Early Retirement - Financial Freedom (Investing, Tax Planning, Retirement Strategy, Personal Finance)

"I Started Investing In My 30s And Retired At 53" | Early Retiree Shares All | Retirement Reality

• Ari Taublieb, CFP®, MBA • Episode 301

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Slava shares how he retired early and his whole journey to get there. Enjoy.

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.


SPEAKER_00:

I posted my first podcast episode December 19th, 2020, and we are in 2026. And because it's been over five years, I thought I would change it up a little bit. Not entirely with the style, but you've heard a lot from me on tax strategy, on healthcare, on things that hopefully you're no longer worrying about that was causing you a lot of anxiety when it comes to retirement, such as, have I saved enough? Do I actually know what I'm gonna do when I retire? How am I gonna make sure I don't ever run out of money? And is my asset allocation correct? And everything in between. Over the next month, you're gonna hear from real retirees. These are interviews that I held. They are live on my YouTube channel right now, but many of you have shared, hey, that's great. I prefer listening on the podcast app. It's just easier for me. I listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or Google or wherever it is that you listen, and you'll tell me it's just easier when you're going on a run, when you're doing chores, whatever it is you like to do when you listen to podcasts. I know personally, I listen to podcasts when I'm in the car and when I'm doing my warm-up for my workouts. So if you're like me and you're like, it's just easier to turn it on on the podcast app, over the next month, you're going to hear from real retirees. And this is not going to take over my style entirely unless you guys go, oh my gosh, this is so entertaining and the quality content here. Hopefully you do feel that way. But I'm also going to stick with my traditional kind of, let's call it five to fifteen minute. Sometimes I know that becomes 20 or 25 minutes, where I'm just going over whatever it is that I feel would be helpful for you guys, or what you tell me would be helpful for you. I am posting on Instagram almost every day. I'm on TikTok. I'm on YouTube. I'm on, where else am I? I don't know where I am. But those are the places that I traditionally am posting. And I'm laughing because it feels like nowadays you've got to be everywhere all the time. What I will say is it's all fun for me because I make content that I feel resonates most for all of you based off what you tell me. So thank you in advance. If you have left a review on this show, I really appreciate it. It's fun to read those and see if it has helped. If you are commenting on YouTube, thank you for doing that. I hope that the content resonates, and I hope it always will. This, once again, is not my show, it is yours. I want you to retire early with confidence, aka really know when work truly becomes optional. That's my ultimate goal. So if you enjoy what you do, great, keep doing it. But you don't feel, oh my gosh, am I forced to be here? So over the next month, you're gonna hear from real retirees. They are going to be longer episodes. If you enjoy this style, send me an email, ari at rootfinancial partners.com. If you hate this style and you go, you know what, those guests are great, but I prefer the 10, 15 minute, which you often say becomes 30 minutes. If you prefer those styles, awesome. I'll do more of that. Ultimately, you are just getting the best content you're looking for. As a reminder, I post every day on YouTube. So that's where I post the majority of my content. If you enjoy listening on the podcast app, once again, it's not going to stop here. I'm over five years in, and I hope to do the next 50 years. So, with that being said, I hope you enjoy this month's episode of podcast with real retirees. These selfishly were so fun to record because all the stories are so different. And I thought, quite honestly, when I started this podcast, how different would it be? When I started the series, excuse me, where I interview retirees. And I talked to a friend who had told me, What they're all going to say a similar thing. I want to retire and have purpose. I want to make sure I don't run out of money. And I said, No, I believe you, but I think everyone does have a unique story, and I think it gets deeper, but maybe I'm wrong. And I thought that because I talked to my clients who are awesome people and tell me great stories. Now, what I found is it's beyond what I ever could have imagined. And I hope you guys truly hear from the variety of people I talk to. I talk to single people. I talk to people who want to die with zero. I want I talk to people who there's couples and they both view money very differently. And most of the time there's one person who spearheads the finances and they talk about how they got their spouse involved, but not in a nagging way of like, come on, let's talk about 401ks. But hey, what do you really want to spend your time doing? There have been multiple people from different sectors. I've had so many people come on who are in the IT department. I've had people come on who are in public service. It's just so fun to get to talk to different people. So if you listen to this and you go, wow, I'm retired or I want to retire, I have a story I want to share. You can apply to be a guest just like those that you're about to hear from. And with that being said, the longest intro of all time, let's stop this so you can finally listen to the actual episode. Enjoy this month, January of 2026 episodes where you hear from real retirees. I hope you have as much fun listening as I had recording. Enjoy. When friends or family do say, hey, Slava, this seems a bit early. Well, what are you even thinking? How do you reply to that?

