After years of stress and hard work, you may be finally considering retirement.
But you may have heard horror stories of retirees who end up bored and poor because they retired too soon.
So is the grass really greener on the other side?
Today’s guest Nancy Golden confirms – the grass really is greener!
After decades of 10-hour shifts, working odd hours, and dealing with disrespectful clients, she decided to put her pharmacy career behind her. And now she’s loving the free time and relaxation that retirement gives you.
In this episode, you’ll discover how to pivot from a stressful career into peace, free time, and enjoying your family.
Listen now!
Show Highlights Include:
- The “investment paycheck” that helps you feel financially secure in retirement (even though you no longer have a salary) ([14:01])
- Why semi-retiring makes your job twice as enjoyable (even if you’re doing exactly the same work) ([16:50])
- Raise money-savvy grandbabies by investing in a $21.99 gift ([17:36])
- Why watching The Price is Right with your kids stops them from falling into debt ([19:41])
- How retiring keeps your brain sharper than working 40 hours a week ([20:15])
Transcript:
Do you want a wealthy retirement without worrying about money?
Do you want a wealthy retirement without worrying about money? So welcome to the Retire In Texas Podcast, where you will discover how to enjoy your faith, your family, and your freedom in the state of Texas. And now here’s your host, financial advisor, author, and all-around good Texan, Darryl Lyons.
([00:29]): Welcome to Retire in Texas. My name’s Darryl Lyons. I’m the host of Retire in Texas, and this show is sponsored by PAX Financial Group. So be sure to visit pack’s financial group.com for more information, need to make sure you have the legal disclosure. This material contains general information only and is not intended to provide specific investment tax or legal advice. Visit PAXfinancialgroup.com for investment advisory services offered through PACS financial group. So I’m particularly going to enjoy this time, cuz I just enjoy this person and we’re gonna go to a place in San Antonio and Texas called H E B. And we’re gonna learn a little bit more about HEB, but more importantly, we’re gonna learn about Nancy and we’re gonna learn about your experience there. How long hope we had known each other now?
([01:23]): Oh gosh. Over 10 years. Huh? Yeah. And the golden family’s been enjoyable to work with and Tommy who would be here is louder than you. Right? Much, much louder. Yeah. We’ll have him on the show sometime. He’ll be a joy. Get to talk about the energy sector in, but I really was looking forward to visiting with you because I’ve been able to walk alongside of you over 10 years. And HEB is a very multifaceted organization. A lot of people think about the bread and the milk, but you worked in a different area. Where did you work at? I Am the pharmacy. The pharmacy. So we’re gonna get a chance to unpack that a little bit. But before I go into your career, I don’t even know this, but did you grow up in the San Antonio area or in Texas? In Texas? Down in Southeast Texas. Whereabouts, it’s a little town called Silsby near Beaumont. Well, I know Beaumont, but I don’t know Silsby. Yeah. It’s, it’s small. It’s a little we’re known for like the lumber mills and stuff like that. A lot of pine trees.
([02:26]): Yeah. You know, it’s cool. I love east Texas and you know, the, I don’t go there often, but Bastrop, you know, lost Pines area and I’m obviously you’re further east than that. Yeah. Well, we actually bought some property there once because it kind of reminded us of home when we lived in Austin. Never, never did anything with it though. I didn’t know. It’s a nice, it’s just, it’s Texas is so big. And so if you go to, you know, obviously Alpine all the way on the other side, you get a different terrain, you know, the Texas Cedar that we always enjoy in the hill country this time of year, we’re all sniffing. And then, you know, if I think about even the Rio Grande valley, a lot of the Mesquite, but then in east, Texas is pine and I think that’s a beautiful, you know, it’s just kind of hides the skyline. So when you’re driving down the road, it feels like Georgia to me. Yeah. It’s really pretty.
