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
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also a fear of the unknown thattends to hold people back from
the decision to actually retire.
On today's episode of Ready forRetirement, I have guest Joe
Kuhn with me, who recently wentthrough that retirement
transition and is here to sharewhat he learned so that you can
apply the same principles toyour situation.

(00:21):
This is another episode ofReady for Retirement.
I'm your host, james Cannell,and I'm here to teach you how to
get the most out of life withyour money.
And now on to the episode.
I am joined today by Joe Kuhn.
Joe, welcome to the show.
I am very excited to be here,james.
Well, I'm excited for you to behere too, joe, I think when we

(00:42):
look at retirement we'reconditioned to believe, or maybe
we think that it kind of comesdown to a math problem.
You know, how big is myportfolio need to be?
Run the numbers, when do Icollect social security?
Run the number, what doeshealth insurance need to look
like?
Which are all obviously veryimportant things.
But people then get toretirement age or they check the
boxes, they run the numbers,they say, hey, this is very

(01:03):
doable.
But there's still a big hang upin a lot of people's minds and
I think that hang up is kind ofthe emotional side or the fear
of the unknown, and I thoughtwho better to come on the show
and talk about that than someonewho has retired, who has his
own YouTube channel dedicated tohelping people understand what
that transition was like, how hedid this, and hopefully just
have some open, candid feedbackof what that transition was like

(01:25):
for you, if you don't mindsharing.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
That sounds exciting.
Good, let's go.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, this is what jumped out to me initially about
you, joe, is you were in acorporate job, you retired.
Early retirement meanssomething different to everyone,
but you retired at age 54.
What prompted that decision?

Speaker 2 (01:43):
Yeah, well, the first thing is my intention was to
retire at 55.
My dad retired at 59.
And my mom and dad, they alwaystold 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

(02:05):
modestly and I just said I'vegot enough now.
But that wasn't enough to makethe transition.
It was I had a niche that I'velearned around reliability and
maintenance of equipment Notexciting to anybody listening

(02:27):
here, but reliability andmaintenance of equipment it's
kind of a coaching that I wasdoing.
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%

(02:47):
just got repetitive.
I was in this corporate Americafor 32 years, loved my job,
absolutely loved my job.
Would choose my career overagain, but I felt like I was
just wasting 50% of my timedoing the same thing over and
over again and I had this itchto really start my own
consulting business, just workvery part time, maybe 10, 15% of

(03:11):
the time and then help peoplewith what I've learned about
reliability and maintenance.
That was unique.
And do I want to do that whenI'm 64 or went on 54?
So I picked 54.
And I didn't and you hear thisa lot and I've heard this on
your channel is I didn't want tobe 70 and look back and regret

(03:35):
that I didn't try to start myown business.
I didn't spend my 50s where Iwanted to spend my time.
I didn't want that regret.
Now, yeah, there is a lot offear when you retire that early.
What could happen over the next35 years?
But two things for me.

(03:55):
One I mentioned regret.
I didn't want that regret andmaybe this is unique about me,
but I don't like fear being areason I do or don't do
something.
If I, that just makes me wantto jump, you know, jump like
okay, I'm not doing this becauseI'm scared.
I'm not doing this becauseeverybody else isn't doing this.
So fear I don't like being areason.

(04:19):
My background is in engineering, so I like a lot of data and
being scared just is something Ijust don't like influencing my
decision.
So that's why.

Speaker 1 (04:34):
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 helpingclients retire is sometimes the
unspoken, maybe even notnecessarily true, but that
expectations of parents, a lotof people.

(04:54):
They continue working becausethey say, well, my parents
worked until they were 70 oruntil they couldn't work any
longer and they almost feel thisburden that I need to do the
same, not everyone, but I'mwondering if that was reversed
for you in a way, did you almostfeel like because parents did,
that it was easier to transitionout?
Or do you not feel as if theyplayed a part?

Speaker 2 (05:13):
Well, you know they were role models.
They were the closest rolemodels that I had that had
retired.
So all you know I got a lot ofevidence on neighbors and
friends.
But your parents, you're livingthat and so, yeah, I think that
was not an expectation by themat all at all, but it was just

(05:34):
their experience to that.
My dad worked for the USgovernment, had a government
pension and all that and it justworked out well for them.
So, yeah, I think you'reexactly right.
What you know, just as a child,you know your parents.
I'm sure my kids will say thesame thing someday in the future
about me, maybe they'll retireat 45.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
They say good for them.
You mentioned that you don'tlike to be driven by fear, which
I think is wonderful.
That being said, I'm sure therestill were fears, and as you're
approaching 54, 55, now youmade the leap at 54.
I'm curious what were some ofthose fears that began bubbling
up about retirement?

