A couple of years ago, I wrote a column about how to have a retirement worth saving for. It ended with a quote from personal finance educator Barbara O’Neill, who reflected on how the pandemic disrupted many retirees’ plans.
“It wasn’t just two years lost, it was two good years,” O’Neill said then. “You don’t know how many of those you have left.”
One of my younger colleagues objected to that sentiment, saying it was a jarring ending to an otherwise upbeat column. But my older co-workers got it. Those of us who currently have good health and energy don’t know how long those blessings will last. There’s no guarantee we’ll get to enjoy the retirements we have planned.
That lesson was driven home in July 2023, when a longtime colleague died at age 61. We’d had many talks over the years about the retirement he had envisioned. It’s heartbreaking that his dreams will never happen.
But his death was the push I needed to make my own decision. By the time you read this, I will have retired from my job at personal finance site NerdWallet.
In my latest for ABC News, learn how I made the decision to retire.
Congratulations on reaching the sunny beach of retirement! It’s an adjustment, no doubt. I retired in 2017 after 40 years behind the Hollywood plow, and just as I was starting to feel at home away from work, Covid hit … and we all know how much fun that wasn’t. Nobody saw it coming, and it’s been tough on all of us. Retirement can be a rather isolating experience, and having to avoid people, then mask-up like a ninja whenever entering a building, only made it worse. That said, enjoy your new live, and what call “the gift of time.”
And thanks for all the financial advice these past years!