SPEAKER_01:

I may ask them the same question. If you had this opportunity, would you do that?

unknown:

Oh.

SPEAKER_00:

I've been wanting to record a new show like this for some time, and it's finally happening. The new show is called Retirement Reality, where I'm interviewing people who have already retired so you can learn what they wish they knew before they retired. Now, this is exploring the non-financial side of things. I make a lot of videos where I talk about tax strategy and estate planning and healthcare, and the reason I am a financial advisor is because my parents were burned by multiple, which eventually led me to be an advisor. And so the financial side of things obviously is crucial. But the non-financial side of things, the okay, how do I actually transition into retirement and find joy in this new freedom to explore whatever I want? I'm used to having to commute or deal with deadlines or a boss or politics or whatever it is. And now that that's not there, it's encouraging, but there's also what I find a lot of purpose or identity issues. And it's one thing to hear me talk about it, but obviously I'm not retired. And I believe in living this recreational employment lifestyle. How can you live a life where you don't really have to retire? Where you can if you want to, but you're not forced to. And you are choosing on your own terms to retire. What 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. I cannot wait for you guys to hear the first episode of Retirement Reality. Slava was so articulate. He was an amazing guest. He was not holding back. He was sharing. Yeah, it was hard to tell my coworkers that I was retiring at 53. And here's how I did it. And he gave great guidance. So he went into tons of detail regarding how he spends his time gardening and how he still does get bored and what he wants the next stage of life to look like and how he spends time with his wife and his big takeaways regarding taking care of his health, even though his job wasn't stressful. He didn't even start saving until his mid-30s and retired at 53. It's an incredible story. I hope you all enjoy. Slava, you are on the first episode of Retirement Reality. This is fun for me because I make a lot of content around tax strategy and healthcare and estate planning, and this is the exact opposite. So if someone is tuning in hoping to get guidance on those things, I have tons of other videos on that. This is exploring the non-financial side from real retirees like you. So I'm going to ask all of my guests the same question first. And you get to be asked it first as the first guest. So my question is what is one word you would use to describe your retirement so far?

SPEAKER_01:

Freedom. How long have you been retired? How long? It's been a year and a and a little bit. Year and a half. Yeah. A few months. A few months. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

What was that transition like?

SPEAKER_01:

So um it was it still looks like a an extended vacation, if you will. I I still don't feel that I am retired in a sense. I it's kind of uh like you feel in a vacation, right? You go there, you do what you want, you feel free, you don't have to do anything, although you need to do anything, anything and everything to stay active, to stay mentally uh strong, and so on. So it's freedom.

SPEAKER_00:

That's that's the word. Are there passions, or should let me say it this way? Uh are you bored?

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes. See, and I have to make a an effort not to be bored. And and some some days I find myself, oh um, I'm gonna do that tomorrow or like next week. But then I think stop. Uh you need to you need to have some discipline, you need to do that, you need to uh work out, you need to go to the to do some gardening and so on, because plants plants need need water, yeah, things like this. So um sometimes, yeah, it's a real thing to get bored.

SPEAKER_00:

Are there passions that you're exploring now that you put off during your working years?

SPEAKER_01:

I'd say yes. Um there were multiple projects in my head which I wanted to do when I was working, but you know how it goes. Never time for this or family time or anything. But now, yeah, I'm pursuing my old um hobbies, like electronic work, some projects that I do, um restoring old computers and things like this. Um they were always my desire to to to do someday, and this is the day essentially.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you mentioned gardening. Is that something that you started literally in the past few months? Have you always done it?

SPEAKER_01:

It's a good question, actually. You almost got spun on because uh I somehow I like pruning. Can you imagine that? So I even bought some books uh for pruning. I love my garden, I love uh taking care of uh bushes and trees, and somehow it's kind of a um solitary uh work that I I have all my time to think about things, to enjoy nature, things like this.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm a very curious person, so I hope these questions don't come off as odd, but I'm curious when you're gardening, do you wear headphones? Are you listening to music? Are you just enjoying the silence?

SPEAKER_01:

Just enjoying the silence, just enjoying the the nature. Because my work used to be a lot of talking. I communicated all the time, had meetings all the time, and and now this is my time to unwind.

SPEAKER_00:

How many jobs did you have throughout your career?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh if by jobs you mean companies that I changed. Um so three?

SPEAKER_00:

Three, wow. And how many total years did you work before you retired?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh total years. I started to work, let's say, 28 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, 28 years. Three companies. What was the longest tenure with one company?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh it was 12 years, I believe, like maybe even 15. I don't even remember right now.

