The right retirement tips are like gold. The retirement ideas you envision and the pre-retirement planning you do now can make it happen. Imagine the feeling when you do achieve the freedom to retire. And what does it take? More than ever, it takes sound planning, a balanced approach, and discovering a new purpose in retirement. We’re honored to have Fritz Gilbert, of the Retirement Manifesto, return to our podcast to share his retirement advice, and talk about his book The Keys to a Successful Retirement. And you’ll find this book to be a go-to resource to retire smarter. Professionals planning for retirement, devotees of the FIRE movement (and Fat Fire), and retirees will all find it to be a trusted source of retirement tips, practical retirement planning advice, and inspiration.

We discuss:

• How he and his wife are doing in the pandemic
• His perspective on the economic impact of COVID-19, as an early retiree
• How he thinks this will affect the FIRE movement
• What day-to-day life as an early retire is like – and what’s surprised him
• Which factors mattered most in his pre-retirement planning
• What inspired him to write his book Keys to a Successful Retirement
• Why test driving retirement life helped him
• What differentiates people who do it right in retirement from those who don’t
• Why Attitude & Passion should be part of your retirement planning
• The role the Freedom for Fido project has played in their retirement life – and what hints it gives you for yours
• Why finding a new purpose is vital
• What he learned for his ONE Retirement Question project
• His advice for pre-retirees

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Bio

Fritz Gilbert retired after more than three decades in corporate America, where he progressed through the various levels of a multinational corporation serving the global aluminum industry.  His award-winning blog “The Retirement Manifesto” is focused on people achieving a great retirement. Fritz and his wife, Jackie, live in a cabin in Blue Ridge, Georgia, an Appalachian Mountain town where they’re active in their local church and various local charities, including Jackie’s charity Freedom for Fido (FreedomForFido.com). When he’s not writing, Fritz enjoys spending his time outdoors and is an avid fly fisherman, mountain biker, hiker, camper, photographer, and fitness fanatic. He also cherishes his daily walks in the woods with their four dogs, who run the household. Fritz and Jackie also travel cross country in their RV to visit their daughter and her family in the Pacific Northwest.

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Wise Quotes

On Envisioning Your Life in Retirement

“Think about what you want your life to be. And there’s a direct correlation between those that take more time to think about it and how successful their retirement is. The people that are Type A and hard-charging right up til the end, especially if they lose their job unexpectedly, Boom, they’re retired. They tend to be the ones that struggle the most. And it really does go back to this getting onto the off-ramp and mentally preparing yourself to start changing gears. You’re getting off the Interstate and you’re going back on a country road. You’ve got to be prepared for how that drive is going to differ. And, taking the time to do that before you hit the country road. No doubt in my mind that’s the most important thing people can do.”

On Taking Retirement for a Test Drive

“I took an extra week off. We, so I made it, 10 days or so, and my wife and I both said, Hey, let’s just kind of pretend we’re retired.
We’ll try to really make this like a retirement lifestyle and let’s just think about what do we want our days to be.  What do we want our retirement dreams to be? And anything like that that you can do to just put your mindset into the post-retirement lifestyle helps. And do that while you’re still working. I’ve done a lot of research for the book and one of the biggest differentiators is the people that kind of take some time to do that, tend to have the easiest transition into retirement.”

On Why Attitude Matters in Retirement

“Wherever you’re going in your journey, it’s almost a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you go into something with a bad attitude, chances are it’s going to turn out to be not that enjoyable. And the thing about retirement is the attitude that we take towards it is pretty much entirely within our control. You there’s so many things you can’t control; the stock market; inflation; health insurance, etc.  But the things that you can control, be intentional, and choose to be positive. Look for the positives in all the situations you’re facing. And I just think that goes a long way to smooth out the bumps and makes it a lot better journey.”

On Purpose in Retirement

“You’ve got to have something to get up for in the morning. It’s an overused phrase, but it’s true. You really have to find something that you’re passionate about, and you have to replace that fulfillment that you got through work. Work, you can say a lot of negatives about it, but there’s no doubt that it gave you a sense of purpose. You knew what you had to do. You had your objectives, you had your annual reviews, you had your metrics. Whatever there was, there was. I think we’re designed as people to perform certain things, right? And when you’re performing the thing that you’re meant to be doing, there’s fulfillment that you get from that. Retirement can be the best years of your life. The trick is to find the thing that you’re meant to be doing. And that’s the challenge.  is how do you find that thing? And I get into that in my book.”

