By Nicholas Hamner
Investment Advisor Representative, Director of Marketing & Operations
[email protected]
Back in June, we ventured down to Alabama to see my family. My mom retired part-time in her 60s to help take care of family and then retired full-time a year or so ago to take care of her own health. My dad is 72, still runs a business with my brother, isn’t retired and—more importantly—doesn’t want to retire. It’s becoming a little bit of an issue—some customers would prefer to work with only my brother, longtime business contacts have quit reaching out, the situation can be tense at times—but he’s steadfast in going to work every day. Why?
When we talk with folks who are considering retirement, we ask three questions:
- Do you have enough?
- Have you had enough?
- Do you have enough to do?
Do my parents have enough? They were lifelong savers and savvy earners, much to the chagrin of three kids who never got a remote control toy at Christmas with batteries included. Plus, they invested well. More importantly, given the health issues that run in our family, my parents did a good job protecting themselves by doing the heavy research on Medicare supplements. Yes, they have enough.
Has my dad had enough? That question is tricky, because it usually boils down to “Have you had enough of your coworkers and your boss?” For nearly everyone out there—whether they’re in their 60s and days from retirement or 16 and going through orientation at their first job—that answer is unequivocally “yes”. But my dad runs his own business and only just made my brother a partner in the company a few years ago. If you ask my dad, he’s got the greatest boss in the world and has a great job.
Finally, does he have enough to do? And this is the big one. He doesn’t golf, doesn’t hunt, and they live on a lake so fishing lost its luster years ago. They can’t really travel, he doesn’t drink or socialize outside of church, he doesn’t collect cars or boats, and my mom forbade him to buy any more coins, stamps, or whatever he happens to find in the Lowe’s clearance aisle. If he retired today, he’d just sit around the house. So the answer there is no, he doesn’t have enough to do.
As an aside, if you ask my brother, my dad’s retirement decision is really just a question of whether he falls asleep in a chair at the office or at the house, but that’s beside the point.
What do you do when the whole world tells you you’re supposed to retire but you just don’t want to?
As with anything, the experts are split. Experts in this case are psychologists and while two psychologists is a discussion, three psychologists is an argument. Opinions are going to vary! One group says if you’re not ready to retire, don’t. Keep doing what you’re doing so long as you enjoy it. Opponents of that school of thought are typically the ones impacted by the person staying at work. Subordinates who want their position, HR teams who want that high salary off the ledger, etc. Another group says you should retire but stay active, redirecting your energy into things that benefit you and the world at large. Charity, mentoring, all those feel-good words. And yet another prevailing school of thought is that you should retire once you can afford to while you’re still young enough and mobile enough to enjoy it. Working so long that you condemn yourself to the office-to-nursing-home pipeline is a little too direct and brutally depressing. We talk about the go-go, slow-go, and no-go stages of retirement enough… this group wants you to get out of the workforce while you still have time to go-go and to go enjoy the fruits of your labor. There is no consensus, and there is no right answer. The choice is yours.
Another aspect is a sentiment so often ignored and overlooked that I’m going to make it a fourth question we ask. And I mean it!
Here it is:
- What would your loved ones like you to do?
David Letterman famously retired from his late-night show on CBS and then popped back up with a Netflix series a few years later. Questioned about the decision to return to work, he said, “If you plan on retiring to spend more time with your wife and kids… check with your wife and kids first.” He was joking, obviously, but considering your loved ones should be in that list of priorities. Is your significant other happy sitting around the house while you’re still doing a 9-to-5 gig? Do they want you to keep working or would they like you spending time with them? How about your kids? Your grandkids? What would they like you to do?
What should my dad do? That’s his decision. But I know what I would do if I were in his position, and I know what I plan to do years before then. We all plan for retirement with the understanding that one day we will retire. When we can ditch the workweek for six Saturdays and a Sunday. Swap the slacks for shorts, and the commuter car for the golf cart. Ferris Bueller once said, “The world moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you might miss it.” I don’t plan on missing many chances to look around!