Can I Take My Pension and Run?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Jill on Money with Jill Schlesinger

Episode: Can I Take My Pension and Run?

Date: June 16, 2026
Host: Jill Schlesinger (with producer/sidekick Mark)
Listener Guest: Ann

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on a listener, Ann, who is contemplating early retirement from her healthcare career at age 55. She seeks Jill's advice about whether she’s financially ready to take her pension "and run"—i.e., retire now rather than wait a year or longer. The discussion explores Ann’s finances, pension, social security, lifestyle, and long-term planning, offering actionable insights applicable to anyone considering early retirement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Listener Situation & Retirement Readiness

• Ann’s Profile:

  • Age 55, married to a retired 64-year-old husband
  • Husband receives Social Security ($24,000/year)
  • Ann earns $110,000/year working in healthcare, considering retiring next summer or sooner

• Monthly Spending:

  • $5,000 for general expenses
  • Anticipated $1,000 more if retired (for healthcare)
  • Total need: $6,000/month

• Pension Options:

  • If retired now: $2,675/month
  • If waiting a year: ~$2,825/month
  • Jill's stance: "Let's do it on today. Let's see if we can do it today. And then you can always, you can always work longer. Today's better, right?" (Jill, 06:45)

2. Financial Details and Assets

• Retirement Accounts:

  • Husband's 401(k): $120,000 (all traditional)
  • Ann’s 403(b): $610,000
  • Ann’s 401(a): $330,000 (including $54,000 in Roth)
  • HSA: Funded to the max for the year
  • Cash Savings: $20,000

• Properties:

  • Primary home: $450,000 (paid off)
  • Cabin in MN: $175,000 (potentially for sale soon)
  • Lake property: $160,000 (mortgage, $107,000 at 3%)
  • No rental income

• Children:

  • Grown and financially independent: "Grown, launched, gone." (Ann, 09:46)

3. Retirement Strategy Recommendations

• Jill expresses strong confidence Ann can retire immediately:

  • “You’re going to retire. Give your notice right now.” (Jill, 07:39)
  • “You have your pension, his Social Security, and then we’re going to basically turn the faucet on of his retirement... Have that money coming in now, you’re paying yourself.” (Jill, 11:03)
  • Suggests withdrawing from the husband’s 401(k) early to balance income, accelerate depletion, and manage taxes before Ann hits 59½.

• On selling property:

  • No pressure to sell, but the cabin is “another pot of 175 grand that could come to you at some point.” (Mark, 09:25)
  • If the sale happens, start a brokerage account for flexibility and “fun money.”

• On emotional readiness:

  • Ann shares difficulty leaving after 31 years in healthcare.
  • Jill’s response: “You've done an incredible job…Go for it. Go for it. And then let us know what happens.” (Jill, 13:44)

• Healthcare/Legal Reminders:

  • Update estate documents, healthcare proxy, power of attorney, wills—especially with property involved.
  • “Have that healthcare proxy updated. Have that durable power of attorney. Have the will done...Get that stuff updated.” (Mark, 14:42)

4. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On readiness to retire:

  • Jill: “You, you, you should give your notice right now. Let conference us at night with your boss. I’ll do it for you.” (11:03)
  • Ann (amazed): “Oh, my God, you’re kidding.” (11:03)
  • Mark: “I love this. It’s like, I see, Mark, I’m a dream maker today, not a dream crusher.” (15:12)

• On emotional transition:

  • Ann: "I have worked at the same place for 31 years. I'm in healthcare. I have quite a network of people. But I do see daily how quickly things can go south. And we're young enough, we can move around. We want to see stuff. And I think it's hard to think about waiting if I'm in a position that we don't have to." (13:23)

• On spending and lifestyle:

  • Ann: “25% of my monthly budget is that third property up north.” (13:11)
  • Mark: “My work has been completed.” (on grown kids, 09:49)

5. Timestamps of Important Segments

• [04:36] – Ann introduces her retirement question
• [05:46] – Discussion of monthly spending and healthcare costs
• [06:11] – Pension figures and considerations for timing
• [07:07] – Breakdown of retirement accounts and asset allocation
• [08:02] – Real estate holdings and mortgages
• [09:08] – Family status: grown, independent kids
• [10:32] – Strategy on Social Security and 401(k) withdrawals
• [11:03] – Jill enthusiastically urges early retirement, with Mark’s agreement
• [13:23] – Ann discusses her emotional ties to work and readiness to move on
• [14:42] – Legal reminders about estate planning and property
• [15:12] – Jill and Mark celebrate making dreams happen

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Know your numbers: Retirement decisions hinge on honest budgeting and a full accounting of assets.
• Withdraw strategically: Utilize a mix of pension, Social Security, and retirement accounts to smooth out income and taxes.
• Emotional readiness matters: Don’t overlook the psychological side of retirement, especially after long, meaningful careers.
• Legal documentation: Timely updates to estate plans are essential, especially with multiple properties.
• You can retire early: With solid preparation, pursuing early retirement is feasible—and can open life’s next adventures.

