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Note: This post was a joint effort between me and Mrs. Groovy. So don’t get thrown by the use of “we” and “our” rather than “I” and “my.”
Fritzy.
Fritzer.
Fritz.
Whatever you want to call Fritz Gilbert from The Retirement Manifesto is perfectly fine. Just call him. But wait until tomorrow. He’s celebrating his escape from the tyranny of mandatory toil today.
That’s right. Our good friend Fritz has joined the hollowed ranks of the early retirement club. He retired at the close of business on 6/7/2018. And we couldn’t be happier for him and his wife, Jackie.
The Friendship Begins
Our friendship with Fritz began a little over two years ago. One of us (Mrs. Groovy) managed to wrangle a guest appearance for the inventor of the Junior IRA (Mr. Groovy) on Joshua Sheets’s podcast, Radical Personal Finance. The only problem was that the inventor of the Junior IRA is deathly afraid of public speaking. And as the interview with Joshua neared, the anxiety of the Junior IRA inventor grew.
Since the inventor of the Junior IRA was in trouble, we reached out to a guest we heard on Radical Personal Finance who “crushed it.” That guest was Fritz Gilbert.
We’ll spare you the gory details of our first encounter with Fritz. Let’s just say he was more than gracious. He didn’t even know us, but he immediately gave us his phone number and told us when he would be available. He then spent a good hour and a half prepping the inventor of the Junior IRA for the show.
Did the inventor of the Junior IRA “crush” the interview with Joshua Sheets? Well, not exactly. But it turned out to be much better than we ever could have imagined. And for that we will always be eternally grateful to Fritz.
Four Highlights
We have had a blast being friends with Fritz over the past two years. Here are just four highlights of that friendship.
1. Fritz Saves an Uber Driver’s Life
At FinCon 2017, Fritz, Chris from Keep Thrifty, Pete from Do You Even Blog, and Jim from Route to Retire stepped up to help a financially confused Uber driver. Sadly, we weren’t there to witness this intervention in person, but thanks to Jim’s (Route to Retire) remarkable citizen journalism, we were there in spirit. Here’s how Jim described this amazing event for posterity.
The Uber driver spoke a bit of broken English but asked us what we were doing in Dallas…
Jim: We’re all here for FinCon… it’s a conference for financial bloggers.
Driver: Financial what?
Jim: Bloggers. We write about personal finance and reaching early retirement.
Driver: Now that’s something I’m definitely interested in.
Silence suddenly encompassed the whole car. Then after about two seconds, everyone in the car jumped all over this as an opportunity.
We were money nerds that found someone open to some guidance.
We all started talking at once to him. As we handed over our business cards to him, Fritz then took over…
Fritz: Listen, I will only give you my card if you make me a promise.
Driver: What’s that?
Fritz: Tomorrow you need to increase what you save by another 1 percent.
Driver: OK.
Fritz: Promise me!
Driver: I will… but where should I be saving it?
Eventually, though, we had a good five-minute or so conversation with him before arriving at our destination. We all got out and started walking. That’s when we all started talking again and vomited out words like “Vanguard” and “VTSAX.”
But when we glanced around, we realized we had lost Fritz. We looked back and saw that he had gotten out of the car, but then was talking to the driver at his window.
A few minutes later, Fritz finally joined us and said, “Gentlemen, we may have just saved a man’s life this evening.”
OK, he might have said “saved” or he may have said “changed,” but we had a great time boasting all night that we “saved” a man’s life.
2. Fritz Organizes a Group Call to the Groovies
Also at FinCon 2017, Fritz gave us a call while he was out to dinner with a bevy of blogger luminaries. Unfortunately, the inventor of the Junior IRA was sick at the time of the call and couldn’t talk. But the better half of the Groovies was able to talk and it was one of the better half’s fondest memories of 2017. Here are the bloggers the better half got to talk to for the first time.
Chris from Keep Thrifty.
Jay from Slowly Sipping Coffee.
Mr. and Mrs. WoW from Waffles on Wednesday.
Mrs. BITA from Bayalis.
Vicki and Jeff from Make Smarter Decisions.
Jim from Route to Retire.
Drew from Guy on FIRE.
Pete from Do You Even Blog.
Note: Sorry if we missed any names. We didn’t catch all of them. And neither did Fritz.
3. Our Visit to the World Headquarters of the Retirement Manifesto
Here’s a photo from our visit to the World Headquarters of The Retirement Manifesto. Fritz and his lovely wife Jackie are avid animal rescuers. They foster dozens of dogs for the Tri-State Pet Rescue and volunteer their time at the Barking Lot in downtown Blue Ridge, GA. Aren’t those puppies adorable? We were this close (picture a thumb and an index finger being a quarter of an inch apart) from taking the brown puppy, Hershey, home.
4. Watching Fritz Walk on His Hands
Few people know that Fritz can walk on his hands. We witnessed this marvelous feat while at The World Headquarters but were too awestruck to record it for posterity. If you ever happen to be in the company of Fritz, please ask him to walk on his hands. I’m sure he’ll oblige you and you will be amazed.
Okay, those are four stories that immediately jumped into our heads whenever we think of the Fritzer. What we’d like to do now, however, is to give you a few examples of why we are so proud to call Fritz a friend: his incredible passion for personal finance. Here we go.
Fritz’s Good To Great Series
Move over JL Collins. Your stock series is awesome. But Fritz’s good-to-great retirement series is even more awesome. Here are all the posts in Fritz’s good-to-great retirement series. They’re a must read for anyone in retirement or on the cusp of retirement.
- How To Move From Good To Great: A rollicking overview of Fritz’s decision to downsize twice in 13 months!
- How To Move Your Retirement From Good To Great In 7 Days: The story of Fritz’s relocation to the Great cabin.
- When A Home Sale Explodes: The day the sale of Fritz’s Good Cabin imploded.
- Why Settle For A Good Retirement, When You Can Go For A Great One? Fritz’s guest post on Financial Samurai
- Why We’re Taking On Debt To Move From Good To Great: Why Fritz decided to take on debt for his “Great” cabin.
- The Final Step In Moving From Good To Great: Fritz’s move to Great is finally complete. Here’s the story behind The Final Step.
My Favorite Fritz-O-Graphics
Fritz is an infographic machine. In fact, we’ve always been kind of jealous of his ability to create such wonderful visual tools. Here are three of our favorites.
1. Fritz’s Retirement Bucket Strategy
2. Fritz’s Ultimate Pre-Retirement Checklist
3. Fritz’s Biblical Take on Early Retirement
Our Favorite Fritz Guest Appearances
Fritz is a prolific interviewee. Heck, he just had an interview with the Washington Post! And his popularity on the interview circuit is perfectly understandable. His encyclopedic knowledge of retirement and his infectious enthusiasm for personal finance make him a great guest/subject. Here are some of our favorite examples of his communication prowess.
- Radical Personal Finance Episode 280: Making the Transition to Retirement
- Choose FI Episode 043: Drawdown Strategy
- Choose FI Episode 054R: And the Guest Host Is….(FRITZ!)
- Mo Money Podcast Episode 093: How to Plan Your Retirement the Smart Way
- Richer Soul Episode 0059: Creating a Successful Early Retirement Plan
- Planet Boomerville Episode 29: The Baby Boomer Retirement Manifesto
- Retirement Wisdom: Preparing Well for the Soft Side of Retirement
- Rock Your Retirement Episode 117: Finding Meaning and Purpose in Retirement
Final Thoughts
What retirement is complete without providing your official way of saying FU to the tyranny of mandatory toil and proclaiming your official retirement song? Well, we’ve decided to take a little license and do these things for the Fritzer ourselves. Here is Fritz’s official retirement photo. We call it RM Gothic, short for Retirement Manifesto Gothic. (Mr. Groovy here: Sorry about the short hair, Jackie. I got to work on my graphic artist skills. You’re still beautiful, though.)
And because Fritz and Jackie will be RVing a lot more now that Fritz is retired, their official retirement song has to be Born To Be Wild.
Okay, groovy freedomist, that’s all we got. We hope you enjoyed our ode to FI Fritz. We certainly enjoyed putting it together for such a stellar member of the FI community. Have a great weekend. Cheers.
Love this! That story about the Uber driver gets me fired up every time. Terrific ode, congrats Fritz!
Right? And it was so….Fritz! So like him to help a stranger.
A wonderful testimony to Fritz’s contributions to the financial independence community! Nice work!
The Dividend Pig recently posted…Money in the Trough – May Dividend Stock Purchases – 2018
Thank you! He’s been such a stalwart in the community and a great friend!
It is great to follow the countdown and to finally see the day come for Fritz. You guys have done a really nice tribute. I didn’t realize that he helped coach you for podcasting, but he did a great job, because you sounded great on the ones I’ve heard. Can he work on your accent?!
We just returned from a trailer trip to Yosemite. I imagine the dream of being parked right along side the Gilberts some day. It just might happen!
Thank you, Susan. I don’t know about the accents. I think we’re stuck with them. I need to take a walk over to your blog to find out what you’ve written about Yosemite. I hope you had a blast!
Congrats Fritz May the next stage be as fun as the first.
Amen to that. Fritz and Jackie have many adventures planned already. It will be fun to watch them unfold.
What an awesome tribute! Congrats to Fritz and Jackie!
Gary @ Super Saving Tips recently posted…The 3 Best Tips to Save Hundreds on Funeral Expenses
Thanks, Gary! We’re so happy for the both of them.
LOVE, love, love Fritz. You guys and the Fritz’ are among my top 5 FI influencers by far. You’re both the best. Love you all immensely for being so awesome and being willing to share your astronomical wisdom.
Awww, thank you so much Laurie. You’re one of our besties, too. Truly.
Okay I had somehow missed the five year pre-retirement checklist, but I love it! Funny enough, I feel like people who are waiting until traditional retirement / later don’t have that countdown or thought toward retirement that many years in advance, even though I’d expect they are more than ready to get there five years out.
Again, congratulations Fritz!!
That checklist is a wonderful resource isn’t it? We didn’t have a five year plan. Although we were taking a lot of the right actions, we didn’t formulate specifics until three years out.
Fitz is such a great asset to the FI community. I’d love to meet him in person someday. He is so knowledgeable and never hesitates to help anyone.
Great summary.
His enthusiasm and generosity is truly amazing. Thanks, Joe.
So much love!! ❤️
It’s a LOVEFEST!
Ha what an ode. This was awesome….and congrats to Fritz. Oh what a feeling! Oh what a wonderful day.
Thanks, DDD. He’s had such an impact on us and the community.
This is awesome! Fritz really is a great guy so I’d say a tribute was definitely in order!
I had briefly exchanged emails with Fritz last fall regarding some feedback he was looking for in writing a book. Then we ran into each other on the first day of FinCon and that was it – it was like we’d known each other for years. We had a blast on that trip (and of course saved a man’s life!).
Fritz is a cool cat (like that one Groovies?!) and I’m truly excited for him and Jackie for their next adventure!
— Jim
Jim @ Route To Retire recently posted…Total Wireless… Same Verizon Network, Less $$$
Thank you so much for allowing us to use the excerpt from your post! Your depiction of the dialogue was priceless. I also remember hysterically laughing when that image of Fritz talking to the Uber driver was put out on Twitter. We were watching the conference tweets closely because we knew Vicki and Amy had something up their sleeves for Halloween.
Fritz is certainly as cool a cat as the Groovies. I’d say even more so. We may need to get a cat graphic for him, in fact.
A fitting tribute and a great friendship! Congrats to Fritz and Jackie!
Thanks, Brian. I can’t wait to hear about both of them having the time of their lives RVing around the national parks.
Wow. Learned a lot more about Fritz(er) above. I’m envious of his energy and focus, and c’mon! The Washington Post!
Amazing, and well deserved.
There is a lot to learn by his example too. Another Groovy post 😍
Fritz’s energy is totally infectious. And he’s so sincere, it’s just incredible!
I can’t wait to see his name in the Washington Post!
What a great tribute to a good friend! You guys nailed it! Awesome read to start the day today, thanks.
That phone call from Fincon was cool getting to talk to you, well, Mrs. Groovy anyway. I take it we’re going to have to do the same this year… sigh… 🙁
Have a great weekend!
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Thanks, Mr. SSC.
Yes, unfortunately we’ll need to phone it in again this year for FinCon. We realized that the conference schedule, plus the additional stopover each way of the drive, would take us away for too many consecutive days in the middle of a house build. Originally we thought we’d be closer to done by then.
Awww…how lovely! I’ve never met Jackie and am sure she is a beautiful person inside and out because Fritz is just a stellar individual. (I also marvel at her pottery talent – I’ve tried and pottery was so challenging!) Fritz has been such a wonderful resource in helping me and my blog get off the ground as have YOU both. I couldn’t be happier for him and his beloved – they are both incredible souls doing so much for the dogs! I wish them both (and their beautiful daughter) every single good thing ever!
Jackie is just as wonderful as Fritz. But knowing Fritz, I’m sure he’d say he got the better end of the deal by meeting and marrying her. Stellar is a great way of describing them. Or we could call them “good people” in the old southern tradition.
Love it! His generosity has helped so many.
Yes, Fritz is pure gold. Thanks for stopping by, Roger.
Wow. Just. Wow.
Seriously, I have no words. You two are truly amazing, and Jackie and I are honored speechless. Really, no words. Nope, none.
Amazing.
As a previous boss used to say, “You crush the bad ones and take care of the good ones.” You, my friend, are a good one. And our little ode was the least we could do to celebrate your financial independence. Congratulations, Fritz. Can’t wait to see what retirement has in store for you and Jackie. Talk to you soon.
P.S. You know we have to have a celebratory beer in Raleigh one of these days, right?
Woot! Awesome Ode to Fritzy! Nice compilation of some of his great works.
Congratulations Fritz! (and Jackie!)
He’s truly a legend. Glad we can make his crossing of the retirement Rubicon a little more memorable. Have a great weekend, Amy.
What a great story for a great guy! I promise my next bout of binge reading will include his stuff. So happy another one “made it”!
Hey, BE. One can not go wrong with more Fritz. Have a great weekend. See you tomorrow.
Nice ode!! I love the term “Groovy Ode”, it kind of rolls off the tongue. You should write more of these.
I think most of us are jealous of Fritz, and I only work part-time but I’m still jealous. Especially since he’ll be doing the RV thing. I’m increasingly thinking that might be a goal of mine at some point in the future.
Hey, AF. Couldn’t agree more. Fritz is a great guy and the concept of hitting the road in an RV is very intriguing. Perhaps a few years from now we can start a Sturgis of sorts for FIRE RVers. Have a great weekend, my friend.