Courtesy of Carol Cole
Carol Cole is living it up in retirement.
The self-proclaimed "jazzy 70-year-old" and "cool old lady" retired from her government job in 2011. Now, she's taking her home city of Washington, DC, by storm: You can find her zipping around in Fred — her name for her Fiat convertible — or hitting up free senior programs.
Cole is an example of what retirement can look like with a good savings plan and a variety of government assistance programs. Her prior government role left her with a hefty retirement benefit; she still gets healthcare. She gets around $4,300 monthly in an annuity.
"Thank God for my good government job, which is now a good government retirement check that I get faithfully every first of the month," Cole said.
Cole loves living in DC. If you do your research, she said, you can end up living nearly "scot-free." It just requires a little paperwork, time, and reading. And for Cole, that means cheap rent, lots of amenities, and the ability to travel cross-country for free. She even maintains a TikTok for fun, posting about some of her adventures.
"There's nothing that I haven't seen or nothing that I really think I haven't been through," Cole said. In her retirement, now, she's enjoying freedom and spending power she didn't always have.
"Right now I'm on a kick for mojitos. I went all the way to Charlottesville, Virginia, because I heard of the berry mojito," she said. "And I went and had one. It was delicious."
Cole's research on senior perks has paid off. She said her rent in DC is $1,100, plus $200 for parking, and she lives in a centrally located building with a pool and a gym.
She said other one-bedrooms in her building go for $2,800, but she's taking advantage of inclusionary zoning, which stipulates that 10% of the stock in new buildings is allocated toward affordable housing. She said it took her just 15 months to get into her current apartment.
"Here I am, bam. Now I'm in an apartment where everybody else around me is kind of rich except me, but they don't know. I blend in very nicely," she said.
She volunteers at an organization, Produce Plus, that provides access to fresh food to older adults in need.
"I go there and help people shop, do their groceries, and when I get ready to leave, they say, Ms. Carol, do you want a bag? I say, no. Save this for someone who can't afford it. My good government job retirement has allowed me to buy my own potatoes right now," she said.
Cole also takes advantage of senior days at Harris Teeter, a local supermarket, and clothing store Ross Dress for Less; she said that Dollar Tree has also really stepped up its game.
"If I want to see something like at the Kennedy Center or something and it costs too much, I just volunteer and then I can see it for free," she said.
Cole bought an e-bike a few years ago. Now, she said, DC has a program to help subsidize e-bikes; it paid for the assembly of her bike. Senior citizens also get access to swimming pools, she said, and she can get free rides to healthcare appointments and the senior center. She's taken advantage of a few water aerobics classes in DC and was swimming up at a pool near Capitol Hill.
Cole also attended a few exercise classes at the senior center, but they were too slow for her.
"I'm a jazzy 70-year-old. They were just kind of too slow. I said, Lord, when I turn 85, I'll go back over there," she said. She's also very active in her church community and thinks it's incredibly important for seniors to be involved in a community.
Cole also loves helping out and supporting her fellow seniors: She escorts them cross country on Amtrak a few times a summer. It's a volunteer role with a travel agency, and her expenses are covered — she's about to embark on a DC to San Francisco journey, which stops in Chicago, Denver, and Reno. She enjoys having fun with her fellow seniors, and tries to get them out and about.
"I have decided that maybe I should move to a senior building so I can even help them jazz it up, run for president, play bingo, do whatever, get them out their wheelchairs, go cross country, go to different trips, do whatever," Cole said.
Cole's retirement embodies what many want from life after work: flexibility, financial stability, and just plain fun. But she's also not sure if it's possible for future generations of retirees.
"Times have changed so much in money and Congress and the laws. Like I said, if it wasn't for the Lord and the good government, I wouldn't be having such a nice retirement either," Cole said.
Her retirement is structured as a monthly annuity payment, which, per the IRS, is considered a defined benefit plan. Those plans are generally paid for by employers and have set sums distributed throughout the rest of the workers' lifetime. But defined benefit plans — which also include pensions — have become rarer and rarer. Instead, defined contribution plans — accounts like 401(k)s that workers pay into — have increasingly become the norm.
But Cole's advice for retirement finances is to save as much as you can. She recently cut out buying sodas, and started saving the cost of those sodas instead — those savings are now up to around $1,000, she said.
When she was younger and a single parent, Cole recalls that one of her coworkers bought her daughter a birthday present — because she wasn't able to afford it at the time.
"Now, I got money that I don't even spend," she said.
Cole noted that everyone, including herself, goes through different seasons in life. You just have to embrace them. She goes out of her way to make new friends spanning generations and to give everyone a smile.
"The last season," what she calls the "senior season" of life, is the best, Cole said.
"I know people think they're in a good season now, but live long enough to get that Medicaid card," she said, adding: "I don't have nobody to tell me what to do. And I got a little money. I can just get up right now and go to Vegas if I want to just go. It's just so nice."
Are you a retiree loving retirement? Contact this reporter at jkaplan@businessinsider.com.
