Retire Happy: How to Navigate Your Retirement Transition with Joe Kuhn

When we think of retirement, it often evokes dreams of leisure, relaxation, and the freedom to pursue one's passions. Yet, the decision to retire is not merely about leaving a career; it's about embarking on a new chapter filled with purpose and fulfillment. Joe Kuhn, a seasoned retiree and creator of the "Joe Kuhn Loves Retirement" YouTube channel, shares valuable insights gained from his personal journey.

Retiring to Something, Not Just From Something
Rather than focusing solely on leaving behind the stresses of work, Joe advocates for retiring to something meaningful. His emphasis on having specific plans, hobbies, and activities in retirement resonates with the idea that the transition isn't just a departure; it's an arrival into a new, purposeful phase of life.

Slow Travel and the Joy of Unplanned Adventures
James and Joe discuss the concept of "slow travel," an approach that involves savoring the journey rather than rushing to the destination. By embracing the beauty of unplanned adventures, he emphasizes that retirement opens up the possibility for individuals to explore at their own pace, fostering a deeper connection with the world around them.

Adaptability and Embracing Change
Joe shares the evolution of his retirement plans, demonstrating the importance of being open to change. Unforeseen events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, forced him to reevaluate his consulting work, inspiring his YouTube channel’s transformation into a retirement coaching platform. Joe's story underscores the resilience required in retirement, encouraging individuals to navigate the uncertainties with flexibility and a willingness to explore new paths.

Slowing Down and Recognizing Stress
Joe reflects on the shift from a high-stress, task-oriented mindset to a more relaxed and balanced lifestyle. The act of slowing down, evident even in routine tasks like mowing the lawn, becomes a metaphor for the broader shift in priorities during retirement. Joe's candid revelation about being unaware of the stress he carried during his working years prompts listeners to reconsider their own well-being and the impact of stress on health.

Spending Less and Financial Realities
Contrary to expectations, Joe reveals that he is spending significantly less than initially estimated. Adjustments in car usage, changes in insurance, and a transition to streaming services contribute to this surprising revelation. It is important to carefully assess finances and the need to adapt spending habits in retirement based on changing circumstances.

Confidence to Spend and Seeking Support
Joe addresses a common fear amongst retirees – the confidence to spend money. Despite having sufficient resources, many individuals hesitate due to economic uncertainties. Joe advocates for seeking support, such as from financial advisors, to gain confidence in financial decisions. Retirement is not just about financial planning; it's about developing the confidence to enjoy the fruits of one's labor.

Joe Kuhn's journey through retirement offers unique insights for those contemplating or navigating this significant life transition. From the importance of retiring to something meaningful to the adaptability required in the face of unforeseen challenges, Joe's experiences provide a roadmap for creating a fulfilling retirement anchored in purpose, flexibility, and financial mindfulness.

Timestamps:
0:00 Emotional prep for retirement 
1:34 Joe retires at 54
4:54 Fear versus time
10:04 Retire to (not from) something
14:57 Try different paths
19:44 Adjust to a slower pace
24:42 Release hidden stress
26:55 Spending in retirement
30:48 Retirement support groups
34:39 Words of encouragement

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Getting your finances dialed in is only one part of a successful retirement transition. Beyond just having the financial boxes checked, there's also a fear of the unknown that tends to hold people back from the decision to actually retire. On today's episode of Ready for Retirement, I have guest Joe Kuhn with me, who recently went through that retirement transition and is here to share what he learned so that you can apply the same principles to your situation. This is another episode of Ready for Retirement. I'm your host, james Cannell, and I'm here to teach you how to get the most out of life with your money. And now on to the episode. I am joined today by Joe Kuhn. Joe, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 0:37

I am very excited to be here, james. Well, I'm excited for you to be here too, joe, I think when we look at retirement we're conditioned to believe, or maybe we think that it kind of comes down to a math problem. You know, how big is my portfolio need to be? Run the numbers, when do I collect social security? Run the number, what does health insurance need to look like? Which are all obviously very important things. But people then get to retirement age or they check the boxes, they run the numbers, they say, hey, this is very doable. But there's still a big hang up in a lot of people's minds and I think that hang up is kind of the emotional side or the fear of the unknown, and I thought who better to come on the show and talk about that than someone who has retired, who has his own YouTube channel dedicated to helping people understand what that transition was like, how he did this, and hopefully just have some open, candid feedback of what that transition was like for you, if you don't mind sharing.