Speaker 2 (06:13):
Well, the biggest one , and this is not going to be
news to anybody but fear theunknown.
I mean I went to school tolearn.
I went to engineering school tolearn.
I got a job to provide, to makemoney.
Your whole career is, you know.
You're trying to build and makemore money, get more
responsibility, whatever ithappens to be, and then you want

(06:37):
to jump into the unknown abyss.
The easiest thing to do is tokeep working.
I mean I put four.
You know well, I have fourgreat 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 theircollege, got my house paid off

(07:00):
and all that.
So here at 54, these are themoney earning years, you know,
and it's people look at you likeyou're crazy.
I mean I was making my topsalary the day I retired and
it's just a crazy thing to do.
You're not trained for it.
So just that fear of theunknown.
What am I doing?

(07:21):
If I work one more year, lookhow much more money I can save.
If I work two more years, lookhow much money I can save.
But what kept gnawing at me,james, is my time, and it was
just like half the day I wasdoing great things half the day.
I'm rolling my eyes, I'm likeI'm not again.

(07:42):
We've done this before.
I know how it's going to turnout.
And I just everybody eventuallymakes this decision.
Some, you know, I made it 54,.
Some people make it 50, somepeople make it 70.
You stop trading time for money.
Everybody makes that decision.

(08:03):
When's it going to be?
So?
Number one is just fear of theunknown.
And you know, as a subset ofthat is like, look what I'm
giving up.
Oh my gosh, look what I'mgiving up.
But you know I did have enoughmoney because I was raised
middle class.
You know I still drive.
People make fun of me.
My neighbors, my neighbors thatare going to work, all make fun

(08:24):
of me.
I drive a car.
That's, you know, it's got193,000 miles on it and it's a
hand me down for my wife andit's a minivan.
So what am I driving a minivanfor?
You know I don't drive thatmuch.
You know I'm just not into alot of things, a lot of stuff I
like.
I like experiences andrelationships much more now.

(08:47):
So my biggest fear was, youknow, just of the unknown
regrets.
You know I mentioned thatearlier.
Did I want to be 70?
And say, boy, I could haveretired when I was.
How many 80 year olds do youtalk to that?
Say boy, I wish I would haveworked two or three more years,
right.
You know it's not, nobody saysthat.

(09:09):
So that was.
And I, you know I've got somethings I want to work in later
around.
You know I was quite naiveabout a few things.
I had enough money.
You know I didn't have millionsor anything like that that I
could just be a drunken sailor.
But you know the math workedout good for me and how I'm
living now and have some go-gospending time.

(09:31):
But it was really just what amI giving up, boy?
This is not the conservativeroute, 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

(09:51):
giving up what was pretty darngood.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
I'd love to dig into that a little bit more before we
go on to which of these fearsof the unknown materialize,
versus which maybe just prove tobe fears, but maybe slightly
irrational fears.
You have this combination, as Isee it, of you're in your peak
earning years.
You just put four childrenthrough college.
You maybe just went through themost expensive time of your
life in doing that.
You have that combined with youdo really enjoy certain aspects

(10:18):
of your job.
It's not like you weremiserable, it sounds like and
couldn't wait to get out ofthere.
On top of that, you almost havethese societal pressures.
You talk about your neighborsgoing to work.
It's you're in your peakearning years.
It's celebrated.
You should save more, get abigger house, spend more.
All of that almost pressure tocontinue working.
How did you frame or contrastthat with what you're saying,

(10:42):
joe, of I don't want to livewith regrets, I don't want to be
driven with fear?
Was there specific exercisesyou went through?
Were there specificconversations you had?
What really allowed that toactually materialize and not
just get kicked down the road in?

