Watching the ceiling of a hospital is very boring. But Max was confined to bed no 9 and had no other option.A savvy advertising professional, for the past 20 years, he had led a hectic lifestyle. Key accounts had to be handled with utmost patience because they had the power to make or break his career.
Work was always given top most priority and health got neglected in the bargain. Marriage was on the rocks as Max never had the luxury of family time. One fine morning his wife Dorothy walked out with their son Junior. Late night parties with clients and making presentations at breakfast became a routine. The body however makes its own decisions as to when to say ‘I quit’.
It started with getting irritated at the drop of a pen and slowly went on to become a constant complaint of severe headaches. Next, Max found himself losing out on his stamina and becoming tired very quickly. One afternoon after lunch severe cramps in the chest hit him. Immediate hospitalization diagnosed a heart attack due to hypertension. Doctors advised complete bed rest. That’s how our hero was flat on bed no 9, introspecting. Was all the hardship worthwhile?
Dorothy loved Max and was at his bedside all the time. So the first thing Max did was to say sorry for all the time they had let pass by, under pressure of the rat race. Next, consult with her to decide on moving out of California to a low cost Yuma Arizona. Yuma was a place where his grandparents had brought him up on their ranch. He had been quite helpful with the cows and was passionate about dairy farming. The philosophy was to live with simplicity to live longer.
Max had a good amount of savings on him. He had also regularly invested in IRAs and 401(k). His financial strategy was to spend less, invest well and save more. So he kept his social security cover and other retirement saving accounts untouched. He had worked hard enough to have made a decent net worth to fund a cattle farm with a dairy in Yuma. He also had a house with a pool. The family enjoyed time together and soon had friends coming over. Sundays were meant to go boating or catching up at the dunes.
Shopping at the clearance sales was a habit for both. Also, Max had diligently saved more by requesting all his past employers to deposit a part of his paycheck into a non retirement mutual fund. Health care was taken care of by a healthy lifestyle and a health coverage policy. The kids’ education was covered by an account in which both Max and Dorothy had been putting money since their babies were born. Both had paid into their life insurance policies for the required number of years. Now the money that had accumulated was growing on its own. The same was the case with their Roth IRAs. Having no need to cash into these retirement funds, Max and Dorothy could easily concentrate on their new venture using a few certificates of deposits.
All this was possible because both were financially savvy and had played their cards well where early retirement planning is concerned. Our kids in their 20s should take them as an example to begin saving and investing wisely for the future today.