Retirement Roadmap

Unconventional Retirement Strategies

• Mark Fricks • Season 3 • Episode 14

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What if your dream retirement looked nothing like the standard Florida condo and golf course scenario? Evan and Mark dive into wildly unconventional retirement strategies—some absurd, some surprisingly practical—that could transform how you envision your golden years.

The conversation begins with AI-generated oddball ideas like starting hobby-based cults and living in haunted houses before evolving into legitimately viable alternatives many retirees already embrace. From converting school buses into solar-powered tiny homes to living year-round on cruise ships (which may actually cost less than nursing homes), these alternatives challenge conventional retirement wisdom while possibly offering unique advantages.

Whether you're intrigued by alternative retirement lifestyles or simply want to expand your thinking beyond traditional paths, this episode offers inspiration and practical considerations for creating a retirement uniquely suited to your dreams. 

Ready to explore what's possible? Schedule your complimentary consultation at masterplanretire.com or call 770-980-9262.

Have a topic or question you'd like Mark and Evan to address in a future episode? Email us at info@masterplanretire.com or call 770-980-9262.

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Evan:

Should I use a robo-advisor for my retirement planning? Hey folks, welcome back to Retirement Roadmap with Master Plan Retirement. My name is Evan, with me, as always, Mark Fricks, so we have kind of a funny topic today. I asked AI to give me the weirdest retirement plans possible and I've got a list that we're going to go through today and see how valid they are. Now they start really weird. I will say, and I progressively say okay, now make it more practical. Now, let's make it a little bit more practical. And so we get to some actual pretty interesting topics.

Evan:

We have a lot of clients who have a lot of really interesting plans in retirement as far as how they want to live where they want to live, how they want to live where they want to live, which some of these actually reminded me of some of our clients.

Mark:

Some of them, I hope, are never our clients but we'll see when we get to those or we can correct them. Yeah, exactly. So let's walk through these, Mark, I'm looking forward. So we did not have a pre-radio show meeting today. No, no, Evan said I'm going to spring this on you and we're just going to take off with it. So this should be fun. So I hope you hang around.

Evan:

So this is skipping the boring 401k, Roth, IRA talk. This is strictly what are the weirdest retirement plans that we can come up with. The number one is starting a cult of hobbies. So what if you retired and started a cult based on knitting, salsa dancing or, conspiracy theory, gardening? Do you think you have to be extra charismatic for that one?

Mark:

Well, that helps you have to have people like you and trust you. I don't know what to say about that, so I'm trying to imagine a cult of gardeners. We almost have something like that up the road from here. Yeah, we sure do.

Evan:

There's a community garden yeah beautiful place.

Mark:

Lots of people that work there. I don't think they're a cult. Not accusing them of that. I would love to participate, by the way, but yeah, just as long as they don't bring Kool-Aid. So really weird.

Evan:

Yeah, really weird out of the gate with the first one. The second one I actually kind of like, so bear with me. Retire in a haunted house, Okay. So why do all retirees go to Florida? Let's talk about moving into a spooky Victorian mansion and turning it into an Airbnb with ghost tours.

Mark:

That's actually not a bad idea. I mean it's not a retirement plan, but it's a retirement destination and that type of thing, but I kind of like that. Yeah, I mean, you know it would do really well to Halloween, but I think it'd do great. All year long they have these shows, you know, poltergeist and ghost chasing and all that kind of good stuff. So would you have to make up some stuff or just let it naturally happen, is the question.

Evan:

Well, that's a good point, because if you go somewhere like Charleston or Savannah or someplace, pretty much everything's haunted.

Mark:

I think Savannah is supposed to be one of the most haunted places. I don't know, you know, if you believe in that or not believe in that. I know that certainly there are other things going on around us that we don't know about. So yeah, who?

Evan:

knows Not a bad idea, and I like that Some of these are kind of combining business and domicile, which actually I don't mind at all.

Mark:

Well, what's interesting? We had a show not too long ago and we talked to our clients about this as well. What are you going to be doing in retirement? We just add this to our list.

Evan:

Yeah, Some of these. I'll put a little check mark next to Now. This next one, I feel like, is a little bit self-serving. Speaking to AI, they said AI-powered retirement. Could you retire and let an AI live your life? Auto posts on socials, AI friends, even AI investing. I don't know what that means at all, so sorry.

Mark:

AI. It sounds like you just sit in a sofa and just kind of let AI run your life. What's that?