SPEAKER_00:

Was that the last company you were with that longest tenure and then retired?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh no, it was the uh b one before last. The last one also also long. I genuinely didn't like changing jobs, and I actually I never even um tried finding new jobs. Jobs were finding me all the time. Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

The reason I ask is you strike me as a very loyal person, and I can imagine when you are in your traditional you know employment, you're going through the flow of things, you were talking a lot. This seems like a big shift where now it seems like, I mean, obviously you own your entire calendar now. Is it weird to not check a calendar?

SPEAKER_01:

It is weird not to have busy mornings. And surprisingly, like one of the surprises that I had when I retired was mornings are now my favorite time of the day. I used to not hate, hate is a strong word, but I used to like um despise is this is the right word. I I I didn't I didn't like mornings before uh a lot because it was like all the meetings, 7 a.m., 6 a.m. 6 30, it's crazy. But then now I found myself, oh, I love my mornings. It's so relaxed, it's so free. I have my coffee, I I'm I'm free. And no longer like you have to check your calendar. Calendar is not even the biggest problem. Emails was the the one, right? You know how it goes. Business work. You you you you got tons of emails, you read all of them, and suddenly uh realize oh, so how many things you have to do during your morning?

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, we're both, by the way, looks like we're both orange today.

SPEAKER_01:

See? Great mind.

SPEAKER_00:

We didn't exactly coordinate this, guys. Now, this is more of a a deep question, so feel free, take that as you will. When you think about your life and what you want your life to look like, when you're working, it's easy to just ignore those thoughts because you're just going to work every day. You don't have to think about, oh my gosh, am I gonna pass away one day? Oh my god, how much longer do I have? What do I really want to spend my time doing? Now you've got nothing but time to think about that. So do you find yourself thinking about that more? Or are you, I'm gonna live in the present? How are you looking at life?

SPEAKER_01:

Definitely more, definitely more. Because somehow we always associate ourselves with work. Like life is work. That's that's what we taught in the beginning. That's what we got in college, or with parents, you got to work and so on and so on. But it's not. Work is just a phase in life. You're earning money then to spend them and to live the life that you always wanted. But the question is that not everybody understands what they want or wanted, for that matter. When they are working, they usually wait for weekends or a vacation to go have a rest with family, travel, whatever. But then when they retire or for the Black Robert work just stop working, they suddenly find themselves not even knowing what they want, essentially. Because when you're given all their opportunities to spend time, money, and so on, you don't necessarily do that. You just kind of stuck stuck in in the present. That's all you do. So it's a it's a philosophical question. And to to answer short, yes, I constantly think about it. What's the meaning of it? Like, why do we leave? What's the what's the uh pursuit of happiness?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Why did you, Slava, retire at the time you did?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I guess it was part of the part of my um sudden experiment. It's it's still an experiment for me. I and by the way, I wanted to thank you guys for the excellent um channel, excellent work doing this, because you were the purpose, you and James were the purpose why I retired. Not the the mean uh like let me go the tool for this, because I uh I just listened to you and said, you know what, maybe that's the time to do that. Uh because seems like I can do that financially. What stops me? I listened to you. It was a year ago, uh year and a half ago, about that, two years maybe back. But somehow YouTube also, thanks to YouTube, they gave me the link to your channel and now I'm retired. I stopped working, rather.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, I'm grateful to YouTube as well for connecting us. You decided at one point in your head whether it was conscious or not, hey, I'm I'm going to take this time to look into retirement, or you know what? I just had it. I hear people, Slava, who legitimately go, I'm gonna work the next five years, and then their boss quits and they get a new boss who they don't like and go, well, that's the straw. Other people will hear me say something and go, okay, I ran the analysis. It looks like I'm in a good spot. I really didn't know this was possible. I'm gonna make it happen. Did you make a conscious decision, if you can recall, wow, I ran the numbers. It looks like I'm in a pretty good spot. I'm gonna go do it, or was it, okay, honestly, I'm just fed up at this point. I want to do something else with my life.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, you're reading my mind. So it's the it's an option, it's the number one that you called. It was more of a spontaneous realization or when um actually I went through stages in this. First I was thinking, oh, retirement. Like, what kind of retirement? I'm still too young to retire. And people said, What you I retired? This is ridiculous. And then I like I talked to my family and said, you know what, maybe I should actually think about this. Stop working for some time, have a nice extended time, a few years, travel and so on. I started to run the numbers, I started to think about um tools, I used the tool that you recommended in your podcast, and I kind of realized, okay, I can do that in a year. That was the thought process. One more year, and then and then with every month going on, I was making it closer and closer. And at the end, I retired in three months. Instead of a year, I couldn't live, I couldn't work longer with the thought that I could retire. You know what's it so it's kind of shrinked for me like very rapidly. So a funny story.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. So just so I'm clear, the initial you ran the analysis, you went, okay, maybe a year or so, and then you retired three months later. Yes. Now, what was it like telling your employer that you are retiring?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, that's a difficult. That's one of the most difficult, especially for the early retirement. I mean, I'm talking only by the way. How old?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Uh I'm 54.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, you look great. So retiring at 53 or 54. Yeah. Um, okay, sorry, I want to hear this story.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah, uh, talking to my bosses, to my work, to my colleagues was the probably the most difficult. You just said I'm loyal in general to my work, to everything that I do. And telling them, hey, um, you know what? I'm probably gonna stop working. Um how's your what do you think about this? And um, are you okay? Kind of that. I was nice to to my colleagues and saying, is it making your life more difficult? Should I stay for more three months, or kind of that? I I was given options without any pressure, or more of a like a friendly uh conversation, and um yeah, it was initially it was the thought of it was difficult, but then when you make the first step and tell them that for the first time out loud, then I'm gonna stop working. I would I didn't even use the word retire, because the word retire is like you said last time, uh, is difficult to pronounce. You're not retiring, you stop working, or and I'm now I'm saying I'm between jobs. Yeah in some cases, like people are asking, Hey, what are you doing? I'm between jobs, or I stopped. So you know what, instead of using the retirement. All right. So back to your question. Uh talking to my company, to my bosses was uh difficult to many people. I had to to speak to many people, not just bosses, but colleagues and friends and so on, explaining what's happening because they were they were not ready for this news.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What would you say to somebody who is in a financial position to retire, but is worried about bringing up that conversation because they're scared their boss or coworker or friend will look at them differently, or there could be jealousy or anger or whatever that may be. You made the decision to go to a coworker and say, hey, I'm thinking about maybe going in between jobs. And of course you set it in your way. But what would you say to another person who's thinking about retirement in a good spot, but they're just worried about how do I bring this up?

