Austin Meyer/Business Insider
- Misty Miller retired early without a plan.When she tried to get her job back, she couldn't.On a whim, she cashed out her entire 401(k) and regrets it.
Misty Miller thought she was ready to retire.
She'd paid off her mortgage, minimized her monthly expenses to $800, and had over $500,000 saved for retirement.
"I did the math. If I retired, my pension check would net me $3,000 per month, and I wouldn't need to touch my savings for years," she said.
"So at age 58, I turned in my retirement paperwork. What a mistake that was."
Within a week, she was filled with regret. A few years later, she had little left in savings.
Retiring early without a plan
When she retired early in 2016, Miller imagined a leisurely life filled with rest, freedom, and traveling. However, she hadn't thought about how to fill each day.
"I hadn't really planned it out," she said. "I had enough money, that was the part I planned out, but I hadn't planned out what I was going to do all day, and that was the problem."
She quickly realized that her work gave her a sense of purpose and daily structure. Without it, "I had no important decisions to make and no social network anymore."
"All I could think of is that I made the biggest mistake of my life. Work was my social connection, and I lost that by retiring early," she said. "Work gave me purpose. Now my most important decision was: What should I have for breakfast?"
She tried getting her job back
One week after leaving, Miller called her office to ask for her job back, but the company told her that her position had already been removed from the organizational chart.
"I felt so sad, so depressed. I couldn't believe my office wouldn't take me back," she said.
Seeing she was upset, Miller's husband suggested they go to the beach for a few days. Perhaps it was her remorse or desire for something new, but she ended up buying a house there. "To this day, I cannot explain. I lost my mind."
She cashed out her entire 401(k) savings to pay the down payment. Because she took all the money out at once, she had to pay a 45% income tax bill, so she only got to keep 55% of what she'd saved.
"I regret withdrawing that money from my 401(k)."
The beach house wasn't what she'd hoped
She sold her home in Sacramento and moved into the beach house, but didn't like retirement there, either.
"I was bored, I couldn't stand not working, so I took a job at the local newspaper." The job paid $19 per hour.
She never felt settled and eventually left the newspaper job.
Within a few years, she moved back to Sacramento and used what money she had left to buy a new home in Sacramento for cash, never trying to take out a loan. "I was unemployed essentially, so nobody was going to give me a loan if I was unemployed."
The issue was that she hadn't sold the beach house yet. It took a year to sell, and until it did, Miller only had money coming in from her monthly pension, which wasn't enough to cover her bills. She had to withdraw from her money market account to make up the difference. She was cash-poor, living month-to-month.
"That really bothered me because all of my life, I always had enough money, more than enough money. And here I was, groveling every single month, having to watch what I ate."
Starting over in her 60s wasn't easy
Miller knew she wanted to work again full-time, but she was now in her early 60s.
"It's challenging to get a job when you're in your sixties. I tried my best to look as young as possible. I had a college degree and great office skills, but employers wanted a cute 20-something at the front desk," she said.
After a couple of years of searching, she finally landed a full-time gig in 2023 with a California state agency employer willing to give her a chance. She was 63.
Miller, now 65, earns $8,650 a month, has built her retirement savings back up to $450,000, and has no plans to stop working.
She said her job gives her structure, fulfillment, and financial peace of mind. She sees a future in partial retirement, like working 40% of the time while collecting a portion of her pension.
Full retirement, though? Never again.
"My advice to the younger generation is: don't ever retire. Keep your job," she said, adding, "I look forward to going to work every day. People say they have to go to work, I say I get to go to work."
This story was adapted from Misty Miller's interview for Business Insider's series "Life Lessons." Learn more about Miller's story and others' in the video below:
