By Robert J. Rietz
Long-time readers might remember the similarity between the title of this article and that of my inaugural column, “The Hardest Thing I’ve Ever Done,” which appeared in the September/October 2010 Contingencies. That first effort bemoaned the multitude of variables confronting me while designing my financial retirement plan, such as spending levels, investment earnings, inflation, future tax rates, health care costs, etc. Volatile future fluctuations in these unknowns increased my torment, but longevity dwarfed all of them. A panelist at an Enrolled Actuaries Annual Meeting described my dilemma. He said the RP-2000 Mortality Table indicated a 25% probability for a healthy male at my age in 2010 surviving at least 30 years. Yikes!
I needed a financial retirement strategy to be sufficiently conservative to ensure its success over that time span, but not at the expense of an unacceptable standard of living in the interim. Leaving an inheritance for my children was my lowest priority, while grandchildren enjoyed a higher rung on that ladder. Many Excel worksheets were created and discarded while devising a plan that, over the past 15 years, successfully balanced the interplay between these variables and competing priorities.
Managing this plan while I climb a steeper segment of the mortality curve is becoming easier because economic and demographic uncertainties no longer frighten me. However, the retirement roadmap for the rest of my life is no less difficult today than in 2010, thanks to one depreciating resource. Time. How should I allocate this valuable commodity over my remaining lifetime?
International travel remains a high priority for Nancy and me—we both enjoy absorbing a new destination’s unique environment. Volunteering at the local food pantry on Thursdays and cooking Sunday dinner for Asheville’s homeless veterans consume those days. Teaching and taking adult continuing education courses at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute on the campus of UNC Asheville occupy weeks at a time.
Daily walks and struggling to find a literary agent for my novel complement each other but erode the available time. Maintaining relationships with family, friends, and colleagues-for-life requires me to set aside time for them. Enjoying musicians, magicians, and actors execute their craft at the Wortham Center for the Performing Arts also nibbles at my wakeful hours.
Writing this column three times a year, though a privilege and a pleasure, involves a significant number of hours to draft, edit, and refine a product consistent with the high standards of Contingencies. This issue’s deadline prompted me to review earlier columns in search of a new perspective on a previous piece. Some articles reflected my lifetime fascination with space “Neil Armstrong and Who?” (January/February 2017 Contingencies), while others challenged the actuarial profession’s status quo, “Where Are the Women?” (July/August 2019 Contingencies). Still others were playful, “Fancy Meeting You Here! (January/February 2020 Contingencies) or pensive “Out on a Limb,” (September/October2021 Contingencies.) Tears flowed when I finished memorializing the Greatest Generation’s greatest accomplishment in “How Did They Do it?”(September/October 2023 Contingencies). Hopefully, readers found these 44 prior musings humorous, insightful, or provocative.
I’ve been blessed to work with two fabulous editors, Linda Mallon and Eric Harding, and have been introduced to a third, Preeti Vasishtha. Linda recruited me with the promise that I could expound on any topic that struck me, as long as it didn’t relate to actuarial science. I took Linda at her word in the September/October 2011 issue of Contingencies, “The Envelope, Please.” Eric and I often commiserated over multiple miserable seasons of our respective hometown baseball franchises. We intentionally omitted our 2017 World Series wager of Cleveland pasties against Chicago Italian roast beef sandwiches from “Nuts!” in the September/October 2017 edition of Contingencies. The January/February 2024 issue of Contingencies, “Editors—Friend or Foe?” explored the complicated relationship between writers and scribes who amend our ledes.
The May/June 2013 Contingencies entry, “When Is it Time to Hang up the Holster?” halted my research. That effort reviewed sad instances of outstanding players in professional sports damaging their legacy with subpar performances in their later years. This phenomenon was noted in other settings, like rock stars on reunion tours, surgeons with hand tremors, and aging singers. That commentary, like this one, closed by mentioning a haunting ballad by my favorite chanteuse, Barbara Streisand, “Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair?”
The answers are “Now,” and “Perhaps.” I’ll miss you.
Robert J. Rietz is a retired pension actuary living in Asheville, NC.