SPEAKER_01:

Excellent question. And I already kind of mentioned that, what I naturally figure it out. I'm I would recommend saying, hey, I'm trying to uh experience a new phase in my life. This is the experiment that I'm making on myself. I'm trying to stop working for some time to understand how it's gonna be in the future when I actually retire. And uh I hope you guys support me with this. I'm absolutely open to do whatever you need from me and the job. But this is what I'm thinking about. Going to stop working for some time. That's how you transition.

SPEAKER_00:

I think I have your new job. If you want a new job, Slava, I think you should be a retirement transition coach. Helping people transition into because that was beautifully said. How are you maintaining your social connections now? And I'll I'll preface it a little bit because the idea of having your coworkers that you see every day, even if it's on Zoom, to now having no connection, I imagine it's weird, but am I wrong?

SPEAKER_01:

It's very personal. I mean, some people they like to communicate. Uh they like to have a nice, rich social life. Uh they cannot leave without talking to other people. Uh, maybe in my case, I'm more of a kind of a close person. Uh, surprisingly or not, with my job, I'm not supposed to, but still. Uh and I I don't need a lot of social interaction, at least for this at this point, maybe later in life I will. Uh, and I don't have a lot of friends, it's in a negative sense. I just don't see the need. I have a great family, I I spend all the time with them, I travel with them. Uh, and I have been working remotely most of the time.

unknown:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

So for me, friends is not a necessity. And it's kind of I I like talking to people just for once in a while, but it's not like I spend a lot of time with friends.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that doesn't sound bad to me, by the way. That's that makes a ton of sense. Because some people might hear that and be like, what do you mean, friends? But similar to you. So I just got married and I had thank you. Uh my two brothers were my groomsmen, and then I have one best friend. Outside of that, there's some acquaintances, but people will often say, Oh, you you must have had decline so many people to the wedding. I was like, Not really. So, in that sense, uh what I want to dive into a little bit because I'm just so curious. What is Slava's day look like? On an average day, not when you're traveling or hanging, but just you wake up at what time, what happens during the whole day, and then you go to bed at what time? What is a day in the life of a recent retiree look like?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um so waking up roughly eight, eight thirty, maybe sometimes nine. I I've never had this luxury.

SPEAKER_00:

Sorry, I'm already interrupting, and I know you're two seconds into the story. What time did you used to wake up for work?

