Welcome back to the Early Retirement Podcast. I want all of you to know the earliest time you can retire. Doesn't mean you actually need to retire. In fact, most people think when I say, hey, you're in a position to retire, that people just do. That doesn't happen that often. Most of the time, people go, wow, that's great to know. I'm going to keep working another year for my team so I don't just leave them high and dry. Or I've got this project. Or I don't know what I'm going to do yet in retirement. But it's really nice going to work knowing I don't actually have to be here. If I have a bad day, if politics change, I have the ability to do what I want to do, which is spend my time on whatever it is I want to do. And that's once again where I want all of you to live. I don't want you in that I don't know phase. Many of you have heard this before, but I'm a soccer player, and my wife says I'm worse than hangry when I'm injured. If you don't know hangry, that's hungry and angry. A very dangerous combination. And she used to think right when I get my MRI, I'm going to be even worse than that. Why? Because I'm going to see the severity of my injury. But the truth is I relax. And I relax even if the injury is bad, because now I know the truth. I have a plan. Got it. I might have to do six months of physical therapy or a year to get back on the field. But I know what I need to do in order to once again play soccer, which is the goal in this case. I want all of you to know, wow, what if markets went down right when I retired? Or what if tax brackets change? Or what if my health changes? Or what if I live longer? Or what if, what if, what if, wow, I still see that I would be in a position if I were to make the following changes. Great, I still want to retire. So if you're wondering, okay, what do I need to know before I retire? Once again, guys, you can email me the word retire in the subject line, and I will respond back with a free guide. It's a checklist to make sure you don't forget anything. If you want to build your own plan, just make sure to put in the subject line the word optimize, and then I'll send you the software that I use to build financial plans. And then finally, we love to help people retire early. So you can go to our website, rootfinancial.com, and that's when people are like, wow, I get I need to be financially educated on all retirement topics, but I don't want to actually be the one in charge of implementing it because I want to be enjoying my retirement. And it's our job to make sure we're helping you get the most true value out of what you've worked so hard for. So many people just keep working until 60, 65, thinking, you know what, that's what I gotta do, that's what my parents did, but that that's not the reality. The reality is there's so many of you who listen to this podcast who go, wow, maybe I could retire earlier, but don't take action on it. And we want to show you, hey, here's when it could be possible. And we're not just gonna sugarcoat it, we're not gonna blow smoke, we're gonna show, hey, here's the reality based on your situation, how much you could spend, here's what's reasonable. So it might surprise you, but it also might be a little bit of tough love. And we believe in being transparent. So hopefully the podcast resonates. I do all of this for you guys for free, and I love getting to do it. So thank you in advance for letting me record these episodes, or else it just feels like I'm talking to outer space. So appreciate you guys emailing me for these free guides. That's a long intro. Let's get to the episode. Why
did you retire when so many other people don't do that and keep pushing it back a year?
SPEAKER_01One of my duties at the agency was you had to come through me to clear, to leave the agency, whether you wanted to leave for another job, retirement, or whatever. So I would get feedback on from what's happened to such and such. This person, and I'm telling you something, it got to the point where I can know in five seconds whether you're going for another job or whether you're leaving to retire. The people that retired were leaving for retirement, all had a glow. They were literally like kids in preschool in kindergarten. And you could see the smile. I said, Oh, you're gonna retire. So, how'd you know? I've done this before.
SPEAKER_00What I'm doing in this new show, Retirement Reality, is having heartfelt, candid conversations with people who have already retired so you can hear from them what worked well, what didn't, and everything in between. I hope you enjoy. And if you're retired and you want to personally come share your story on a future episode, there's a link right below this in the description of this episode where you can apply to be a guest. Now go enjoy the episode. Maybe I'm not supposed to have favorite guests, but I don't care because this was the best episode I've recorded, and it's not because of me. I'm just asking some basic questions. It's because of Herb. Wait until you hear this episode. Here's someone who is a federal employee who moved to a state where he didn't know anybody, he was obese, took care of his health, then was diagnosed with an incurable cancer, and he has the best attitude of anyone I've ever met. I'm looking at my entire life differently. I'm literally going to be telling my wife about this all night at dinner, and I cannot wait for all of you to hear this. Please go give Herb some love in the comments as you're watching this video, because this is powerful stuff. Enjoy.
Herb, thank you for joining another episode of Retirement Reality. What's so fun about these interviews is we just get to have a fun conversation, and I appreciate you being willing to share. Now I ask all my guests the same question first, which is if there was one word you would use to describe your retirement so far, what would it be? Unpredictable. Unpredictable. Okay, now you can use as many words as you would like to go into why you chose the word unpredictable.
SPEAKER_01To be honest with you, I had the plan and it has totally I've been retired this October 31st, it'll be six years. Wow. So I consider myself a little bit more of an expert in than other people, and I'm not trying to say that I'm better than them. It's just that I've been in the game a little bit longer. Yeah. And you have this idea of how things are going to work, and you have this plan, and you're working the plan, and you're like, whoa, that wasn't in the plan. And then that's what happens, that's what's happened to me. And I think because of that, you realize that there's twists and turns in this, and it's really a game called life. I look at it different than retirement. And I'm going to offend your uh subscribers right now by saying, if you're working a job, you are not retired. That's just my opinion. I have not worked. Well, you have people on here that are saying, okay, I'm retired, but then you got a YouTube channel that's making money. Okay, then you say there's a couple and and hats off to them. They've been very successful. They have a hundred thousand subscribers, and it's a retirement gym. Now, they do give valuable information, but you're not officially working a job. I have not worked in six, almost six years. You're gonna like this one, Herb.
