm thinking it's gonna somewhat deal with how we were portrayed first, early on, on television, to the current day and things of that nature. But again, it's just the fact that I think as an African American, there's so much that we don't know about our history and I just thought this was another area where I can look into it and get some more knowledge. But, you know, I also plan on continuing to do more traveling in the future. And like I said, at some point I might even, you know...like, being one to travel, I always had a dream let's say of maybe going to Europe or someplace in South America and maybe renting a home and staying there for three weeks and just kinda seeing the country, something of that nature as well. The other thing, I'm trying to convince myself to go scuba diving at least once. I just recently had a conversation with someone and they loved it and it kinda got me a little interested in it. And initially I was thinking about just doing skydiving once and get that outta the way, but I don't think I wanna lean that way. So I was like, maybe I can do scuba diving if I can do it with a group. So I might try to do that once or twice.

Charles: So what's changed now that you're in retirement and what's stayed similar? Obviously you moved to a new state.

Howard: You know what, I think you just get a opportunity to sit back and reflect on life a little bit. And you kind of get to a point where you kinda think about what's really important and you're not so caught up in, you know, who has the most toys or who's got the most expensive toys, or what's the next thing you can do? You just kinda take a breath and kinda just take it all in. Look, 32 years is a long time to work someplace and nothing, you know, I always tell people that nothing, even for 32 years, nothing runs in a straight line. It's not like, you know, it was great from the 1st year to the 32nd year, so there's some ups and downs. So you were able to ride those bumps and you still came out on top and a lot of the decisions you made, you made the right ones, you know, versus, you know, things like when, you know, stock market goes down, not taking your money out or running or putting it someplace else, but it's like, all right, you know, I listened to some of the advice, I took it, I stayed the course and it all kinda worked out well for me.

So, in terms of changes, I think your attitude is more...at least that's for me, what changed the most for me is that, you know, you got a chance to reflect on your career and things like that.

Charles: Okay. Do you have to budget your finances differently than you did when you were working?

Howard: Yeah, you do. You do. But not to a large extent, I would say. I mean, you know that less money is coming in or you're handling less money, but you have to budget, you know? It's like anything else. You just can't go out and spend, spend, spend, and that's, you know, a whole nother thing, you know, in retirement where, you know, there's a lot of things you really don't have to spend a lot on, like clothes, for example. If you're living in an area where the temperature is pretty consistent, you know, you don't need a lot of...you know, we live in a real casual society right now, so you don't need a lot of clothes as, like, when I was working, I needed a suit, I needed ties, shirts, and, you know, all of that kind of stuff. Now, I think I wore a tie maybe twice in four years.

So, you know, things kinda change. And you just get to the point where...you know, I used to always say...someone said, "Well, do you really need that?" And I'd say, "No, it's not about need, I want it. And I'm gonna buy it." But now I'm at the point where you say this and I'm like, "Well, why would I buy that? I don't need it." You know? I'm retired. I'll get very little use out of it. I won't be able to...It's like, it doesn't make sense, you know. That type of thing. Yeah.

Charles: Well, I think you're very fortunate in that and very smart in that you contributed to your 401(k) so much. Many people when they're younger don't think about that. They don't put as much money in, so I think they might have to budget a little more. But you went the right path, it sounds like.

Howard: Yeah. And I don't understand when people...You know, it's one thing if your company doesn't offer it, but I don't understand when companies do offer it and people don't wanna participate, that part I don't get. Because it's a good deal, especially when they match it, you know, they'll match a certain percentage of it. It's like, look, you know, and if you don't have it, you won't spend it. But if you have the extra cash on ya, you tend to spend it, just because it's there.

Charles: So what do you enjoy most about retirement? I mean, you talked about being able to reflect, about taking classes and golf. Is there anything else?

Howard: I think the fact that I'm able to consistently live the same lifestyle that I lived before. So meaning that I'm able to travel, I'm able to go out for nice dinners in nice restaurants, that I'm doing what I wanted to do. So I did wanna do something in retirement with kids, that was one of my goals. It's like, I wanna do something with kids. And I wasn't exactly sure of what type of thing I wanted to do with them, but the tutoring kind of works. I kinda enjoy that, I look forward to seeing the kids, you know, twice a week and seeing the progress they make over the semester and things of that nature. And just being able to see different parts of the country, to be able to do things spontaneously, I think is another piece to it.

So for instance, when you're working, you know, everything revolves around pretty much on doing things on the weekend or when you're on vacation. But, you know, being retired, a Tuesday night can be my Saturday night event that normally happens on a Saturday night, you know, Wednesday night. And you can kind of be spontaneous. If you see something it's like, look, hey, three weeks there's something coming up if you wanna do it, whether it's a short trip to drive someplace or to fly someplace you can do it without thinking, nah, I really can't do this, I'm gonna have to take time off work, I really wanted do this, that type of thing, you know? So I think the spontaneity of it's another nice piece to it.

Charles: Okay. The freedom to do whatever you want whenever you want. Yeah.

Howard: Exactly. Yeah.

Charles: Is there anything that's...