Evan:

There's a movie with Bruce Willis where, basically, he's in a capsule and everyone's AI in the metaverse, which brings us to the next one retiring in the metaverse and buy digital land. I don't know what that is, digital mansion, host school lan parties with virtual grandkids. That sounds terrible. Weird, but maybe that's the direction we're going. Okay, two strikes on AI on those two. I like this next one's kind of interesting. I don't know if I like it for myself, but it's interesting. Extreme nomad retirement. So sell everything, buy a camel right across the Sahara or do van life in Antarctica. Well, so we have.

Mark:

You're getting a little more familiar, we do have some clients that retire in RVs and just travel the rest of their lives, or many, many years. I mean, it's not a camel and I'm not sure if an RV would work in places that have a lot of sand. What was the second part of that after the camel?

Evan:

Van life in Antarctica, which understandably can't work. However, I did know someone when I was younger, in my 20s, a friend of mine. He's a photographer and he lived in Antarctica on a base for a while just taking pictures for a project. Oh wow, I don't know if you want to retire there.

Mark:

Well, I was just reading about this group of scientists that are at a base, you know, totally enclosed, almost like you're on the moon. You almost can't, you know, get out some, but not a lot. But apparently there's somebody, one of the scientists or, beginning to go a little weird and start to threaten other people and even sexually harass them, and they can't get, they can't get to them. So it's, yes, it's, and I guess it was a matter of time before that happened, either in space or under the ocean, or I hope you trust the guy you're in the space station I think it's 12 of them up in this base here, so weird dynamics, and I'm sure they put them through all kind of psychological tests.

Mark:

But yeah, this next one's cool, I don't know.

Evan:

Again, this isn't really a retirement plan but time capsule living. So retire and pretend it's the year 1972 again. No smartphones, only vinyl. Bell-bottoms required.

Mark:

There's a store in my community. They sell all the hippie stuff. You know, the weird Mexican skeletons, sugar skulls, yeah, these macrame vests. There's always incense burning and the store is full of stuff. So you can go there and just load up, right and just take it back. Get rid of all the you know, get you one of those TVs I used to watch when I was a kid that you know had the antennas.

Evan:

Yeah, I could do without the plastic couches.

Mark:

Yeah Well, get a big bean bag there you go. Not bad. And posters, fluorescent posters, poster oh, those were long Black lights.

Evan:

I think the no smartphones is the thing that I really like about that one.

Mark:

Yeah, I think yeah. No email, no Facebook.

Evan:

All that good stuff.

Mark:

So this next one also hits a little too close to home. Are these surprising you too? Yeah, a little bit.

Evan:

So doomsday retirement. Go full prepper mode, Underground bunker, Hydrophonic excuse me, Hydroponic. Hydrophonic would be interesting. Go full prepper mode underground bunker, hydroponic tomatoes and a library of survival books. I feel like that's not as far away as it seems.

Mark:

There's probably some people doing that.

Evan:

Well, we live near Dallas Georgia and if you guys want to Google bunker in Dallas Georgia from a couple years ago, it's something really interesting, that big warehouse downtown. You remember that?

Mark:

Well, I know some of the things they're doing nowadays. I mean, they're really nice and they're very expensive, but I gotta have sunlight, that type of thing. Now, if I thought we were in danger and had that kind of money, sure, but to retire there, for, oh, you're not allowed to leave.

Evan:

Oh, I don't know, are you cosplaying or is there actually a reason that you're down there? You know they sell these really top-of-the-line bunkers now that I've seen on Facebook and other socials, even with booby traps and stuff. Really, yes, I'd be too nervous that I'd do that to myself in the dark.

Mark:

There was a bunker show that would come on, kind of like you know, Bunker Living or whatever, and they would show them constructing it and all the things in it. And again, very expensive, Aren't they taking ICBM silos and making them into apartment bunkers? I?

Evan:

have seen some of that before. I don't know if it's a trend, but they've definitely done it.

Mark:

Wow Okay.

Evan:

All right. So I've got one more on this list because a couple of them are just too ridiculous to even mention. Last one is kind of interesting Revenge tour, retire and visit every person or place that wronged you and calmly say I turned out fine, thanks, all right. So we see that, okay. The next thing I did was I don't know how many people listening have used AI, but it's kind of interesting. You can take them on little tangents and narrow it down. So the next thing was I said okay, that's good, thank you for those answers, but let's try to make them a little bit more practical. Okay, so the next series are a little bit more practical, or we'll be the judge, okay, and if we need to throw in some discussion about Roth conversions, just so we're on topic a little, bit more.

Mark:

We can do that. Well, this is all. This is retirement.

