Retired at 56: This Made It Possible

What would your life look like if you had no debt? No car payment, no credit card balance, and eventually no mortgage?

My wife and I paid off our final debt in 2014. Looking back, becoming debt free was one of the decisions that ultimately helped make it possible for us to retire early at 56 and 57. It wasn’t just about saving interest—it lowered the amount of money we needed each month and gave us more freedom to make choices about our future.

In this video, I share our experience, talk about finding your WHY, and compare the debt strategies taught by Dave Ramsey and The Money Guy. I don’t believe there’s one perfect formula for everyone. Personal finance is personal—but having a plan and taking action can change what’s possible.

That’s plenty.

There’s also a strategic benefit I particularly like for you: your website becomes a library of davidnprogress, rather than another platform you have to constantly feed. Someone discovers one video through Google or YouTube, lands on your site, and can easily explore related videos on financial independence, early retirement, and living well after work.

I’d even organize the site around your three channel pillars: Achieving Financial Independence • Retiring Early • Living Your Best Life Now. That creates a very clean connection between the YouTube channel, podcast, and website.

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Not your investment portfolio.

Not your spending.

Not your retirement account.

Your life.

Every year, most of us spend time checking our finances. We look at our net worth, investment performance, and budget. Those things are important—but over the past year I’ve come to believe they’re only part of the picture.

I call the other part Net Life.

Net Worth is the sum of the dollars you’ve accumulated. Net Life is the richness of your lived experiences.

Whether you’re retired, approaching retirement, or still working toward financial independence, it’s easy to become so focused on building wealth that we forget to ask an equally important question:

Am I building the life I really want to live?

That’s why my wife and I set aside time each year to complete a Net Life Review. We each fill out the worksheet separately and then come together to talk about our answers. Those conversations have been some of the most valuable parts of our retirement.

In my latest YouTube video, I walk through the entire review with you. Think of it as a workshop rather than just another video. I’ll explain each section, share some of my own reflections, and encourage you to complete the review alongside me.

I’ve also made the Net Life Review Worksheet available as a free download so you can use it yourself.

If you’re married or have a partner, I highly recommend completing the worksheet separately before discussing it together. You may be surprised by what you learn—not just about yourself, but about each other.

Retirement isn’t just about growing your net worth.

It’s also about growing your Net Life.

👉 Watch the video here: https://youtu.be/8uQIReTu58A

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I hope this encourages you to pause, reflect, and intentionally build a life that’s as rich in experiences as it is in financial security. As I like to say:

Keep growing your Net Worth… but don’t forget to grow your Net Life.

I keep intending to write here as a blog in addition to my regular YouTube videos, but I have been unable to get on track for whatever reason. Here we go with a new goal to consistently add to this site.

What better place to start than to reflect upon my recent quintuple heart bypass surgery?

The heart issue came as quite a surprise. Yes, I was on blood pressure and cholesterol medication. The surprise came during my regularly scheduled annual health exam in May 2024. Honestly, I had a bit of a bad feeling going into the appointment, and I expressed this to the doctor when he arrived in the room.

Why?

I last visited this doctor in May of 2023, and my May-to-May journey was challenging. That Dr appointment led to a test that, in turn, became a cancer scare that lasted for several months.

Later, in September, I learned that my HR job at T-Mobile had been eliminated, and my termination from the company became official on December 4th.

I was excited about the layoff. It had always been my desire to leave due to position elimination. That is the best way to go, as you do so with a nice severance package to help with the transition. I was set to receive a nice package due to my 27 years with the organization.

Furthermore, ending full-time work in 2024 fell right into my long-time dream of having that be my year when work would be optional. It seemed like everything was going to plan. 

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face” –Mike Tyson

What a great quote! It was a punch in the face to learn about my heart condition and then have to go through quintuple heart surgery. 

Two months have passed since the procedure, and my health journey has only begun. I am thankful it was discovered and grateful for all the years of financial planning that relieved the stress of being without work and with a giant medical crisis. 

The lesson. One I knew already but got a big reminder. 

We never know where life is going to take us. Live every day, knowing your time on this earth is limited. How you spend this time is entirely your own choice. 

David

Being Financially Independent gives you travel freedom

Our Utah trip was amazing as we visited three National Parks, two National Monuments, and one state park.

I had heard of Goblin Valley State Park and watched several videos about it. Like most things, you only understand once you are there. It was like we were visiting another planet with the hoodoos, the red dirt, and all the surrounding views.

The weather was a little crazy, with high winds and cold temperatures, and this just seemed to add to the sense of adventure. We spent a lot of time there walking around and exploring. You could spend several hours here if you wanted to.

