I couldn’t very well say I studied retirement without going to Florida, where I had heard there were a few retired people. I got on a plane in Albany and we hadn’t even got off the ground before I heard several conversations about retirement around me.
A 40 something woman in back of me was briefing a younger man next to her about how he should be making retirement plans called FIRE: Financial Independence, Retire Early. The young man in question seemed to have a good job and was describing the life changes he was making (as opposed to his decadent peers) to make sure he could retire at age 50. Presumably this was so he could then pursue the decadence he was forgoing at the moment, but exactly what was going to happen to make this early retirement so desirable was never described. I got the sense the woman was a money manager of some type which perhaps explained her desire to defend her industry. Spending on life’s pleasures early in life makes money for other people.
Later in the flight, the woman next to me described the snowbird life she and her husband lived that was changing as time went on. They were originally 50/50 between Florida and upstate New York, but as time went on, they found themselves shifting more and more to Florida. As their tolerance of the cold decreased and their friendships in Florida increased, they found themselves spending much more time in Florida than New York State. The husband (on the other side of the aisle) was all about the tax benefits of being a Florida resident. Again the money thing! They both described the pleasant surprise of finding new, like-minded friends in their new enclave. They were satisfied and comfortable in a way that made me uncomfortable.