Evan:

I mean it fits the genre. Maybe it will inspire you listener to think outside the box. That's right. This one's not so weird. Actually, buy a decommissioned school bus and convert it. Live the rest of your days in a fully tricked out bus, complete with a composting toilet, solar panels and a spice rack that rattles ominously on dirt roads.

Evan:

So it's like a level above the Partridge family A little bit, but that's actually huge r ight now there are whole communities that convert school buses and do festivals and stay together and camp at grounds and stuff like that. My cousin was RVing with his family for a year.

Evan:

They did the same thing your parents, so it's not uncommon. We have clients who RV as well. It's not bad at all, just as long as you make sure that you've got your stream of income where you need it to be. And I would think that the older you get, you start to have to think a little bit more about health care.

Mark:

Yeah, there is that, and even I don't want to get too much in the weeds as far as planning, too much in the weeds as far as planning. But if you travel a lot, what about your documents like your healthcare directive and your financial power? You have a nned for one in 50 states?

Evan:

Yeah, do you want those physical ones? How wise is it to have a physical document on board with you.

Mark:

Would it be better to have digital? I suppose I don't know, but there are people that do that a lot. We actually have a client that is having a 1969 Volkswagen van converted back to a hippie van New engine, new everything and she's going to use that to travel across the US. Is it one of the camper versions? I'm not sure if it's got the elevated roof or not, but it's just her.

Evan:

And she has that free spirit. I don't know. You have to tell me after I'm not sure. Uh, number two start a pet sitting empire, but for weird pets specialize in parrots, iguanas, sugar gliders and emotional support tarantulas charge premium rates become the go-to.

Mark:

I like that one. I actually saw a lady on an airplane that had a support rooster, really yes.

Evan:

I guess anything's legal if you try hard enough. If you have the right documentation.

Mark:

They have pushed it to the limits, that's for sure, but we should sit here for a minute and think of other weird animals, let's not?

Evan:

no, let's not. Uh, number three, actually this isn't too far off. Uh well, we'll get to this. So retire into a theme park job for perks, so work part-time as a character actor or a tram driver at disney or universal free park entry plus health insurance, plus churros weirdly genius that's that's actually.

Mark:

I have a friend that I went to high school with. He was a teacher and in the summers he would go to Disney World in Florida and work. But now that he's retired he goes down there for like six months and works and he's not a character, but he does whatever, I don't know, Walks around and he may work in a shop or whatever. A lot of people do that.

Evan:

A lot of retired folks in Florida do that I think if I was a character, I'd want to be in the off season, so I wasn't sweating so much.

Mark:

There's a lot of water weight I'd pass out. Yeah, but actually I think my parents, when they lived in Florida for a while in the winter, would work some part-time work, or at least try to, so that's not unusual at all.

Evan:

Well, you had an interview a couple months back with a couple of our clients who do national park tours and live and volunteer and work on the national park grounds and they get free room and board, work 20 hours a week and they become like family.

Mark:

If you want to see that episode, it's about six weeks old, so it's going to be on our website, which happens to me be masterplanretirecom. If you go under episodes, you'll see 40, 50, 60 episodes I think 75 now, if I remember correctly. Podcasts are there. Youtube videos of these radio shows are there as well. But if you'll go back about six weeks, we interview that couple about what they do each summer and just how they become a community with the people that are there volunteering as well as the people that work there. It just really is a cool thing to do.

Mark:

But back to the website, masterplanretirecom, under episodes. But, more importantly, there's a little button that says schedule a meeting. Why would you want to schedule a meeting? Well, one of the things we love to do is run a series of reports for folks complimentary to see where you're at and see what kind of stumbling blocks could be ahead of you in retirement, because that's what you want to address. So take advantage of that. Our calendar pops up. You're able to choose a time date, zoom, face-to-face phone call, whatever works, but take advantage of masterplanretirecom. Or you can give us a call, whatever works, but take advantage of masterplanretirecom or you can give us a call 770-980-9262.

Evan:

So this next one. We also know someone who's done something similar to this. So live on a cruise ship or a cargo ship. Now, actually, I have a great uncle who did that with his wife for a while. Instead of a cruise around the world, they stayed on a cargo ship, which takes like three to six months to come across right right book back-to-back cruises for less than the cost of a nursing home, especially the cargo ships, or hitch a ride on working vessels for crew member ambience well, we actually.