Speaker 2: 1:27

That sounds exciting. Good, let's go.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Well, this is what jumped out to me initially about you, joe, is you were in a corporate job, you retired. Early retirement means something different to everyone, but you retired at age 54. What prompted that decision?

Speaker 2: 1:43

Yeah, well, the first thing is my intention was to retire at 55. My dad retired at 59. And my mom and dad, they always told me, man, we just loved our 60s. And I'm sitting there saying, well, the 60s were good, I mean, 50s maybe a little bit better, and I've always lived fairly modestly and I just said I've got enough now. But that wasn't enough to make the transition. It was I had a niche that I've learned around reliability and maintenance of equipment Not exciting to anybody listening here, but reliability and maintenance of equipment it's kind of a coaching that I was doing.

Speaker 2: 2:33

I'd love developing people, sharing information with the next generation and in my job, 50% of my job I just loved I was working with a lot of people, got to help them, but then 50% just got repetitive. I was in this corporate America for 32 years, loved my job, absolutely loved my job. Would choose my career over again, but I felt like I was just wasting 50% of my time doing the same thing over and over again and I had this itch to really start my own consulting business, just work very part time, maybe 10, 15% of the time and then help people with what I've learned about reliability and maintenance. That was unique. And do I want to do that when I'm 64 or went on 54? So I picked 54. And I didn't and you hear this a lot and I've heard this on your channel is I didn't want to be 70 and look back and regret that I didn't try to start my own business. I didn't spend my 50s where I wanted to spend my time. I didn't want that regret.

Speaker 2: 3:44

Now, yeah, there is a lot of fear when you retire that early. What could happen over the next 35 years? But two things for me. One I mentioned regret. I didn't want that regret and maybe this is unique about me, but I don't like fear being a reason I do or don't do something. If I, that just makes me want to jump, you know, jump like okay, I'm not doing this because I'm scared. I'm not doing this because everybody else isn't doing this. So fear I don't like being a reason. My background is in engineering, so I like a lot of data and being scared just is something I just don't like influencing my decision. So that's why.

Speaker 1: 4:34

I'm curious, joe, you mentioned that parents, retired, say 60 and so you said, well, the 60s are great, how much better could 50s be? Something that I do not always, but something I notice with a lot of people and helping clients retire is sometimes the unspoken, maybe even not necessarily true, but that expectations of parents, a lot of people. They continue working because they say, well, my parents worked until they were 70 or until they couldn't work any longer and they almost feel this burden that I need to do the same, not everyone, but I'm wondering if that was reversed for you in a way, did you almost feel like because parents did, that it was easier to transition out? Or do you not feel as if they played a part?

Speaker 2: 5:13

Well, you know they were role models. They were the closest role models that I had that had retired. So all you know I got a lot of evidence on neighbors and friends. But your parents, you're living that and so, yeah, I think that was not an expectation by them at all at all, but it was just their experience to that. My dad worked for the US government, had a government pension and all that and it just worked out well for them. So, yeah, I think you're exactly right. What you know, just as a child, you know your parents. I'm sure my kids will say the same thing someday in the future about me, maybe they'll retire at 45.

Speaker 1: 5:54

They say good for them. You mentioned that you don't like to be driven by fear, which I think is wonderful. That being said, I'm sure there still were fears, and as you're approaching 54, 55, now you made the leap at 54. I'm curious what were some of those fears that began bubbling up about retirement?

Speaker 2: 6:13

Well, the biggest one, and this is not going to be news to anybody but fear the unknown. I mean I went to school to learn. I went to engineering school to learn. I got a job to provide, to make money. Your whole career is, you know. You're trying to build and make more money, get more responsibility, whatever it happens to be, and then you want to jump into the unknown abyss. The easiest thing to do is to keep working. I mean I put four. You know well, I have four great kids, okay, from 33 down to 26. And they're all engineers, super proud of them, great, great kids. And I paid about half of their college, got my house paid off and all that.