Speaker 2 (10:54):
depth.
Well, believe me, I've talkedto a lot of retirees that you
know.
I worked for one company, mywhole career, one company.
I knew a lot of people thatretired and you talked to them
and just benchmark them myparents were probably paramount
in all this but you talk tothese people and there's not a
single one of them that saysthey wish they would have worked

(11:14):
longer.
You know, it's not a single oneof them.
So, hey, whenever you can moveon out, the other thing that is
really important to me and Ihighly encourage this on my
videos is you gotta retire tosomething, not from something.

(11:34):
So the question you're askingis boy, how did you make that
decision?
Well, that's one side of thecoin.
The other side of the coin iswhat are you gonna do?
What's that unlock for you?
Okay, you got total control ofyour time.
My wife and I travel a lot.
We traveled with our kids, wenton these vacations, went to

(11:57):
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, couldbe gone two weeks.
You know you could hurry up.
You go on vacation.
You gotta hurry and get there,hurry and get back.
Well now we just take slowvacations.
You know, we went out to Utahonce and we didn't know when we

(12:20):
were coming back.
We just said, hey, let's go.
We didn't make reservations, wewanted to see the five national
parks out there and just didslow travel.
So, you know, taking double theamount of vacations and not
spending wild money.
We're not going on Alaskacruises, you know, every year,

(12:40):
but we did like to travel.
My kids live all over the UnitedStates and going and seeing
them so started to crystallize,really get specific on what
you're gonna do.
In the first six months Iretired, I took three trips and
we knew what trips those weregoing to be Okay and so we had

(13:00):
that detail.
We went down to Mexico to seesome family.
We went to Florida and we had awedding in the Richmond
Virginia area and stayed therefor a couple of weeks.
So we had these exciting thingsto look forward to.
In addition to, I wanted tostart consulting the pass on.
You know, maybe, like I said,10, 15% of the time, to pass on

(13:24):
some information to the nextgeneration, to that maintenance
manager and plant manager, thatthey're 30, 40 years old.
And you know I've made a lot ofmistakes.
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

(13:46):
it's kind of a dumb thing to doto retire at 54.
He said it makes so much moresense financially to retire at
58 or six.
So much more comfortable, somuch more you know, less stress
with money.
Maybe I could you know, maybe Ican you know, buy a newer car

(14:06):
or something like that.
But got to look at that otherside 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 somesurprises too that I'm sure
we'll talk about later.
So what surprised me inretirement?
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 fromthe standpoint of what decisions
will my future self be glad Imade, as opposed to what
decisions will my future selfregret?
And the hard part there is yourfuture self is going to want
you to make the decisions thattoday are sometimes harder to

(14:48):
make.
It is making a difficultdecision of stepping away from
something and you're thinkingearn and bear, so stepping away
from something when there isthat fear of the other side.
One more question I want to getto.
What were some of thesesurprises?
What were some of the thingsthat maybe you wish you knew
before retiring?
That you do know Now.
You retired at 54, when do youfeel as if you had that sense of

(15:10):
what you were retiring to wascrystallized, was it, hey, by 50
I knew exactly what I was goingto do, in just a matter of
working through to being the ageof being able to do it.
When did you start to have thatsense 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 Iworked for where I was an
internal consultant to them onreliability maintenance the same
thing I wanted to retire to butfor four years I did that
globally.
I traveled around the world andwould work with plants and

(15:43):
maintenance managers on this, soI had a taste of what it was
like and what worked, whatdidn't work and what I enjoy
doing so.
But the reason I'm laughing isI'm doing very little of that
right now.
I think retirement, if youthink.
You know, I don't know what itwould be like for other people,

(16:05):
but I was confident hey, I'mgoing to retire, I'm going to do
reliability and maintenanceconsulting.
I'm going to do this for aboutfive years.
It'll be six years, get to 60,stop it all, but just do the
coaching and the developing ofpeople and feel good about that.
Well, I retired at thebeginning of 2019.
Guess what happened in 2020?

(16:26):
Yeah, something happened.
All my consulting went away,all of it.
Everybody stopped, locked down,everything went away.
And then I kept making videos.
Okay, and I started makingvideos on that topic and kept
making videos.
And then somebody asked me.

(16:47):
They said, well, hey, how oldare you?
And I said I was 54 and theysaid, well, how were you able to
retire?
So I just made a vid.
I was making videos onreliability and maintenance and,
to supplement, go into plantsand working with them and just
giving away information.
I felt that need to give awayto the next generation.