I hope you take time to watch the video and enjoy!

I love to write. This issue for all these years is that I am unfortunately not very good at it. Take my ADD, throw in a bit of dyslexia and the result is a post full of typos and grammar errors.

It seems that I could spend hours writing and reviewing a post, but as soon as I hit publish–bam! Where did all the errors come from?

I eventually became so frustrated with my writing skills that I just plain gave up and moved on to making videos instead. Goodness, here comes another way for me to feel bad: now, not only do I have to worry about my grammar, but I also get to see how I look and sound.

Ugh

Of course, I could use AI and robots to write posts based on my suggestions, but that does not feel right. The words are okay, but the context and the feeling are not true to me.

I have used the free Grammarly tool for many years but decided to switch to the premium paid version after being laid off in September 2023. The difference has been amazing, with the AI serving as a writing coach to me in real-time.

Now, as I write, the Grammarly coach is there with every paragraph, and I can feel my confidence growing. It has grown so much that I have decided to add regular blogging back to my life routine.

Thanks, Grammarly, for your excellent tool. The $ 12-a-month premium plan has been priceless in helping me regain confidence in my long-time passion for writing and storytelling.

If you would like to try Grammarly and help me earn a discount, here is a link to learn more! https://www.grammarly.com/referrals/redeem?key=k6f3gjvfm7lsnwzs

For years, 59 1/2 was my target retirement year. Why? Well, it is common knowledge that we get access to our 401Ks starting then. Before 59 1/2, there was a significant tax penalty for withdrawals.

Yes and come to find out, no.

The penalty is there and does apply. However, as with many things in life, there is a loophole for those who know how to apply it correctly.

I learned about this option in 2017 when I first stumbled upon the FIRE (Financially, Independent, Retire, Early) movement. This was thanks to the ChooseFI podcast.

Amazing! Starting the year you turn 55, if you get laid off, fired, or leave your company for any reason, you can access and withdraw from your company-sponsored 401K plan with no early withdrawal penalty.

Amazing!

Learning this completely changed my mindset about when we could retire comfortably. It also changed our savings strategy since it compacted the timeframe for reaching a savings level that could sustain us until we reach Social Security and Medicare.

It just as importantly made the work optional date even closer. We were already on a coastFI trajectory and now I knew that starting the magic year of 55, our live choices would expand greatly.

During my tenure as an HR Business Partner, I helped lay off hundreds of employees and had many deep conversations with those impacted. I volunteered for every opportunity to help with the layoffs, as I felt it was important that the impacted employees and the managers making the difficult decision had a person helping who really cared.

I am not saying that my HR peers did not care. I think my experience with layoffs as a manager and an employee gave me a perspective that most in HR could not relate to.

In this video, I discuss Janet (not her real name) and my experience assisting her as she transitioned to retirement after her position was eliminated. It was evident in every conversation that she feared retirement. She had worked so many years that she could not picture life without a job. She also had done no planning for a life in retirement and lacked knowledge.

I loved my conversations with her and the help I could provide to direct her to resources. Most of all, I was glad to be there as a colleague and a work friend.

Don’t let retirement sneak up on you. Even a few small changes made now can make a big difference in your future.

Interestingly, as of the date I am writing, this video is one of my least watched although I consider it to be one of the most important messages.

In this video, I follow up on our early retirement plans. Yes, there is much that could go wrong when you retire early. Fear is the enemy.

At the same time, many things will go right, and that is what will make these coming years so exciting for us as a couple. I have a partner in all of this with my wife, and we are working on this as a team. We spent some time together and cast a vision for our life in early retirement.

LinkedIn has a lot of activity from people who have lost their jobs through layoffs. It seems like most of the posts start today: “I sad to announce that after _________ years with _______ company I have learned that my job has been eliminated. “This means new opportunities if you know of anyone who may be hiring.

Getting laid off is a challenging experience for any person. It is especially hard for the high performer who was all on for the job. This person drank the culture cool-aid, wore the shirt, cheered at the meetings, and sacrificed much to give their best. Now, in just a moment, it is all gone.

Many companies immediately shut off company access for the employees, asking them to clear personal things out and leave.

Add insult to injury.

No, you did nothing wrong. No, you are not a bad person or a low performer. The business changed, funding was removed, or some other vague economic factor has resulted in eliminating a budget line item. You.

Knowing these facts does not make it any easier to take. You are a human with feelings and a performer with a commitment to the cause.

I was especially stricken by a post from a person a couple of weeks ago. Her post was so powerful that I could not stop thinking about it. I wish I could speak to her in person to let her know everything will be okay. Performers win and perform no matter where they work.