FREE NEWSLETTER
ONE RECENT TREND among newly minted retirees: unretirement. According to an AARP study, some 3% of retirees are back in the workforce one year later, taking on either fulltime or part-time jobs. Often, unretiring wasn’t part of the retiree’s original plan—but we shouldn’t assume it’s necessarily about needing money.
Starbucks’s Howard Schultz, quarterback Tom Brady and Disney’s Bob Iger are poster children for unretiring. Even our HumbleDollar world includes many examples of those who have reinvented, retooled or rebooted their life so they could rejoin the working world. In 2022, after five years of retirement, my wife and I returned to work.
We spent our first three retirement years dealing with a host of transitions and challenges facing our kids, our aging parents and ourselves. We were finally ready to get going with our retirement plans when the pandemic hit in 2020.
Fast forward to 2021, and both children indicated they’d be working and living in New Hampshire by mid-2022. We had thoroughly enjoyed the state’s outdoor vibe during past vacations. New Hampshire is also a zero-income-tax state, which is especially beneficial while we undertake large Roth conversions before our required minimum distributions kick in.
But how might New Hampshire fit into our retirement life? As a test drive, we rented a cabin on Lake Winnipesaukee for two weeks in June 2021. Our family joined us there, and everyone agreed that they adored lake life and wanted more.
We’d already started house shopping. But for the most part, we couldn’t afford lakefront properties, plus many lake houses are basically glorified hunting cabins. The locals call these rustic places “camps.” Common challenges include well water, septic tank issues, slipshod construction, limited heating, no cooling, century-old wiring, dangerously steep terrain and bunk-house configurations. Locations can be remote—down unpaved roads or on desolate islands. Many only serve as six-month residences.
We kept hitting roadblocks—until October 2021, when a different kind of lakefront property came on the market. This property had three cottages, one occupied by the owner and the other two available for rent. Two of the cottages were freshly rehabbed. The location was ideal for the highway and stores.
The lot was level, and the property featured two docks, a boat ramp, and even came with kayaks and paddleboards. In addition, the cottages were furnished down to the linens, dish soap and paper towels.
Of course, there was just one catch: price.
We pounced anyway. Instead of buying a forever house, we exited retirement and embarked on managing a year-round VRBO-Airbnb operation. Never did we foresee a retirement of cleaning houses, making beds and doing laundry for up to 16 guests a week. Our duties include restocking toiletries and firewood, repairing what breaks and occasionally rescuing our tenants on the water.
This operation might seem daunting for older owners. But we have housekeeping, landscaping and occasional handyman help. Cleanliness is the key to positive rental feedback, so tidy turnovers are our most critical focus.
The new property is working for our family. Our just-graduated son lives with us, and our daughter and her husband visit regularly. Our family enjoys lake life activities, which include fishing, wakeboarding, foiling, kayaking, skiing and hiking through stunning natural terrain.
How is unretirement going for us? In a word, fantastic. Here are six benefits to our unretirement, most of which are common to small business owners:
Our unretirement has provided a renewed and refreshing sense of purpose. We aim to provide a positive experience for our renters and to develop the business for our children—one that, we hope, they’ll eventually take over.
John Yeigh is an author, coach and youth sports advocate. His book “Win the Youth Sports Game” was published in 2021. John retired in 2017 from the oil industry, where he negotiated financial details for multi-billion-dollar international projects. Check out his earlier articles.
Want to receive our weekly newsletter? Sign up now. How about our daily alert about the site's latest posts? Join the list.
Could you post a link to the AirBNB page for the property. I’m interested in possibly booking a date.
Rick – Our lake-life cottages are nearly booked out until September. Here are the VRBO links to the two cottages, Anyone can check if the size, dates (check availability) and costs work. The rougher cottage is not listed on Airbnb. My contact details are available on LinkedIn, and Karen’s can be contacted through VRBO\Airbnb.
https://www.vrbo.com/2634483?adultsCount=4&noDates=true&petIncluded=true&unitId=3205082
https://www.vrbo.com/2657912?adultsCount=4&noDates=true&petIncluded=true&unitId=3228573
Best of luck. Sounds like a major undertaking. May I ask what age your unretirement took place.
Dick, Anytime a family undertakes a major move to another state or country, there is quite some undertaking just to sort and move the stuff plus change addresses and licenses and insurance. We certainly had a very busy first year getting set up with the rentals, and extended what the prior owners had started.
Lots of stuff is increasingly on autopilot – the cottages physically, securing water toys for us, VRBO\Airbnb setup, paid housekeeping and landscaping help, accounting, etc. This leaves more time for renter engagement or just doing normal daily retirement activities such as hiking, kayaking, paddleboarding, walking our dog, exercising, etc.
We were 66.
You’re doing the right thing .I have several friends who moved to New Hampshire from the Boston area. All are working at least part time because they say there is less to do in NH.
Paula – your NH friends need to get further connected. I didn’t respond earlier today because I was peakbagging on the Appalachian Trial with our local hiking group. My wife volunteers with two theater groups. We have a full array of water activities available at our house and a ski resort 14 minutes from our house.
There are lots of activities and groups especially for those who are outdoors oriented. There are also lots of music and festival venues, but so far we have only attended a few. On the other hand, there is not a Starbucks and bagel shop at every corner. The best part of NH is that the people are so friendly and nice.
“New Hampshire is also a zero-income-tax state, which is especially beneficial while we undertake large Roth conversions before our required minimum distributions kick in.” We did a lot of Roth conversion. Unfortunately we converted after our RMD kicked in. Consequently we paid high income taxes close to the full rate of 37%. The only saving grace was that Florida like New Hampshire has no state income tax.
Good luck! I hope it works out for you.
I loved this post. What a great example of just following where life leads you and taking advantage of the unexpected opportunities it presents. Congrats, John.
Mike, indeed we are taking somewhat of a flyer, but so far it has turned out far better than we ever anticipated. The social aspect has been the surprising huge positive as we meet new and interesting people nearly every week.
John, are you now planning your re-retirement article?
Edmund – you are correct that re-retirement must eventually return. 🙂
So far, we have always been around for the tenants because my wife especially enjoys the engagement. For example, a group of pre-teen children drew an artistic “Thank You” including the lake, mountains, boats and fish in chalk across our whole driveway as their good-bye message to us.
We have enough paid help that we already are not anchored here for changeovers, but we choose to be around just to help the renters get settled in and to answer any of the many questions. In sum, we enjoy NH summertime living as the locale, weather and renters are fantastic.
The fact that this gig is not full speed, year round, is pretty cool. You have time to decompress, plan for next year, and maybe head south for a little sunshine. All the best.
Patrick – Exactly – We each work perhaps halftime (15-20 hours/week) for the 15 weeks of the summer season. In addition, we work one solid, full time week each in the spring and fall to set-up for and sort-out from the season.