Retirement in Times of Uncertainty
I came to my profession later in life than most, in my early 40’s. A series of unfortunate events including a career ending injury for my husband and a hostile take over for the organization I worked for, propelled me down a career path I had never considered in my younger days. Coming late to the game, I always felt that I had to play catch up to be as good as the others around me. I had to go harder, work later, take on more, get in the weeds more, in order to fully understand the work and to move forward in my career. When my husband retired last year, something flipped and I felt my internal brakes engage. My desire to hustle and get the next big thing, so I could work until 70 felt a little ridiculous.
One of the things that appealed to me about my current organization is that they had a very long tenured work force, allowing them to get to retirement on their own terms, allowing them to bow out when they were ready. I came from a side of the business where longevity was a little more of a crap shoot. Maybe you’d make it, maybe not. But here, it felt as though I could make it to 70 if I wanted. My biggest challenge in making it to 70 would be not dying a slow death of boredom. This has been the easiest workload I have ever had. After such a hard, driving path, coasting sounded like it might have its benefits. Then out of nowhere this spring, there was a reduction in the total work force of 25%. Reality check right upside the head. There were a few other rumblings of things that could happen possibly in the coming years and then Trump’s tariffs hit. Now all our product, a non essential item, would be tariffed at 145%.
For someone accustomed to having a 5 and a 10 year plan, these facts were putting a monkey wrench into my planning windows. We have no idea what the future brings. No one person or company can promise me anything over the next 10 years. When I try to plan now, I have to be prepared for a 1 year window, a 3 year window or a 7 year window. If I make it to the 7 year window, maybe I can also hold out to the 10 year mark. Who the hell knows, like I said, crap shoot.
In terms of a time line going forward, this is all we really know:
Husband retired June of 2024.
His social security is due to go into effect May of 2025. We are waiting to see if it does. With all of the changes imposed by Trump and DOGE, it is hard to know if it will happen.
That’s it, that is all we are sure of.
For me, there are the myriad of possibilities of when I might be able to retire, forced or otherwise:
2034 at 70, if need be and my job still exists, I would be able to do this but sounds a little ridiculous to me now since my husband has retired. He would be 76.
2031 at 67, full retirement age, probably the right time financially. He would be 73.
2028 at 64, job events would be the driver for this to happen, probably a little too early financially but damn I would love that. He would be clocking in at 70.
2026 at 62, job events again would be the driver, too early financially, but maybe I can actually get another job.
Or anytime the situation arises that my job could possibly be shut down for any reason we don’t yet understand…did I mention the term crap shoot?
Back in the ’90’s we were self employed for almost 10 years and in the end we lost everything, our home, our cars, our business. We had to declare bankruptcy and start all over again.
While it was happening I cried, I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t hardly think straight. I had my second child in the middle of all this. I would stay up all night, crazy eyed, feeding a new baby and watching a combination of Georgia pastor, Charles Stanley and America’s Funniest Videos. I had never watched anything religious on TV but for some reason his words during this time comforted me. Grasping for any semblance of faith or joy, these were the only two things that got me through this time, giving my mind a much needed break to start its healing process.
I came to understand that we had been afraid of the unknown, that worst case scenario monster in the background that had kept us incapacitated, in crippling fear for more than a year. All that worry, trying to pump the brakes on the inevitable and it all happened anyway. What I know now, if we can look at the worst case scenario and imagine a way to survive it, an outcome we can tolerate, we can release a little of that fear and move forward in a more productive way.
So yeah, my plans are a little all over the place. Any of the time frames noted above could happen. The difference for me now though is that I feel kind of okay with any of the options. I know if anyone of those things happened, we could flex and adjust. While we may not have made all the right moves over the years preparing for retirement, we have done enough to be able to flex a little, to find faith and some joy, even in the uncertainty. Sometimes that is all we need.