Dear Alma, I’m burned out and can’t afford to retire
OrchestrasA cri de coeur to our agony aunt:
Dear Alma,
I am in my mid-50’s, play in a medium sized orchestra, and teach part-time at a university. I have been in this situation for many years, and am wondering when or if I can retire. Neither job is substantial enough to give me retirement benefits, and so I have done my best to pay off my mortgage, live within my means, and my kids are taking partial loans to get through college. I don’t have a lot of personal retirement savings, and don’t know how I could really grow that in the next years. But I am burned out and wish I could know when I can stop.
Churning and Burning
Dear Churning and Burning,
As classical musicians we often don’t have the retirement safety net of other professions. Unless we were fortunate enough to land a steady job, which are few and far between, and those jobs, as we know, can be soul-sucking and detrimental to our emotional well-being.
I would go ahead and make an appointment with two or three financial advisors or retirement advisors. It seems as if you haven’t done this yet from your letter. They will help you figure out exactly what you have coming to you from the government, any Union benefits, health options, and will crunch the numbers of what your house and possessions are worth. They will let you know what your life would look like if you downsize your house, sell your instrument for a less expensive one, retire at 60, 65, 70 – also what a partial retirement (giving up orchestra but keeping your teaching position, for example) would look like. You need to go on a fact-finding mission to plot the next phase of your life.
I also think about these things, about where I want to live when I retire, and if retirement is even a realistic thing. My daughters have a piano teacher who is well into her 80’s, and I can see that not only is it great for my children to glean knowledge from a wise older person, and have an active relationship with an elderly person, but the teacher herself is engaged and it helps improve her life to be active and surrounded by children and families. It’s a beautiful, symbiotic relationship.
Realistically, Churning and Burning, life expectancy is between 75 and 80 years. So you have quite a while to go. Let’s think more about quality of life rather than length. What can you do for a living which might offer you a bit more quality – talk to friends and make a list of what you can do to help you find happiness and enough financial stability to pull you through the next 10-? years, by which time your kids will be finding partners and starting families. Make a plan, take care of your relationships and finances, don’t worry too much about your current jobs and burnout, make small adjustments in your work situation if possible, and think of the future, where you will hopefully be babysitting and surrounded by people who love you and want to take care of you.
Questions for Alma? Please put them in the comments section or send to DearAlmaQuery@gmail.com
Oh stop your whinging, grow up and just accept that like most people you will have to work far harder and longer than you really want to. If you wanted to retire early you should have gone into finance, property… basically, anything other than the arts.
Pretty brutal – glad MegaBucks isn’t Alma!
Alma is too soft by half, another wishy washy liberal who sugar coats everything in case the complainant can’t stomach it. What happened to people having backbone and resilience? Wake up, accept reality and deal with it. Life is cr*p sometimes, but that is not an excuse.
The answer is in the past. Set aside a small amount of pension money every week in the earliest part of your career. Downsize house and instrument (+ bows) later in career.
Frankly, seeing my dad scramble to find things to do after a somewhat forced retirement,which he took to avoid pending layoffs, and seeing my spouse flounder a bit with nothing to do in the summers, I am thinking the idea of retirement is not all it’s cracked up to be. We both have retirement accounts but I know that I am one of those who always needs something to do.
My dad was in a profession with a compulsory retirement age. He immediately upped his volunteer activity and devoted more time to music (playing professionally, which had not been his career) as well as his wide range of interests, from reading to gardening. He entertained, travelled a bit, and, after a long widowhood married again.
One of my professors was outraged when forced to retire at 65 (she looked, and felt, 40). She too plunged into music, joining a quite high profile choir, took up painting to the point that she exhibited regularly, and participated in many little projects that came her way, one involving cookery.
People who live life, who have interests, and who give of their time tend not to find retirement dull.
Agreed! The people I know who hit retirement early die early and bored.
Music gives us so much – enriches us and expands our social network. Sounds like the writer is stuck in the same type of music – he needs to get some variety.
Can we ever really retire from music? It’s a part of us. I wouldn’t want to quit.
No matter your career, it is essential to invest early for your retirement years. Maximize pension contributions if your employer has a pension plan. Fund every other retirement account you have available. And invest aggressively; stocks, not bonds. You have time to recover from market downturns. And while “I don’t need to make a lot of money if I’m doing something I love” is a noble sentiment, it doesn’t pay the bills.
Quit and move on. In a few years you’ll be saying welcome to Walmart or would you like fries with that?