RETIRE? WHO? ME?

Why do you suppose that a person would want to retire from an active business career at age 62? I am not sure that I can answer that question, but I can tell you that I did just that! Yep. September1, 1982 was the BIG DAY that I left my office as a retiree.

It may be that some pre-retirement action paved the way to that day, and here is how it happened. Early in the year, I told dear wife that when I retired from my corporate position, I intended to form a consulting service. As you probably know, the Washington area is FULL of consultants and lobbyists, so another one would not sink the ship. She seemed rather cool to the idea.

That spring I engaged a law firm, friends of mine, to draw up the necessary papers to form a corporation. Lo and behold, in one month the ANDERSON CONSULTING SERVICES (ACS) was born and ready to swing into action at retirement time.

One day, early in June of '82, my department head came into my office to inform me that a corporate fax had just come in and perhaps I should take a look at it. It was a corporate retirement offer addressed to managers at my level. It seemed to have plenty of incentives to make consideration of retirement attractive.

I took it home to dear wife to discuss, and by July 1st we had made the decision to accept the offer.

More, later.