([03:16]): Yeah. And so when you grew up there and how many siblings did you have? Just one brother older. Okay. And your parents, what did they do for a living? They were both school teachers. Is that right? It was a small town. So was it one high school? I’m assuming? Yeah. One high school. Yeah. Was the high school, middle school and elementary. All kind of in one place? No, there were two elementaries and then we all went to this same middle school. Then we went to junior high and then we went to high school. They were all in different locations. Okay. And how many people did you graduate with? I think there was like 250. Oh, okay. So that’s pretty decent size. That’s bigger than where, you know, I went to Medina valley and Castroville oh yeah. Smaller. Okay. I, like I said, I don’t get over to east Texas that off in, but so your parents were teachers, so on a teacher’s salary, modest family lifestyle. Is that right? Yes. Yeah. Did they teach you anything about money growing up in particular?
([04:11]): I think it was more observed than like actually sitting down and looking at a checkbook. They, like you said is very modest income. They did a lot with it. You know, they kept the same house. I never know, knew if they ever took out a loan for everything. They just paid as they went. And they were able to give me and my brother both buy us cars when we were in high school and that’s cool sent us to Europe when we, or a graduation. Neat. So, yeah. And neither one of us had any college debt, you know? So they, they lived to where they could do all those things cuz it was important to ’em It was they lived below their means. Oh yeah. Yeah. Was there any ever financially a low part? I mean, given that there were teachers, there’s not many ups and downs necessarily versus an oil industry or even a small business owner. But did you experience any financial issues growing up? No, Not at pretty stable. Not at all.
([05:05]): Yeah. That’s good. And so when you, when you observed them, was there anything that you were like you caught that you applied today that you think about like is just living below your means or? Yeah, that’s the main thing, you know, we weren’t always like that, you know we, but you and Tommy? Yeah. Oh, okay. We we have made plenty of mistakes ourselves and mainly that’s because I guess my parents, since they didn’t really have debt, we didn’t know much about debt. So we had to kind of find that out ourselves. You learned that on your own? Yeah. Okay. Now a lot of people find us through Dave Ramsey. Did y’all find us through Dave Ramsey? Yes, I think so. I think so too. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can’t remember now, but okay. So where did you go to college at? University of Texas at Austin.
([05:49]): Okay. In Austin. And then did you do some graduate work after that? No. At the time I went, it was mainly, it was a five year program. And you would get your pharmacy degree as a BS in science. They don’t do that anymore. Do they? They go on and they do. What’s called a pharm D that was kind of starting out when I was in school, but it hardly anybody did it cuz there wasn’t really a need. Okay. And, and that reminds me, you know, I’m in the financial world, the, the CPA programs have changed a little bit and extended a little bit. So it sounds very similar to the pharmacy. So it’s a, it’s called a farm D right. And they actually come out like with a doctorate. Okay. An important career now for a lot of reasons. And so when you graduated, did you jump into you right away or did you start somewhere else? No. No. Actually we were living in Austin and moving to college station, which is kind of crazy, but oh yeah. The only job I could find at the time was in a hospital and I really had no idea that I would be in a hospital. I didn’t wanna be in a hospital, but that’s all I could find. So the first not even a whole year, I worked at a hospital in Caldwell
([07:02]): And okay. And did you wear burnt orange while you were there? No, we learned not to do that. Yeah. Yeah. That can be a mistake. You know, when I moved, when I was growing up, I moved from Bernie, Texas down to Harington and the first day I showed up in my greyhounds purple a sweater and there archivals for San Benito. So I almost died that first day of school. So yeah. Don’t wear the wrong colors in Texas. No. No you don’t. So how long were you at the hospital? For less than a year. As soon as there I got a job and I was an independent pharmacy. My first job was okay and I stayed there a year. And then when did you finally land to HEB? Oh, then I went to Safeway and then when we moved back to Austin, I, after we had our first child, I wanted to go part-time and at the time HEB offered a job share position. And so I left Safeway to go to HEB then, and that was in 1992.