SPEAKER_00I had one one couple that I was speaking to. They said, We're retired, we work part-time at the gym, and we're also um doing other jobs, but you know, they don't pay a ton. And by the way, we haven't taken a trip in 10 years. I go, okay, if that's the retirement you want, they go, Yeah, we just didn't think this would happen. So it was weird because it was their choice, but I totally hear what you're saying here. Now, I want the whole Herb story. I want to know how it happened. So, six years, by the way, that's correct. You are a veteran compared to others who have shared, I'm retired a month or two months, obviously. No one's better than, but you know, you're a cool guy, I can already tell. So give us the story. What did you do for a living and why'd you choose to retire at the time you did?
SPEAKER_01Well, I worked 30 years for the federal government in Washington, D.C. I was a program analyst, and I really enjoyed my job. Uh, it was very fulfilling, very more rewarding. Work for a great team and a great organization. And I remember I was 54 years old and I was just never having a good day. And I said, you know what? I don't think I'm gonna make it to 62 in this retirement age. I'm running on fumes here. And I was still doing the job, I was still good at the job, and I just had a moment and I discovered during this time, I started looking, is it I ran into the fire movement. And the fire movement, for some of you people don't know, most people don't know, is financial independence retire early group. And I started thinking, is it possible that I can retire? And then one day I listened to this financial advisor that came to the agency. He gave great information. I was on a conference call listening to him, and I reached out to him, Ari, and I went back and I was looking real good. I had my portfolio with him, and then he looked, he listened and looked, young guy, you know, 30s, you're age, you know, younger guy, you're younger than that. You're you know, around the same age as you. And he said, Mr. He said, Mr. Walker, I like to see you with more money. And I was like, what does that mean? And I wanted to direct. I'm I'm a direct guy. Just tell me I don't have enough. Yeah. And to be honest, at that point, I had I have built a portfolio that is still more than the medium of a 55 to 64-year-old. Right. I had more than, and I was like, okay. And then he started explaining. He said, okay, I'm saying that because you want this particular life, and this amount is not going to get you to life. So I went and told a friend of mine as far as what happened. And I remember saying this, and I'm talking to myself, and I'm like, you're sounding like a wuss. Come on out here. Three years, let's go all the way. And so for three years, no vacations, just focus on that. And I hit the wave of the stock market, and you can't make this up. In three years, with one month before I was eligible to retire, I made the goalie set.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Wow.
SPEAKER_01And at that point, it was okay, this is supposed to happen. This is gonna happen. And then it was more or less, you know, all right. I took the minimum. Now no one does that. Okay, when you're in the when you're in the government, the longer you stay past your once you become eligible, the more your your pension goes up. So I took them, and I was taking a huge pay cut. So it was a lot to consider here. And when I did, when I when I finally did, I did research and everything, and you know, I realized at that time, I got down to a countdown. It was a there was a L it was a website that had the countdown of when you become eligible. It was fun. It was fun. I was having a good time with this. And then it said September 20th, 8th, and 2019, or something, something like that. You're now fully eligible for full benefits. And alright, that happened at midnight on a Friday night. Sorry, Monday morning at 8:30. I was in a director's office.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh.
Why did you retire when so many other people don't do that and keep pushing it back a year?
SPEAKER_01I think for me, one of my duties at the agency was you had to come through me to clear, to leave the agency, whether you wanted to leave for another job, retirement, or whatever. You had to come through me. I was one of the stops. So I would get feedback on from what has happened to such and such. This person, and I'm telling you something, it got to the point where I can know in five seconds whether you're going for another job or whether you're leaving to retire. The people that retired were leaving for retirement, all had a glow. They were literally like kids in preschool in kindergarten. And you could see the smile. I said, Oh, you're gonna retire. So, how'd you know? I've done this before. And they all had the same thing. And then unfortunately, you would hear about them later on down the line, and you were here a year, person, two years, one year, either had an illness or died. And that had an impact on me. And that made me realize that, you know, time is short. And, you know, some of these people had really generous pensions. And one person in particular, lady I knew for 38 years, she had everything planned out to the T. But she wanted to make 90K in retirement, which is kind of generous for a federal employee. She was hooked on that number. And she ended up having back surgery, and then I got a text three months after I retired, she had died and not spent one day in retirement. And I it broke my heart. It really did. Because I saw that could happen to people with the one more year syndrome. When you get to one more year, you don't need the money. You do not need it's a culmination of many, many years. You don't need the money. And the only thing I would recommend on the one more year is that if you haven't handled it, if you haven't prepared yourself on the lifestyle side. And if you haven't done that, I would say work. I have told people that they should work it, they should continue to work because they were married to their job. And you're gonna get a shell shock if you're married to your job. I will tell people if you're married to your job and that's all you've known, you're gonna struggle that you're gonna struggle in retirement.
SPEAKER_00What a unique position where you're hearing from people, and I love that in five seconds you can go, yep, you're glowing, you're retiring, and other people are looking for a new job. I want to hear about some of these twists and turns that you shared.
Hey, this is unpredictable. What are some of the biggest surprises that have happened since you've retired?