Speaker 2: 7:01

So here at 54, these are the money earning years, you know, and it's people look at you like you're crazy. I mean I was making my top salary the day I retired and it's just a crazy thing to do. You're not trained for it. So just that fear of the unknown. What am I doing? If I work one more year, look how much more money I can save. If I work two more years, look how much money I can save. But what kept gnawing at me, james, is my time, and it was just like half the day I was doing great things half the day. I'm rolling my eyes, I'm like I'm not again. We've done this before. I know how it's going to turn out. And I just everybody eventually makes this decision. Some, you know, I made it 54,. Some people make it 50, some people make it 70. You stop trading time for money. Everybody makes that decision. When's it going to be? So?

Speaker 2: 8:05

Number one is just fear of the unknown. And you know, as a subset of that is like, look what I'm giving up. Oh my gosh, look what I'm giving up. But you know I did have enough money because I was raised middle class. You know I still drive. People make fun of me. My neighbors, my neighbors that are going to work, all make fun of me. I drive a car. That's, you know, it's got 193,000 miles on it and it's a hand me down for my wife and it's a minivan. So what am I driving a minivan for? You know I don't drive that much. You know I'm just not into a lot of things, a lot of stuff I like. I like experiences and relationships much more now. So my biggest fear was, you know, just of the unknown regrets. You know I mentioned that earlier. Did I want to be 70? And say, boy, I could have retired when I was. How many 80 year olds do you talk to that? Say boy, I wish I would have worked two or three more years, right.

Speaker 2: 9:04

You know it's not, nobody says that. So that was. And I, you know I've got some things I want to work in later around. You know I was quite naive about a few things. I had enough money. You know I didn't have millions or anything like that that I could just be a drunken sailor. But you know the math worked out good for me and how I'm living now and have some go-go spending time. But it was really just what am I giving up, boy? This is not the conservative route, this is the radical route. Just to retire, you know, five, six, seven years earlier than what most people are doing. That was really the main thing, be it with the unknown and giving up what was pretty darn good.

Speaker 1: 9:54

I'd love to dig into that a little bit more before we go on to which of these fears of the unknown materialize, versus which maybe just prove to be fears, but maybe slightly irrational fears. You have this combination, as I see it, of you're in your peak earning years. You just put four children through college. You maybe just went through the most expensive time of your life in doing that. You have that combined with you do really enjoy certain aspects of your job. It's not like you were miserable, it sounds like and couldn't wait to get out of there.

Speaker 1: 10:23

On top of that, you almost have these societal pressures. You talk about your neighbors going to work. It's you're in your peak earning years. It's celebrated. You should save more, get a bigger house, spend more. All of that almost pressure to continue working. How did you frame or contrast that with what you're saying, joe, of I don't want to live with regrets, I don't want to be driven with fear? Was there specific exercises you went through? Were there specific conversations you had? What really allowed that to actually materialize and not just get kicked down the road in?

Speaker 2: 10:54

depth. Well, believe me, I've talked to a lot of retirees that you know. I worked for one company, my whole career, one company. I knew a lot of people that retired and you talked to them and just benchmark them my parents were probably paramount in all this but you talk to these people and there's not a single one of them that says they wish they would have worked longer. You know, it's not a single one of them.

Speaker 2: 11:17

So, hey, whenever you can move on out, the other thing that is really important to me and I highly encourage this on my videos is you gotta retire to something, not from something. So the question you're asking is boy, how did you make that decision? Well, that's one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is what are you gonna do? What's that unlock for you? Okay, you got total control of your time. My wife and I travel a lot. We traveled with our kids, went on these vacations, went to Yellowstone, went to Florida, did all those kinds of things. But you know, in my early 50s, when we were traveling, you know I could be gone a week, could be gone two weeks. You know you could hurry up. You go on vacation. You gotta hurry and get there, hurry and get back.

Speaker 2: 12:14

Well now we just take slow vacations. You know, we went out to Utah once and we didn't know when we were coming back. We just said, hey, let's go. We didn't make reservations, we wanted to see the five national parks out there and just did slow travel. So, you know, taking double the amount of vacations and not spending wild money. We're not going on Alaska cruises, you know, every year, but we did like to travel.