(17:08):
How does the next generationlearn?
They learn on YouTube.
My kids are all this age.
They learn everything.
So I said I'm gonna make thesevideos on being a maintenance
manager, plant manager.
Well then COVID hit andeverything all changed.
And then, like I said, somebodyasked me about retiring early
and so I made one video and itgot like 100 times the views.

(17:34):
So then I just started makingvideos on what I was thinking
about, what I was doing, whatconcerned me, what surprises I
had, and then my channel justmorphed into retirement coach
and, yeah, that's been thetransition for me.
So I write for a couple ofmagazines on reliability

(17:57):
maintenance, I speak at a coupleof conferences, but that's very
little time.
It really is little time.
I'm having fun with that, butright now I'm doing a lot more
reliability maintenance.
I was doing some coachingone-on-one coaching with people
that wanted some help throughthat transition and making

(18:18):
videos and just loving it.
But I'm doing somethingcompletely different than what I
thought, and I think that'swhat's super cool about
retirement is you get to trythese journeys on.
I used to fish a whole lot.
When I retired I went fishing alot.
I don't fish at all anymore andI kind of got that out of my
system.
I spend a lot of time learning.

(18:40):
Right now I've got a retirementgroup.
I just love that.
There's five retired people andwe talk about different
historical topics and how theyapply to today.
What can we learn about them inour life today?
We studied Fidel Castro lastmonth and this month coming up,
it's gonna be on Teddy Rooseveltand just fascinating things.

(19:03):
So I've probably had 10different journeys in five years
of retirement and so beingfixated on saying hey, I gotta
pick the perfect one and I'mgonna 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 aquick aside for anyone listening
or watching, check out Joe'schannel.
It's Joe Kuhn, K-U-H-N is thechannel name, and then I believe
your handle Joe is Joe Kuhnloves 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.
He commented on a video he didon YouTube and it was something
about everyone has theseconcerns 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 heput it.

(19:57):
He said the first six monthswere very difficult, but it
wasn't necessarily that hechanged things around that much.
And in month seven and beyond,he said we're incredible.
He said I was still doing thesame things.
It just was reprioritizing theorder in which I do some of
these things.
And I don't even remember whatit was, but it was like go into
this group of people.
He enjoyed working out, readingand something or other.

(20:20):
Is it even just shifting theorder in which I did things?
Revitalized my retirement, andso I think that what you're
speaking to, joe, is havesomething to retire to, but also
you're kind of learning a brandnew skill set.
Yeah, and when you were firstgetting into college or first
getting into your job or firststarting a family, did you have

(20:41):
everything figured out?
No, you thought you knew whatto expect and you worked hard
and you worked diligently andthen you figured it out.
The difference, I think, iswhen you're starting college or
starting a job or starting afamily, there's some pressures
on you to learn it, to getbetter at it, or else Versus
retirement, I think it is veryeasy just to drift and not have

(21:01):
those self-imposed pressures.
What were the biggest surprisesin your mind either positive or
negative as you went throughthat transition?

Speaker 2 (21:10):
The, you know, going through the transition.
First thing is, for the firstcouple of months it felt like I
was on vacation.
My mind kept thinking aboutwork and, you know, hey, send
this person an email, hey, don'tforget about this.
So it took a couple of monthsto realize that you weren't
going back to work.

(21:30):
Another thing that was hard forme is and I know a lot of people
that listen to your channel andmine is their achievers.
You know, if you're talkingabout retirement, you're a high
achiever and in retirement, youknow, I had this list of things,
this kind of comical.
I had a list of things the lastlike year before I retired.
I'm right down, I want to dothis, I want to do this.

(21:50):
These were jobs around thehouse, things I wanted to just
fix up, and I'm saying, oh, thisought to take me like three,
four years.
I had it done in like twomonths.
My to-do list is like I'm justbecause I was task-oriented,
let's get it done, let's get itdone, let's get it done.
And one of the hardest thingsfor me was, you know, and one of
the hardest things for me wasto slow down.

(22:12):
I was rewarded for years forbeing able to go 100 miles an
hour to multitask, get a lot ofthings done in a day In
retirement.
That's not necessarily winning,so slowing down.
Just as an example, I used tolike cut my grass, okay, and I
would just cut it straightthrough.
It takes me about an hour and20 minutes to do everything.

