On Retirement, Part One of Many

By the time you read this, I will have no more than 48 hours left in my full-time working life. I told the new owner that I was taking New Year’s Eve off; so, I functionally retire at 6 PM today.

The reason I said “48 hours” instead of “two working days” (about 16 hours) is also the reason I am happy to retire. I could do this job for another ten years if I wasn’t on call seven days a week.

I have been on call seven days a week, since 1992. It is wearing to have the pressure that any missed phone call or text could mean a loss of income. Maybe it is me and my work ethic, but even as an agent, I didn’t let calls and texts go by. Work has come first for decades. I can’t count how many Saturday night parties I ducked out of because I worked all day Saturday and had a 10+ hour Sunday coming up.

As a broker, the pressure increased because I was responsible to my clients, and to my agents. I can’t count how many times I have left a social event to answer a call or text. I can remember finishing workouts, going into the locker room and having a high-stress situation to handle. It happened so.many.times. Every time, people were mightily upset that I didn’t call them back for an hour.

I am unbearably happy to know that as of December 30, 2024 at 6 PM, I can let the phone ring. By the way, my office phone and email will come with me when I go. I will check them regularly, just not immediately.

What will happen to 4 Buyers Real Estate?

I sold the 4 Buyers Real Estate to Dave Twombly. He’s been working with me since 2011. His values and skills are consistent with mine. He’ll do fine. Our other agents, Pearl Emmons, Alex Lacroix, and Michaela Driscoll are continuing with Dave at the helm.

The job of Broker includes training and supporting the agents, so that they succeed with their clients. That’s answering the phone and texts when they come in for new business. That’s having ideas for agents when they experience bumps along the transaction road, anytime a bump appears. That’s keeping up with the weekly blog. That’s keeping track of office stuff like billing, licensing compliance, and some bookkeeping and file maintenance.

As I said, Dave will do fine.