Howard: But like I said, it takes planning. It's not something that just happens, you know? You know, I've had friends and stuff that just retired and stopped working and think they're ready. And it's like, yeah, but that's not really...you know, how long is that gonna last, you know? But I think you really have to plan, you know, to have the lifestyle that you wanna have in retirement.

Charles: So you mean...

Howard: You know, like anything else.

Charles: Is there anything that you don't particularly enjoy about retirement?

Howard: No. Actually not, you know? I enjoy waking up, you know, in the morning not having to rush out of the house. I can, you know, sit down and have my two or three cups of coffee and read the newspaper, you know. And, you know, that type of thing. I mean, the other thing I did mention too is like activities and I recently took up yoga too. So, I'll do that once or twice a week too. But, again, it's the leisureness of it, of retirement life, that you don't have to rush to do things or everything, you know. I'm not in a major city, you know, where I have to be on defense all the time and just can be a little bit more laid back or relaxed and just pace yourself as you wanna go. And, you know, if I normally do something on Monday and this Monday I don't feel like doing it, then I don't do it. I can do it on Wednesday. That's the option that I have as being retired. I'll do it on Wednesday. I'll be fine.

Charles: All right.

Howard: Yeah. Yeah.

Charles: So, you mentioned the tutoring and that, that reaffirmed your love of teaching. Is there anything else that sort of surprised you pleasantly after you retired?

Howard: Pleasantly surprised me? I don't know if it's pleasantly surprised, but I will tell you what did surprise me and it's not gonna be that profound. But as someone when I was working, I was in sales so I was driving from client to client and the days just flew by. And I always assumed that the reason why the days flew by is because I wasn't sitting behind a desk, that I was going from client to client, and that's how my days went by. Now, even as someone who's retired, the day goes by quickly. And it's like, you can't, you know, you can't be retired and lay in bed to 10:00, 11:00 because before you know it, the day is gonna be over. So, you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, but you can get up at 8:00, like, you can be leisure and you still gotta get going to do what you wanna do because before you know it, the day is gone. And that's something that kinda surprised me. I thought that the, you know, that days would seem longer. It's like, wow, okay, so what am I gonna...you know, that the days would seem longer. And they go by just as fast when you're working as when you're not working. At least for me.

Charles: Okay. So last question. What is your advice for anybody who's about to retire? What would you tell them to do? Your best piece of advice?

Howard: Again, I would say planning, you wanna plan your retirement. And, you know, I would try to get together with somebody or read a couple of, you know, magazines or books or something just to make sure that you're on the right path. And I think you need to start thinking about what you wanna do in retirement. And I know for males, they say it's a lot harder than for females just because we identify more with the type of work that we do. But I think you need to, you know, you need to try to think about what kind of interest you have and if you really wanna do it. And like I said, don't necessarily wait until the last minute, all right, now I'm retired. Okay. So I'll take up this. Because then you might not like it, or it might not work.

But just take a few things, you know, hobbies or interests and start pursuing them. And then you can build on it as you retire. I mean, you know, there's certain things like, you know...years ago I played tennis a little bit. So I might at some point go back to try and take tennis lessons and play tennis. But just other, you know, if other courses come along that I might find interesting, I'm gonna get more involved and take some more things of that nature. But I think you need a plan in retirement. If you wanna a well-transitioned retirement, then you need to plan and you need to make sure that as much as possible, all your ducks are lined up in a row. And as I said earlier, I think a key piece that you don't wanna forsake, is your healthcare.

If you don't have health insurance, you don't wanna...I think you might as well...you wait till 65 for Medicare to kick in, and at least you'll have health insurance, because that's a big piece of it. And I also think that people shouldn't...I think there's a downside to waiting too long to retire. So, when I did it, I did it on maybe on the younger side. And maybe everybody can't do it at 59 and a half, and I realize that. But I also think that waiting too long...I mean, I met someone recently who told me she was 72 and she said, "I'm scared to death of retirement. So that's why I haven't done it."

Charles: Oh my gosh.

Howard: And I'm like, well, you know, if you wait too long, then you know, as we all age, your health goes down and different things like that. And you're not gonna be able to do a lot of the things you wanna do, especially the physical things, you know? Whatever your hobbies are, tennis or golf or whatever. And so I think there's a downside to waiting too. But I think you have to be ready for it too, and that's why you wanna start a year early thinking about it. And in some cases, maybe even five years out, just thinking about where you wanna live, you know, and maybe visiting those places like, as a vacation and spending a week or two there to see if this is a type of place you wanna live. And then as you get closer, just starting to scratch off your list, your to-do list, everything that, you know what? I've checked out this, this works, this is gonna be okay, and that your plan it's pretty solid. But you need to plan for it. That's definitely a key piece.

Charles: Well, that is some great advice, Howard. Thank you so much for talking to us today.

Howard: Okay.

Charles: Thanks so much for listening to the show this week. You could subscribe to our program at iTunes or on our website at allworthfinancial.com. If you have a retirement story you'd like to share, you can also write us at theartofretirement@allworthfinancial.com. I'm Charles Parker, and you've been listening to "The Art of Retirement" podcast from Allworth Financial.

Man: This podcast has been brought to you by Allworth Financial, a registered investment advisory firm with the Securities and Exchange Commission.