(22:34):
Well, now I take about an hourbreak in between.
You know, I cut the front grassand then I'll just sit down and
I'll watch YouTube videos,maybe listen to music or do
something else, and then I'll goback and if somebody calls me
and said, hey, joe, you want togo golfing or go fishing or go
shoot skid or something, I'llsay, hey, fine, let's go.
The really just the pace slowsdown.

(22:59):
Another thing in this this, youknow it's hard to say what's
number one, but one that I wasembarrassingly wrong on, was
stress.
If you would have asked me theday 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, Ilove what I'm doing.

(23:21):
It was exciting.
The production, manufacturing,war production, the environment
in production and manufacturingis exciting.
There's highs and lows, there'swins, there's losses.
I love manufacturing and I justlove the game, kind of like
being quarterback of a footballteam.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
What do you mean?
I love this, I love this andI'm not under stress I, no, I'm
not.

Speaker 2 (23:46):
I love my job.
And then when I retired, it waslike setting down a 10 pound
weight that I was carryingaround with me.
I had no idea, because we werea 24 seven operation, 365.
Christmas day was another dayof manufacturing, that's that
this process had to runcontinuously and I I was caught

(24:09):
off guard by that.
Just just having meetings,expectations, presentations, you
know, giving your opinion,taking risky positions, all
those demands, all those demandson me safety, environmental, I
was always.
You know.
I got a call at 10 o'clock atnight.
It wasn't a good call, so I didcall me up and say, hey,

(24:31):
everything's running great atthe plant, joe, nobody you know
they don't do that.
So stress and you know, since Iretired, a couple other
surprises related to this wasyou know how many sicknesses and
you know physical health isrelated to stress, what that

(24:52):
causes, and I started focusing alot more on my health.
I'm down 35 pounds from the dayI retired.
Well, I actually I've alwaysexercised, but I started eating
better.
I was a stress eater and Ididn't.
I didn't even know what wasgoing on.
I didn't even know I was underpressure and stress.

(25:13):
I was one of those guys thatsaid I love my job and smile and
I said I'm here crazy for youAsk me that question.
I can't imagine doing anythingelse.
So that that was a big surprisefor 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 retirementtransition has that been a
similar theme, even with peopleyou've consulted, of being under
that stress but not maybeconsciously realizing it?

Speaker 2 (25:38):
Well, yes, it's a constant theme that I'm throwing
out, but most people aren'tcatching because I think they're
in their, I think they gotblinders on, like I did.
Oh, I love my job, I love youknow, I'm not under stress, I
like what I'm doing.
Well, you said an alarm clockin the morning.
What are you thinking aboutSunday night?

(25:58):
You know what are you thinkingabout Monday?
Are you happy?
It's Monday?
You know you got all theselittle pressures that you're
just.
You don't even know you're afish in water and you don't even
know there's water.
You ask a fish what water isand 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'trealize it till they're on the

(26:20):
other side and they said, oh mygosh, I didn't even realize this
was going on.
Stress is a big deal and wedon't talk about enough.
I don't.
I think, as a as a guy, as aman, that's a sign of weakness
to say you're, you're understress.

Speaker 1 (26:36):
Yeah, yeah, very interesting that.
The fish analogy, I think, isperfect there.
Don't realize it until you'reout of it, just because it's
been so long and you've beenconditioned to believe that's
just what it is.
One thing.
So obviously there's the thewhat am I going to do, what am I
retiring to?
That's a big concern ofpeople's.
The other is, just put simply,how much am I going to spend?
I think I'm going to spend thisamount.

(26:58):
Does that actually pan out tobe what I'm going to spend?
Yes, how was your specificexperience?
Just related to how much youthought you might spend in a
retirement compared to what youactually 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'man engineer, so I have a
spreadsheet and I was listinghere's what I think my expenses
are going to be in retirement.

(27:31):
Ok, and I'm spending.
I just calculated beforebecause I knew you were going to
ask me this.
This is the most.
You've got to get this oneright in retirement.
So I knew you're going to askright at 19% less than what I
thought.
And there's a couple.
Well, at least one comicalthing in there is I forgot to

(27:53):
factor in that I'm not drivingmy car to work every day.
So my is our second car.
I was driving about 15,000miles a year on my second car.
You know what I'm driving on mycar 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 inthat is retiring medical.
I was estimating like $1,500 amonth is what I was asked to and

(28:41):
I'm married, my wife, we'vebeen 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 FarmBureau insurance.
I got a video on that.
So in all my videos, you know,hit the show more.
I got a video on healthinsurance and what I'm doing

(29:02):
there and why I made thatdecision.
So I'm spending less there,less on my car, like I said, I
get dope.
You know you got time now so Idove into my homeowner's
insurance.
I dove into my auto insurance,saving money all those places.
Another thing I did is I wewere paying $212 a month for
cable and I'm a 100% streamernow and we pay right out of 100.

