Five Steps to Retiring Now!

Are you dreaming of a new adventure?  Have you had fleeting thoughts of retiring from a long-time career, but don’t know where to begin? Are you burning the candle at both ends?  I was too, until I took control and made some big changes. Here are five steps to retiring now.

The Short Story

I spent 35 years with a company that I loved. It was midsize and entrepreneurial when I started, but new in our local market.  It felt like a start-up, where I was entrusted at a very early age with gigantic responsibilities.  I had access to the big brains at the top, and I thirstily soaked up everything they offered. I knew nothing about the industry, but I was smart and scrappy.  My independence and “watch me” grit, got me to developing and managing a previously non-existent department in under two years. 

Over the years, the company grew to be a world-wide brand. Where it had once been the wild west, wrangling the new frontier, it was now a big city with lawyers and citizens, and a brand to protect.  I heard “let’s try it”, far less frequently than “I’ll get back to you.” Progress grinded to a halt, and the decentralized environment I so loved, had become largely centralized to headquarters.

I loved the early pioneering years where we created pretty much everything. Where I could take risks and ask forgiveness later. Where I learned something new and interesting every single day.  This new environment required more executers and rules followers, and very few innovators.  I started dreaming of starting my own business, of regaining my own control, and making my own decisions.

The Big Idea

Early 2018, I stumbled upon a blogger who piqued my interest with her monthly financial reports.  She was making a significant income travelling the world and blogging.  I had always wanted to be a writer, so this was very interesting to me.  There were a few great bloggers that I started following. I did a lot of research and decided that this would be my “exit plan”.   Next, I invested in an online blogging course, with the idea that I would get it up and profitable in a couple of years and be able to replace my income and work from home.

Well you know how things go with plans, at least for me.  As soon as I make them, some monkey wrench works its way in, and I have to drop back ten and punt. In all honestly, I’m much more comfortable here in the chaos.  It’s where I feel most creative and alive.  

The Pain Point

No sooner had I spent the money for the course, than my job became busier and my 10-hour days became more like 11 and 12-hour days.  I was on the road a lot to our various locations and was catching up on my office work at home.  We started joking about going home for a quick nap before our next meeting in the morning. The lines between home and work blurred even further. The 7 a.m. meetings became a source of resentment because I had been on my laptop at home until midnight the night before.

My life wasn’t sustainable.  I started feeling like I’d never be able to get my business up and running, while continuing to work.  About this same time, I received a random email from our 401k provider about planning for retirement. So, I did what I’d never done before.  I made an appointment with a financial planner.

Bring in the Expert

My husband and I had talked vaguely about my retiring in the next two to five years.  We had been saying that for about five years!  We weren’t really old enough to retire, we were just tired. I made the appointment and we went to find out what we could.  We thought we’d learn that we needed to work another two to five years, putting every dime into savings in the meantime.  Hubby and I both had already been maxing out our 401k. We also had a very healthy safety net of cash to get by on if one of us got laid off or fed up.  But that was a random number, not born of any planning or estimating.  We were simply just living within our means and stashing cash.

Planning to Plan

In preparation for our meeting, we took a good solid look at where our money goes, what was necessity, and what was discretionary spending.  We looked at two years of data to come up with our estimated “must have” number to sustain the life we loved. 

We met with the planner armed with info on every penny we spent and wanted to continue to spend.  This meeting was a huge eye-opener! We learned that both of us would need to continue to work for the next two years, and then I could retire. Hubby would need to continue to work for another five years beyond that in order to cover our benefits and to guarantee we wouldn’t outlive our money – OR –  we could sell our home in the Southern California beach community, buy a new home in a lower cost State, and BOTH retire NOW!

I Had A Dream

I’m a native Southern Californian, and Hubby lived there since he was a year old, so we’re both basically native Californians.  I never thought I’d leave the beach.  But desperate times call for desperate measures!  As soon as I saw that retirement could be a reality, it was no longer a “someday” pipe dream. Suddenly, I thought I would even consider living in a tent in the middle of nowhere just to get off the roller coaster that had become my life.  My “someday” dream became an urgent need, and I was willing to make whatever sacrifice necessary to reinvent myself.  This meeting provided the push we needed.  I’ve always been a “take the leap and build your wings on the way down” kind of decision maker, and this was just too beautiful a view not to jump.

Where Oh Where

We met with my best friend and real estate agent, to talk about selling our home.  Having an idea of how much we should gain from the sale, we started looking at relocation options.  We considered several States, some that really were more appealing than where we ultimately ended up. But, one of our priorities was to be a day’s drive from our California family. 

