I Just Lost My Job. Can I Retire Now?

Retirement Answer Man

Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®

Lifeplanning, Retirementplanning, Financialplanning, Saving, Careerplanning, Self-improvement, Education, Retirementpodcast, Investing, Business, Investmentmanagement, Retirement

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 25 June 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

💬 Show Notes

This week on the Retirement Answer Man show, we kick things off with a couple of Rockin’ Retirement in the Wild stories from listeners living out their retirement dreams. Then we dive into a mini case study from a listener recently laid off who’s wondering if early retirement is on the table, we’ll walk through the numbers and stress test his plan. We wrap up our month of travel talk with a fun chat with Chris and Cathy about their retirement adventures and how they’re making the most of their freedom to explore.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

(00:00) In this episode, we wrap up our travel reflections and explore a listener's question about the pros and cons of retiring at age 59.
(01:40) Looking ahead, July will feature 'Best of' episodes of the Retirement Answer Man podcast and August will focus on listener questions.

ROCKIN’ RETIREMENT IN THE WILD

(02:50) Rock Retirement Club member, Pete, has a podcast called Retiring with Enough and that podcast just hit episode 150.
(04:04) Listener, Adrianne, sent in a letter about rocking retirement.

LISTENER CASE STUDY

(04:45) An anonymous listener reached out to share that he’s considering early retirement after a job loss caused by the downturn in the automotive industry. Today, we explore whether he can make it work.
(09:20) A breakdown of the listener’s financial situation.
(13:35) We have to make some assumptions about investment and will use software to simulate different scenarios.
(17:00) Let’s look at the results- a feasible plan is not necessarily resilient.
(19:40) Let’s do some basic stress testing to see how your plan holds up when life throws curveballs.

TRAVEL STORIES WITH CHRIS AND CATHY

(24:52) Two recent retirees, Chris and Cathy, have focused on domestic travel now that work is out of the way.
(29:10) Roger: What was one moment that stood out from your entire trip that stands out for each of you?
(31:45) Roger: Do you two talk when you're on road trips or do you audiobook or something?
(32:23) Chris and Cathy said they retired together and knew they wanted to go back to Jersey.
(33:21) Roger: How did you adjust to being together 24/7?
(34:55) Chris and Cathy discuss how they will approach travel in retirement.
(36:17) Roger: Over a twelve month period, what percentage of time do you travel? And what is the pull to travel so much?
(39:36) Roger: Do you think this three months a year travel cycle is a season or do you think this is a new identity as explorers?
(42:05) Roger: What tips or suggestions would you give to others who have never traveled internationally or have never planned a big road trip?
(46:55) Roger: What is it internally that travel you feel adds to your life?

SMART SPRINT

(48:19) In the next 7 days, confirm that you have at least two years of safe assets, cash or short-term reserves, to cover your lifestyle expenses not covered by income. Even if your plan looks feasible on paper, test its resiliency. Would it hold up if the market took a hit tomorrow?

BONUS

(48:55) Now that we’ve finished my grandfather’s journal, to end the show I will share things I’m geeking out on. Today: electric bikes.

REFERENCES

TRAVEL WEBSITES

Free Range Fun Hogs- Travel Blog

FOLLOW US ON SOCIALS

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	The best antidote to stress is resilience, having the ability to respond to change or adversity
0:07.2	proactively and resourcefully.
0:10.7	Lauren Mackler.
0:13.5	Mackler.
0:14.1	I don't know why I said it that way.
0:16.0	Hey there.
0:16.6	Welcome to the show dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the
0:20.5	confidence to lean in and rock it, you do want to rock retirement dedicated to helping you not just survive retirement, but to have the confidence to lean in and rock it.
0:23.3	You do want to rock retirement, don't you?
0:25.6	I mean, why not?
0:27.1	Today on the show, we are going to round out our travel stories with a domestic travel discussion with two recent retirees.
0:36.3	Before we do that, though, we have a listener
0:39.4	question who, a listener emailed in, say, hey, I just lost my job. I'm 59 years old. Can I retire
0:44.5	now? So we're going to have a mini case study where we look through whether this is a reasonable
0:51.3	thing, given the facts that they shared., had to fill in some blanks.
0:56.1	I'm going to answer this here on the show, but I'm also going to record video going through some
1:02.3	analysis of this, because that can maybe make it more impactful as you think about this for yourself.
1:08.1	So you can listen to it on the show. But if you want to see the video analysis
1:11.9	of it as well, we will share that in our weekly email, The Noodle. So you'll get a link to that
1:18.8	video answer as well. If you're not signed up for The Noodle, you can go to the Noodle.m
1:24.8	and sign up there and get your weekly dose of retirement wisdom. In fact,
1:30.3	we'll share this video answer two weeks in a row just in case you miss it this weekend.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA®, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Roger Whitney, CFP®, CIMA®, RMA, CPWA® and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.