(29:27):
And I could be paying less thanthat but I actually pay for,
you know, 1,000 megabytes persecond coming into the house for
my Wi-Fi.
I want really good audio andstreaming experience, so I got
18T fiber coming in the house,but all these things just
started adding up and it'saround $1,500, $1,600 a month

(29:49):
less I'm spending.
Now that's just that's my basespending.
I still have, you know and Iknow you use these terms too you
know I put in an amount forgo-go spending till I'm 75.
And then I have an amount forslow-go spending until from 75
to 80.
But yeah, and that is a mystory is very typical of the

(30:15):
people I talk to.
I have another retirement groupthat I meet with.
Just on Fridays worked at thesame company that I did and, to
the person, everybody's spendingless money.
You have more time toinvestigate when you're working
10 hours a day and your hair'son fire, you're just trying to
get stuff done.
You know you don't have time todive into auto insurance or

(30:39):
health care or life insurance.
Life insurance is another thing.
I don't have life insurance.
You know that was a hard movefor me.
I actually something I didright is before I retired I
started a retirement groupLike-minded people like me that
are going into retirement.
The other two guys are workingpart-time.

(31:01):
They retired but are workingpart-time.
Yeah, and I'm not really verylittle.
But we run all of our financialdecisions by each other.
If I'm getting ready to buyiBonds or what here's?
when you know we'll have a topic.
I'm planning on taking SocialSecurity at this age.

(31:21):
We run it by every financialdecision I make.
They know exactly how muchmoney I've got, where I've got
it at, what my fears are and wehave a topic each month.
And going it alone inretirement I think is crazy,
because you've got mistakes inyour plan, you've got oversights

(31:42):
in your plan.
I highly encourage people tosit down with financial advisors
, sit down with a friend, sitdown with a coach.
You go on this alone.
You'll make some mistakes.
I can't imagine my journeywithout 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 thebiggest concerns about
retirement is that I don't knowwhat, I don't know, yeah, and
whether it's a financial advisor, whether it's a friend retiring
at the same time, whether it'sjust it.
Just, we all have blind spotsand, by definition, we can't see
them, and so sometimes justopening 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 intothe.
You know where exactly my moneyis and we can make our own
decision.
But as a group we kind ofthey're there.
These other two guys are thereto help me and I'm there to help
them.
But the sitting down I tellpeople, if you're going to

(32:37):
retire, you got to talk to atleast two financial planners.
You talk to two financialplanners.
See what they got to offer foryou.
You know, start a retirementgroup like I did.
You cannot do this alone.
There's so much out there onYouTube.
I love, you know, james, yourchannel.
There's another 10 more that Iroutinely listen to.
The information is out there,but you got it's not going to

(33:01):
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 somethingthat you know.
I didn't think much of taxesbefore I retired, and I have.
I now.
I buy a comprehensive softwarepackage.

(33:22):
It's really cheap, but it itshows me, you know, a lot of
assumptions.
Whatever market return is goingto be Mine and Carlo does all
that kind of stuff.
What are my taxes going to bewhen I'm 70, 75?
And a lot of people I've talkedto said hey man, I'm not paying
.
You know, I'm 62.
I'm not paying any tax.
And then RMVs hit someone.

(33:42):
They're like, ah yeah, sothere's so many things you don't
know out there.
But it's really easy withchannels like yours and mine and
others that you can find it.
But you've you've got to put insome time on it.
And there's there.
I was naive, retired, I, youknow.

(34:02):
I did some basic 4% rule andsaid, oh, I'm fine.
And then here's what I'mretiring to, I'm fine.
And then you go a sequence ofturn risk.
How am I preparing for that?
You know, I knew I was retiringbefore 59 and a half, so I
wanted to.
I had some money outside of myIRA and that I could access.
But you know, I did the basicsright.

