How these 3 people were able to retire early
The dream of retiring early takes planning for much more than just finances. Beyond knowing how you’re going to retire, you have to know what you’re retiring to.
Frank “Skip” and Gabrielle “Gabi” Yetter spent 2 ½ years researching their exit strategy and have never looked back. They left their careers (he, at 54 was an executive at Business Wire, and she, at 49, was running her own retail business), sold their stuff and moved to Cambodia in 2010 to live a life of volunteering and traveling. Skip shares how they did it, and how maybe you can, too.
Q: Why’d you quit?
A: I was growing increasingly unsettled with the work-consume life of middle-class America, and dissatisfied with a life full of stuff yet with little flavor. We had traveled to Thailand on our honeymoon in 2007 and fallen in love with its chaotic tranquility.
Q: How did you do it financially?
A: Gabi and I both made maximum contributions to our company's 401(k) throughout our careers, and we had a decent nest egg. With help from our investment adviser we figured a way to quit without worrying about having to return to the U.S. workplace. We got rid of all but a few cherished heirlooms (which we placed in a storage unit) and reduced our possessions to what would fit in four suitcases and two backpacks.
Q: Why Cambodia?
A: We joined Volunteers in Asia (www.VIAprograms.org) and were placed in Phnom Penh. In June 2010 we got on a plane in Boston with two one-way tickets to begin our new lives.
We spent the next 3 1/2 years working for non-governmental agencies and freelancing. We earned a combined $940 a month from volunteer stipends and lived on savings and investment proceeds.
We fell completely in love with the Khmer people, culture and history. We left Phnom Penh in 2013, traveling to India, China, throughout Europe and South America, mostly house sitting, often through trustedhousesitters.com. Our travels have taken us to Peru, Ecuador, Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina, in addition to Italy, France, Belgium, Switzerland and The Netherlands.
Along the way we wrote a book about our experiences and the process of extricating ourselves from Western society. Just Go! Leave the Treadmill for a World of Adventure was released in June (available on their website, www.themeanderthals.com, and Amazon.com).
We focus on discovering rich experiences rather than living richly. We don't buy stuff. We travel lightly, fluidly and nearly constantly. And we love it.
Q: What about health insurance?
A: For the first two years we carried insurance through Volunteers in Asia. Since then we’ve had policies through World Nomads, which has provided consistent, reliable service. I recently renewed our policy for six weeks, and it cost around $275 for both of us.
Q: What was your budget like in Cambodia?
A: We found a two-bedroom apartment an enormous wraparound balcony near the Royal Palace on a quiet, tree-lined street. We paid $850 per month — on the high end in a city where it's easy to find a place for $500. All our normal costs were lower than what we experienced in the U.S.:
• Internet was $25 per month.
• Prepaid mobile phone service was $50 for enough minutes for three to four months, including calls to the U.S.
• We routinely ate lunch for $3 (my favorite was a vegetarian noodle joint in the Russian Market).
• We found dental cleanings and X-rays for $25 in spotless, state of the art facilities.
• I'm a decent cook, and I had some of the most heart-warming experiences chatting with vendors and buying their wares. I never spent more than $10, and would leave with three to four bags stuffed with veggies, fruits, herbs and spices.
Q: Words of advice?
A: Just go; hence the title of our book. The world is a friendly, easy place. We have managed our way around the world — health care issues, banking challenges, language barriers, etc.— and have benefited in more ways than I can express.
You can, too. And it's not risky, foolhardy, or financially impossible (some people we interviewed for our book left their lives with very little in the bank).
Bottom line: It's your life. Get on with it, and enjoy the ride!
Ex-Navy lieutenant commander makes a difference
Claire Bloom is another early retiree who found fulfillment in volunteering. She left the Navy in 1998, at age 51, as a lieutenant commander. “My title was executive officer of the USS Constitution (one of the world’s oldest commissioned warships afloat) in Boston. I am actually the first, and so far only, woman to hold that job.”
Q: Why did you retire?
A: I couldn’t imagine anything the Navy could give me to do that was better than the job I just had. And I (didn't want) to leave my home ... and knew (the Navy) would have to move me. My husband and daughter were well settled.
Q: Did you have to do any special planning?
A: We didn't need an intense financial discussion because my husband was still working (and I) was getting retirement pay.
Q: So what was your next step?
A: I actually started working right away. It was almost pre-Internet, and I started an online education company.
Q: And what are you up to now?
A: Well, I was a member of a church group and was reading a book about a highly impoverished area in New England. When one of the women in the group said, "In my classroom, a lot of kids have nothing to eat." I went to the school district office and said, "What can I do?" They said, “We want someone to start a program to give them food to take home over the weekend.” We began feeding kids and in 2011 I established the non-profit End 68 Hours of Hunger, an effort to confront the approximately 68 hours of hunger that some school children experience between the free lunch they receive in school on Friday afternoon and the free breakfast they receive in school on Monday morning.
Q: Words of advice to others considering retirement?
A: Think outside the box. Find a need and fill it, and just put one foot in front of the other. The next thing you'll know you'll be meeting the need.
Contributing: Roberta Bernstein, Paste BN