SPEAKER_01Um, the biggest surprise is that the lifestyle side and in that you can prepare for it financially with the lifestyle of things. My only sibling passed away on Christmas night, and we were going to, that was one of the reasons why I retired because I said, Hey, I get to sit some time with my sister, because I wasn't doing that before. And she was sick before I retired, and it was just at that point I'd already knew there was time to go. And, you know, other things I did that were that weren't, you know, so as you know, tragic as that, unfortunately, is that I relocated to another state from Maryland to North Carolina. And I relocated during COVID. Did you have friends? Yeah. Are you a friend? I'm moving. So because that was the plan before. So imagine October 31st, 2019, you're retired. Well, the next March is COVID, right? That's not in the plan. Me and advisor had planned for me to work part-time, earn extra money because I was taking a huge pay cut, and then now we have COVID. And I'm like, I'm not, there's no work. I'm not going to work. You know, now at this point, we don't know what to do. So, really, July 2020, I relocated to North Carolina, didn't know a soul. Moving away from all my family, first move in my entire life. You can't make this up. This is actually true now. And people are like, he's he's he's not he's making this up. No, it's true. And so by that time, I had gotten so frustrated, and I remember the things I was doing. My friends and family thought I was nuts. They said, you're moving to another place, to another state? You don't know anybody? I said, yes. And the funny thing is, I was gonna first move to Florida, and then I decided, okay, that's a little bit too far. You have a mom that's still alive. She's at that time 80, 80, maybe 85 years old. I said, that's too far. And then by the time we had COVID, I said, no, I don't want to go that far. I get on the plane and all that stuff. So I moved to North Carolina. It's a four and a half-hour drive, 300 miles. If anything happens tomorrow or tonight, I can go there and get there tour. So that was important to me. Um, you know, I moved in North Carolina, and people were concerned too, because frankly, North Carolina doesn't have the reputation for, let's say, diversity, acceptance. Um, it's a very conservative, you know, conservative state. But I have southern family, and I'm my parents are southern. So I tell people this I was grew up in Washington, D.C., but I grew up in a southern family. So it got to the point where I decided um, I literally decided the place that I'm living in, I didn't even see it. Now, baby boomers don't normally do this.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_01I just went online, he did a virtual, and me and the agent talked for 40 minutes, and he got so comfortable with me, he picked up the apartment. And I'm like, okay, we'll we're doing this. Because then I came down here, somebody said, You don't do it. I came down for a month and I, I mean for a weekend to look at the look at Carrie, and I found an apartment, but I wasn't in love with it. And I would tell people, wherever you go, be in love with it. Don't be in like with it. And that's when I made the change. And literally, the apartment community, one of the things here they're they're really kind of not as okay, I don't want to say this, but I'll give an example. Maryland non-smoking everywhere, North Carolina. At that time, you had smoking communities, smoking apartment communities.
SPEAKER_00Okay, I have to know. Sorry to interrupt her. I'm too carrying.
I have to know what I want to know what is your day-to-day like at this point. You moved to North Carolina, you don't know anybody, you're not working, no part-time work. What are you spending your time doing?
SPEAKER_01At that point, I was obese when I retired. And so I needed to work on it my health. And I needed to get into, I needed to lose some weight. So when I get down here, the first thing I'm looking for is a park, believe it or not. Outside of the other things like grocery stores and stuff like that. And when I first got down here, I the funny thing is, is that when I saw the apartment building, the location, I would have never picked it out. So sometimes it's better not to see things. So, you know, when I came down, because look, I'll give you an example. My favorite dessert in the world is Dairy Queen Blizzard. I'm a big kid when it comes to that. I'm a 62-year-old kid when it comes to that, right? So, but at the same time, I'm trying to get rid of this habit. You know, I'll go out to dinner and then they'll say, let's go to Dairy Queen. And they're like, okay, cool. The apartment is three, it's a three-minute walk from my apartment to Dairy Queen. Full service. I was like, this is not gonna end well. I said, this is gonna be a disaster. So, so it, you know, what I ended up doing was that I ended up finding a part, started walking, started focused on exercising, and I would meet people, and and what I found out about, you know, in the South was that how friendly people are. I mean, I'm going in July, and you see, in this black man with a mask and dark shades, the hat. I look like a bank robber. It's like, come on. And people are saying, good morning, good morning. I'm like, really? And then Merlin is lukewarm. I mean, people are nice and everybody's busy, and sometimes the pleasantries, they don't exchange pleasantries. And and I realized I had made the right decision. So my daily, and then I was still transitioning, I was getting used to, and I'm, you know, or I'm the type of person that likes a challenge. And I still, you know, I had sports, watched TV, and I and I was trying to get familiar with the with the area. That was taking up a lot a lot of my time, too.
SPEAKER_00Okay, a few things. Number one, first of all, you look great. Okay, so thank you to you. Second of all, what I love that you did, and I uh you recognize it, which I think is awesome. You're like, I'm putting Herb first. Your parents are like, Herb, are you nuts? You're moving to a state where you literally know no people and you're retiring early, and people you do know probably are still working. So, like, what are you gonna do? And you're like, Yeah, I see that. I'm still doing it. So that's awesome. Number three, I want to know what were the hours like when you were working for the federal government? Because I've been told from certain people, hey, I want to prioritize my health, but I can't because I'm working all the time. Is that the truth? Or what are your thoughts on that?
SPEAKER_01That's the truth. Um, I had a 75-minute commute to work. And so that was one way. So I was I was getting up at 4:30, 5 a.m. And you know, you're doing that, and then in the with the winter time and everything, you're literally part of the part of the the year, you're leaving work in the dark and you're coming home in the dark.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god.
SPEAKER_01And so for a person really has to stay focused, and I think that's what happened to me. I mean, I, you know, that was part of what you know, I take full responsibility. I was eating like, you know, I was eating like a Tasmanian devil. So it was just, it was just horrible. But, you know, it, you know, federal government workers are really dedicated. They don't get the deserve the credit we get that the public, and I know the public is looking at you going through the, you're going through what you are right now that I went through. And and I was one of the reasons why I said that was one of the reasons why I retired too. Because I was part of one of them that was like 30-something days. And my job was deemed an emergency. Now, I appreciated that. Don't get me wrong, but the reality of what happened was I worked for free. And I worked, you know, people say, well, you know, do you want to work two days for free? I'll do it. No, I ended up working 30-something days for free. Because what happened was the people who were weren't deemed the emergencies stayed home. They had to be home. So when they opened the government back up, all those people got back pay, including me. But I wasn't, they wasn't there for 30 something days. And it was the morale, I said, okay, I love serving the American Church. Public and I have pride in this. But if I go through this again, you know, this is gonna it weighs on you. And and so that was one of my reasons for the decisions to re at that point. I had already made the decision to retire. So that was like the nail in the coffin at that point.
