Most of the couples we meet are 5 to 10 years from retirement, and nearly all of them walk in wondering whether they’ve saved enough to make it through retirement. We can run projections all afternoon, but some answers land harder when they come from someone who has already crossed the retirement finish line. So, we invited a client of ours, Jerry Coates, to tell us about transitioning into retirement and how he’s living his best retirement, in his own words. 

Jerry spent his career at Glaxo and was part of the team that helped the company through its changes into Glaxo Wellcome and then GlaxoSmithKline. He started out in engineering, moved into risk management, and spent years building computer systems that helped the company spot and reduce risk at its facilities around the world. He and his wife Gardenia have been retired for about two and a half years now. 

Much of their retirement success comes from treating the household finances the way Jerry treated risk at work; with a standing agenda, a regular review, and an owner and a due date on every action item. If you’ve kept your own spreadsheets for decades and you like knowing exactly where things stand, his approach to retirement financial planning will resonate. 

The savings habit started with their first paychecks 

Jerry grew up in Philadelphia, went to college in Pittsburgh, and moved to North Carolina for work about 37 years ago. When he landed his first job, he told a mentor he planned to save half of everything he made. The mentor told him flat out he wasn’t going to do that, then walked him through what life costs once the obligations start piling up. 

Jerry and Gardenia started saving aggressively anyway, right after they married, and they set three rules they held for decades: 

1. Money that went into savings stayed there. They let it ride. 

2. They lived below their means. 

3. They didn’t carry consumer debt. 

None of those rules are complicated. The work was the follow-through on those rules across years of raising two kids, moving around, and what Jerry calls hustling every day. By the time they were closing in on 5 to 10 years ‘til retirement, Jerry could see that their retirement savings were on track to cover the retirement they had defined, and that word “defined” ended up at the center of our whole conversation. 

Retirement readiness starts with your own definition 

Jerry has a lot of great one-liners, and we’ve been stuck on: “You have to define what retirement looks like for you.” 

Retirement readiness comes down to the gap between what you have and what your version of retirement costs, and you can’t measure a gap until you know both ends. Two couples with the same account balance can be in completely different retirement planning spots depending on how they plan to spend their retirement days. 

Jerry and Gardenia’s definition included travel, time with their son in Durham and their daughter’s family in Atlanta, a strong circle of friends, and giving to causes they care about. Once that picture was clear, the money question got quieter. Jerry told us the financial side was the part they worried about least, because they had set the target years earlier and had been aiming at it the whole time. 

That’s the first item on any retirement checklist. Write down what an ordinary Tuesday looks like 5 years from now, including who you’re with, where you are, and what you’re doing, and let the numbers come after. 

Watch out for scope creep 

Jerry borrowed a term from his engineering days for the biggest trap he sees near the finish line. He calls it scope creep. 

It shows up after the plan says you’re ready. You set a date, and then a voice says to work three more months, and then one more year, and then one more year after that. From the outside it looks like caution, and we see it in retirement planning meetings all the time. 

Jerry put the cost in personal terms. Every extra year carries a price, like missing your granddaughter’s recital, and you can’t get that time back. His advice is simple. Once you’ve set the goal, pictured what you want retirement to look like, and hit the mark on the numbers, go with it. “It’s going to work, and you’ll be fine,” he told us. 

From our side of the table, we’ll add one thing. Hitting the mark should mean the plan has been tested against the things that tend to surprise people, including taxes in retirement, healthcare costs before Medicare starts, and how your income holds up if the market drops right after you stop working. A stress-tested plan is what gives you permission to stop the scope creep, and every number in it is a projection you keep revisiting as life and the markets change. 

The money routine Jerry and Gardenia built in retirement 

Within the first 3 to 6 months of retirement, Jerry and Gardenia put another engineer-based routine in place. When they described it to friends, the reaction was that it sounded like work. Then they added up the hours, and it came to very little time for how much it kept them on top of things. 

The monthly budget meeting, about one hour. Once a month they block an hour on the calendar with a standing agenda. They look at what came in, what went out, and what the coming month needs to look like. Jerry keeps the spreadsheet, and because the agenda doesn’t change, the hour goes quickly. This is retirement budgeting at its simplest, a short and repeatable look that keeps surprises small. 

The quarterly top-to-bottom review, about half a day. Every quarter they go end to end through every account. They start around 10 in the morning, work until noon, break for lunch, and wrap up around 3pm or 4pm. The point is to find gaps. Every gap becomes an action item with an owner and a date, and they split the list between them. 

The annual planning session. Once a year they fold in the takeaways from their review meetings with our team and look ahead. They talk through what they want the next year to look like, what they want to achieve, and which goals and targets need adjusting.  

Jerry summed up the philosophy behind their routine in another one-liner: “We’re the captains of our ship.” They have professional help and they use it, and they still want to understand their own money better than anyone else does. That pairing is what we hope to see in the households we work with, because a plan works best when the people living it know it inside and out. 

Why the routine lowers the anxiety 

Jerry made a point we want pre-retirees to hear. In his experience, retirement goals calm anxiety. Without them, worry fills the empty space. With them, you can picture what you need, and once you can picture it, the next steps get easier to take. 

The routine does the same thing for the money anxiety. Finances that sit in a file cabinet turn into a mystery, and those mysteries can easily become stressful. When you look at the numbers every month, review them every quarter, and reset your goals every year, the mystery goes away. Jerry said those repetitions keep the finances top of mind, so when he and Gardenia talk about money, they’re already on the same page. 

That last part matters more than most couples expect. They both sit in every meeting, meaning either one could step in and carry the plan forward if something happened to the other. We bring this up with couples often, and Jerry’s routine shows what it looks like in practice. 

Build the wealth, and enjoy it too 

For all the structure, Jerry isn’t saving for the sake of the spreadsheet. He told us part of their challenge is striking a balance. You need the money to last, and you also have to enjoy it, because you can’t take it with you. He even teases his kids that whatever they eventually get is a moving target, depending on how they behave. 

That balance is what retiring comfortably looks like in their house. The meetings exist so the travel, the time with the grandkids, and the charitable giving can happen without second-guessing. 

Your retirement checklist if you’re 5 years out 

We asked Jerry what he’d tell someone 5 years from retirement. His answer makes a solid checklist for anyone trying to plan for retirement on a short timeline. 

1. Set goals for what your retirement will look like, day to day. Jerry and Gardenia start every morning with a workout and pay attention to eating right, because health sits at the center of their plan. 

2. Get professional help now if your finances need shoring up. Jerry was direct that 5 years is a short window, and he strongly recommends bringing in help by that stage. 

3. Pick your date and commit to it. In Jerry’s words, “If it’s going to be 5, it’s 5. It’s going to be 6, it’s 6.” Then hold to it and don’t fall into scope creep. 

If you want to borrow one more piece from Jerry, start your own monthly and quarterly money meetings while you’re still working, so you walk into retirement with the habit already built. 

Jerry and Gardenia are 2 and a half years into retirement, and the next big trip on their calendar is to the Panama Canal, which Jerry has wanted to see since his engineering days. If you’re 5 to 10 years out and want to learn more about building a plan that will help you run with the same confidence in retirement, reach out to our team through the Contact Us page at pomwealth.net to request a free copy of our book, “The Peace of Mind Pathway”.  

Jerry and Gardenia Coates are clients of Peace of Mind Wealth Management and are not being compensated for sharing their opinion and experience with our firm. Jerry and Gardenia’s comments may not be representative of any other person’s experience with the firm.