Mark:

There are people that spend 365 a year on a cruise ship. They'll be on one for two weeks. Get off that and, at the same port, have the, the next one, get back on it and really, if you do, you know more of the bargain suites. Your food's taken care of, Some of your drinks are taken care of. You have medical care available on board. I don't know if I need to say this or not. They actually have a morgue on board. By the way, that's another topic for another show. But, yeah, you got. You got desserts, you get all this kind of stuff and somebody you know people to keep an eye on you. You have a swimming pool and I've heard less than certainly less than like an assisted living or a nursing home or something like that. For sure.

Evan:

All right, so I'm going to do one more on this topic before I go to the next group. This one's interesting too. Create a retirement commune with friends, buy land together, build many houses, share chores, invent your own holiday traditions like Taco Wednesday and Passive, aggressive Game Night. I don't know about the games. Well, we talk about doing that as a family of three generations doing something like that.

Mark:

But a retirement community would be interesting because you're all the same age, same interest. It's called the Villages, by the way.

Evan:

Yeah right, that exists right outside of Orlando.

Mark:

A few more people than what we're talking about, but that's kind of cool and you could share. You know, maybe internet and that kind of stuff as well.

Evan:

So yeah, make sure it's driving the business.

Mark:

As long as it doesn't get weird.

Evan:

Well, that's the problem with some of these is, I think they're. Let's move on the opportunities for strangeness are there.

Evan:

They have potential. Okay, so I narrowed this a little bit more. Weird but smart retirement moves for 2025's economy. So let's see how well AI did on this one. Okay, this is similar to the last one Co-housing with other retirees or young renters. Rising housing costs Offset them by converting your home into a retirement house share. Each person gets private space, but shares kitchen utilities, netflix, et cetera. Bonus of one roommate's tech savvy and helps with online banking. I think it's a great idea If you could stand it.

Evan:

Here's the one thing. Before you move on, just think about the retirees we know: how many of them want to have roommates?

Mark:

Well, the ones that are good friends. They've recommended they're good friends, so those four would fit together nicely. But can you find four more or six more or whatever, because you are in the same house and you have separate bedrooms? Because I'm aware of a situation similar to this the caretaker lives in the basement, otherwise everybody's upstairs, they share meals, they take turns cooking, doing laundry. But again there is that you know, as we get older and I'm getting older, so I can attest to this we tend to get a little more cranky, a little bit less willing to deal with other folks and their intrusion. So it would have to be the right group of folks, but I wouldn't mind that.

Evan:

So this next one is a real conversation that I've had with a couple of folks. Retire to a country with lower costs of living but with remote income Places like Portugal, mexico, parts of Southeast Asia are more affordable. So combine that with remote freelance gigs editing, teaching, english, consulting and you stretch your dollars way further.

Mark:

We have a client that lives on the beach in Panama. Every time we meet via Zoom, she turns her little laptop around and shows me the beach and the ocean and she's living a lot less and, yes, yes, we're going to great for her. I actually subscribe to international living. I did it for one year. I just wanted to see what it was about. I could talk to my clients about it, things like that. I've heard Costa Rica's great, although it's beginning to get a little more expensive. But there are dozens of countries and yet. But you have to look at several things. Number one is safety. Number two is there's many countries like Costa Rica that are not in the hurricane funnel or whatever you want to call it track. They've not been hit by a hurricane for hundreds of years. So that's important. Insurance, how's their healthcare? A lot of things to consider, but a lot of folks are doing that.

Evan:

Something else to consider. If you are taking income from a retirement account, there's potential. It's different for every country. There's potential for it to be taxed in America as well as wherever you live.

Mark:

Yeah, that's something you want to consider, because I would not want to do that. But again, some of these countries we've mentioned are very friendly toward Americans. They like us coming out and spending our money right and things like that. They get jobs, you know, servicing restaurants, whatever. So, yeah, very popular.

Evan:

Yeah, very popular. This next one seems like it would just be an aspect of the commune that we were putting together for our clients Barter-based living or time banking. So join a local time bank or skill trade community, offer babysitting, tutoring, repairs, et cetera, etc. In exchange for groceries, rides or services. Beats spending cash. Again, this is community dependent could you do that?

Mark:

like in a? Like a small 55 and older community, we have separate houses. I have so many ideas that if I just had the funding for i- we're not legally selling stock, by the way we do not have a prospectus on that, so please don't ask live-in property caretaker or house sitter.

Evan:

People with second homes need security and maintenance. You get free rent in sometimes amazing places in exchange for watching a house and maybe walking a dog.

Mark:

Some even pay a stipend I've done that on short-term trips, like for a week. Go take care of a friend's uh home or whatever, and walk their dogs and lay by their pool. So it's a good gig. Fridge was full, wine cabinet was full, all that kind of good stuff.

