I frequently joke about my wife telling me that I can retire 3 days after I'm dead - kinda like Weekend At Bernie's where Bernie is sitting in a lawn chair and the guys are spraying aerosol deodorant to kill the smell of Bernie decaying in the sun.

In reality, there will soon come a day when I'll have to retire. Not because I want to retire, but as many of you already know, the equipment tends to gain weight exponentially as we get beyond age 65. At 72 I still keep up a pretty good schedule, usually 4 to 5 days a week, but I no longer do doubles and the occasional triple - it's just too much loading and unloading. This, despite the fact that the gear load has been lightened by at least 70 percent over the past two decades.

Additionally, the crowds that many of us perform for are in the same age category. Yep, they're getting old, have health problems that preclude them from dancing the night away, some are on a fixed income and no longer have the finances to party every weekend, etc... Those audiences are slowly dying away, too.

In the past decade, at least a dozen fellow musician/entertainers I personally knew have passed away, often leaving their spouses and families with a mountain of debt. Only one of them had sufficient life insurance, and he was the same one that had a retirement plan. All the others did not.

The others pretty much considered the music business as a cash and carry deal, rarely claimed any job on their income taxes, didn't write checks for any purchases, didn't keep receipts, paid cash for just about everything and never took the time to document business related expenses. I was awestruck at many of the viewings when these individuals passed away when their spouses said "We didn't have any insurance, and John didn't have a retirement plan. I had to make a loan just to pay the funeral expenses." This, unfortunately, is not at all uncommon.

With the exception of Captain Russ, Don Mason, myself, and a few others, I wonder how many individuals on this forum have actually looked into the future and planned their eventual retirement? How many of you use programs such as Quick Books, Quicken, Turbo Tax, etc... to manage your music income and expenses? Have you ever thought about setting up a simple IRA, SEP, Roth IRA, or similar retirement plan? How much of your music income goes into retirement?

Just food for thought,

Gary

My wife and I often sit and talk about how lucky we are and how much we are enjoying life after "work". I retired from a regular job 15 years ao at age 58 - just got tired of all the corp BS and called it quits. My wife kept her job and will retire sometime this year after 35 years of service to her job. Looking back we didn't have financial planners, stock market experts to guide us, or bankers to overlook our finances. What we did have going for us was a very good set of parents who taught us how to live within our means and to become debt free as soon as possible. We bought our first brand new car this year after buying used cars for decades, we still live in the paid off house that we moved into in 1966. Our credit cards are paid off each month leaving no balances and when eating out we rarely, if ever, go to overpriced places. Our spending habits have always been if you can't pay for it - don't get it. Never in our lives have we felt like we haven't owned anything we wanted and for sure have always been able to have anything we needed. You see, this was the way we were both raised and in looking back we could not be more thankful and grateful.

Today we are able to live a very comfortable life, enjoy our time together, and do things we only dreamed about years ago. All this because we learned very early in our lives how to become, and stay, debt free and forget about how we would be able to pay for things we didn't need, and did not bring us any additional happiness.

I don't know what people do late in life who suddenly wake up and discover they have not put themselves in a position to enjoy their senior years. Today I have many things which keep me busy. I gig several times weekly - mainly to pay for the equipment I want - run my own Real Estate Company which pays for our several overseas trips a year - and basically just enjoy life. The best thing about all this is the fact whatever I do - I do it because I want to and not because it is required of me.

Gary is right on target though. In the world in which we live today you have to take care of yourself and not depend on anything or anyone else to do it for you.

Deane

Russ Lay earns no income from the music business. Instead, my company, CCI, bills clients for music, photography, design, video, printing, copy...everything we do.

I take minimum profit disbursements when needed, but leave funds in business accounts when appropriate, delaying taxes until funds are actually paid to me.

I retired from a large electrical manufacturing corporation. Social Security and retirement, without any "side" income leaves me very comfortable. The "side income" is where the toys come from.

I feel sorry for younger people who work for organizations that do not have a defined retirement plan, and for lots of my musician friends who simply didn't or couldn't sock enough away to be comfortable in later years. That's why making a significant contribution to the New Orleans Habit project for displaced musicians is so important to me.

And Gary could always get a reverse boat mortgage, or a canoe (LOL).

Think of the muscles he'd have after his next trip down south(LOL)!


Russ

Ahhhh...retirement. I have spent the last several months tidying up my finances and living situation....and, since April past, I have officially retired from Yamaha after nearly 35 years of service. Man, it feels GOOD! I bought a Tyros4 prior to ending my term, and now I play the music that I want to play, not necessarily what needs to be played.

Another pension due to start next year in mid-March, so I am pretty comfortable financially and have also decided to forgo any gigging situations for at least a year. Thankfully, my health is very good and the only thing that acts up lately is my "lazyitus", but now I have the time to bask in it.

I am enjoying lurking on the forum and peek in only once in a while...good to see the same old faces and a few new ones. I've been doing a lot of recording, mainly for my own pleasure.