([08:04]): Okay. And so you were, you were at HEB for 30 years, more or less? No, no, no. I was there until we moved to San Antonio in 97. Okay. And then I went to a mail order company for I think that was eight years. And then I went to a small chain pharmacy in Laverna for about five years. Then I went back to you went and you went back to HEB. What made you go back to HEB? I wasn’t really happy with the place I was working at the time. Yeah. And they were building a new HEB in Laverna and so my idea was, well, maybe I would work there because until that time I was only pharmacist in town, so I had a good clientele and yeah. Anyway, so I talked to the pharmacist who was a manager in Floresville and she said, no, they already have, she was moving to Laverna. And she said, I already have a partner there, but they need somebody to take my place. And I thought, okay, cuz we live kind of in between Floresville and Laverna so that’s, that’s what I did.
([09:06]): And so now obviously it’s, there’s more than one pharmacist in that community. Right, right. Gosh, it’s grown so much that whole air. It has. It really has. And do y’all still live out there? No. Yeah. Where do you live at now? We live near here kind of in the north central San Antonio. Yeah. So you went back to HEB and I mean, HEB has a good reputation. So you knew what they were gonna pay. You knew the benefits, you knew the healthcare is important obviously. And so you jumped all in, was it different than your first go around at HEB? Oh yeah. You know, completely new computer software. I mean, the way they used to set them up were in like these modular pharmacies and they tried to perfect the way they lay out pharmacies. They still have a ways to go on that, but yeah, but they do the best they can, but the pharmacies have grown so much, especially the past couple of years that it’s, you know, it’s always changing.
([10:04]): So kind of a tangent question, do people in the stores, do they mistreat pharmacists? Do they take ’em for granted? What do you see customers? The customers. Yeah. Cause I mean, y’all, I mean, I’ve known you and I know how exhausting it is and I’ve had other friends and clients that have been pharmacists and it’s exhausting job. And I’m just wondering if, if the consumer kind of takes the pharmacist for granted pretty much. I know when I first started and then when I ended, it was like a completely different thing. I mean, used to everyone, respect do everyone, you know, they weren’t so impatient and, and a hurry and they were just kinder then. Did that contribute to you eventually wanting to transition out that kind of the sense of the change in the, the approach that people had towards pharmacists? Maybe a little. Yeah.
([10:55]): I noticed that there’s been a transition there. I kind of observe in the line and seems like there’s a little bit, not a, I wanna say entitlement, but I just see that I know how hard you guys work. I know the education you put in, I know the liability exposure and then all day on your feet. So all of this is what, what contributed to you finally saying, you know what it’s it’s time, I guess a turning point was COVID yeah, yeah. You know, it just got, the job was stressful anyway, long hours, you know, I mean, pretty much my whole career I’ve worked until nine or 10 o’clock at night and weekends and all that stuff. But then when COVID hit, there was so much more put on pharmacies with all the vaccines and just all general information that I just kind of felt like it was a good time to make my exit. Yeah. That’s what I’m hearing a lot now for those that are tuning in just now you’re listening to retire in Texas with Darryl ly, I’m the co-founder of PAC’s financial group. I wanna encourage you to grab our ebook retire in texas@pacsfinancialgroup.com. And so here we’re with Nancy Golden and we’re talking about her transition from the pharmacy side at HEB. And you retired officially, when was it? March 30th.