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Uh usually 6 30, maybe 7 the latest.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so now we're at 8 30. Okay, continue.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's about yeah, an hour, hour and a half in for my sleep, which is by the way, big factor. When you retire, the having a good sleep is makes all the difference. It if you don't have to. Yeah. Uh yeah, you know, you know the drill. It's kind of a health thing, right? Sleep, eat, exercise. So then uh nice long breakfast, right? You you kind of enjoy, you listen to YouTube, you kind of you you're learning about outside world more. Uh you didn't have time for that before. All the news, you're kind of catching up. Then looking at the stock market, surprisingly not, checking portfolios uh is the next thing that we maybe talk about. So um doing some uh paying bills, uh working with the financial situation in general, keeping an eye on it, let's say making some changes or trading or things like this. Then um then it's already lunchtime, having a good lunch outside or with my wife, or uh just inside, whatever, it doesn't matter. Preparing food, eating. Um also almost half a day is already gone. Right. If you think about this, it's 1 p.m., 2 p.m. After that, uh we go to gym. Go to gym, exercise. Uh again, no no lines, no crowds, no anything. You you you now have all of that available for you. Sometimes it's a grocery shopping, uh, these things. Also, you have to do that, but now you have all the time during the day to do that, not necessarily in the evening or in the morning or weekend. And then uh typical work, garden work. Uh as I said, I have some garden lawn to take care of, and I like that. That's the question that I have now all the tools for this. I can uh prune things, I can do some take care of flowers and so on. And uh yeah, that's it. Other than that, it's already 7 p.m., some TV, some internet, some kind of browsing, and you go to bed about maybe 10.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a good life. I want to touch on a few things there. So the first thing is you said we. Was she working throughout her career? Was it only you? What's the dynamic there?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh she used to work uh before the pandemic, uh, but then the pandemic uh disrupted everything, and she since then she didn't work. So it it has always been uh me in in the late years. Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

What would you say to the following question? Or maybe it's a statement. I had some it's a statement, actually, now that I say it out loud. I had someone who once shared the following. I can't wait to retire to redate my spouse because it's been 30 years, I've been working. What are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01:

Um in my case, it it was not that because we essentially were dating whenever we wanted. So my work was not in a way uh for this. Um family has always been a priority for me, and uh, I never felt like I have to sacrifice my personal life to the work. So work was more of an addition to my life in a sense. Although it consumed a lot of time, but if you're have the right mindset that work does not define you, in a sense, you you live your life and you work in parallel to that, but then you stop working and continue living your life. That's the whole thing. So no.

SPEAKER_00:

It sounds like you have a happy marriage, which I like to hear. I have had a few clients who have shared, look, once my partner retires and they're home with me all the time, I just, you know, we haven't been home together that long. I don't want them to get sick of me. Is there any sense of that? Or is it no, we go to the gym together, we cook together, it's like life's as as good as it has ever been.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the latter. Uh there's not a problem at all. And we we are always together, doing things together and having the same. We uh generally have a great relationship and have good conversations and talk a lot about things and and news and even retirement for that matter. Uh so my family uh has been very supportive to the idea. Although, you know, it's all about money. Like they say, oh, like no, it's not gonna be pretty because it's too early, sort of. No, in my case, I was not surprised. I was reinforced kind of in my decision. Like, you should have done that long ago. That was the level of conversation.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, let's talk about that because I imagine there are a lot of people who have the feelings of, hey, I want to retire, I feel I'm ready, but they're worried what their peers or coworkers or family will say. And retiring at 53, you know, when I say early retirement, that just means before 65. I have clients that retire at 45 and clients that retire at 64. And to me, that's just early because I'm just counting in my head before Medicare kicks in, just for a random time to pick. When friends or family do say, hey, Slava, this seems a bit early. Well, what are you even thinking? How do you reply to that?

SPEAKER_01:

I may ask them the same question. If you had this opportunity, would you do that?

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I'm telling you, Slava, retirement transition coach. Okay. We're starting, we'll go in business together. That is a great answer. Okay, sorry, continue.

SPEAKER_01:

No, no, that's uh it's a good question too. Um, people are sometimes they have difficult, like difficult decision, difficult time to even decide, right, to do something with their life. Because we all like things like they go. We'll we all like stability in a sense. But why not to change the the stability to the better side of the of a life, right?

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Not make the work stable, although inherently there's nothing wrong with having stable great work. If you enjoy it, if you're happy with this, why not? And sometimes, like they say, if you have a hobby and they pay you, that's that's not you don't even need to retire, you just continue. But some but in most cases, as we all know, work consumes time, consumes your health. Uh, and it's it's essentially we're selling our time for money. We're selling our health for money. In in my mind, retirement is more of a buying it back. Buying your time, buying it health. With all the money that you earned during your work, now you have an opportunity to buy that back.