Speaker 2: 12:43

My kids live all over the United States and going and seeing them so started to crystallize, really get specific on what you're gonna do. In the first six months I retired, I took three trips and we knew what trips those were going to be Okay and so we had that detail. We went down to Mexico to see some family. We went to Florida and we had a wedding in the Richmond Virginia area and stayed there for a couple of weeks. So we had these exciting things to look forward to.

Speaker 2: 13:14

In addition to, I wanted to start consulting the pass on. You know, maybe, like I said, 10, 15% of the time, to pass on some information to the next generation, to that maintenance manager and plant manager, that they're 30, 40 years old. And you know I've made a lot of mistakes. I've learned a lot of things. I want to pass that on to them. So that to me is what bridged. It was what I was retiring to, because it's really financially it's kind of a dumb thing to do to retire at 54. He said it makes so much more sense financially to retire at 58 or six. So much more comfortable, so much more you know, less stress with money. Maybe I could you know, maybe I can you know, buy a newer car or something like that. But got to look at that other side of the coin. What's it enabled you to do? And then there were a lot of. That was my pre-thinking. But then there were some surprises too that I'm sure we'll talk about later. So what surprised me in retirement? All to the good.

Speaker 1: 14:25

Yeah well, you're almost making decisions from what I'm hearing you say, joe, I'm correct if I'm wrong, you're almost making decisions from the standpoint of what decisions will my future self be glad I made, as opposed to what decisions will my future self regret? And the hard part there is your future self is going to want you to make the decisions that today are sometimes harder to make. It is making a difficult decision of stepping away from something and you're thinking earn and bear, so stepping away from something when there is that fear of the other side. One more question I want to get to.

Speaker 1: 14:59

What were some of these surprises? What were some of the things that maybe you wish you knew before retiring? That you do know Now. You retired at 54, when do you feel as if you had that sense of what you were retiring to was crystallized, was it, hey, by 50 I knew exactly what I was going to do, in just a matter of working through to being the age of being able to do it. When did you start to have that sense of what you were retiring to?

Speaker 2: 15:23

Well, I would say probably around 51, 52. I had a job with the company I worked for where I was an internal consultant to them on reliability maintenance the same thing I wanted to retire to but for four years I did that globally. I traveled around the world and would work with plants and maintenance managers on this, so I had a taste of what it was like and what worked, what didn't work and what I enjoy doing so. But the reason I'm laughing is I'm doing very little of that right now. I think retirement, if you think. You know, I don't know what it would be like for other people, but I was confident hey, I'm going to retire, I'm going to do reliability and maintenance consulting. I'm going to do this for about five years. It'll be six years, get to 60, stop it all, but just do the coaching and the developing of people and feel good about that. Well, I retired at the beginning of 2019. Guess what happened in 2020? Yeah, something happened. All my consulting went away, all of it. Everybody stopped, locked down, everything went away.

Speaker 2: 16:35

And then I kept making videos. Okay, and I started making videos on that topic and kept making videos. And then somebody asked me. They said, well, hey, how old are you? And I said I was 54 and they said, well, how were you able to retire? So I just made a vid. I was making videos on reliability and maintenance and, to supplement, go into plants and working with them and just giving away information. I felt that need to give away to the next generation. How does the next generation learn? They learn on YouTube. My kids are all this age. They learn everything. So I said I'm gonna make these videos on being a maintenance manager, plant manager.

Speaker 2: 17:18

Well then COVID hit and everything all changed. And then, like I said, somebody asked me about retiring early and so I made one video and it got like 100 times the views. So then I just started making videos on what I was thinking about, what I was doing, what concerned me, what surprises I had, and then my channel just morphed into retirement coach and, yeah, that's been the transition for me. So I write for a couple of magazines on reliability maintenance, I speak at a couple of conferences, but that's very little time. It really is little time. I'm having fun with that, but right now I'm doing a lot more reliability maintenance. I was doing some coaching one-on-one coaching with people that wanted some help through that transition and making videos and just loving it. But I'm doing something completely different than what I thought, and I think that's what's super cool about retirement is you get to try these journeys on.