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Closing Note

Jill finishes with her signature encouragement to listeners wrestling with retirement timing:
“Try to do something nice for someone else today. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life.” (15:38)

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This summary skips ad reads and promotional segments, focusing solely on the substantive retirement planning discussion between Jill, Mark, and Ann.

Transcript

[Jill]

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[Mark]

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[Mark]

welcome to the welcome Back to Jill on Money Show. It's Tuesday, June 16th and we are here answering your financial questions. If you've got one, all you need to do is go to our website jillonmoney.com jillonmoney.com and when you're there, in the upper right hand corner there is a contact us button. Click that button, a form will pop up. That is the email that we receive. And just, you know, if you're going to write us an email, give us a lot of facts. You know, the one thing we always see that people tend to gloss over is how much do you spend? Which is one of the big variables that we just cannot quite figure out without your help. So, you know, ask your question. That's fine if you want to ask a question about something going on, if you want to ask it about something going on in the economy. But if it's mostly your own personal situation, just give us the stuff that you hear us ask about all the time. Now if you want to avoid all of that, all you need to do is check the box. Mark will do everything else. He'll figure out a way to schedule you, bring you on the program with us. And I love that because it's most fun because I get to ask lots of follow up questions and I'm so nosy. While you are on the website, I am pointing out again, we are a day before our next webinar. And this webinar is going to be incredible. It's with Heather Schreiber. She's an expert on Social Security. And that will take place tomorrow evening, 7:00pm Eastern Time. And we are going to be just inundated with wild amounts of Social Security questions. Heather is great. You must be a member of Jill on Money Live to participate.

[Jill]

Live.

[Mark]

That'll cost you 45 bucks for the next 12 months. You know, chances are it'll be a Heather one, maybe there'll be an Ed slot one, maybe there'll be a couple other interesting ones. We also have a back catalog of all the webinars we've done. We've got bonus audio and video content, 45 bucks for the next 12 months. And if you say that's just too much, I can't afford it. No sweat. You can purchase the single webinar about Social Security for 15 bucks. You can do that all on our website. Okay, enough with that. Let us get to the matter at hand. We've got listener Ann, who joins us from the Midwest. Hello, Ann, how are you?

[Ann]

Hi, Jill. Hi, Mark. I am great. Thank you so much for taking my call.

[Mark]

Of course. What's going on? How can we help you out?

[Ann]

Well, I am hoping to potentially retire next summer and I'm trying to figure out if I am in good shape to do so or if I choose to go sooner than that or maybe even a little bit later than that.

[Mark]

Okay, that sounds good. Let's talk about what's going on for you, Ann. How old are you?

[Ann]

I am 55.

[Mark]

Are you single, married? Partnered married. And spouse is how old?

[Ann]

64.

[Mark]

Retired or still working?

[Ann]

He's retired.

[Mark]

Okay. And is he receiving Social Security or a pension?

[Ann]

He is receiving his Social Security.

[Mark]

Okay, how much is that, Ann?

[Ann]

24,000 a year.

[Mark]

Okay, got it. How much are you earning right now?

[Ann]

I am on track for 110.

[Mark]

Uh huh. Great. And how, you know, we'll get to all your savings, but if you were to be able to pull the trigger right now, what would you need to produce income wise? What are you guys spending? What do you need?

[Ann]

We spend $5,000 a month. I've been told that I will need to add in another thousand dollars a month for healthcare, for myself.

[Mark]

Yeah, got it. Okay, so we'll say six. That sounds good.

[Ann]

Yeah.

[Mark]

And if you were to retire this second, because it sounded to me as you were telling your story that you were maybe hoping that could be the sooner, not the later part of it, would you be entitled to any pension?

[Ann]

I am.

[Mark]

Oh, okay. So now let's pretend you did it right now what would your pension be?

[Ann]

We're gonna say 2675amonth.

[Mark]

2675amonth. And if you waited a year, is there any magic to that extra year? When you said I want to because you started by saying next year. But then I heard like, no, now

[Ann]

it's not going to be significant. I mean it's about 150amonth if you work the full year. So I calculated next year it would be about 28, 25. If I work till the end of this year, it's 2750.

