You and your retirement.......

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

While working in the tackle business for almost 50 years I watched thousands of people, mostly men, go through their lives. Some of my closest friends were/are customers too. We talk about everything from fishing, food, now grandkids, and retirement.

I now feel I have the right to have some pretty strong feelings about the subject of retirement.

I watched these old guys who were "Outdoorsmen" of the Greatest Generation. Some had trailers and some had cab over campers. Some had a cabin somewhere special like Montana or Dunsmuir. These old timers grew up fishing and hunting in the days when it was really good so they had a bond with the outdoors that was very powerful.

I watched these old guys retire and take a trailer for a month or two to Montana in the summer and to the Klamath River for Steelhead in the fall. I was very lucky to have be taken fishing by them too.

Some of these old timers who reitred early had 30 years of wonderful retirement.

Sense I was in my 20s I wanted someday to be retired so I could do what they were doing.

Well, I have retired at 67 years old and honestly I don't recommend waiting that long.

According to the data from the top 10 life insurance companies the sooner you retire the longer you will live.

Some people sadly will never have the economics to retire by others could retire at 50.

We have had heated discussions about this subject and some people will tell you they think retiring is not what they want to do because they will not have anything to do. Well that might be true but I would bet that 95% of the people who fly fish will have no trouble finding things to do after they retire.

The common response from almost every person who has been retired for a while will be, "I don't know how I had time to work?"

I have been personally responsible for a handful of my customers to decide to retire earlier than they were planning. These people had already reached the point at their jobs that they were actually working for nothing. When they retired they made almost the same money as they did working.

Another person had investment that allowed him to have a the same income when he retired early.

Start thinking about your retirement............unless you are there already.

.

[Ned Morris]

Well said Bill. I'm 39 now and happy to say I'm on track once kid #2 graduates college 20 years from now (I hope). Moral to the story fellas if your employer has a 401k available, max it every year and if they have a match % even better. If you're lucky and your employer has a pension - great....then go open an IRA too. Social Security ain't gonna be around or have much left for younger guys. It has been said that if you start a 401K or IRA at age 25 as opposed to age 35 at 15%-18% of your salary could mean another 500K when compounded over 30 years. If you have kids it's harder as god knows what college will cost 10-20 years from now. Start a 529A and do your kids a favor. As hard as it is, sometimes forgo the brand new 4X4 or Drift Boat, etc.... we all love our toys but that may force another year under "The Man". Good luck to all and congrats to you all that worked your balls off to live and enjoy retirement!

[steveg137]

Bill-

Great post, I'm 44 and about to get married and then to try for kids which will be a $ drain but I've been pretty good at saving and defintiely plan to retire when I can still enjoy it. I definitely yearn for more time to enjoy life and time on the water.

Thanks for your perspective on this, really valuable.

Cheers, Steve

[Tony Buzolich]

After I sold my business, and sold my Napa house, my wife and I moved to our cabin at Soda Springs full time. Every day it was "Where to fish today?" Boca, Stampede, the Truckee, lil' Truckee, or a million lakes around the area.

One winter when the snow got too deep we bought a new truck and then a trailer and then took off and didn't come back for two years except to see if the cabin was still standing.

Then it was the same question, "Where to fish today?". It was a bit easier now though. We'd spend three months chasing salmon in the lowflow of the Feather, the three months chasing stripers in the delta at Sugar Barge, Then three months chasing steelhead over on the coast, Gualala, Garcia, Eel, Smith, and the Russian, and then three more months chasing stripers here where I am now.

Two years dissappeared fast, we sold the cabin, and here we are now in Yuba City.

Hmmmmmm? "Where shall we go fishing next?" Ya, retirement is tough.
Tony

[Langenbeck]

Bill, Never too early to retire. I left at 49 and now 72 and have enjoyed every day. To truly enjoy you retirement keep yourself fit because bad health really limits your options. My hero is Joe Shirshac ging strong at 90. Also it doesn't hurt to live in Oregon!

[Lance Gray]

This is funny - I just left the PERS office talking to them about my retirment from the County and I look online and see this.

I am trying to be fully retired from the County by the age of 53. I am 43 right know. The take the business to new heights, guiding, writing, traveling a such (more than now) my main thing is I am worried about (if) PERS and SSI is all going to be there for me.

I think to do retirement right - you must be able to control your own money. I have socked a few bucks away, 403B IRA and cash - but to have 100% of your income for live - including the cost of health care. Well the few that have made that leap - I tip my hat. Others like me - I am still trying to get there!