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For More on Fritz Gilbert, the Retirement Manifesto & Keys to a Successful Retirement:

Order: Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years 

Follow on Twitter @RetireManifesto

Follow on Facebook and Instagram

Freedom For Fido

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Retirement Podcast Episodes You May Like

Our first conversation with Fritz Gilbert

The Soft Side of Retirement – Fritz Gilbert, The Retirement Manifesto

Other Podcast Conversations You May Like

Are You Ready For The New Retirement? – Stephen Chen

What’s Your Exit Strategy? – Ashley Micciche

Not Exactly Retired – David Jarmul

With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra

Your Retirement Won’t Come with a Road Map – Carol Hymowitz

Do Your Retirement Strategies Account for 6 Stages & Community? – Ted Carr

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Related RW Blog Posts You May Like

Power Up Your Purpose: Now’s The Time

Your Greatest Retirement Asset Could Be Your Attitude

Our Review of Keys to a Successful Retirement

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Sign up for our free Monthly Newsletter Wisdom Notes

Tap into tools including free retirement calculators| The New Retirement Planner | The Flexible Retirement Planner

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Explore retirementwisdom.com

Wise Quotes

On Life in Early Retirement 

“Day-to-day life, it really couldn’t be any different. So we were living in this small town in Pennsylvania. Now we live in a ski town in Utah. Back then I was working a 40 plus hour week with a commute a half hour each way. Now, I still do some work. I write the blog and I’ve written a book since I left. So, I do some work, but it’s really all on my schedule because we live in a ski town. So in the winter, we ski four or five, sometimes six days a week.  And in the summer I’m out hiking, mountain biking, doing things kind of every day. And, my family and I, we kind of fit work in around life. Whereas before I felt like we were just kind of always trying to squeeze life in wherever we could around our work schedules. So, from that perspective, it’s, it really couldn’t be much different.”

On What He Knows Now That He Wish He Knew Then

“I was certainly writing about the softer side of retirement, like purpose and meaning and structure, and all these things that we’re talking about. But I kind of wish I would’ve spent even more time on that part because I think the financial part gets a lot of the emphasis in retirement planning. There’s a lot of stuff you can’t know as far as like future market returns and interest rates and inflation and all that stuff. But you know, you can kind of play in and have contingencies. But, I just found that there’s just not a lot of information [about the softer side of retirement] I think it’s very individual for everybody on how you’re going to adapt and adjust and find purpose and meaning – and find that structure. Everybody’s a little bit different and I wish I would have focused maybe even a little bit more on that – or at least maybe had a little more grace for myself, as far as like having a little bit less expectations for retirement and just kind of going with the flow a little bit more.”

On Risks and Mitigation in an Early Retirement Plan

“I think a lot of times you can mitigate those risks. And another strategy that I kind of use is just taking little bite-sized steps…on something like retirement, which is so overwhelming. And so,  doing something like semi-retiring and doing something like my wife dropping down to part-time work. We still made some massive changes. I let my license go. I’m not a physical therapist anymore. We moved across the country. Those are…kind of one-way decisions. But we also gave ourselves a lot of Slack and leeway,  just by making more moderate and gradual changes in other areas. I mentioned how I love being in the mountains and I rock climb and I’d done high-altitude mountaineering and I’m a skier. And I think people look at that as this high-risk thing. But I think when you’re doing those types of activities, it really teaches you risk management and risk mitigation. And there’s a quote I love: “Getting to the top is optional and getting down is mandatory.” And it kind of just reinforces that whole idea of risk management and remembering what is most important – and what things can you not afford to lose. And then you can mitigate those risks – and you know the Mountain is always there. You can always go back to it, but your life? You only get one time.”

Bio

Chris Mamula regularly writes about financial independence while expanding the conversation around what retirement is and can be at CanIRetireYet.com. His articles have been featured on MarketWatch, DoughRoller, and Business Insider.

He achieved financial independence and retired from his physical therapy career in 2017, at the age of 41. In addition to writing, he now focuses on being a dedicated husband, stay-at-home dad, and dirtbag/ski-bum depending on the season at his home in the mountains of Utah.

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

The Skill Set for Life’s Transitions – Bruce Feiler

What Are The Keys To A Successful Retirement? Fritz Gilbert

When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill

How to Retire Early and Live Your Life Fully – Leif Dahleen

With the Freedom to Retire, Where Will You Plant Your New Tree? – Don Ezra

Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans

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About Retirement Wisdom

We help people who are retiring, but not done yet, discover what’s next.

A long retirement is a terrible thing to waste. And a meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

We help you design the life and/or the second career you want.

Schedule a call today to discuss how we can help you.

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Explore retirementwisdom.com

There’s Much More to FIRE Than Frugality

There’s a lot of chatter about the FIRE movement. Chris Mamula, who retired at 41, joins us to discuss his journey to early retirement, the upsides and the challenges of FIRE, why the transition can be challenging, and his advice on what it takes to retire early with the FIRE Movement.