[Mark]

Let's just do it on today. Let's see if we can do it today. And then you can always, you can always work longer. Today's better, right?

[Ann]

True, true.

[Mark]

Okay, so that's end of year. I mean unless you feel like you have to give notice and that like, you know what I mean? I don't know if that, that's. But let's look at 2675 as the what you would receive. Now tell us about all of the money you guys have socked away.

[Ann]

Well, it's split between retirement funds and three properties that we own.

[Mark]

3. Let's do retirement funds first. Those are. I like liquidity. So that's Easier for me. So let's do retirement accounts. What do you got?

[Ann]

Okay, My husband has a 401k with 120, and I work for a nonprofit, so at one point, the 403B flipped to a 401. My 403B has 610.

[Mark]

Okay.

[Ann]

My 401 has 330, of which 54 is a Roth.

[Mark]

That's great.

[Ann]

All good?

[Mark]

All good. We're good. Okay, we're done. You're going to retire. Give your notice right now. That's what Mark was hopping in on. That. Let's keep going, though. So that's it for retirement assets. Do you guys have any old IRAs or Roth IRAs floating around?

[Ann]

No, just what I gave you. We did fund an HSA to the max this year for the two of us, and we have about 20,000 in savings, cash.

[Mark]

How much is your house worth, your primary?

[Ann]

Probably 450. Paid off, of course.

[Mark]

Okay. Three rental properties. Not one, not two, but three rental properties.

[Ann]

Well, actually, not rentals. We actually enjoy all of them.

[Mark]

Oh, so these are use. Okay, so one. Okay, so are you getting any rental income from any of these three properties?

[Ann]

No.

[Mark]

Okay, good. So just tell us, what are these three properties worth?

[Ann]

Well, the second one, which was our first vacation home per se, is a cabin that my husband built on a significant amount of acreage in the north woods in Minnesota. And we figure that to be. It would probably net us 175.

[Mark]

Okay, keep going. What are the other.

[Ann]

And then we've got another property that is just very close to the north shore of Lake Superior. We're within walking distance of the lake. We bought that back in 21. It's worth about 160. And we've got a 3% mortgage on that with a balance of 107. We've got 25 years left to pay on that. We weren't aggressively paying that off.

[Mark]

Why would you. 3%. And what's the third?

[Ann]

That is the. That's the three. Our primary and the two.

[Mark]

Gotcha. Okay. But you want to keep these other two, right?

[Ann]

You know, we want to keep the one with the mortgage, I think the cabin with the acreage. We're kind of getting to the end of hunting. We're getting older. It's not easier.

[Mark]

Okay. All right, so that's. So essentially, that is another pot of 175 grand. That could come to you at some point. We don't have to do it immediately. Right, Right. Okay. That's all good. There's no brokerage account, right? There's no other accessible money. Okay, I got it. You guys have grown kids.

[Ann]

Grown, launched, gone.

[Mark]

I love that. She's like, my work done. Done. My work has been completed. So. And you're going to stay in your. In the primary. That's worth 450, that house you want to keep, right?

[Ann]

Oh, yeah. For now, Yep.

[Mark]

Okay. So essentially you would end up having the 450 and the lake property. And then you would be able to have your. So you'd have your pension of 2675, plus his Social Security, which is, you know, 2 grand a month. Right. And he, frankly, because he's 64, it would be kind of nice for him to start taking some of that. I presume all of his 401k is traditional, right?

[Ann]

Correct.

[Mark]

Okay. So I wouldn't mind if he could just start taking some of that money out because remember, he's going to have to get that out anyway. And because of a pension and you're going to. So I might even say that, hey, maybe he should start taking like two grand a month out of his 401k, which would give you plenty of money to live, to pay all your bills, to pay the taxes due. No sweat. And you're done. You, you, you should give your notice right now. Let conference us a night with your boss. I'll do it for you.

[Ann]

Oh, my God, you're kidding.