SPEAKER_00:

We are gonna clip that because that is an incredible statement. So I'm really I love that phrasing. I'm gonna steal that if you don't mind. Buying back that, oh my gosh, the health, the time. Let me ask this, and this is the worst question I've ever asked. And I had a horrific reaction. Hopefully, it's not the same. I once asked someone, did you have a retirement party? I was just curious if they had a party. And they were like, No, should I have? Oh my gosh, maybe I wasn't that valuable to the company. They didn't throw me a party. I spent them into a spiral, which I was not the intention of the question. But is that a thing? Did you have a retirement party?

SPEAKER_01:

No, I didn't. Uh frankly, I didn't even think about this because to me it was more like uh, as I said, going on vacation. Do you have a vacation party? No, you don't. You just go there and say, hey guys, see you soon, sort of situation. And as I said, I was working remotely. Yes, I was uh one once in a while I was visiting my office and talking to colleagues, especially for the retirement case. I went there and I personally talked to everybody who I work with. Um, but I never thought of the retirement party. In fact, my boss offered me to have a retirement party. Hey, we're gonna meet you in the restaurant, whatever, have a nice dinner. Whatever. Whenever you have time, absolutely, I'm open for this. So it was so nothing like this, no.

SPEAKER_00:

Are there any surprises? Let me say it this way. Were there any surprises when you did retire, which could be anything from I actually missed these parts of my work, or I was shocked when I left that they said a few things that made me not feel valued? Or it turns out one coworker said something to me that really made me feel I had a really big impact on their life that I was unaware of until I retired. Any surprises when you retired?

SPEAKER_01:

In in a sense of a work, right? Coworkers and callers. Surprises were it was a surprising um reaction of people. Like, how come? It's it's you're you're too young, sort of. You you still you still have to work. You you you need to work, you we need you, sort of thing. Yeah, uh but actually people were pretty understanding. Uh they were not shocked in in a sense, they were like, Yeah, of course, if you have this, although this is unexpected, but if you have this opportunity to do that, yeah, go for it, you should go for it. That kind of uh conversations that I had. Nothing antagonistic, nothing unsupportive, nothing surprising to me to that level.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. This sounds like one of the most seamless transitions in a retirement of all time, which is another reason I'm really thinking if you do want a new job, we're talking retirement transition. We'll talk about that offline.

SPEAKER_01:

Let me think about it.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. Um, let me ask this, because I've been thinking about this throughout this conversation. Is there anything you've learned about yourself in the past few months? I know it's still recent retiree, but is there anything you've learned about yourself?

SPEAKER_01:

You know, I kind of listening to your channel, listening to many people who are talking about retirement spending and like how much can you spend, like what's good, what's gonna be. Like I suddenly realized that spending is not even a goal for me.

unknown:

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01:

The goal for me is to live life whatever it means for you. It not it's not necessarily about spending. Uh sometimes you don't even spend, not because you are scared to spend, you don't have you you're gonna end up without money and so on. You just don't need things anymore. You don't need the same same things that you thought you would need. And they'll be oh, when I retire, oh I was talking to people before retirement. I was like, what are you gonna do if you have all the time for the world? Oh, I'm gonna buy a boat, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna travel, so many things. And then suddenly you realize that it's not it's not necessary. What's necessary is a good health, good relationship, uh freedom. It's it's kind of uh stability in a sense that you don't care you didn't care, it won't work, you're you're not um anxious about your future anymore. So that's the main point. If you need to spend money for this, okay, fine, you can. You can go to you know fix your health and take care of a lot of other things, but it's one thing. Another, it's kind of uh how life is supposed to be. Now it's how it is meant for us. Because before that, we were working, as I said, we were uh trying to get to this point, essentially. That's how I see it. Not because you have to retire, but that's a conscious choice of living your normal life, which has a which has a conclude conclusion, it has a consequence. If you didn't know what to do in your with your life when you were working, you will not have that in the retirement, too.

SPEAKER_00:

Why do you think as a recent retiree, so many people push back their retirement?

SPEAKER_01:

Uh people are scared about the money situation uh most of the time and healthcare. Because people actually were asking me, hey, yeah, we understand like financially you can afford that, but what do you what are you doing with healthcare? That's one of the biggest questions that I got from people. So they are scared of not being not being able to um take care of uh health because it's could ruin your financial unless you have well-planned healthcare options and so on. And uh also we all are kind of procrastinators. We we all don't want to any changes. We wanted status quo. That what stops people of thinking about this or seriously taking some steps in this direction. So I'm gonna not today, you know, how we procrastinate, not today, maybe next month, next year, and so on. It's scary. It's just scary to get suddenly find find yourself without income. Although if you think about this, all this returns that you have, all this financial part of financial plan, this is your income. It's just a different form of income. Uh but yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

