“When Will You Retire, Lonny?”
I am sometimes asked this $64,000 question (showing my age with that reference). The question is:
Lonny, when are you going to retire?
The honest answer is:
Not a clue.
I don’t resent the question as many of my contemporaries no longer work. I’ve also have gone through a tremendous life change when my late wife Beth passed away in 2020. And I married a lovely woman, Marcie, in 2023. Those kind of changes makes “working” a back seat kind of issue. Yet it remains important to me…to a degree.
I realize that as a consultant, I am in different employment strata than most folk. I do not have a “job” and haven’t for 25 years since I formed the Strum Consulting Group in 1999. I do have clients. Good clients, clients who I like, respect, take pleasure in their success and enjoy seeing. Bottom line is that I like to work, so I work. However, I do not work with the same intensity as I did 25 years ago when I formed the Strum Consulting Group. That’s a choice. I do not have the desire (and thankfully do not have the financial need) to hustle “full time” as I did in yesteryear. But I do enjoy being engaged and I like making contributions to my client’s businesses and being rewarded for doing so. Here’s my secret: my clients are friends. Either they were before I started doing work for them, or in many cases they become friends. So, my view is that seeing friends is not a chore. It’s fun. And helping them makes me happy. Unlike my ad agency career, where you don’t necessarily have a strong personal bond with your clients, in my current life I do. I am blessed that it is so.
Therefore, I will continue to work as long as:
1. I am mentally sharp
2. My skills can help their business
3. My health is good.
4. My current clients (or new ones) feel I provide value
5. Humbly, I feel like it.
I am 5 for 5 for the moment, but we all know a health curveball might be around the corner—for any of us. And when any of the 5 above criteria aren’t hit, it’s time to quit. In fact, I’ve started a new chapter as an 5 MOUNTAIN Advisor & Coach for the Delaware Valley Family Business Center, a terrific firm providing services to family-owned businesses, a unique niche. I am excited about this chapter.
The issue of retirement for those who are employed by a “company” is tougher and a little more black and white. You work and then when you retire, you leave. In the corporate world, at some point you retire, or you painfully you “get retired”—it’s the Business Circle of Life.
In yesteryear, one worked into their 60s, sometimes until 65, retired, got a gold watch, a cake and went off, maybe played a little golf, visited family, and then sadly passed away just a few years later. With a 70-year or less life expectancy back then, there were realistically few post-employment “golden” years. However, today’s 65-year-old has 20 years of tread left on average (and some have more). Where will I fall in that spectrum? No idea, obviously.
But I do know this about myself:
1. I don’t like golf
2. I like visiting Florida in the winter for a few weeks, but not for months
3. I like the diversity of my current life
4. I still have a lot to give my clients (he says, humbly)
5. I like New Jersey, despite its drawbacks
6. I like seeing the Yankees and Rutgers basketball and attend games often.
7. I want to travel and vacation with Marcie more
8. I love my children, and they will always be a priority
Things change and my priorities could shift. But for now, the answer to when are you going to retire. “No time soon”. But for those of you who are considering retirement, be sure to think it thorough as there are many issues for your consideration:
1. Can you afford to retire?
2. Have you done a long-term financial plan–will your money last another 30 years? Will you outlive your $? If so, then what?
3. Have you reduced/eliminated debt (a good thing for all ages)?
4. Have you assumed significant medical expenses in the future, assuming the need for assisted care in the latter years of life (spoiler alert: that’s on you!—Medicare doesn’t cover that)
5. What will you do with your time? This is really important. Think deeply about this.
6. Where will you live?
If you have thought these through and are ready to retire, go for it.
But I not ready. At least for now, or maybe ever. (But I reserve the right to change my mind)
More Strumings
- How to Win an Online Political Argument
- The Day Anne Murray Got Bruuuuuuuced.
- The Older I Get the More Liberal (and Conservative) I Get
- Experience Matters.