[Mark]

I'm not kidding. Mark, don't you agree with this? They. They have six grand a month. Come on. I mean, in fact, I would take three grand a month out of his retirement account starting now. That's what I would do. They need six. They basically have 4700amonth guaranteed. They have over a million dollars in assets. Yeah, I think. Do the math. I would just say to start to. I want to get this money out of your husband's account because it's going to just keep piling up in there and you guys are in a load. You're always going to be in the 22% tax bracket. So you might as well take three or four grand a month out of his retirement account. Have that money coming in now you're paying yourself. See, what's great about this is you'll have like three paychecks, essentially. You'll have your pension, you'll have his Social Security, and then we're going to like basically turn the, the faucet on of his retirement, which is if you took three grand a month out of there, we want to deplete his account before he ever has to take a Required distribution. So we could just do that. Like, we do that for a few years, we get the money out of there, right? Three or four years, you'll be done with that. And by the way, in three and four years, you'll be at 59 and a half. You'll be 59. You'll start to look and say, hey, where do I going to take my money out of my. My money? Maybe it's the 403B or the 401A, whatever, and you're going to be done. And by the way, this does not. It does not pull. It doesn't mean you have to. Like, I'm not putting a gun to your head to sell the cabin. If that happens, great. I would still take the three grand a month out of his retirement account just to get that money out. And you're in great shape. And you can. If you. If you sell the cabin and you net. Even if you netted 150 grand, you start a little brokerage account, you have some. That's just like some fun money, and you're in great shape. There's nothing. Nothing bad can happen to you. I mean, oh, my God. The only thing. The only bad thing that could happen is if you're. We're wrong. And if all of a sudden you're like, oh, you know what? I'm not spending six grand a month. I'm spending ten grand a month. But it does not sound like you're the kind of people who have. Are so far off on that.

[Ann]

25% of my monthly budget is that third property up north.

[Mark]

Okay, well, there we go.

[Ann]

We don't spend a ton.

[Mark]

All right, well, let's get. Do you like your boss? Is this going to be hard for you?

[Ann]

It actually is. I have worked at the same place for 31 years. I'm in healthcare. I have quite a network of people. But I do see daily how quickly things can go south. And we're young enough, we can move around. We want to see stuff. And I think it's hard to think about waiting if I'm in a position that we don't have to.

[Mark]

I agree 100%. And you've done an incredible job. And I feel like, Mark, this is like one of those refrains we get from people in healthcare, which is, wow, the COVID years took a lot out of me. And maybe I thought I was gonna work till 60, but if I can do it at 55, great. You guys have saved a lot of money. You've put your time in. You got the kids that are launched, they're on their own. Go for it. Go for it. And then let us know what happens. Because I'm only worried, Mark, that she's going to be like, I really like everybody. I can't let them down. I'll just work till the end of the year. No. Have a great summer. You're amazing.

[Ann]

Thank you so much.

[Mark]

You are great. Now, do you have your estate documents done? Since you are in health care, you know, these are important things.

[Ann]

I am. And you need to beat me with what, Noodle? We need them updated so, so badly.

[Mark]

Yeah, because you're probably still talking about guardianship for your kids.

[Ann]

Yeah, exactly.

[Mark]

So get them done. Get them done. It's not a big deal. But as you know, things can change. You just said it like, things can change on a dime. Have that health care proxy updated. Have that durable power of attorney. Have the will done. And especially because you have property, you know, would have to go through probate. So just like, let's put it down on paper. Get that stuff updated. That's an easy thing to do. The first thing after you give your notice, that'll be your next call, which will be to an attorney. Okay?

[Ann]

Okay, Sounds good. Oh, my God.

[Mark]

You have the best time. I love this. It's like, I see, Mark, I'm a dream maker today, not a dream crusher. And if you're thinking about how you can get out a little bit early or you're wondering, what would it mean if I could actually spend some time while I'm healthy, living my life, if all these things are kind of in your back of your head and it's activating and maybe it's even, you know, sometimes keeping you up at night. Just get in touch with us. We're very happy to walk through this with you. Go to jillonmoney.com, click the contact us button, write us a note, and if you'd like to join us live, check the box. Mark will do everything else. Don't forget to check out everything else that lives on the website. We've got another podcast. We've got resources, we've got videos, all that. You can see what I look like when I'm on tv. I'm not so crazy about it sometimes, but whatever, enjoy it anyway. You can subscribe to us on the Odyssey app or wherever you find your favorite podcast. Try to do something nice for someone else today. Change your work, change your wealth, change your life. Thank you for listening and we'll talk to you tomorrow.

[Ann]

Nerds.

[NerdWallet Host]

Today's episode is sponsored by NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast. Ever Google a money question and end up 12 tabs deep with 12 different answers? This podcast is your shortcut back to clarity. NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast breaks down financial decisions with a team of trusted journalists. They explain the why behind decisions like investing, home buying and choosing credit cards with clear research backed insights. No jargon, no misinformation. Make your next financial move with confidence. Follow NerdWallet's Smart Money podcast on your favorite podcast app.