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PHYSICIAN
RETIREMENT

Retirement: Now What?

By Stephen C. Fitzer, BS, MIM, CEO/Executive Director of the Bexar County Medical Society

I am a baby-boomer. Like many of my gen- a time when we would be able to take a rest. Illinois, my family and I moved back to Texas,
eration, my entire life has been work-work- Once we win the race to retirement, then what? built our retirement home and called Boerne
work. It is the way I was brought up and it is For Boomers, the race to retirement means home. Long story short, I was too young to re-
how many of my generational friends think. wanting to retire early and have a comfortable tire and quickly figured that out. So after just
Baby boomers were raised with an attitude of life that allows for doing all the things that we six months, I started looking for another oppor-
personal responsibility and the value of hard would like to do, or just relax and enjoy life. So, tunity. Then, after working another five years
work, and wore them as badges of honor. We I decided to give retirement a try, at the age of (taking me up to the ripe old age of 57), I de-
took pride in earning and saving, providing for 52. I decided there was enough money accu- cided to give retirement another go. I learned a
our families, paying the house off, funding the mulated to retire and took that giant retirement lot more the second time around, but ulti-
kids’ college accounts, and racing to retirement, step. Selling the company I had invested in in mately failed that retirement test as well.

22 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • April 2021