You have an amazing outlook on this, Slava, truly. The the phrase I want to share with you, because I think you'll resonate with this, was given by James, who is my mentor and the founder of Root. He said, Are you know why people struggle with retirement? I said, Well, there's many reasons, like you just shared, healthcare and am I gonna you know live long enough, all these things. And he said, When's the last time you did something for the first time? I was like, I don't know. The last time I did something for the first time, and I could recently say I just got married. That was I did that for the first time, and hopefully the last time. But before that, I'm like, when did I really do something for the first time? And I couldn't, nothing came to my mind. It's okay, I went to college, um, I graduated, but I had done that before. So really, if you're working 25, 30 years, truly, there might be decades where you literally haven't changed in a big way for many years, and that creates the fear. So totally resonate with what you're saying here. If you don't mind, let's talk a little bit about just the retirement planning confidence. Did you start your career? You heard of a 401k, said, I'm gonna save for 25 years, I'm gonna do all the right things, or were you like, I found out about saving later in life. Who taught you about retirement planning? All of that I'd love to hear.

SPEAKER_01:

So I actually found out, like you said, later about 401k, about actually, as I say, all these financial instruments. And I I had no idea essentially. I was just working, having had had a nice salary, we were traveling, enjoying life, no saving and that for that matter, like no deliberate savings or anything. But maybe because I was lucky to have good jobs and good good uh colleagues, good companies, I was able to earn enough not just to enjoy life, but also to invest, to save, to start 401k at some point, and doing right financial things, but I maybe I just got lucky. And now uh I have a pretty diversified um uh source of uh stability, source of income. Uh and just somehow it happened to me. I now I'm thinking if I would do something more deliberate in the early stages of life, I would be able to retire a lot sooner. I just sometimes maybe lost from that hand. I lived my life at full. I was not saving a lot of money or trying like to get you know from check to check, this kind of stuff. Uh I or I overspent in my previous life. I clearly overspent.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you remember what age you started to not aggressively start saving, but when you were intentional? Was it early 30s? Was it late 20s?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, it was um it was like mid-30s. Uh when I started to save, I I I started to think more about financial future, about life as a as a uh in general, the future. Because when we're young, when we're 30, when we're what 25, we didn't even we don't even think about, oh, we're gonna be old someday. We're gonna be like living off our savings someday. We never think about this. And that's a good thing. That allows you to enjoy your moment today. But then 35, maybe closer to 40s, you start, oh, I gotta have some cushion, I gotta and you frankly, you don't have a lot to spend on anything. Like there are no that much of a time that you have. Because this essentially career consumes your old time. By by your 40s or 40s, 40s, 50s, you're like, like you said, workaholic. You basically work all the time, you don't have things to spend on, and that's where you start saving. Instead of spending, you transition to saving. Like kind of naturally. Oh, you have a lot of money. Why don't I invest that? Why don't I start this account? 529 for kids, and all those things. And you gradually come to the idea that now, okay, it's becoming the second goal in your life to save enough to be able to enjoy that later in life. So it's all coming one after another pretty naturally, I'd say.

SPEAKER_00:

The most powerful thing that I've taken from this conversation is a phrase we talk about a lot, which is the sign of a good financial plan is a life well lived. And what I love about what you're saying is you didn't at 20 years old, 22 years old, go, okay, so I'm not going to go to the movies, we're not going to take trips, we're only going to put money in a 401k. You lived life, you enjoyed it. And in your mid-30s, you were like, okay, I have a good amount that I can save and still enjoy life. And here you are retiring literally less than 20 years after you started to actually be intentional about saving. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's exactly what we are supposed to do. I'm convinced all people should try doing this, should not be um overcomplicating their lives when they're early uh in their careers or with their relationships. They have when I hear people like not go, oh, I haven't been taking my wife to honeymoon and we were married like for 10 years. Like, how come? You absolutely should go wherever, you should travel, you should take care of a family. Don't don't save. Spend this is your time. You're never going to be young again, you're never going to be healthy again. Just that's your chance.

unknown:

Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

That's um, yeah. And you know, the only thing you start thinking about this when you're 50. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's hard to do when you're 30. 100%. Well, this is very powerful. I have a few more questions because I just cannot help myself. But Slava, I have to say thank you in advance because I have taken so much joy from this conversation and tidbits, I feel like I owe you. I think a lot of people aren't sure exactly how much they want to spend in retirement. They have a general sense of maybe I want to spend$5,000 a month or$10,000 or$15,000. And people will see their neighbor and go, I think they're making way more than me, and they look like they're nowhere close to retirement. So maybe I'm not. I'm just gonna keep working. And there's this keeping up with the Joneses that gets in people's heads. Do you mind if I ask how much you spend per month?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, yeah, absolutely. I can tell you because I have all the statistics for the last few years. Uh I'm a very meticulous person in a sense, like my job probably. Uh professional deformation. Uh, so it's um I'm spending about six thousand. I mean, if I comprehensively, I have some categories like mandatory spending or some optional spending, all those things. But all in all, our spending is about 85, 90 grand a year for everything, all inclusive.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. So let's call it 90,000 a year. That's including travel, healthcare. Yeah. Do you have a mortgage today?