SPEAKER_00Thank you for your service. I mean, we could not have it. First of all, thank you. And I've never laughed so much in an episode recording this. So this is like a dream for me.
SPEAKER_01No, I want you to laugh because because because we take life too seriously. I've learned more in retirement. In my job, believe it or not, we didn't laugh. Was it not allowed? Well, I was we I called it like we was on the front line, and I don't want to compare it to war. That's not the case. You can't compare it. But agency-wise, I worked for the office of the secretary. So I was literally 500, 600 feet from the secretary of the agency. Wow. So everybody, all the agencies below us, they all report to us. And I never forget the story where I never forget the story where a coworker came down. He said, He said, Herb, I really like your agency. I really want to come work for it. I said, You do? I said, okay. They don't have a sense of humor here, and we don't laugh. Other than that, comp. He got quiet. He said, I said, I'm gonna say, I said, it's a great job, but it's intense, and my job was unpredictable, but I enjoyed that. And I said, when I get when I retire, I'm gonna get my sense of humor back. And it it takes a couple of years to get the sense of humor back.
SPEAKER_00Well, now let's fast forward to today because I've understood now, okay. So you moved to North Carolina, you say I'm doing it on my terms, COVID hits, people are being at least nicer, it's just a different atmosphere.
Let's fast forward to today. Can you walk us through? And you might think this is dull, but it's not because people love hearing what a day in the life. Meaning, what time do you wake up? Are you going out for lunch? Are you taking a nap? Give us the details of like a standard herb day.
SPEAKER_01You know, and I think for me, that's the one thing I would encourage people for retirement. For me, now some people want that, but I had that structure when I was working, and I wanted to get away from that. So what I do standard is now, like today, like any of the day I'll get up around six o'clock. I can't sleep in. I'm just not that person. I got two Southern parents, they didn't sleep in. So I go, and now I I walk, I exercise, I put in, you know, I put in at least three, three miles of walking. And then from there, excuse me, I'm going to the gym and I go work out, and then I come home and eat. And then from there, it's kind of like all what we'll do today. From that point on. And sometimes it might be, you know, a lot of times maybe watching something, sports, and everything. And I tell people this now. This is me. I'm more frugal, but not cheap. And I'll explain that. When you retire, you have 40 hours that you were getting paid. Now you're not. You have to be careful. It depends on your budget. Now my budget's a little bit. But it doesn't matter. You could be, if you're used to spending $20,000 a month, and now you're spending, you know, maybe you're spending $20,000, but most people are spending less. You still have those 40 hours that you have to use, and you don't want to overspend. I can spend my budget too. There's enough things to do down here to spend that money, and I have to sometimes really. I've learned little things like, hey, I'll go to the movies. AMC has a movie package that you can go to see 12 movies for $28 a month. You know, I have now, I get my car wash. I got a car wash, unlimited car wash for $39 a month. You know, I got Audible, $17 a month. And those things, when you start adding that up, it, you know, do you put them in your budget? You know, those things I can do, and they don't cost a lot of money. Now, for me, I love road trips. So when I get into a thing, I'll stay here for a little thing, and then all of a sudden I say, you know, I want to go on a road trip. And one of the things I did when I retired was I took a road trip from Carolina to California for 30 days. Oh my gosh. And for me, it was a social experiment too. I always wanted to do it, never did it. But I wanted to see it. I got tired, Ari, of the narrative about America. You hear it on the news and everything, and then putting us together, and went, and I said, this, it can't be this bad. And you know, I grew up in, I grew up in Washington, D.C. in the hood. And so for me, I did want that perspective. So my friends, you know, they later told me they were a little, they were concerned about me. I said, I'm gonna do it. So I took my phone, I have Live 360, the app that tracks you. So I had my friends tracking me. And I went from California, I went from North Carolina to California, and I went to about 11 states in 30 days. And I never, and America is a beautiful, amazing country to see. I don't get people, I understand, you want to see the world. I would tell people, remember, Europeans come here. And they're asking us, why are you coming to Europe? You guys got everything here, and that's why I found out why they stay six weeks when they travel. They love it. Because we have a vast of so much variety to see in our lives. And I've never been to a national park. So imagine the only national park I've been to was Shenandoah, which I you can't compare Shenandoah National Park to Yosemite. Right. When I went to Yosemite, man, I was blown away. And I tell people that's retirement. If you want it to be, it can be curious. Great to have routine because you need that, but also plan yourself to look something to look forward to.
SPEAKER_00Oh my gosh. That you might, I'm not allowed to say have a favorite guest, but this is incredible.
Herb, I want to go to the financial side a little bit because I'm curious. I'm gonna take a wild guess that growing up in the hood, 401ks may not be the number one discussion at dinner. Now, there are certain people that naturally will see. I mean, I'll put myself in those shoes of, hey, I'll see certain people who are in a position where it looks like they're financially comfortable and I'll go. I'll want to be there one day. I just don't know exactly how to get there. So I'm curious, what made you start saving and investing from a young age? Was it a parent? Was it a mentor? What was the reason that you even started kind of this retirement time frame?