My daughter and her family, as well as my hubby’s sister both were in Arizona. So, that’s where we pinned our sites.  I honestly never thought I’d live in the desert.  I dislike the heat, and the various venomous creatures that inhabit the area. Still, I liked the idea of a sparkling pool and A/C (which we didn’t have in our beach city home). Also, the flexibility to work (or not), and be involved in our grand kids activities won me over. Arizona it is!

Coming Together

By lowering our spending needs, we figured we could live about a year on our savings. We wanted to avoid needing to have some sort of supplementary income, or having to access our investments.  I’d have a year to get my business up and running (making money). Also, Hubby planned to do some consulting in his former industry.  It was a risk, but a calculated one.  It was definitely a risk worth taking.

We took a road trip to meet with a realtor and tour some homes.  We wanted to see what type of house we could afford, before we put our house on the market.  My mom lives with us, so we wanted to have a comfortable, but somewhat private space for her. We also wanted to have a guest room for visitors.  That first visit was a huge success!  We thought we found our dream home, and all of us were anxious to move forward. 

Little By Little

In late May 2019, we officially put our house on the market.  I had lived in my beautiful home for 20 years and with many upgrades, we had made it our own. It suddenly became a reality that we would be moving, and it was bittersweet.  But the excitement of the future kept me looking forward. 

We both gave notice to our employers.  Mine allowed me to stay as long as I needed. I decided that July 31^st would be my last day.  Two months seemed like it would be enough time to sell the house, buy a new one, and move.  Hubby’s company asked him to work through the end of the calendar year. They also offered to transfer him to their Arizona office.  He retained his position and the teams he managed, but maintained his office in Arizona.  We set December 20^th as his retirement date.

Still No Solid Plan

My company needed my help through the first week of August, so my retirement date was extended a little. This was fine with me because our house hadn’t sold.  In the middle of our plans, the market softened a bit. It took longer to sell than originally anticipated. The waiting was a little exercise in resilience on my part. But in the end, it worked out just fine. Mom couldn’t pack the entire house herself, and there was still so much to do. 

Our original Arizona dream house sold, and we had to make another trip to find another home.  We looked at 15 properties over a long weekend and found our real dream home! Fortunately, our house sold by late August. It sold and we bought the new one all in the same evening. We did it from our cell phones in a hotel room in Palm Springs! We were there celebrating my retirement and year end awards with my former teammates!  That was the most exciting night of the year!

The Plan Materialized

Our escrows were for 30 days, and in hindsight that felt too short.  We had to schedule a lot of inspections before everyone could sign off on the properties. It was a difficult and stressful process in such a short timeline.  I’m thankful that I wasn’t working during that last month.  I’m not sure how I would have handled the transactions, as well as my busy job.  We moved into our new home, in what seemed like another world, by the end of September.

In a Nutshell – Five Steps to Retiring Now

It seems like so much, but it was really quite simple. Here are the steps to retiring now and to get you started on your own journey:

1. What’s your pain point? Identify your why. They say change only happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of change. Incidentally, this quote is credited to Tony Robbins, but I heard that said by a favorite teacher when I was in grade school, LONG before Tony Robbins came onto the scene.
2. Review two years of expenses and income. Organize the data by categories such as mortgage, utilities, insurance, etc. Decide what is necessity and what is discretionary. You may revise and adjust this as your plans solidify.
3. Meet with a financial planner or use an online calculator that your investment company likely provides.  These have many variables you can adjust to create a variety of scenarios to help you feel comfortable with planning.
4. Review all you have learned. Then, decide what life changes you are willing to make to meet your timeline. Be flexible! If you are one of millions of people who are suddenly unemployed, your plan doesn’t have to be perfect now. It just needs to be sustainable for the short term. You can work toward your dream life as you go along.
5. Execute!  It really is as simple as that.  Of course, there are lots of variables you will need to consider along the way. But, line them up and knock them down. You can do it!

Free at Last!

So this is me, almost 7 months later, sans make-up, business suit, and heels, getting my business up and running.  In a round-about kind of way, it looks like I could have my blog profitable two years from when I first bought the course.  It took a pandemic shutdown to get me to stay home long enough to really focus.  Funny how things work out like that, right? I think it’s a God thing.

We are finding our new rhythm and creating our next chapter.  I hope you’re inspired to do the same! Drop a note in the comments if you have any questions, or have your own ideas to share about your own path to Sweet Freedom Living.