(34:24):
But I'm like, oh my gosh,there's so many things I didn't
know about that You're eithergoing to have to do the work
yourself or you're going to hirea financial planner do whatever
you want.
And there's no right decisionfor everybody.
There's a right decision foryou.

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, theexperience of those that you've
even consulted through this ifyou could leave people with one
thing or just what do you wishyou knew at 53, leading up to
retirement at 54, that you knownow.
Is there any advice or anythingthat we haven't spoken about

(35:01):
yet that you would leave peoplewith 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 nowis confidence to spend, even
though it looks like you've gotenough money, you know.
And then you decide to retire.
You got all this media stuffgoing on about the recession

(35:25):
coming and sequence of returnrisk and all.
You just want to dig a hole andhide in it and defend your,
your money.
So you need to do something toget, have the confidence to
spend money.
Maybe that's a financialadvisor, maybe that's a
retirement group, but in acomprehensive software package
or all three.
But confidence to spend moneyis a real, is a real issue in

(35:50):
retirement, especially if you'vegot a big pension coming in.
You've got $8,000 pensioncoming in and $3,000 social
security.
I'm not worried about you.
I'm talking about people livingoff their investments.
Don't think that's, that's asmall deal.
This has been.
And you know another thing Iyou know the first answer.

(36:10):
I was thinking to your questionswhat, what would I tell my 53
year old self?
Is everybody's scared to retire?
Retire, deciding to retire isscary.
It's a scary thing because it'sunknown, but the information is
out there.
There's so many great peopleputting out content in a genuine

(36:31):
way, trying to help and 90% ofit, 99% of it's absolutely free.
What you put out, james, isfree.
Just hey, look at this, look atthis, look at this.
If you want to do it on yourown, great.
If you need somebody to holdyour hand and give you
confidence to that, that's whatI do.
Okay, you James, not Joe,that's what you do.

(36:53):
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 ofeveryone's fearful.
But how do we make decisionsthat our future self won't
regret?
I think that's universal.
I you know I'm nowhere nearretirement, but I have a young
daughter and I think about that.
How do I spend my time?
Well, do I want to be spendingmy time doing certain things or
with my daughter?

(37:22):
And knowing how do you dothings today, that your future
self is going to look back onand be grateful for that
decision to invest that time,that energy that you know cross
that hurdle, that fear.
I think that's a reallyimportant one.
Otherwise, it's so easy to say,hey, I'll retire after my next
bonus, I'll retire after my nextstock price, I'll retire after

(37:44):
another year of accrued socialsecurity, and you wake up in
your 70, 75 years old one dayand thinking where'd that go?

Speaker 2 (37:52):
A lot of people take for granted their health.
I never did, but I talked topeople that are 67, saying
they're going to work two moreyears.
And then they got all theseplans for retirement and I go
well, you'll be 69.
How many years do you thinkyou're going to be?
You and your spouse, if you'remarried, are going to be healthy

(38:13):
and able to do that.
And then it's quiet.
And then I say you'll be luckyif you can have great physically
active years to your 75.
So you're down to six years andthat's sobering the people.
That simple question you justasked what's your 75-year-old

(38:36):
self going to judge yourdecisions?
How are they going to judgeyour decisions?
And rarely is it going to bework 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 YouTubeunder Joe Koon.
Where else can people find you?
Or is that the best place forthem 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 Koonchannel name or channel handles
Joe Koon loves retirement.
Lots of great information there.
Joe, thanks so much for beingon the show today.
All right, loved it.
Thanks, James.
Hey everyone, I'm James Cramer.
Please be smart about this.
Before doing anything, pleasebe sure to consult with your tax
planner or financial planner.
Nothing in this podcast shouldbe construed as investment, tax,

(39:31):
legal or other financial advice.
It is for informationalpurposes only.
Thank you for listening toanother episode of the Ready for
Retirement podcast.
If you want to see how rootfinancial can help you implement
the techniques I discussed inthis podcast, then go to
rootfinancialpartnerscom andclick start here, where you can
schedule a call to one of ouradvisors.

(39:51):
We work with clients all overthe country and we love the
opportunity to speak with youabout your goals and how we
might be able to help.
And please remember nothing wediscuss in this podcast is
intended to serve as advice.
You should always consult afinancial, legal or tax
professional who's familiar withyour unique circumstances
before making any financialdecisions.