Real Life Cases of Money Isn’t Everything

August 26, 2011

Over the last month, I’ve had the opportunity to meet a lot of people who are contemplating retirement right now.  And I’ve noticed a common theme.  More people, than might be expected, really like their job and the people they work with, and they have a difficult time wrestling with the emotions of making the retirement decision.  A little background to this story might help.

I spend a lot of time working with the employees of one particular company, and they are offering more than 8,000 people an early retirement incentive package.  And, it looks like a very generous package to someone who isn’t being offered the package.  To get paid to NOT come in to the office…come on…who doesn’t dream of THAT once in a while?  While the package appears to be attractive, I have met a number of people who have been offered the package who are considering turning it down.

First, those who give a quick “YES, I’ll take it!!!” response to the offer, probably had been planning to retire in the next several years before the incentive package was offered.  In fact, I had many people tell me exactly that.  For them, it’s a no-brainer.  They had already made the decision (in their hearts, if not with their manager) to retire and had begun to process the reality of shutting down their computer, turning off the office lights, and walking out of their office for the last time.  This group had time to mentally process the retirement decision and can accept the offer quickly and not look back.  But, let’s look a bit more closely at the people who plan to turn down the offer.

Why?  For some, the numbers just don’t add up.  Why walk away from a long career with an excellent employer for a few months worth of pay?  Especially if you have a big mortgage, kids in college, and not enough money saved for retirement.  That makes sense. Totally.  That group has an easy decision.  “While this is a generous severance package, it’s the wrong time in my life to consider it.”  Is the answer at which they have rightly arrived.

Other people though, have significant resources (enough to retire) but are planning to say no to this offer.  We walked through the numbers, and they had no doubts about their ability to live their current lifestyle in retirement.  They had even factored in large potential medical costs.  These people clearly had the means to retire, yet they were turning down an offer of “free money.”  What were they thinking?  I just had to know!  Here’s the answer, and I heard it in dozens of subtly different ways, that was surprisingly common:  “Money isn’t the biggest factor at play here.”  Huh?  If retirement is a numbers driven decision, and the numbers work, why on Earth would anyone not accept an offer to stay home for a few months while getting paid?

Here’s who:  People who like their job, their employer, their coworkers.  We’re so often led to believe that money is the deciding factor in so many decisions, that we sometimes forget that there is a strong social and emotional component to one’s work.  I know in my work life (I shouldn’t admit this to the people I work with…), I really enjoy our quarterly company meetings because we get to reconnect with each other.  I really like everyone I work with; we have an awesome team.

Recently, Erik (read his Thursday blogs!) asked a hypothetical question.  “If you won a $100 Million lottery, would you quit your job?”  My answer was no because I have fun at work and I enjoy what I do.  Now, I might ask to have some of my time restructured, but I wouldn’t quit.  The same kind of thing was going on with the employees I met.  Their coworkers were also their friends.  They believe in the company they work for.  Their work is not only what pays the bills, but there’s personal satisfaction in what they do and the ability to share ideas and collaborate with coworkers provides an enormous amount of gratification and challenge.  And to quote one person I met, “It beats the heck out of sipping lemonade on my porch, reading a book, and waiting to die.”  Having some structure to their day, having friends on their team with a common mission and genuine caring and concern for one another, having a belief that the company you work for is a good one, and feeling good about your work because you’re pretty darn good at it, are all major factors in the retirement decision.  None of those factors involve money.

Like those who didn’t have the resources to retire today, and had to say “right package, wrong time,” there are many who have the resources to retire now and are saying “thanks a lot for the offer, but I prefer the satisfaction of working,” and are declining the retirement package.  They enjoy coming to work.  For them, the old saying, “Money isn’t everything,” is an absolute truth.