SPEAKER_01Well, one thing I do have a little bit of financial background. So, you know, I had a degree in accounting and a degree into business administration, even though I didn't use those degrees in my profession. I remember going and coming into the government in 1991 in August, and I remember a co-worker pulling me aside. He was also African American. I guess you saw this young African-American guy. He said, Look, put your money in, you know, thrift savings plan. TSP put your money in the TSP and take, you know, do withdrawals. I mean, do withdrawals out your out your check and don't touch it. Don't ever touch it. And his name was Al Robinson. I thanked him on, you know, social media for giving me that advice because he was an older guy. And he was at the point, he was watching the stock market every day. We had guys on it in our organization. My organization I worked walked into was also finance to a certain degree. So there were some finance people. So you had that environment. When people would literally come up to you, have you done this? And one guy would show a statement. And you were in that. And you know, be honest with you, are in the African American community, we're not the best savers. And I'm just putting it out there, it's just real. I'm not partial one way or the other. We're not. You know, of all the you know, races in our country, we're we're we're probably the lowest. So I remember being in that environment and keep doing it. And with some regret, I didn't max it out the way I should have. I'm a single guy, I don't have any kids. So I actually made a lot of mistakes. I made financial mistakes. I was in debt, I spent so much money in my 30s and stuff like that. And then I remember that it worked out for me because I just listened to the advice that people were giving me and not blowing it off. Back then, you didn't have the support either. When we came on board, they just gave us a TSP book and said, hey, read it. And we didn't read it, you know. So it was like you said, a mentor has pulled me aside and said, do it. And, you know, I could have retired, I could have had more when I retired, but I'm the type of person, I don't look life in a rearview mirror. Too many people do that. If you were 20, what would you do? Well, you know, I made mistakes in 20. I'm 62 now, so I'm here and it's okay. It's you don't drive in rear, you don't take road trips, you peek, take a sneak peek back the stuff you have to, but for the most part, you keep moving forward.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Your attitude is so cool, Herb. I think you deserve a pat on the back because for people who look and go, Oh, I should have done this differently. It's like I could have done a million things differently. We're all moving forward, and you still retired early. So I think something people think incorrectly is they go, Oh, I didn't start saving immediately at 18 perfectly and max my Roth IRA. There's no way I can retire early. You're living proof that you
can. I'm curious, how much are you spending per month if you're comfortable sharing? Because so many people think I need 10 a month or 15,000 a month, or there's no way it's possible. There's other people that are like, well, yeah, I could work 10 more years to be able to do that, but I don't want to do that. So how much are you spending if you're comfortable sharing?
SPEAKER_01Okay, I think one thing I did was, like I said, the move to North Carolina was also a business decision. I knew in DC, because of what I was getting for my retirement benefits, that was gonna be very difficult to afford living in a district, Maryland, Virginia area. So that was one of the reasons why. Um I saved $600 a month just moving down to North Carolina. And so that was a big thing. So my how it worked was, you know, I was getting a pension, and the pension, and so now I'm at the point now where it's like I I did collect Social Security at 62. Because I tell people, I say, look, you can do what you want, but tell me when you're gonna die. Okay. And then let's say you don't, and you say, Well, I'm I lived to 85. Well, there's a break-even point at 78, 79. So you can do it, but you can't, now if you're married, it's a total dynamic, you've got to work that out. But if it's just you, you can't, I can't will it to my nieces and nephews. If I could, I would say, well, I'd delay it. So right now, my monthly budget is 4,000 a month. My my my survival budget is about 4,000. And that's what already, that's now like when I say I'm a unicorn and do thing weird, that's I've never, I've never owned a home. Please don't do what I did. That was a mistake. But I've never, I'm a lifelong renter. So I'm renting and I have a car payment, and it's still four, it's still less than $4,000 a month, but those things. And the car payments going away, so that'll be an extra money coming in. And my budget is is about $8,000 a month. And when I say that part, I'm in the um, I'm finally in the 50, 30, 20 budget that I always wanted to be in. 50% going to living expenses, everything. 20% is going to like future trips and stuff like that. And 30% is, hey, what do you want to do? And you know, have, you know, do you want to help somebody? Do you want to do something, you know, for those things. You want to go out to dinner, you you want to, you know, I gotta pay tax, I gotta pay for my registration in North Klein's 1% of your vehicle every year. Things like that. Those things come up. And what has I've actually become a better money manager in retirement than I was when I was working. Wow. It was like willy-nilly when I was working. Now I track it daily on a spreadsheet. That's boring. I'm like, look, it takes 30 seconds because I'd rather track it what I spent that day than to have to go back to a week. Then I gotta figure all that out. It's third, it's easy. $77 for groceries a day and $30 for car inspection for the state.
SPEAKER_00I put that in. That takes 30 seconds. Easy for you, and it works. And honestly, Herb, I don't know if you're familiar, but there's a trend of more people who are going, yes, I am a homeowner and people think it's luxurious until I travel. I want to go look at Yosemite and the roof's leaking. Or it turns out all of a sudden I've got to pay property taxes. Whatever it may be, there's pros and cons. And there's more people that are going, with renting, it's flexibility. Imagine you owned a home in Maryland and you wanted to sell and it couldn't sell for whatever reason, and that had tied up a lot of your assets. Well, good luck moving to North Carolina. You just may not have been able to. So there are pros and cons as always.
Do you mind sharing a few more of what one of my favorite questions is what are some things other than prioritizing your health that you now have the ability to spend time on that you just couldn't because you were working?
