Book Review – Independence Day: What I Learned About Retirement from Some Who’ve Done It and Some Who Never Will

Reviewed by Susan Healy

On July 4, 2020, Steve Lopez gave himself one year to decide whether to retire. Like many of us facing the same question, he had no clear answer. Unlike the rest of us, Steve Lopez is a Pulitzer Prize nominated newspaper columnist who can cold-call just about anyone and get them to talk about how they reached the decision to retire or not. In Independence Day, he shares both his own journey and what he learned from the people he interviewed during that year.

The title of the book is somewhat misleading, Lopez never really viewed retirement as “independence.” Rather, he worried about losing his professional identity. After being the guy at the party that everyone wanted to talk to about his job, retirement meant that he would suddenly have no answer when asked what he did for a living. Senior lawyers can certainly relate to that!

A complicating factor was that at the end of the year, his youngest child would be leaving for college. Could he face the shock of becoming a retiree and an empty nester at the same time?

Lopez also didn’t have a plan to do anything different after he retired. He figured he would just continue to write. In addition to his column, he already had written three published novels and a New York Times best-selling nonfiction book which was made into the movie, The Soloist. But after a year of working from home during the pandemic, his wife was strongly suggesting that he would need to spend his days somewhere else. Retirement meant he would not be returning to his work office when his wife kicked him out of his home office. Again, this is something senior lawyers may face when they quit practicing law. Plans for activities like pro bono­ work, part-time teaching or writing can get derailed when retirement means no office, no support staff and few resources.

Independence Day isn’t a retirement planner. It won’t tell you if you can afford to retire or if the pros outweigh the cons on your unique balance sheet. You may well be left with no clear answer to your own retirement question after you have read the last page. However, it’s an entertaining quick read that will introduce you to people who realize that they retired too soon, retirees with no regrets, folks (like actor/director/comedian Mel Brooks) who will never retire, and people like the judge who joins his son’s law firm after mandatory retirement. Best of all, you will meet Steve Lopez, who finds his own answer at the end of the year.

Independence Day is available as a hardcover, eBook or audiobook.