Forget retirement and go fishing!!!

PS - I have my new truck and travel trailer. I am going to use the shit out of it!!

[Baja Fly Fisher]

Bill,

Retirement has been great too me. I worked almost 32 years for PG&E and everybody out there thinks we have the greatest retirement. Not true. You make good money while your working and I had good benefits while I was employed but once you leave the nest, things change. I went from a good paycheck to taking 44% of my monthly gross. But what saved my bacon was my 401k plan. Do you remember when PG&E first filed for bankruptcy and the stocks dropped all the way to $6.00 per share. I took what I had in my plan and bought $350,000 worth of PG&E stocks, yes a gusty move but I still had 24 years to work, if I had lost it, I had plenty of time to rebuild the nest. Others thought I was "NUTS" to put all my eggs in one basket. At that low price, I was soon close to being a major stock holder. Upon retirement, I sold my PG&E stock at $27.85 per share and I had a bunch. Do the math. But the crash on of the market took care of some but not all.
When I working, I would tell the "newbies" to contribute the full amount possible. The company paid 50 cents on the dollar, can't beat that up to 6% and the employee could contribute up to 16%. Sounded like a lot out of the pay check but it really wasn't. At lot of excuse I was hearing was that "I need the money now".... I said no, you need the money when you retire, a long story short, some people couldn't retire because they really didn't have the nest egg.
The first notice we got where we could retire at 55 and have 30 years, I was all over that. What a present for me. I have been retired for 12 years now and have enjoyed every day of retirement. Being in the fly fishing industry since 1973, I've met a lot of people, traveled to many different locations, fished pretty much everywhere I wanted and have caught a number of species, too many to count. Over the years, I have tied many thousands of flies and finally getting to the point where it's no longer fun. Right now, I'm tying a bunch of new patterns for the upcoming trip to baja and the trip to Turneffe Flats in Novemeber.
Getting bored, never. I've heard guys say they went back to work because golfing 4 days a week got to be boring or couldn't sit around and do nothing. Hell, I could sit all day in my back yard and watch the grass grow. Or take walks around the block.
As a matter of fact, today I met a guy sitting next to me at the Texas Hold'm table. I had won a big hand and started talking to him. He stopped and said my voice sounded familiar and he told me his name.... Crap, I put my arm on his shoulder and told him I was the rebelrouser in the electric department in Salinas. He was the supervisor in the Land Dept at the time. Funny, who you meet in the casino's.

I highly recommend retirement for those who can, you'll drop 10 years off your age

Jay

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Another idea I see is to retire from your life's work and then find another kind of job for a change and that is maybe more fun?

Sadly many today will not be retiring as young as they would like because their investments have gone down a lot in the recent economic downturn.

[DLJeff]

I was one of those who talked about retirement with you, Bill. I was made for retirement, heh heh. Here's my top "rules and advice".

1. Have a plan (but don't be so entractable that you can't adjust it when appropriate) and consider how all major decisions (financial, marital, and other) will effect that plan.

2. Max out the matching portion of your 401K if your employer offers one. Otherwise, max out the options that net you the highest tax savings.

3. Invest for the long term and implement a process to provide regular installments, starting as young as you can (I helped my kids open Vanguard accounts when they got jobs and were still in high school), even if it means making some sacrifices (like making that 8wt suffice instead of buying the 9wt as well). Live your life (it's too short not to) but remember rule #1 above. Maybe that 3 year assignment in some fishless hell hole might be worth it if it advances your "plan" by three years.

4. Use a spreadsheet to create an annual cost of living for when you retire (no need to do this until you get within 5 years or so). The more detailed this estimate, the more confident you'll be that you "have a large enough nest egg". Include your fishing trips and whatever other hobbies you have. Factor in buying a new home or car or whatever large purchases you are considering. Once you can live on 4% return on your nest egg, you can be pretty confident you can live your retirement without ever touching your nest egg. This spreadsheet also helps you analyze changes that might occur later - such as maybe you want to sign-up for luthier school and build your own guit-fiddle and it costs as much as a fishing trip. So you can decide to swap out a fishing trip for luthier school next year and know you're not dipping into you nest egg.

[Bill Kiene semi-retired]

Nice DLJeff

I have heard of the "10% plan" many times too.

You start as a teenager putting 10% of every dollar you get into a savings that you never use except to buy a home or some other solid investment.

.