Speaker 2: 18:28

I used to fish a whole lot. When I retired I went fishing a lot. I don't fish at all anymore and I kind of got that out of my system. I spend a lot of time learning. Right now I've got a retirement group. I just love that. There's five retired people and we talk about different historical topics and how they apply to today. What can we learn about them in our life today? We studied Fidel Castro last month and this month coming up, it's gonna be on Teddy Roosevelt and just fascinating things. So I've probably had 10 different journeys in five years of retirement and so being fixated on saying hey, I gotta pick the perfect one and I'm gonna stick with it for 10 years, that's not been my journey.

Speaker 1: 19:20

Well, I think that's so important for people to realize. And, by the way, just as a quick aside for anyone listening or watching, check out Joe's channel. It's Joe Kuhn, K-U-H-N is the channel name, and then I believe your handle Joe is Joe Kuhn loves retirement. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 19:33

You just type in Joe Kuhn, and I'll come up.

Speaker 1: 19:35

Perfect. K-u-h-n. Joe Kuhn. Thanks. One person I remember.

Speaker 1: 19:40

He commented on a video he did on YouTube and it was something about everyone has these concerns and they'll say it one way or the other. I'm afraid to retire. Because I retire on a Friday, what do I do the next Monday? Now, what do I do? And I remember one person he put it.

Speaker 1: 19:57

He said the first six months were very difficult, but it wasn't necessarily that he changed things around that much. And in month seven and beyond, he said we're incredible. He said I was still doing the same things. It just was reprioritizing the order in which I do some of these things. And I don't even remember what it was, but it was like go into this group of people. He enjoyed working out, reading and something or other. Is it even just shifting the order in which I did things?

Speaker 1: 20:25

Revitalized my retirement, and so I think that what you're speaking to, joe, is have something to retire to, but also you're kind of learning a brand new skill set. Yeah, and when you were first getting into college or first getting into your job or first starting a family, did you have everything figured out? No, you thought you knew what to expect and you worked hard and you worked diligently and then you figured it out. The difference, I think, is when you're starting college or starting a job or starting a family, there's some pressures on you to learn it, to get better at it, or else Versus retirement, I think it is very easy just to drift and not have those self-imposed pressures. What were the biggest surprises in your mind either positive or negative as you went through that transition?

Speaker 2: 21:10

The, you know, going through the transition. First thing is, for the first couple of months it felt like I was on vacation. My mind kept thinking about work and, you know, hey, send this person an email, hey, don't forget about this. So it took a couple of months to realize that you weren't going back to work.

Speaker 2: 21:30

Another thing that was hard for me is and I know a lot of people that listen to your channel and mine is their achievers. You know, if you're talking about retirement, you're a high achiever and in retirement, you know, I had this list of things, this kind of comical. I had a list of things the last like year before I retired. I'm right down, I want to do this, I want to do this. These were jobs around the house, things I wanted to just fix up, and I'm saying, oh, this ought to take me like three, four years. I had it done in like two months. My to-do list is like I'm just because I was task-oriented, let's get it done, let's get it done, let's get it done.

Speaker 2: 22:07

And one of the hardest things for me was, you know, and one of the hardest things for me was to slow down. I was rewarded for years for being able to go 100 miles an hour to multitask, get a lot of things done in a day In retirement. That's not necessarily winning, so slowing down. Just as an example, I used to like cut my grass, okay, and I would just cut it straight through. It takes me about an hour and 20 minutes to do everything. Well, now I take about an hour break in between. You know, I cut the front grass and then I'll just sit down and I'll watch YouTube videos, maybe listen to music or do something else, and then I'll go back and if somebody calls me and said, hey, joe, you want to go golfing or go fishing or go shoot skid or something, I'll say, hey, fine, let's go. The really just the pace slows down.

Speaker 2: 22:59

Another thing in this this, you know it's hard to say what's number one, but one that I was embarrassingly wrong on, was stress. If you would have asked me the day before or anytime of my career and you would have said, hey, joe, are you under stress? I said you're crazy. I just love this, I love it, I love what I'm doing. It was exciting. The production, manufacturing, war production, the environment in production and manufacturing is exciting. There's highs and lows, there's wins, there's losses. I love manufacturing and I just love the game, kind of like being quarterback of a football team.

