This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Rich Colorado, 87, who retired on his 65th birthday. Colorado said he never touched stocks and never planned for his retirement, yet he remained frugal and now has over $1.3 million. Colorado still bowls three times a week and teaches chess in his California city. His words have been edited for length and clarity.
I never invested in stocks. I’ve been putting my money in CDs, probably at 4-5%. It just keeps growing without even trying. It’s just amazing that I have so much because I didn’t plan for it. I have about $750,000 in cash, and my home is worth $600,000.
I’m from El Salvador and moved in 1946. My first long-term job was working in a bowling alley in 1958. I didn’t go to college. For 17 years, I worked in the bowling industry. Then one day, I went to work, and the bowling alley was padlocked for failing to pay taxes, so I had to give up the job.
I raised four sons with my wife, who worked for 41 years for Santa Rosa City Schools.
My next job of 27 years was as a scale technician, which I trained myself to do because I knew mechanics and I was analytical. I had walked into the office and said that I wanted to take a job. They called me and said to come on down to work for two weeks. And they kept me.
I started working as a Kitchenaid repairman, and then I progressed to working on machines at the supermarket. I ended up as a scale technician and took classes on how to do things electronically on the scales.
I retired in 2002. My boss called me into the office the day before I turned 65. He told me my job had gone away because the scales don’t break down much anymore. I went home, typed up a retirement letter, and turned it in the next day.
A few years later, one of the employees asked if I could come back and work one or two days a week in the mornings. I said that if they didn’t need me then, they don’t need me now — I wasn’t going to quit everything I was doing.
Staying busy in retirement
I’ve been bowling my whole life, and I bowl three times a week on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I’m slim, and I played soccer and taught it for 27 years. I have a national license from the United States Soccer Federation. I’m healthy because I don’t smoke or drink.
My friends are all old, and I’m almost the oldest one there. There’s one woman who is 96. When I retired and I walked in at 65, I looked at all these people and said, “Wow, look at all these old people.” Now, they’re all gone, and I’m the old one there.
I still teach chess and started playing in 1952. I taught chess at the city schools in Santa Rosa. I wanted to do it for free, but the schools insisted on paying me. My four boys all know how to play chess. I still teach children at the library every Wednesday.
I also took free classes at the junior college for retired seniors, such as HTML, and I took guitar lessons. I’m taking a few classes right now. I’m in a writing class, a movie class, and I took a piano class before I tripped and couldn’t play anymore.
While I was first taking classes, my wife kept working. We didn’t travel much, other than visiting San Diego. We never went abroad. My wife got dementia, and she stayed here in the house and died here. I was there when she took her last breath. I miss my wife. Once in a while, I look over on the couch, but she’s not there.
I bought this home in 1969 for $18,200, and I’ve been here since then. In my neighborhood, there are about 200 houses, and there are only one or two people left from when I bought it in 1969. I want to die here. People don’t plan to die, but I’ve got no choice — I’m getting closer.
Managing retirement finances
They always say that you need all this money to retire. I didn’t plan for retirement. It just happened, and I can’t tell anybody exactly how to do it. I was frugal, and so was my wife. I didn’t pay for my sons to go to college. They took care of themselves. I tried to pay for one of them, and he said, “I made more than you’ve ever seen. Go spend your money on vacations.”
They do have more money than I had when they were growing up. We used to use food stamps to feed ourselves. When we bought this house, my wife said, “We have four kids. We can’t go around renting.” She wanted me to get a better job elsewhere and send money back every month. I wouldn’t do that, and I was willing to pick grapes nearby if I needed to.
We bought her last car in 2003, and she kept that car until she passed away, which only had 70,000 miles on it. I gave that to one of my granddaughters. My car that I had after I retired I bought in cash. It was a 2003 Scion. Somebody ran into me who got a DUI, and I bought another Scion, which I still have. It has 60,000 miles on it.
I didn’t even know I had an IRA at the company. I didn’t know I had a 401(k), but as soon as I did, I put 15% into it. They gave me a small IRA when I retired, and I left it in the bank. In 2008, when stocks were going down, I lost $15,000. I took my money, walked over to another bank that was just opening up, and they gave me 5% for putting my money in there. I left it there during the recession.
The banks call every few months about new CDs, and I tell them, “That’s a lot of work. Just keep it in as long as it’s over 5%.” I also give to a couple of charities, and now I’ve got so many new charities asking me for money and have to tell some to take me off the list.
I now have a trust and will distribute my money to my grandchildren when I die. I’m going to do that for all seven of them. My next project that started this month is to rewrite my trust so that the distribution will be easier for people and nobody has to fight. I know that I can give $150,000 each to my children. Somebody in the family will have to live in my home because the taxes are only $600 a year.
I don’t really know how to spend my money. Nobody tells me what to do with it. People say you need to have this much money to cover your retirement, but I have enough money, and I don’t even touch it. I’m now giving my grandchildren $5,000 each.
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