SPEAKER_01I tell people this I am the CEO of my own life. And retirement is the best job ever. You don't have to report to anybody. You don't have to ask permission. Now, if you're married, you do got to talk to your spouse about things. And I get that part. But for me, you know, I literally just came back from San Diego, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. And I'm be honest with you, I'm not a high, high network guy. I'm I'm more of the Trader Joe's versus the Whole Foods. I know you deal with Whole Foods customers, and that's great because they need support. And I would tell him, I said, it's idiotic not to have a financial advisor. And R didn't tell me this. A financial advisor changed my life. I would not be retired in the manner fully retired if I did not handle a financial advisor. Because I thought my number was fine, and he was like, it's not. So for me, I tell people this that it's the freedom to do whatever you want. And those things, this is limitless. One of the things I did, and I didn't start this as start out as something to do, but it would end up being a hobby. You see, I have this LA hat on there. I love the Dodgers. But the Dodgers, I am also a ballpark chaser. And a ballpark chaser is an individual who goes to very ball, various ballparks, all major league ballparks across the country. There's 90,000 of us on Facebook. And you go to all the stadiums, and it's incredible. I've gone to 26 of the 30. I got four left. Oh my God.
SPEAKER_00I didn't even know there was a community that big.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, oh yes. These guys are fantastic. They're great. We all just talk about our ballpark experiences, and it's a lot of fun. And when I and they've been supportive, they've you you hear the most amazing stories. One lady was heartbreaking, but it was inspirational. Her son, her, she was married, her husband and his son, they went to the ballparks together, the ballpark chases, and unfortunately he passed away. And then she picked up the chase so they can complete it. So now she's doing it with the son. And so, you know, I I discovered my love for the road. There's three, there's a there's a Facebook group called 300,000, um, USA Road Trips on Facebook. There's 300,000 people in that group. Are you in a camper or you're in your No, no, no. I take my mom to CX5. I mean, I tell people that too. I said, you know, do what you want to do. I'm gonna give me a used car. No, get yourself a new car. I got myself a brand new car that was so new that when I pulled it off the lot, I smelled something burning, and I had to call the salesperson. I said, this car ain't got no oil in it. She said, Mr. Walker, it's a brand new car. It had four miles on it. The smell will go away once you get to a hundred miles. I said, okay. Okay. So I get in my car, I listen to CX, I listen to Sirius XM, listen to podcasts, and it's one of the most peaceful things that I did. You know, the road trip, I never that never happened. So I had a job that I really loved, but it was stopping me from doing the other things and enjoying life, and that's what it was doing. And it was preventing me for that. It's great to love what you do and you should, but there's this myth that retirees don't love their job and they quit. No, the average retiree wants a new life and they want the freedom to do that. And I'm part of a retirement group on Facebook for five years. It's 28,000 of us. And we get to talk our stories. A lot of them, some of them are financial, and I said, look, guys, stop asking, stop asking financial questions on social media. Go see an advisor. And then you'd be surprised at people who actually are expecting strangers to help them with their situation. But but for me, it's kind of it's it's that freedom. I've literally, somebody say this is nothing, but for me it was something. I woke up one morning and I said, ooh, it's nice outside. It's a sunny day. Let's let's drive to the beach. Now the beach is two hours away and go have lunch. I literally drove to have lunch right there on the water, enjoyed it, it was beautiful, and then came back before before rush hour was over. Those things you can't do, those memories that we're gonna remember comes with the freedom that you can do. I'm thinking about my next thing I want to do now. I'm thinking about, I'm actually thinking about doing an Airbnb and going back to San Diego for a month.
SPEAKER_00Wow. Okay, well, I have a few fun things to tell you, and then I have a final question, Herb. This is incredible. First thing, I drive a Mazda CX5, my family has four of them. We had a friend come over and go, is this the Mazda like dealership? I go, nope, just the Town household. We love Mazda so much. We have a I so I drive a Navy Mazda CX5, my dad has a black one, my mom has a white one, and my brother has like a different shade of blue. So we're like Mazda to the core. Now we went with Mazda because we found it's just I'm not someone that knows cars well. I don't love having to get it serviced, and they're so good. So I'm a big Mazda guy. Now, the second thing I want to tell you, actually ask you, did you see James throw out the first pitch at the Padres game?
SPEAKER_01I I thought I saw a glimpse of that. I I was I thought I saw a glimpse of that. Wow is it? James is getting famous. I know. He's getting to the point that you can get that's another level.
SPEAKER_00That's next level. Okay, here's something I got I I want to harp on because you did a beautiful job of bringing this up. When you retire, you have more time to be the CEO of your life, as you said. But there's another thing that happens that you cannot quantify, which is your health. And there are certain people that will say, I want to retire early. I want to retire to focus on my health. Yeah, but I've got one more project, or my team's really gonna need me, so I really can't leave. And at first, when I would hear these responses, I'd go, maybe they can't leave. I'm not at their work. I don't know. Maybe it's really hard. And then more and more people are saying it, and other people are saying, look, it will go on. Yes, you're valued. Maybe it'll take more people to do your job because you are good at your job, but it will go on. And so it's actually harder to retire because you have to put yourself first and it's easier to keep working. So, what I would love to hear from you, and this is how I like to end the show, is I would request, if you're willing, to share with someone who has not retired yet, who is watching this, who's thinking of retiring in the next five years or so, from someone who saw people come in and talk about retirement or leaving jobs, from someone who's living in retirement right now. Obviously, it always depends on the lifestyle they want to live, but to go deeper than that, what would you tell that person?