Speaker 1: 23:40

What do you mean? I love this, I love this and I'm not under stress I, no, I'm not.

Speaker 2: 23:46

I love my job. And then when I retired, it was like setting down a 10 pound weight that I was carrying around with me. I had no idea, because we were a 24 seven operation, 365. Christmas day was another day of manufacturing, that's that this process had to run continuously and I I was caught off guard by that. Just just having meetings, expectations, presentations, you know, giving your opinion, taking risky positions, all those demands, all those demands on me safety, environmental, I was always. You know. I got a call at 10 o'clock at night. It wasn't a good call, so I did call me up and say, hey, everything's running great at the plant, joe, nobody you know they don't do that.

Speaker 2: 24:35

So stress and you know, since I retired, a couple other surprises related to this was you know how many sicknesses and you know physical health is related to stress, what that causes, and I started focusing a lot more on my health. I'm down 35 pounds from the day I retired. Well, I actually I've always exercised, but I started eating better. I was a stress eater and I didn't. I didn't even know what was going on. I didn't even know I was under pressure and stress. I was one of those guys that said I love my job and smile and I said I'm here crazy for you Ask me that question. I can't imagine doing anything else. So that that was a big surprise for me is is that I was under stress.

Speaker 1: 25:27

Do you find, joe because I know you've consulted people on that retirement transition has that been a similar theme, even with people you've consulted, of being under that stress but not maybe consciously realizing it?

Speaker 2: 25:38

Well, yes, it's a constant theme that I'm throwing out, but most people aren't catching because I think they're in their, I think they got blinders on, like I did. Oh, I love my job, I love you know, I'm not under stress, I like what I'm doing. Well, you said an alarm clock in the morning. What are you thinking about Sunday night? You know what are you thinking about Monday? Are you happy? It's Monday? You know you got all these little pressures that you're just. You don't even know you're a fish in water and you don't even know there's water. You ask a fish what water is and they'll go what, what do you mean? What's, what's what's? You don't even know about it. So I think most people don't realize it till they're on the other side and they said, oh my gosh, I didn't even realize this was going on. Stress is a big deal and we don't talk about enough. I don't. I think, as a as a guy, as a man, that's a sign of weakness to say you're, you're under stress.

Speaker 1: 26:36

Yeah, yeah, very interesting that. The fish analogy, I think, is perfect there. Don't realize it until you're out of it, just because it's been so long and you've been conditioned to believe that's just what it is. One thing. So obviously there's the the what am I going to do, what am I retiring to? That's a big concern of people's. The other is, just put simply, how much am I going to spend? I think I'm going to spend this amount. Does that actually pan out to be what I'm going to spend? Yes, how was your specific experience? Just related to how much you thought you might spend in a retirement compared to what you actually did spend.

Speaker 2: 27:09

The short version is I'm spending 80% of what I thought I was going to spend. Ok, now, that's not what my 80% of my salary. Like you read some places, I'm an engineer, so I have a spreadsheet and I was listing here's what I think my expenses are going to be in retirement. Ok, and I'm spending. I just calculated before because I knew you were going to ask me this. This is the most. You've got to get this one right in retirement. So I knew you're going to ask right at 19% less than what I thought. And there's a couple. Well, at least one comical thing in there is I forgot to factor in that I'm not driving my car to work every day. So my is our second car. I was driving about 15,000 miles a year on my second car. You know what I'm driving on my car now I would love to know 2,000 miles a year.

Speaker 1: 28:13

Well, Little, little less Tires gas oil changes.

Speaker 2: 28:21

I mean it really adds up about how much. You know, $3.50 a gallon gas. It's like oh my gosh. Another thing that was big in that is retiring medical. I was estimating like $1,500 a month is what I was asked to and I'm married, my wife, we've been married 35 years and so I think I put in $1,500. And you know what I'm paying $9.50. I found it, you know, just Farm Bureau insurance. I got a video on that. So in all my videos, you know, hit the show more. I got a video on health insurance and what I'm doing there and why I made that decision. So I'm spending less there, less on my car, like I said, I get dope. You know you got time now so I dove into my homeowner's insurance.