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Bio

Follow Chris at  Can I Retire Yet?

Chris’ article in MarketWatch:

This first year of early retirement has been one of the hardest of my life

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Wise Quotes

On The Transition to Early Retirement

“Like a lot of people planning for retirement, I think I kind of had this vision in my head like I was going to have total freedom and that was really appealing to me. And what I’ve really found in this first year is that I really desire some routine and some structure. I think when every day is like a Saturday, that sounds really appealing when you’re working 40, 50, 60 hours a week from Monday through Friday. But even when I was in my career, what I found was I would get up every morning at like 5:00. I would do my workout, I would shower, I would write for about an hour all before I went to work, and that forced structure caused me to get things done.

A lot of times when I was working, on my Saturdays, I would find my days would just blow by and I wouldn’t do anything productive, and that’s kind of what I found myself doing some of these days. You feel like you’re going to have so much free time, and it just gets filled.  And if you’re not very intentional about how it gets filled, you find your days can start wasting away. I actually like structure, and I’m trying to implement that in my life now. We don’t have a set routine yet. We keep modifying things with the move and with the change in seasons and with having a young child, but I’m trying to find that structure and that routine.”

On Purpose

“I think you read a lot as you start to get into retirement planning that you shouldn’t retire from something, you should retire to something, and I think that’s great advice.  Because I think in my career as a physical therapist I got to witness people longitudinally. People would come in and then they’d come back years later with a different problem, and I had a particular physician who I became friendly with, and I got to know him fairly well as a patient. He came back years later with a different problem after he retired, and he was always a really jovial, happy guy. And I asked him, “I assume you’re loving retirement?” He said, “Oh, I hate it.” I said, “Well, why?” And he said … he just felt like he lost his purpose, and he said, “The only thing I like to do now … I don’t have anything to do, so go work out five, six hours a day,” and he ends up tearing his rotator cuff, which is why he’s coming to see me because he was over-working out. Now he was really depressed because he lost that. So, I think a lot of people don’t really think … and I think I was this way  … with much thought as I put into this. I’ve been writing about this for five years, I don’t think I put enough thought into what it was going to look like. I think we tend to really focus on the financial side, and kind of underestimate the quote, unquote, “Softer side,” of this, but it’s very important, and a lot of people struggle with that.”

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About Retirement Wisdom

We help people who are retiring, but not done yet, discover what’s next.

A long retirement is a terrible thing to waste. And a meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident.

Retire smarter. Schedule a call today to discuss how we can help you make yours great.

Is there a playbook on how to retire early?  You may find yourself dreaming of early retirement now after reading stories of the FIRE movement (Financial Independence and Retire Early). But maybe you’re wondering what it would really be like to retire early and walk away? And perhaps you’ve fantasized about what life would be like without a blaring alarm clock five days a week.

An Early Retirement Story In Progress

Our guest is Leif Dahleen, who at 43, did just that in August. We talk with Leif about his story and:

• What the FIRE Movement is about
• What early retirement life is really like
• Why he wanted to retire early
• What his decision-making process was like
• How he test drove his retirement
• What’s surprised him so far
• What he misses about work
• Why he started his blog Physician on FIRE

Bio

Leif Dahleen is a former anesthesiologist, who retired from medicine at the age of 43, having achieved financial independence several years earlier. He started his blog Physician on FIRE in January 2016 to enlighten, educate, and entertain other high-income professionals while discussing money matters of all sorts. Leif achieved both his Bachelors and Medical Degree from the University of Minnesota. Leif is happily married with two children. They call northern Michigan their home base and spend much of the year traveling. Leif joins us today from Spain.

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Wise Quote

On How To Achieve Financial Independence and Retire Early

“The thing is to Mind the Gap,  as they say by the subway in London. You need to grow the gap between your income and your spending. There are obviously two ways to do that, more income or less spending – and either one will work. If you do both, that’ll work even better. But what will matter by far the most, especially over the short term and now over the long term (meaning decades, multiple decades) are your investment returns – and fees and expenses –  all of that matters quite a bit.

But over the short term, meaning months to a number of years, it’s how much you save and how much you put aside for retirement that’s going to matter the most. So I tell my readers ( and again I mostly speak to a high-income audience who already has the earning side pretty well figured out ) to try to live on half their take home. If they can basically live their lives on half of what they’re bringing home and use the rest to either pay off debt and or invest, then they can become financially independent from being flat broke to being Financially Independent, in 15 to 20 years  – more or less –  depending on market returns.”

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Follow Leif Dahleen’s blog Physician on FIRE

Follow Leif Dahleen on Twitter  

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Related Podcast Conversations on Retiring Early

Stephen Chen

Chris Farrell

Ted Carr

Chris Mamula

Fritz Gilbert

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