([12:09]): Yeah. March of last year. Yep. Yep. I just remember kind of pushing that day off a little bit. It felt like, but you did it. And so what’s life been like, well, let me get to life today, but I want to tease out a few other things there. What was the, so COVID obviously hit, but, and, and you decided, okay, it’s time. I physically feel it emotionally. It’s just a lot, but what was the scariest part about pulling the trigger? Not getting a paycheck every week, like I was used to, so yeah. Yeah. And then of course the insurance issue. Yeah. So let’s talk about those two things. How did you solve those problems? Just generally speaking? I mean, what, what do you think might have helped you kind of feel more comfortable? It’s kind of hard to say, you know, you, B’s a great company. And even though I couldn’t officially retire since I didn’t have enough hour, well years in with them, they still allowed me to keep my insurance until the end of the year,
([13:05]): Your health insurance. So that kind of helped with that gap. And then as we were talking to you about insurance over the years you had told was about a couple of different, like the me share and Severity ministries. And so then those were a lot more affordable. So we ended up plus my husband had an HSA account, which could kind of help buffer that if, if we had a really high deductible. Yeah. I think one of the things that we try to as much as possible is when somebody is, you know, they realize it’s time. Many people just kind of hang on until they can get Medicare at 65. And I, and we really try here at PACS to define health insurance solutions. So that way people can exit with dignity at the right time and still get coverage Medi share and some ministries or insurance alternatives that are more affordable. And there’s just a lot of different solutions. And then of course, a lot of people say the same thing, Nancy replacing the paycheck. So one of the solutions is, is just turning on some of the investments. So it feels like a paycheck that still takes some getting used to. Right,
([14:12]): Yeah. So then you make the transition and we work through overcoming some of those fears. How do we take investments and kind of transition that into a paycheck? How do we replace the health insurance, some of the big ones, and then you actually do it. Do you remember actually the day that you decided to retire? Well, I didn’t think it was gonna be as hard because my husband’s plan was to go ahead and work until the end of last year. And so we knew we had his income and we could easily live on that, but then he got a little jealous when I retired. And so two months later he retired and that’s when it got a little bit scary. That’s when it got real. So yeah, Tommy again, I love Tommy he’s, he’s just wonderful. I mean, I, I imagine that, you know, you go somewhere and, oh, I had Tommy, you know, life at the party, but he he was really supportive of you making this transition, right. Like all the way through or did he have some reservations?
([15:05]): I’m sure he had some reservations, but he didn’t really tell me about it. Yeah. But I could tell you because it’s, it’s a big step, but he was supportive. Yes. Yeah. And so it’s interesting. So he saw you pull the trigger and he said, I’m gonna do it too, right? Yeah. He couldn’t take it anymore. Yeah. And he had been with his company for 42 years, the same company, so, oh my gosh. He probably deserved retirement more than I did. So you could have retired anywhere, but you chose to, to retire in Texas and in San Antonio. So why San Antonio? Cause our kids are close. Yeah. Where are they living at now? One of ’em in converse and the other one’s in Laverna. Yeah. So those are just peripheral towns for those listing. Converse is a little bit more tucked into San Antonio feels really like San Antonio in a lot of ways, but they have their municipality and then Laverna is boy that’s, it’s just grown a lot and it’s really beautiful. Rolling Hills out there. Yeah. Grand babies, three, grand babies. So now that you’re retired, do you get a lot more grandbaby time?
([16:06]): Yes. And do you find that to be one of the benefits of retiring or what would you suggest to those listing? The, the biggest advantage of, of making that decision? Is it time with grand babies? Is it better naps? Is it happy hour is not at five. Is it two? I mean, what is it? I don’t know. What, what is it that you like the most? It’s pretty much everything. Just having free time, you know, since we’ve retired, we’ve had like two or three groups of people that we know come in and before it like, oh, well they can come in, but I won’t be able to see him cuz I would be working or he would be working. So it’s really nice. Now if somebody comes in town, most of the time we’re not working. Yeah. Like friends, friends from outta town that, yeah. So they are retired and they wanna see you. Yeah. That’s nice. Yeah. Of course grand babies. And then you’re still in demand. So you still work a little bit here and there a little bit. How do you manage that? Do you do it for fun? Do you do it to help out? Do you do to keep you sharp?