Evan:

The next one we kind of touched on a little bit already. But split retirement works, seasonal gigs half the year, so think Amazon Camper Force National Park Work we spoke about that Campground Host tax prep gigs work three to six months, then chill the rest. Keeps income flowing and benefits your social security timeline.

Mark:

And we do have a couple of folks that do the tax thing. They'll work January through April and sometimes they'll need to maybe come back in October to do some. You know the extended filing, but they don't have to. It's got to look for them. So rest of the time you can travel, do your retirement stuff. We have so many ideas for our clients and we add new ones almost every day. Just like some of this stuff is not that far off In fact some of it makes sense but things they can do, whether it be three days a week or three months out of the year, you know whatever works for them. We have that discussion with almost every client when we get close to retirement.

Evan:

That's one of the fun things about the job is everyone is so different, comes from a completely different background, as we all know. Every retirement plan and need is different, but some of the ideas and the things that we hear clients do are envious. They're really cool ideas. This next one is interesting because it's also really great for younger folks too. But invest in a duplex, live on one side, rent the other Beats a nursing home or apartment. Keeps you in control of your space. The rent from the other side helps cover retirement costs Well, probably covering the mortgage more than anything else. Starting out at least, or house a younger family member to help out.

Mark:

I was just going to say maybe somebody a niece and their husband or vice versa that will be able to drop in on you Not full-time care, but drop in, keep an eye out, things like that. That's a great idea. I like that, which is similar to parents living in a basement of their kids or something as well, but a little bit closer proximity. I like that.

Evan:

So the next one convert a hobby into income with an inflation-proof angle. Let's see what AI thinks. That is Gardening, sell microgreens or herbs at a farmer's market. Sewing, upcycle thrift store clothing for Etsy cooking, host small private dinners. Post-pandemic supper clubs are trending again, apparently. These keep costs low and have high margin potential.

Mark:

Yeah, one of my favorite places to go is our antique flea markets or antique markets, and so you have like 200 booths inside this big building and every booth is a different person runs it and they pay maybe $200 a month to rent the booth and they bring in stuff they find all over the place and it's not full-time. They'll drop in on maybe Sunday afternoon, fix up the booth a little bit. They don't have to be there though.

Evan:

great little gig yeah yeah, retire to a college town. I think this is also very specific on the personality of the retiree. But you have have access to culture, affordable health care via teaching hospitals Again, I don't know if I want to do that or not but often lower cost of living. You can even audit classes and stay sharp. Offer cheap or free.

Mark:

Yep, yep, we talk to our clients all the time. Go take a class, it doesn't cost you a thing. In Georgia, maybe, many places that's true. You don't get credit, but you can take a cooking course or a literature course or a writing course or whatever and just enjoy it, and even if you fail it doesn't matter.

Evan:

Yeah, utilize state and local programs aggressively. So there's a lot more programs out there that are available for retirees. If you just do a little digging, many people overlook senior property tax exemptions, low-income energy assistance, public transit passes, free recreational classes, et cetera. In this economy, every $100 saved counts.

Mark:

Well, I know this area. We have so many senior centers where they can go and get all kind of. You know they have games and fellowships and parties and all that kind of stuff, interest groups, all sorts of things like that. And hopefully they're adding pickleball soon, you know so. Yeah, I think that's going to happen for a while. A pickleball community?

Evan:

Yeah, there you go Last one and again this is kind of we've talked about this a little bit downsides to multi-use RV or tiny home Park strategically. Fuel is expensive but you can go semi-nomadic, stay put on a cheap long-term lot or live seasonally in different affordable areas Think Arizona in winter, michigan in summer. Off-grid solar makes this super reliable.

Mark:

I think I could live in a tiny house. I think I could.

Evan:

I totally could Apartment living. I miss that actually.

Mark:

Well, actually, when you lived in New York, you were in a tiny house a couple times, but you only buy what you need. You don't buy this junk and stuff like that. I love your list. I love using AI to put that together.

Mark:

I know some of them were silly you left out the most silly ones but love the ideas, so that was a fun show. We are glad you joined us. Hope we'll see you next time Again. Lots of episodes on the website, but in the meantime, until we see each other again, plan well and prosper. Take care. This was Retirement Roadmap Radio with Mark Fricks of Master Plan Retirement Consultants. To schedule a complimentary consultation, go to masterplanretirecom or call 770-980-9262. Thanks for listening and remember plan well and prosper. We'll see you next time.