Life Lessons from the “Retirement Rookies”

6 minute read time.

Think of the financial planner not just as leading up to retirement, but somebody who’s going to be there throughout, who can be reassuring you.

When you think of retirement, you probably think of rest, relaxation, and unlimited time to do what you want. But here’s the truth: For many people, the first years of retirement are actually the hardest. They’re filled with challenges when it comes to bridging the gaps financially and psychologically.

Steve Kreider Yoder, a retired bureau chief for The Wall Street Journal, and his wife Karen, a former educator, have been giving readers a front-row seat to their experience in “Retirement Rookies.” This monthly column chronicles the ups and downs of the beginning stages of their retirement years, covering everything from fears over running out of money to whether or not they should get an RV.

Recently, the Kreider Yoders joined “Your Money Map” to share some of the biggest lessons they’ve learned from early retirement, starting with the importance of test-driving your non-working years to ensure you’re ready to take the plunge. For the couple, that meant taking a cross-country cycling trip, to see how they liked the experience. “That was one of the things that sealed me on retiring,” Steve shares. “I wanted to take three to four months off to do this kind of travel, which is a little hard to do when you have a job. We were already doing a number of the things we wanted to do after we retire, rather than waiting and suddenly doing new things.”

If you’re a pre-retiree, here’s what the pair says you need to know before you decide to hit the retirement road.

DON’T WAIT TO ENLIST THE HELP OF A PRO

When it comes to the financial side of planning for retirement, Steve and Karen did pretty much everything by the book. They lived below their means and maxed out their retirement savings plans. However, there’s one thing they regret – and that’s waiting to hire a financial professional. “We ended up hiring one the spring of the year that I retired, just to make sure that we had enough and that the money was in the right place,” Steve shares. “It ended up being kind of a fire drill. He [the financial professional] had a lot of work to do, really quickly…to finally say, ‘Yes, you have plenty to retire on.’”

Ideally, the couple says they would have hired help 20 years earlier. “It would have made it more of a seamless transition had we hired a financial planner much earlier, but it was better late than never, and it gave us the security that we could that we could afford to retire,” says Steve.

Part of that security? Calming the couple’s fears about running out of money in their non-working years. It’s a concern that according to a recent Alliance for Lifetime Income study, nearly half (48%) of Peak 65 consumers share. “It is scary when suddenly, that money spigot is turned off,” says Steve. “Having the financial planner is this constant reassurance.”

EXTERMINATE YOUR BUDGET “PARASITES”

For the Kreider Yoders, one of the keys to living comfortably in retirement has been cutting out non-essential spending. Or, as they put it, budget “parasites.” The quest to do so started when Steve identified a credit card charge for a subscription neither of them used. From there, it was game on to see where else they could find savings. “We looked very closely at all of our expenses,” says Karen. “Do we really need them? Are we using them? We just slashed anything, even small items that we just didn’t need. And it was helpful.”

Among the small items slashed were a number of other unused subscription services. “I was months and months behind on using all my audio books, so I decided to cut that out and use the public library service, which is free,” says Karen. “And then Netflix. All of our nieces and nephews around the world were using our account, but we weren’t using it. So we cut that off.”

The couple was also able to eliminate one more significant budget parasite: Their vehicle. They went through a period where their van was in need of repairs and sat in the garage. The couple found it was easy to do without, so they made the change permanent. “We found that really, it doesn’t change what we do at all,” says Karen. “We live in a city where everything is within 15 minutes by walking or biking, so it really helps to be in this kind of a setting.”

RETHINK YOUR IDENTITY

Studies have shown that one of the biggest challenges retirees face is the loss of identity that comes when you stop working. Steve still struggles with it, but he finds that talking with other retirees about their experience makes things easier. That, and knowing that defining yourself as a retiree is going to be an ongoing process. “You don’t retire and then find an identity and then sit back and relax,” he says .”As your life around you changes, as your health changes, you have to rethink your identity. So I think it’s going to be sort of a constant searching.”

As for Karen, the former educator has filled the work void by pouring time into volunteer efforts that allow her to use the skills she built throughout her career. “I tutor a fellow each week. I work in a prison literacy program. I’m doing research on our church history,” she shares. “I’m not getting paid for it, but I still have that identity, whether I’m paid or not.”

FIND A PASSION THAT DOES DOUBLE DUTY

As Karen puts it, every day the couple is able to be out on their bikes “is a good day.” Not only do they enjoy their cycling hobby, it keeps them healthy and active, too. “I’ve never been one for running or lifting weights, but bicycling is so much fun that once you’re on, you just keep wanting to do it,” says Steve. “It’s kind of the easiest way to keep exercising without having to motivate yourself too much.”

In addition to the physical benefits, the Kreider Yoders say for the budget conscious retiree, cycling is a type of travel that makes financial sense – whether they’re doing it stateside, or overseas. “If we’re overseas, we often do a backpacking kind of travel – carrying backpacks and using public transportation,” says Karen. “The biggest cost is airfare to get there. But once we’re in the airport, we find public transportation out of the airport and then continue the public transportation through the travel.”

On the flipside, the pair says domestic travel – mainly trips to visit Steve’s father, who is in his 90s – has caused them to spend more. “The airfares have gone up, car rentals have gone up, and there’s not much you can do about it in our country, where there’s no decent public transportation, except in big cities,” says Steve. “That’s an area where I think we’ve had to expand our budget for domestic travel.”

IN RETIREMENT, “KEEP LIVING”

While it might seem like the Kreider Yoders agree on everything regarding retirement, they do admit they have disagreements – including whether to replace their kitchen cabinets, or as Karen jokes, when to take breaks on their bikes. “Steve can bike a little bit longer than I can, but we figured out a system,” she shares. “We take a break every 30 minutes now, whether we feel we need to or not.”

As they continue to detail their experiences in “Retirement Rookies,” the couple says (for now), these are the top things pre-retirees and retirees should remember:

• Don’t wait to get help with planning: The Kreider Yoders stress that this is the number one thing they wish they’d done sooner. “Think of the financial planner not just as leading up to retirement, but somebody who’s going to be there throughout, who can be reassuring you,” says Steve. “So you can think about something other than money, for a change.”
• Develop “rich and varied interests” before you retire: “That’s what you’ll be spending your time doing,” says Steve. “That will be your new identity.”
• Never stop learning: “We’re not at the end of our life, we’re just at a new beginning,” says Karen. “Keep learning, keep making new relationships and keep living.”

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