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Finance

tirement
Success

A successful retirement

requires planning, planning

and more planning.

BILL CARROLL
Special to the Jewish News

7/14
2000

70

ne of the biggest benefits of
my retirement two years ago is
that it provided me with some
new material for my hobby as
an amateur comedian.
• "My wife isn't too sure about this
retirement thing. She figures she's get-
ting twice the husband for only half the
income."
• "I'm not really retired ... I'm on sick
leave. The boss got sick of me and asked
me to leave."
• "When I was working, I carried a cell
phone, a beeper and all kinds of other
electronic stuff Now that I'm retired, to
make myself feel important, I wear the
garage door opener on my belt."
Of course, there are many other bene-
fits, such as being able to spend more
time with my wife, Natalie, three chil-
dren and four grandchildren. I travel
more — at least once a month.
. I'm reading up on another hobby ...
show business history. I follow sports
more closely and play more golf. I go to
movie matinees. We volunteer at the
Fleischman Residence, Michigan Opera
Theatre and other places.
And I'm writing stories for the Jewish
News.
When I was nearing my 35th anniver-
sary as a public relations executive with
Ford Motor Co., and getting closer to the
age of 65, I started to think seriously of
retiring. There's no mandatory retirement
rule at Ford, but 65 is the traditional
retirement age in this country, and I
thought that should be it for me;
I had become sort of a crisis manage-
ment expert in the automotive PR com-
munity, handling such things as two
triple shootings at Ford's Sheldon Road
Plant in Plymouth; the murder of a

manager at the Wixom Assembly Plant;
several fatal industrial accidents; fires;
explosions; chemical spills; recalls of
vehicles; a 67-day strike; recessions; lay-
offs; closings of plants; middle-of-the-
night phone calls from security and the
press; eccentric executives who talked
out of turn; and even a retirement party
for a Ford president where I was called
on to entertain a roomful of the top
execs in the company.
Believe it or not, 'the last one probably
caused me the most trauma. I had to care-
fully select and sanitize each joke, and
sweat it out to see if everyone laughed.
Forturiately, they did — even the retiring
president and the chairman of the board.
So, I figured enough was enough. By
the time I actually retired, I was almost
66 and had put in close to 36 years at
Ford, ending up on what is called the
Private Salary Roll as national public
relations news manager.
Now, don't get me wrong. I had plen-
ty of wonderful experiences working at
Ford ... everything wasn't a crisis. There
were press introductions of great cars
and trucks over the years; traveling to all
50 states (yes, even Alaska, Delaware
and Wyoming), plus Europe; meeting
and working with many interesting and
terrific people; and the generous salaries,
fringe benefits and overall financial
rewards that have insured security for
me and my family.
Four years before my retirement target
year, Ford started offering excellent special
retirement packages to certain executives
to streamline employee totals worldwide
ahead of a reorganization of the company
called "Ford 2000." These were entirely
voluntary. And in the spirit of the usual
Ford generosity, they provided us with free
financial analyses from accounting firms
and financial planning groups.
After undergoing all of this, it was