Episode 157: The Keys to Achieving a Great Retirement with Fritz Gilbert

For Episode 157 of the Wealth On Any Income Podcast, Rennie welcomes back Fritz Gilbert.Fritz retired in 2018 at the age of 55 after a 33-year career in Corporate America.  For the past 8 years he has been writing about his preparation for, and transition into, retirement on The Retirement Manifesto, the award-winning blog he founded 3 years prior to retirement.  In addition to the blog, Fritz published his first book in 2020, Keys to a Successful Retirement, which captures his key things he learned from his journey into retirement.

Interested in some key things to help you achieve a great retirement?

In this episode, Rennie and Fritz cover:

01:45 Rennie and Fritz discuss a cousin of Rennie’s who is about to retire and doesn’t have a concrete plan for the non-financial aspects, which Fritz shares is not uncommon.

03:45 The word “retirement” and how it makes Rennie uncomfortable, and how Fritz sees it.

05:16 How Fritz likes to refer to retirement as the starting line and how that fits for everyone including the FIRE community (Financial Independence Retire Early).

07:29 Fritz shares an update on the charity he and his wife run – Freedom for Fido – and how it has grown in the last two years.

10:45 The things Fritz feels that, beyond a paycheck, need to be considered to position you to have a great retirement.

12:33 Fritz shares the story of how a friend of his tried to unsuccessfully use his work skills with his wife at home after retirement!

13:16 How the life changes retirement brings can impact everyone in the household and why discussing that ahead of time is important.

15:59 Fritz can be contacted via his website theretirementmanifesto.com where he also has over 400 articles that he has written on his retirement journey.

“But if you think a little bit deeper, and this is what you realize, when you leave work, paid work, voluntarily, or maybe not voluntarily. But when you're no longer working, you start realizing all of the non-financial benefits you also received from work. And thinking about how you're going to replace all of those in retirement, or once you're financially independent, that's where your focus should be. And it is things like relationship, right? You have relationships in the office, or in the plant, if you work in a plant. You have a sense of purpose. You've got a structure to your day. You've got objectives. You're driving towards achieving something. You get that sense of accomplishment when you put together a presentation and give it to the boss and you get the little pat on the head and say, Hey, good job on the presentation. You've got all of those things that just are gone, the day you leave. And most people don't realize the importance of all of those non-financial benefits from work until they're gone.” – Fritz Gilbert

To learn more about Fritz and read his extensive blog visit theretirementmanifesto.com.

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