Speaker 2: 29:13

I dove into my auto insurance, saving money all those places. Another thing I did is I we were paying $212 a month for cable and I'm a 100% streamer now and we pay right out of 100. And I could be paying less than that but I actually pay for, you know, 1,000 megabytes per second coming into the house for my Wi-Fi. I want really good audio and streaming experience, so I got 18T fiber coming in the house, but all these things just started adding up and it's around $1,500, $1,600 a month less I'm spending. Now that's just that's my base spending. I still have, you know and I know you use these terms too you know I put in an amount for go-go spending till I'm 75. And then I have an amount for slow-go spending until from 75 to 80. But yeah, and that is a my story is very typical of the people I talk to. I have another retirement group that I meet with.

Speaker 2: 30:20

Just on Fridays worked at the same company that I did and, to the person, everybody's spending less money. You have more time to investigate when you're working 10 hours a day and your hair's on fire, you're just trying to get stuff done. You know you don't have time to dive into auto insurance or health care or life insurance. Life insurance is another thing. I don't have life insurance. You know that was a hard move for me. I actually something I did right is before I retired I started a retirement group Like-minded people like me that are going into retirement. The other two guys are working part-time. They retired but are working part-time. Yeah, and I'm not really very little. But we run all of our financial decisions by each other. If I'm getting ready to buy iBonds or what here's?

Speaker 2: 31:17

when you know we'll have a topic. I'm planning on taking Social Security at this age. We run it by every financial decision I make. They know exactly how much money I've got, where I've got it at, what my fears are and we have a topic each month. And going it alone in retirement I think is crazy, because you've got mistakes in your plan, you've got oversights in your plan. I highly encourage people to sit down with financial advisors, sit down with a friend, sit down with a coach. You go on this alone. You'll make some mistakes. I can't imagine my journey without having that support.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Well, I think that you know I'm sure you talked to a lot of people too one of the biggest concerns about retirement is that I don't know what, I don't know, yeah, and whether it's a financial advisor, whether it's a friend retiring at the same time, whether it's just it. Just, we all have blind spots and, by definition, we can't see them, and so sometimes just opening that up to someone else can be hugely fruitful.

Speaker 2: 32:17

Right and also well, that's on a personal level. I mean, we really get down into the. You know where exactly my money is and we can make our own decision. But as a group we kind of they're there. These other two guys are there to help me and I'm there to help them. But the sitting down I tell people, if you're going to retire, you got to talk to at least two financial planners. You talk to two financial planners. See what they got to offer for you. You know, start a retirement group like I did. You cannot do this alone.

Speaker 2: 32:49

There's so much out there on YouTube. I love, you know, james, your channel. There's another 10 more that I routinely listen to. The information is out there, but you got it's not going to find you. You got to find it. When to take social security? Do you need long-term care? What sequence of return risk? What about taxes? And you know taxes is something that you know. I didn't think much of taxes before I retired, and I have. I now. I buy a comprehensive software package. It's really cheap, but it it shows me, you know, a lot of assumptions. Whatever market return is going to be Mine and Carlo does all that kind of stuff. What are my taxes going to be when I'm 70, 75? And a lot of people I've talked to said hey man, I'm not paying.

Speaker 2: 33:38

You know, I'm 62. I'm not paying any tax. And then RMVs hit someone. They're like, ah yeah, so there's so many things you don't know out there. But it's really easy with channels like yours and mine and others that you can find it. But you've you've got to put in some time on it. And there's there. I was naive, retired, I, you know. I did some basic 4% rule and said, oh, I'm fine. And then here's what I'm retiring to, I'm fine. And then you go a sequence of turn risk. How am I preparing for that? You know, I knew I was retiring before 59 and a half, so I wanted to. I had some money outside of my IRA and that I could access. But you know, I did the basics right. But I'm like, oh my gosh, there's so many things I didn't know about that You're either going to have to do the work yourself or you're going to hire a financial planner do whatever you want. And there's no right decision for everybody. There's a right decision for you.