SPEAKER_01:

No.

SPEAKER_00:

No mortgage. So 90,000 a year. If I forced you, I'm not going to, but there's a question I would ask you if you were a client of mine, I'd say, Slava, you have to spend$150,000 a year, whether you want to or not. And if you don't do it, you don't get to save it. It's going to your least favorite political party. Now, what are you gonna do? And that gets people talking. So if I were to ask you that question,$60,000 more dollars must be spent, or it's going to the political party you do not agree with. What would you do?

SPEAKER_01:

Hmm. Interesting question. This is this comes to my needs essentially. What would what else do I need? This is what it boils down to. What else do I need in life? Um, travel? Not so much. I traveled a lot. I do in my job, I was like, I traveled whatever. 50 countries. I no longer need travel in a sense. Like how some people only think about travel. So maybe a little bit more in travel. Let's say more luxurious travel. Maybe like first classes, where all these nice nicer things. Maybe. So it gets another 20,000, 20,000 plus to spending. Maybe different house. Uh, but um although I have a nice house today, it's not that I want to change it, but let's say with better views, something like more luxurious views. Again, this implies mortgage, it implies some some spending on this. Uh it gets probably another 20, and the last 20 would be um would be helping other people helping my family, hel helping my son um to you know, to um with the with the buying first house, things like this. So it's more of I I don't need that much of money, I'd say. I would probably give it in some way or another to other people or other organizations.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful answer. I love that question because the responses are so interesting. I've had people share, I would decline it. I said, really? It's it's free money, you can spend. They go, yep, it would stress me out to have to try to spend more. I have everything I need. I have other people that go, I would just donate the rest. I have other people that go, I would give it all to my child. But my concern is if I actually do that, maybe they won't work that hard. And I don't want them to just think you get things for free because I didn't get things for free. So the responses become really interesting. So I appreciate you sharing that. My my final question, which is really more of just complete feedback I'm seeking, is you can speak to a retiree. You have the next one minute, I'm gonna be completely silent. You can speak to someone who's a soon-to-be retiree, and you can tell them whatever you want. You can tell them about a financial strategy, you can tell them about emotions that came up, you can tell them, oh my gosh, I wish I did this or did that. But for the next minute, I'm gonna be completely silent and I will just let you speak to this imaginary future retiree. And in your head, they can be 30 years old, they can be 60, retiring in a few years. The floor is yours for the next minute.

SPEAKER_01:

So it depends on who I'm speaking to. Uh if this is your earlier retiree, I can be pretty uh confident in what I'm saying because I've just experienced that myself. But if this is someone who is just naturally progressed to retirement, let's say 65 or 67 or 70, so it means that it meets probably different answers for this or different recommendations. I cannot be sure about the later retirees in a sense in their 60s, because I have to live there first. I I need to be them first. But for the early retirees, I can absolutely tell them, hey guys, it look it can look scary, it can look uh difficult, it may be unusual for you even to think about this. Don't don't think about retirement. Think about uh the level of freedom with your life, the the the purpose that you're gonna be uh essentially understanding, learning about yourself more. You didn't have time for this, supposedly before, but now you'll be able to do that. Uh so please uh go ahead and but not just like uh un let's say unprepared. Be absolutely prepared with all the numbers, with all the plans, with all the information that you might need. It's it shouldn't be like uh emotional decision, not just the emotion, it should also be a calculated decision, which gives you confidence to explore all those things that I just talked to you about. Uh like understanding the meaning of life, the pursuit of happiness for that matter. So um just make this first step. As soon as you make the first step, talking to your family, or talking to your boss, or talking to your friends, like vocalizing the need, you will they will nobody going back. You this thought will stick with you, and sooner or later, or rather sooner, you will go over this. And that's what happened to me. That's how I transitioned to the retirement, or stopped working rather. And this was what happened to you as well. No surprise. Just say it out loud, and you will believe in it.

SPEAKER_00:

Beautiful. Slava, I cannot thank you enough. This was amazing. I hope you all enjoyed the first episode of Retirement Reality, and we will see you all next time. If 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.