I would tell this person this on April 30th, 2024, I was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, which is an incurable blood cancer. It changed my life. It made me realize not only that, the doctor looks you in the eye and says, You may not live as long as you think you would hope to. And that was the hardest, that is the hardest the worst day of my life. And I remember fracturing, I fractured my back, had lost 40 pounds, and I was in a roller turf, and I couldn't, I was under doctor's orders not to live, live five pounds. Now, you take that scenario of a doctor looking in your eyes and saying, You may not live five years, I may not be here five years from today. You cannot control the future. None of us can. And I told people. Reason one of the reasons why I retired is that your one doctor's visit from your life changing, and it happened to me. Now I had a guardian angel that took care of me. This lady is amazing. And she took me into her home, and she took care of me to the point that I can get back. This happened in Florida, and I can get back to DC and finish my treatment. Now, multiple mile llama is a two, is only 2% of cancers in the United States. Tom Brokaw has it or had it. And it never leaves you. Now, flip fast forward here. I'm in remission, even though I kind of laughed and I was like, how can I be in remission for K. But anyway, I'm in remission and I'm grateful because I could not walk, and now I'm back to walking 10,000 steps. My apartment's on the third floor. But if I had invested in, even when I was obese, I hadn't invested in working out. What kept me fighting was being retired because I was having such a great life before that. So I fought for my life. I didn't complain. And imagine if you get that and you have been working all this time and you don't know how it feels to be retired and be happy. You might give up when you get that news. I'll take a year. I don't know. The good news is that there's some people, only the man upstairs know. There's some people who have lived 25 years with multiple, and there's some people, you know, I'm one of who knows what it's gonna be. You know, doctors deal with problems. But my point is that your job will survive without you. But when you're on your bed, are you gonna be thinking about the job or are you gonna be thinking about the things you haven't done? So for me, I feel like I'm playing with house money. I'm actually happier, Ari, Ari, than I've ever been because someone told me that I may not have that much time left. So even from this is a whole nother level that you don't have time for. So how do you deal with the money part of it? Do you live for today and spend it all and do a die, or do you do, I like die with zero, the book by um, I forgot his name. Yeah. But that's my world now. Because there's this part of me that says, well, what if you live 10 to 15 more years if you've spent the money? But the point is, is I try to tell people, and that's my passion now. I'm trying to get physically fit enough. I'm gonna start calling it cancer fit because you can't see the person. I'm gonna get up and I've I've already done 12,000 steps today. But last year, I couldn't get out of bed. I was in so much pain. I had to grab onto the dresser just to hold on for support. And so when you take that, and when people say, but the job, really? You're gonna really put your personal health and think of it, oh, I'm physically fit. 87% of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Okay, that's a fact. So you may be fine, you may be in that 13%, but most people are not. And so focus on that because at that point I didn't care how much the money helped when it came to paying the doctor's bills, and I had the good health insurance. But other than that, I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna live. And so I'm so grateful for that. So I would tell people this that you will be okay. I have a lot of stories, we don't have the time, but I have not met a person yet that regretted it. The only person, people that regret retirement are the person who are the workaholics and didn't have anything else. Now that's your fault if you didn't create a life outside of work. But if you create a life, created that life, that life is magnified ten times more because now you have the time. You're time rich. You don't have to worry about being you're rich financially, but you're time rich because you get to do your time. So I would say focus on that because there was no plan when I told you unpredictable. This is unpredictable. There's no plan that says, oh, you're gonna be in your first five years, you're gonna deal with COVID, you're gonna lose your only sibling, and by the way, you're gonna be diagnosed with an incurable cancer. But Herb, you're gonna still be around. And if I had known that, maybe I wouldn't be thinking. You find out that you're resilient, you find out that you don't give up, you find out that you have strength inside you when you're faced with a crisis. And I'm back to living independent again. I had guardian angels to help me get back on my feet, but it was up to me to get back. I went against doctors' orders too. I had two doctors told me not to go to the gym. And I said, but then I found a specialist. Guess what? All right, this is the last thing I'm gonna say. This is so rare to cancer. There's only 200 doctors in the United States that practice multiple myeloma. Oh my God. That's how rare it is. But guess what? I found one in Washington, D.C. And she sees me monthly. So it's so that's what you focused on, the gratitude. You don't focus on the negative things that you are, you focus on the gratitude, and I'm in remission. They wanted me to do a stem cell transplant. I said, no. Because the guy told me, he said, Mr. Walker, you're 81, you you're on your grade, I'm giving you A minus, but we want to get you to an A plus plus. I said, so you want me to do two weeks in the hospital, fine. And then you want me to do three months of total isolation from no one from society except my caretaker. And then you want me to take immunization starts because it's a rebirth, like you're a brand new baby. You have to start all over again. And so you want me to do that for a plus plus, and you think I might live longer, but you can't guarantee it. I said, no, I'll take the A minus and the uncertainty, and I'll let the man upstairs do that. So my passion now, you'll find out what your passion is. My passion now is to get in shape enough that I can look at people and say, you can do it, you can retire, you can work on your health. And cancer is not a death sentence. The most resilient people I've found are cancer patients. I've never seen a cancer patient that complained. It's crazy. And the funny thing is, a little joke, when she told me the doctor told me I had cancer that it was going to, you know, be incurable in short time. She said, You gotta get shots in the stomach. I said, shots in the stomach? I don't even want to go to the doctor get my blood drawn, and you're gonna give me shots in the stomach. He said, Yeah. And I thought, you're too young for this, but we used to have these cartoons that had the acme needle. So the acme needle is supposed to be yay long into these cartoons, and I thought that's what the needle's gonna be. So I said, Well, we don't do that.
unknownWe don't do that.
SPEAKER_00Herbie, you have go ahead. We do the attitude of anyone I think I've ever met. I'm looking at my entire life differently, going, can you believe I was complaining about this or that? I mean, what you've gone through, what you've shared with all of us today, I know I'm not supposed to say it because all my guests are nice, but not only are you my favorite guest, you are changing the way I'm looking at this. I hope everyone who watched this episode goes in the comments, gives you love and the credit you deserve because this is incredible.