Speaker 1: 34:38

Yeah, I love it and you know, looking back on all that, in both your experiences, the experiences of those in your retirement group, the experience of those that you've even consulted through this if you could leave people with one thing or just what do you wish you knew at 53, leading up to retirement at 54, that you know now. Is there any advice or anything that we haven't spoken about yet that you would leave people with as they prepare for that transition?

Speaker 2: 35:04

You know well, one of the things that I'm I'm thinking about a lot right now is confidence to spend, even though it looks like you've got enough money, you know. And then you decide to retire. You got all this media stuff going on about the recession coming and sequence of return risk and all. You just want to dig a hole and hide in it and defend your, your money. So you need to do something to get, have the confidence to spend money. Maybe that's a financial advisor, maybe that's a retirement group, but in a comprehensive software package or all three. But confidence to spend money is a real, is a real issue in retirement, especially if you've got a big pension coming in. You've got $8,000 pension coming in and $3,000 social security. I'm not worried about you. I'm talking about people living off their investments. Don't think that's, that's a small deal. This has been. And you know another thing I you know the first answer.

Speaker 2: 36:10

I was thinking to your questions what, what would I tell my 53 year old self? Is everybody's scared to retire? Retire, deciding to retire is scary. It's a scary thing because it's unknown, but the information is out there. There's so many great people putting out content in a genuine way, trying to help and 90% of it, 99% of it's absolutely free. What you put out, james, is free. Just hey, look at this, look at this, look at this. If you want to do it on your own, great. If you need somebody to hold your hand and give you confidence to that, that's what I do. Okay, you James, not Joe, that's what you do. But yeah, everybody's scared, retired to something. Don't go it alone. Those are my main messages.

Speaker 1: 37:02

Yeah, and then I'm going to add on to that, joe, because I love what you said of everyone's fearful. But how do we make decisions that our future self won't regret? I think that's universal. I you know I'm nowhere near retirement, but I have a young daughter and I think about that. How do I spend my time? Well, do I want to be spending my time doing certain things or with my daughter? And knowing how do you do things today, that your future self is going to look back on and be grateful for that decision to invest that time, that energy that you know cross that hurdle, that fear. I think that's a really important one. Otherwise, it's so easy to say, hey, I'll retire after my next bonus, I'll retire after my next stock price, I'll retire after another year of accrued social security, and you wake up in your 70, 75 years old one day and thinking where'd that go?

Speaker 2: 37:52

A lot of people take for granted their health. I never did, but I talked to people that are 67, saying they're going to work two more years. And then they got all these plans for retirement and I go well, you'll be 69. How many years do you think you're going to be? You and your spouse, if you're married, are going to be healthy and able to do that. And then it's quiet. And then I say you'll be lucky if you can have great physically active years to your 75. So you're down to six years and that's sobering the people. That simple question you just asked what's your 75-year-old self going to judge your decisions? How are they going to judge your decisions? And rarely is it going to be work one more year, work two more years. It's going to be. It's all about relationships, it's all about experiences, controlling your time as well.

Speaker 1: 38:57

Yeah, love it. Well, Joe, you're on YouTube under Joe Koon. Where else can people find you? Or is that the best place for them to? That's the best place.

Speaker 2: 39:04

I do a little bit on LinkedIn, but I really just try to focus on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 39:11

Perfect. So check out Joe Joe Koon channel name or channel handles Joe Koon loves retirement. Lots of great information there. Joe, thanks so much for being on the show today. All right, loved it. Thanks, James. Hey everyone, I'm James Cramer. Please be smart about this. Before doing anything, please be sure to consult with your tax planner or financial planner. Nothing in this podcast should be construed as investment, tax, legal or other financial advice. It is for informational purposes only. Thank you for listening to another episode of the Ready for Retirement podcast. If you want to see how root financial can help you implement the techniques I discussed in this podcast, then go to rootfinancialpartnerscom and click start here, where you can schedule a call to one of our advisors. We work with clients all over the country and we love the opportunity to speak with you about your goals and how we might be able to help. And please remember nothing we discuss in this podcast is intended to serve as advice. You should always consult a financial, legal or tax professional who's familiar with your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions.