Most of us will live amazingly long lives and shouldn't worry so much about dying young.
Those are the words of 61-year-old Jonathan Clements, who wrote more than 1,000 columns on personal finance for the Wall Street Journal between 1994 and 2015. When he wasn't running marathons or riding his bike, he advised “making a resolution to live past 90 and saving accordingly.”
In May, he went to the doctor because of balance problems. Two days later, he received a devastating cancer diagnosis. Scans showed a golf ball-sized tumor on his lung, and the disease had spread to his brain, liver and other areas.
Anything beyond 12 decent months would be a win. “I'm definitely pressed for time here,” he said as we sat at his kitchen table this week.
Asking Mr. Clements to take back any of his advice might seem like the height of callousness, but he stops at nothing. He has already turned his bad luck into snappy prose, publishing conclusions in boldface on his website, humbledollar.com.
He has very few regrets. I wanted to know why.
Mr. Clements once described himself as a professional complainer. But for loyal readers like me, who hung on every word and did as we were told, he was a patron saint of fiscal discipline. (He and I were also colleagues at the Wall Street Journal from 2002 to 2007, although I was embarrassed by my occasional incursions into his journalistic terrain and did not try to befriend him at the time.)
His longevity planning instructions to readers included three components: First, save as much as you reasonably can and do so as early as possible so that compound interest can work in your favor for a very long time. Second, avoid claiming Social Security before age 70 so that the higher payments starting at that age can help you when you reach 90.
Third, consider immediately withdrawable fixed annuities, where you contribute, say, $100,000 and receive a monthly check for the rest of your life. Then use those payments, plus Social Security and any pensions, to cover basic living expenses. Once you're paying for housing, food, and other essentials with those guaranteed payouts, you can spend the rest on yourself. Or, invest the money aggressively (since you don't have to worry about covering those monthly expenses) and have plenty left over for your heirs.
Even on a journalist's salary, Clements managed to implement the savings plan. After 23 years in the industry, Clements took a job at Citibank in 2008 and doubled his income in the six years he was there. In some years of his career, he saved around 30 percent of his income.
Marriage also helped him, as the mother of his two children is an academic and her job paid part of his tuition fees. Divorce may have helped him too, although he still spent a lot of money on his children. “I was in charge,” he said. “I could be as frugal or as wasteful as I wanted.”
Aside from one obvious factor – having two full-time employers with excellent benefits, something far too many people lack through no fault of their own – the most important factor in Mr. Clements' success as a retirement saver was his modest lifestyle.
“I spent years in a house that cost much less than I could afford,” he said. “Those first decades in a mediocre house in the New Jersey suburbs set me on the path.”
As for Parts 2 and 3 of his longevity plan, he's unlikely to reach that part of the handbook. He couldn't take Social Security until next year even if he wanted to, and he wasn't planning on buying annuities until later anyway.
Since you often don't get your money back from an annuity provider when you exchange a lump sum for a monthly check, the money he didn't spend on annuities now goes to his heirs, including his current wife. The same goes for everything else in his retirement accounts.
For a 2004 column on frugality, Clements spoke with a financial advisor named Jonathan Guyton. “I don't want to be the financial planner who has to look an 85-year-old client in the eye and explain why he has so much money and why he's had so little fun,” Guyton told him.
When Mr. Clements and I met, I asked him the question: Had he been too nice to his future self all this time? I didn't think he would say yes. There was a piece of art he loved in the next room, and a $3,500 bike in the basement, resting on an exercise bike since his doctors don't want him to continue living on the streets.
To the Jonathan Guytons of the world, he offers research from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau that shows that the biggest difference between high- and low-income people is their savings and their ability to cope with unexpected expenses.
“I haven't worried about money in over 20 years,” Mr Clements said. “The most important thing money can do for us is give us a sense of financial security, and it does that by making us hold on to it rather than spending it.”
He's also having fun. In the near future, he plans to travel to Ireland, Paris, the Poconos and England for his son's wedding, while doctors bombard him with drugs, radiation and chemotherapy. He also has his own, far-reaching take on the term.
“What I really enjoy doing is getting up, pouring myself a cup of coffee, doing some writing and editing, exercising, eating well and drinking a glass of wine,” he said. “It's what I've enjoyed doing for decades, and I can't think of a better way to spend the time I have left.”