I retired from the St. Petersburg Times as a full-time writer on May 31. Let me say at the outset that I enjoyed my 13 years at the newspaper. It was my dream job, the best I ever had. And I had more than a dozen as an adult.
In April, when I told a longtime friend in Chicago, a university library administrator, that I was retiring, he asked, "What are you going to do with all that time on your hands?"
His words had the tenor of an indictment, and I told him so. A few other people who knew I was retiring spoke in a similar way -- wondering if retirement was the end of the road. I told them that instead of seeing retirement as being terminal, I welcome it as a brand new beginning, another significant phase of my life.
I assured them, in fact, that I had long ago started to plan for the inevitable, for the day when I would walk out of the office, wherever it was, for the final time. And that is what this column, a bit of advice, is about: soberly assessing the quality of life you will pursue during the so-called "golden years," when you reward yourself after a career or after rearing children.
By way of personal example, I am speaking to people, like me, who are not addicted to luxury, who do not have cash to burn and who want to have a fulfilling retirement.
All of my life, even as a child, I have been a vagabond, so I knew early on that travel was essential to my happiness. I also knew as a teen-ager that I wanted to be a journalist. From what I could tell, based on newspaper and magazine datelines and television images of foreign countries, travel and journalism went hand in hand. Being a journalist meant getting paid in part to travel, the ideal job for the natural-born wanderer.
Knowing that avid travel takes more than modest sums of money and knowing that I would never have a large nest egg on my journalist's salary, I started planning seriously in 1988 -- when I was certain that travel would be the essence of my retirement. I began managing my expenses and reducing and eliminating debt, accumulating capital and investing as wisely as possible. My friends called me a "cheapskate."
For starters, I cut up three of my four credit cards and repaired my 1971 Chevy pickup instead of trading it. I kept it until 1992, when the engine blew at 381,000 miles. I got a good deal on a 1991 Chevy Blazer. I also reduced all of my household expenses, and because I lived in rural Levy County, I grew all of my vegetables.
When I came to the St. Petersburg Times in 1994, I rented a house instead of buying and incurring the expenses that come with home ownership. I also wanted to be free to pick up and leave, without a mortgage, if the spirit hit me.
My best strategy for always having ready cash for travel was paying off my Blazer in 28 months rather than the contracted 60 months, at $280 a month. I still drive that 1991 Blazer. It has 314,000 miles. The key is that since paying off the vehicle in 1994, I have saved that $280 each month for my travel. The fine mechanics at Tom K Auto Service have kept the old heap running. While my acquaintances laugh at it, I rarely spend more than $400 a year on it for maintenance and repairs. When it blows up, I will buy something else affordable.
In addition to being cheap while preparing for retirement, I retained an excellent money manager who wisely invested and protected my modest funds. She even pulled me through our current economic downturn with negligible losses, helping me to keep my U.S. and foreign travel plans on track.
One of plans is to take many more of the world's great trains, such as South Africa's Blue Train, the Orient Express and the Trans-Siberian Railway. I also want to visit as many of America's national parks as I can and see more of the homes and special places that inspired America's greatest writers.
No, this is not a bucket list, a catalog compiled at the end of life of things you want to do before you die. Mine is a list of continuing adventures and discoveries that I can enjoy even more because I am retired.
(Bill Maxwell is a columnist for the St. Petersburg Times. E-mail maxwell(at)sptimes.com)
(Bill Maxwell is an editorial writer and columnist for the St. Petersburg Times. E-mail Maxwell(at)sptimes.com.)
column
Tallahassee may not use
Must credit St. Petersburg Times
COLUMN
Post new comment