([16:58]): Well, I mean, it’s amazing when you don’t have to do something, how much better your attitude is. And so yeah, I do a lot of work with HEB at the call center, which is different than a store. Not nearly as stressful, but I have worked in some stores too. So it is nice to have that fall back on. I, I tease my husband and say, I, I work to buy stuff for his boat and to get my hair done. So That’s good. That’s, that’s a good thing because the reality is, is you know, there comes to a point where, what are you gonna do? You gonna die with a mattress full of money? Are you gonna enjoy it while you, and so I’m glad you’re doing that now. How do you kind of, if I could nudge this or, or tease this out a little bit, how would you advise your grand babies? You have three of ’em. So how would you advise them to make money decisions? You know, knowing the mistakes that you’ve made, you’ve alluded to and some of the good decisions you’ve made, what would you encourage them to do?
([17:55]): Well, this is hoping that they will listen to me. Right? Yeah. You know, we’ve started their college funds. So even though we’ve found out with one of our kids that they didn’t go traditionally in college, they went to another program and she’s a dental hygienist and probably doing a lot better than some people that have a bachelor’s and you know, I just hope they’ll come to us and, and I hope that they will listen to Dave Ramsey. Yeah. we actually bought the financial, what is It? Financial piece. Junior financial piece university. Yeah. We sent two of ’em to that, you know, when they were getting married as kind of a wedding gift. And so I hope that the grandkids, I hope they can see by the way we live and budget and things like that, you know, I was, you know, starting out. I remember anytime we went on a trip every night, we had go back to the motel and I would write down everything we spent, so we wouldn’t ever overspend. And so I hope that they will, they’ll pay attention that they’re all girls and I, you know, some people don’t think girls really handle the finances, but they do. And I hope that they’ll they’ll know that they can, you know, tribute just as much.
([19:11]): Yeah. And actually interesting. You say that I’ve got three girls too and a boy, but Vanguard did some great studies on this and women are better investors than men. And there’s some reasons behind that men have a little egos and you know, sometimes think that they can be slick in their investments and, and have an idea. I got an idea. Right. But yeah, women are underrated money managers. They really are. That’s starting to come out in research. So I’m sure they’ll do just fine. Hopefully. Yeah. And so some of the teaching, some of these principles to them and including the being frugal and writing things down and then observing that, even when you’re in retirement, you know, I had one delay. I asked that question too, and she’s retired. She said you know, I learned a lot from watching prices right. With my kids or I taught them a lot because she would just sit down and watch prices. Right. And when they had conversations about how much things cost, that became more of a, a teaching moment for her. So I’m sure there’ll be a lot of teachable for you in retirement. So now what are you thinking about the next five or 10 years in retirement? Are you thinking you’ll travel or is there anything particular that you want to do that’s on your bucket list so to speak?
([20:24]): Oh gosh. Well, I, I definitely wanna spend more time with family. I would like to get into some kind of volunteer work. I haven’t done that yet. Cuz I’m still of settling into this. We take our camper to the coast and the summer and go back and forth. And so I’ve been learning how to fish. Good. So just things like that. I’ve, I’ve gotten really involved with my exercise program, which has been a lot of fun and I’m getting to read more too, which is great. Well that sure. Beats standing up and working till 10 o’clock at, at night. Yeah. Congratulations to you and Tommy both. That’s really exciting. And this has been a, a real treat for me to, you know, when I sit down with you, I get pieces, but I have to always think about other stuff. Like if I’m sitting down with you, I gotta think about like the investments and all that stuff, but this is just, I get to hear kind of the summary of, of your experience. And so I didn’t know some of these things, so it’s really, really interesting to me. So thank you for being here today. This has been wonderful. I do have one more question. The most important question. Okay. What’s your favorite salsa?
([21:24]): That’s actually pretty easy. If you’ve been to Erol their, their salsa, have you done You, so here’s the problem I have with Eler salsa. Salsa. They don’t give me enough. Oh, all you have to do is ask. Okay. Cause I’m like, that’s just one scoop and I’m eating it. Right, right. Yeah. It’s delicious. It’s that? Roasted tomatoes. Salsa. It’s good stuff. I don’t blame you for picking that. Well, thank you again. And thank you for all who are listening. This is retired Texas with darl Alliance co-founder and CEO of PACS financial group visit PACS financial group.com. And remember you think different when you think long term,
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