Herb, if people want to be able to join a group you're a part of or hear more from you, which I think is going to happen, by no means do I say we put your personal email address out. But what I'm saying is, I mean, you've mentioned a few Facebook groups today, so they can join there. Is there any other way for people? Because I think they're gonna want to put in the comments, hey Herb, you know, I've gone through something similar. Here's what I'm going through. Your story inspired me. Obviously, guys, comment below. But should they join Facebook groups you're a part of? What else can they do?
SPEAKER_01There's so many Facebook groups that are out there, and I think it depends on their journey. I was not a social media person until I retired. And so there are tons of them. In the comment section, I'll read them. So if they say, Herb, you know, can you can you give me your email address? Not your email, but can you give me your um Facebook link and I want to follow you? That's fine. I don't post a lot, but then I'll send them information on what kind, there's a ton of them out there, and I'll send them information. Herb, is there any groups for this and any group for that? And I'll send, I'll do that for you, Ari, because you're one of my favorites. So I'll follow your comments based on what they do, and then I'll respond to it, and I'll give them information and we can you know go from there and keep them in touch. And if they want to keep in touch, I'll do that too. Because retirement is a it's a scary page, it's scary, you know. You have to have courage and you have to, and this is the unknown. So I understand where people are coming from. And this is part of my passion. I'll just deal on them, I don't have to deal with them on the financial side, they're straight there. So I can talk about life and other challenges, and and you know, if some people deal with illnesses and all that stuff that I've talked about today. So that's that's not a problem. And you know, I really like again give you a flower. So what you're doing here is fantastic because you we need it. Everybody talks about the planning part, but then I'm looking like, okay, I'm five years, almost six years into this. What information is out there for those people? And those people, those are hard to find, but I have found them uh on social media. But at the same time, I feel like Herb, you need to pay it forward, and maybe you're the source too now, too. So that's that's what I'm doing because I'm so I'm so grateful and I practice gratitude. And I don't complain. I tell people I have bad moments, but I don't have any more bad days.
SPEAKER_00I love that. Do you know how many things you've said that I'm gonna steal for the rest of my life? Cancer fit is one of my favorite phrases. That's so cool. Time rich, oh my gosh, everyone's always like, oh my gosh, I'm house rich, cash poor. I'm like, time rich. That's what we're talking about now. Oh my gosh, there's so many moments. And the fact that you're like, no bad days, just yeah, there's moments because I'm a human, I'm not a robot. But beyond that, what's in my control, that's what I'm gonna focus on. So, Herb, I would love to do follow-up episodes with you because there's so much to unpack here as long as you're willing. But I'm not interrupting your road trips. I hope you can go to as many games as you want. Yes, James did get to throw out the first pitch, and you kindly shared before we went on air that you were subscribed when I had about what was it, 5,000 subscribers?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, maybe even less than that. And I think you would you were maybe two or three thousand in, you know, and and and I remember you, and you just caught my eye because I could feel the passion for what you do come off on the screen.
SPEAKER_00And you were honest. You said, hey, you know, I didn't know what a 15-year-old like you is gonna know. And I love that.
SPEAKER_01He doesn't know anything about retirement planning. But he's talking about he's just he's he's a freshman in college or something, is he? Or how can he know? And then I listened to the information that you were providing, and I said, he's spot on. And and you know, you see so many people on YouTube, and you can tell when people are just there for the subscriber. And you didn't do any of that, you was providing good information and valid information that people needed to know, no clickbait stuff. And I really want to congratulate you on your success as the challenge, as the channel has grown and get up there. And I'm gonna predict this time next year, you'll be close to 100K.
SPEAKER_00Well, we'll see. And to me, the ultimate goal always has been, and I've told all of you guys, how can I help as many people as possible, but in the way that I want to, which can feel selfish, but what I mean by that, I'm never gonna post a video. Here's the best new credit card or here's travel hacking. Though I'm not an expert in those things, I do not know. I like doing these big healthcare tax strategy, estate planning, insurance, dividend investing. I like talking about these things that I think move the needle in a big way. Not saying these other things aren't valuable, but if it means I have less subscribers but help more of you specifically, that's my goal, as opposed to having the biggest channel ever. So thank you all for always tuning in, Herb. You are a legend for coming on and we will see you guys next time.
SPEAKER_01All right. Take care, everybody. Take care. All right.
SPEAKER_00If you enjoyed this episode of Retirement Reality, check out how we help people retire with confidence. You can see we have an FAQ section on our website. If you just hover over the resources tab, you can go ahead and see this FAQ section here and learn everything about what it's like to work with us, including our personalized planning process, a quick overview of how everything works, do you have enough money to become a client? Where will your money be? Everything from tax planning to fees. We are extremely transparent and want to make sure that you're working with someone that resonates with you. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. And if you once again want to be a guest on a future show so that you can share your story, you can see that in the link of this episode. Thanks. Thank you all, as always, for listening to the early retirement podcast. I love getting to host these shows and make different content for you guys every single week. I've not missed a single week in years, and that is because I love getting to do this. Now, please be smart about this before you actually execute any strategy that you see me talk about or hear me talk about, should I say, please talk to your financial advisor, your tax preparer, your estate attorney. Please be smart about this. None of this should be construed as financial advice. This is for fun, educational, informational purposes only. Once again, just quick disclaimer here, guys, please be smart about this. Appreciate you listening as always. And you can, of course, submit a question on my website, early retirementpodcast.com. If you, of course, want me to address a specific case study or topic. I will not promise I can get to it, but I respond to every single person. And if I find it will be helpful for a lot of people, I will absolutely make an episode on it. At the very least, give you some insight. That's it. Thanks, guys.