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By Dr. Erik Hofmeister, WCI Columnist
As young professionals, my wife and I were relatively frugal, but we didn’t think very much about money or financial goals. Every year, we had more money in our bank account than the year before, and we weren’t sure what to make of that or what to do with it. Society doesn’t do a good job of preparing us to have more each year than the next. Neither of us had any idea about investing or retirement plans, so we figured, “Well, I guess we’ll just build a $1 million dream home.”
Then, at the age of 39, I discovered Mr. Money Mustache and realized there was another way. Instead of building a dream home, we focused on saving and investing as much as possible so we could reach financial independence as quickly as possible.
We reached FI six years later (as Dr. Jim Dahle has mentioned, no high-income professional is more than 10 years away from FI). We continued to work for a variety of reasons, mostly because our goal was never to hit our FI number and then immediately retire. Our goal was to have as enjoyable a life as possible. We finally decided, in the spring of 2024, to pull the plug in the spring of 2025. We decided to wait a year between decision and execution because I had clinic responsibilities scheduled and my wife had classes she wanted to teach. So, we had One More Year between making the decision about retirement and it becoming a reality.
One More Year and Why It Wasn’t So Great
A lot of people advocate for “One More Year” in financial independence planning. Another year in the workforce can add substantially to your investments and give you a nice cushion in your assets. It is also one less year that you need to fund your life from your investments. The Physician on Fire and Fritz at The Retirement Manifesto both did one more year and felt good about doing so.
Some people feel “One More Year” is a syndrome, whereby you continue to delay retirement by another year. Maybe you are worried about the finances working. Maybe you believe you will be bored in retirement, so you continue to cling to your job. Neither of these resonated for us. Our numbers had worked for a couple of years. Our identity has never been tied to our jobs. We have numerous extramural activities that we want to pursue in retirement. We did a brief retirement practice run that went well. We weren’t afraid to retire.
We had committed to One More Year, and then we had to live through it. To be honest, it wasn’t awesome. I have always liked my job and basically enjoy going to work on Monday. But during that year, Sunday afternoon came around, and I would tell my wife, “But I want to keep hanging out with you and the cats!” I had definite difficulties feeling motivated at work and often felt like not doing much of anything at all. What explains my experience with One More Year vs. those who have had a good One More Year? I can think of a few possibilities.
One is that I wonder if other people who have had a good One More Year have always basically disliked their job. For them, “having” to go to work on Monday was the same as usual—somewhat distasteful. However, I have generally always liked my job. Only now, after we decided to retire, was I starting to feel a case of The Mondays.
Another is that our “why” wasn’t strong enough. We didn’t desperately need another year of income to make our retirement finances work. Working another year wouldn’t change our emotional relationship with our retirement finances. Our motivations were to help our colleagues and teach our students. Maybe that’s not compelling enough. When I was relaxing on Sunday and thought, “I could just keep relaxing and not go to work ever again,” responding to that thought with, “But my colleagues need me,” may not have been sufficiently strong to motivate me. Part of this is because I believe no one is irreplaceable—within a short time after I leave, I’m sure my colleagues will have figured out things just fine. I didn’t feel particularly needed.
Finally, it’s possible that we had been living with One More Year for two years already, since we had already reached FI. Before, we hadn’t been seriously contemplating retirement since we were both basically enjoying work. But after a while, I started to look around and think, “Wait, would I rather go to work or would I rather hang out with my wife and go for walks and see friends and otherwise spend my time exactly how I want?” Once we set an actual date to retire, every week seemed to drag on. I just wanted to get to it already!
More information here:
The Unspoken Risks of NOT Retiring Early
Are Physicians Who Retire Early Abusing the System That Made Them Rich?
Dealing with the Guilt of Early Retirement
The Countdown to Retirement
Once we reached six months from our planned retirement date, we decided to start a countdown clock, particularly of all the annoying work-related things we wouldn’t have to take care of again—going to surgery lab for me, scheduling students with accommodations for test-taking for my wife, etc. This helped us to stay focused by marking our progress, and we could feel a little better looking forward to a future without the negative parts of our jobs.
We had planned to put in our notice in November 2024 for a March 2025 retirement but decided to push retirement back to July 2025. Nonetheless, in November, we met with our department chair and put in our official notices. For about a week after doing so, I was in a slight panic mode. Did we make the right choice? Can we take it back? After a couple of weeks, I relaxed and, once our department chair put out the notice to the whole department, it was a done deal.
A couple of weeks after that, I stopped thinking about it entirely. We were set to retire in July, and I had no more anxiety about that decision. Interestingly, we also stopped our countdown clock, since we felt we didn’t really need the motivation anymore. We became totally focused on wrapping up as many work-related projects as possible before we finished our time at our jobs. I didn’t feel bad on Sunday anymore, knowing the end was in sight.
More information here:
Real Life Examples of How WCIers Live, Worry, and Withdraw Money in Retirement
Giving Up a $250,000 Salary to Retire Early Is Hard
The Bottom Line
Some people see One More Year as a necessity to give themselves the comfort of knowing they have enough. Some people are stuck in One More Year because they can’t imagine life without work. When we were in the middle of One More Year, we couldn’t wait for it to end, to get to the point where we would retire and do exactly what we wanted with our time.
If I had to do it all again, I either would have not set an actual date for us to aim for OR I would have just pulled the trigger when we realized we wanted to stop working. As you contemplate retirement, these thoughts might be worth considering. Will One More Year help you feel better about retiring, or might it be better to simply retire when you reach your number?
Looking for some personalized answers when it comes to tracking your retirement? Check out Boldin, a WCI partner that helps you build your retirement plan and keeps you on track for the future you deserve. It’s much more than a retirement calculator; it’ll help you get to the retirement of your dreams.
Have you experienced One More Year? Why did you continue working? Was it worth it? Would you do it again?