Gary, I wish you the best on whatever decision you make...I know I made the right one and knew it almost right away.

Good luck, and happy retirement!

Ian

The Cape crusader is back! Welcome back, ba!

Guys I just turned 50 in April I am at the height of my playing but it hard to save I have 2 kids in high school and one in middle school and a Six year old so I am in the expensive
Time in my life , it take a day job and 20 plus gigs a mo to make it happen I do have a small pension from a company I worked for for 17 years that will help but my music performing is getting more and more popular some day I will be able to just do that I hope. But I must start to plan for the future. This is a topic that all of us need to think about. And now I am 50. I got prob 20 years to get it done so thanks for the reminder it good food for thought.

What many people do not realize is that taking just $10 a week from a paycheck (BEFORE you even get it if possible) and put into some kind of savings or IRA account will build into a nice amount over the course of some years and the $10 would not even be missed ...

I worked for one company for 40 years and they had a nice IRA account which of course I paid into but they matched at a minimum of 50% ... I also have a GUARANTEED pension which was fully funded by the company, and they pay 75% of my medical coverage ... My wife and I are extremely fortunate, but to paraphrase Branch Rickey "Good fortune is the residue of design" ... I did a really good job for 40 years and am now reaping the benefits ...

Rule #1 The sooner you start preparing the less you have to put away each month.

My playing career was based on what I loved doing and supporting my wife and four children. Most my playing was Friday to Sunday. I had four to five jobs each week and I was happy to put down my guitar Sunday evening; I had enough. By time Friday came I was pumped ready to go.

I realized early in life that the percentage of musician who earned a good living with good retirement were very few. Also most fulltime musicians played many jobs they hated to play – because of dollars. The reason I did not have that problem is because I always had a daytime job; teaching guitar, selling securities, and now tuning pianos. My jobs never brought in small dollars because I stayed in the catering field; wedding ect.

My philosophy: I did not have to play as many jobs as the fulltime musician and I did not have to make the money that some of the daytime workers earned. I did put in hours but the combined income was more than average. I lived in one of the finest areas in Long Island (New York) there always seemed to be enough money.

I am now playing one job a week and I thank God I am able to do it. I also thank God that he hasn’t sent me a second job. (smile)
I
can only talk like this because I am on the other side – I’ve lived it.

John C.

In my case, I began saving for retirement more than 20 years ago. Each week I put money into a special account earmarked just for retirement. At the end of the year, when it was tax time, I shifted that money into either mutual funds or an IRA, which helped offset my tax burden by a significant amount. And, as some of you old timers know, the amount you can contribute increases when you surpass a certain age. When a lot of folks don't know is that you can continue to contribute, even beyond age 70-1/2, which is when you are required to make minimum withdrawals. So, yes, I'm still salting it away. Carol's going to have one Hell of a good time when this old man kicks the bucket.

The secret to success with this is to make payment into the retirement account the same as if you were paying your telephone or electric bill. Pay that amount regularly as clockwork and you'll be absolutely amazed at how quickly those funds will grow. I'm hoping to get another three to five years of work out of this old body, but if for some unknown reason I had to quit tomorrow, I wouldn't have to change my lifestyle and sell the house or the boat. I guess instead of playing, though, I would just spend more time sailing. Hmmmmm! sounds like a good way to spend the rest of my life.

Cheers,

Gary

Thanks 124. I think possibly part of what Gary is talking about is having the "choice" to retire or to continue on making a living in a rapidly changing "live" music environment.

In my 50's, I felt like I'd never want to retire from gigging, because I enjoyed playing so much, and always got a "contact high" from it, but the changing work (playing) places, the Internet, and my own evolving personal preferences, contributed to my decision to at least step back a bit and re-evaluate my situation...and, I am very lucky to have been in the position to do so. I had a CHOICE!

I still love playing, and I still spend several hours at my Tyros4 every day (making styles and doing some recording), but it is so nice to be able to choose to step away from gigging and clinician work and "smell the roses".

I have several full time musician friends, around my age of 64, who are getting weary of trying to find good paying jobs amid more forms of stage competition, and who are becoming less capable of dealing with the set-up/break-down (plus transportation of) of keyboard (and amplification) gear due to the slow, but inevitable, change in their physical make-up.

Some of them, unfortunately, have no retirement plans.

So, perhaps the operative word in this thread is choice.

I've gotten away from most keyboard forum participation due to other music, and non-music, related interests, and I don't plan on posting very much, but I must admit, I do benefit from the occasionally useful (to me) shared info, and sometimes enjoy a chuckle at some of the more petty tussles (maybe "discussions" is a better word ) between the usual suspects.

So, I will peek in occasionally and try to remain up to date with anything new in, or around, the Arranger field.

Again, it is good to see the "old-timers" still active, and also heartening to see some new posters. It is, however, disappointing to see several long term, and very valuable, members no longer participating.

Now, back to enjoying the incredible spell of 30 C summer weather here on Cape Breton Island...thankfully, I don't have to move gear in this heat!

Best wishes to you and all,

Ian