As a 40-something woman with a small business to run, three teenagers to chase around and schoolwork to finish as I pursue a master’s degree, retirement sounds like a dream. I regularly promise myself that the next Powerball ticket I buy will be the big winner — a jackpot that will allow me to quit working, buy a bunch of land in the mountains and rescue lots of animals. But what if I do win the lottery? Could I walk away from the career I’ve built and find something else to do with my time? That might be harder than I imagine.
For many people approaching the typical retirement age, the thought of retiring can be terrifying. You’ve worked for so long. Your career has been a huge part of your identity. What will you do now that your job is no longer part of your daily life?
One of Merriam-Webster’s definitions of “retirement” is “withdrawal from one’s position or occupation or from active working life.” But what does that mean exactly? Read on to be inspired by three veterinarians who are retiring in three very different ways.
The Never-Stop-Practicing Retiree
Dr. Linda Jacobson and her husband, Peter, take in the beautiful sights of the Annapurna Range of the Himalayas.
Brooklyn native Linda Jacobson enjoyed life as an undergrad at Brooklyn College in the mid-1960s.
“I was just discovering Greenwich Village and folk music and hippies, so I was having a good time,” Dr. Jacobson said.
All that discovery and fun came at a cost. When she decided to apply to veterinary school, she had a 2.5 GPA.
“I worked so hard to be a vet. I was told, ‘You’ll never get into vet school. Be a doctor. Be an osteopath. But you can’t be a vet.’ And then I got into Tuskegee, which I thought was just a gift,” she said. “I’m forever grateful and a big supporter of the school.”
Dr. Jacobson’s acceptance into Tuskegee University’s veterinary school was the beginning of a long, successful career. After graduating in 1971, she applied for an internship at a Manhattan veterinary practice.
“They weren’t taking women then,” she recalled. “They said women didn’t make good interns.”
After the rejection, Dr. Jacobson worked as a general practitioner at a couple of New York clinics before starting a house-call practice in 1974, which had her driving around Brooklyn for several years.
“It was hard. I didn’t plan logistically, and this was before GPS,” she said. “Somebody would want me on one end of Brooklyn, and then another person would want me on the other end, and I’d go back and forth.”
Finally, Dr. Jacobson set up a veterinary clinic in her mother’s house.
“We started the practice in the enclosed front porch,” she said, “and we turned the basement into a full surgery and kennel.”
When neighbors got upset because people lined up outside with their dogs, Dr. Jacobson bought a building down the street and moved Jacobson Veterinary Clinic there in 1986. In 1999, while running her practice, she joined the board of directors at the North American Veterinary Community, publisher of Today’s Veterinary Business. She was elected NAVC president in 2005.
By 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, she was ready to sell her clinic.
With all that behind her now, the 80-something veterinarian isn’t ready to stop practicing.
“I don’t consider myself retired. Retirement isn’t in my plan. I just have more days off to do things,” she said.
She continues to work one day a week at the practice she owned for 46 years. It’s now called 4 Legged Friends Veterinary Clinic.
“I just love practicing so much,” she said, tears building in her eyes. “These animals, they’re family. I love the puppies. I love watching them grow up. I just love helping, and I can’t imagine not doing that anymore.”
Although Dr. Jacobson remains in practice once a week, most of her time these days is spent traveling with her husband — they recently visited Nepal — and enjoying life in Manhattan, where they live in a high-rise building with a rooftop pool.
“Every Saturday night during the summer, our neighbors get together for a roof party,” she said. “And we do a lot of theater and opera and museums — cultural stuff. We’re in New York, so we might as well live like it.”
The Keep-Moving Retiree
Dr. David Senior stays active in his retirement. Here, he pauses at Mills Lake during a hike in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain National Park.
On a typical day, Dr. David Senior gets up early to walk his dog 3.7 miles, works for the online education platform Vet and Tech, swims half a mile, walks the dog (again) to get his mail, reads a book, naps, takes a shower, enjoys cocktail hour with his wife, makes dinner, watches the news, chooses a movie or TV show, and then hits the sack.
Sounds like a lot? That’s because it is. And one day a week, he has “breakfast with the guy across the street.”
“At my age, I try to be as active as possible,” Dr. Senior said.
He graduated from the University of Melbourne School of Veterinary Science in 1969 and completed a surgery internship there in 1970.
Dr. Senior then moved his young family to Alberta, Canada, where he worked at a large animal practice for more than four years before heading to the United States.
Once settled, Dr. Senior completed a small animal internal medicine residency at the University of Pennsylvania and served there as an instructor and head of the intensive care unit. He later joined the University of Florida faculty and worked his way up to associate dean at Louisiana State University.
Throughout his career, Dr. Senior held various roles with the American Veterinary Medical Association, NAVC (including president in 1994), Brief Media and others. His work has taken him all over the world.
But the point came when he knew he had to slow professionally.
“When you get older, you realize you can’t really keep up,” he said. “You have the experience but aren’t quite where you used to be. You can’t remember things immediately, and these younger people are so much better. That’s when you know it’s time.”
Even after coming to that realization, Dr. Senior couldn’t quit completely. Since retiring as best he can, he has lectured in Europe and is a contract program coordinator for Vet and Tech.
Dr. Senior spends about 20 hours a month with Vet and Tech, giving him plenty of time to stay active in the beautiful surroundings of Colorado, which he and his wife now call home.
“I’m taking advantage while I can. I can still swim, ride a bike and walk a good distance,” he said. “And every now and then, I’ll climb the local hills.”
The Do-What-Makes-You-Happy Retiree
Dr. Earl Gaughan with his daughter Jesse and the Remount Foundation team.
Equine veterinarian Dr. Earl Gaughan considers himself fully retired.
“But I still talk to old friends and help them out on occasion if they ask for my opinion on things like radiographs,” he said. “It keeps my head in the game, but I stopped getting a paycheck.”
Dr. Gaughan also isn’t paid for his work with the Remount Foundation. The Colorado Springs, Colorado, organization uses horses to assist military veterans, active-duty personnel, first responders and their families with mental health issues.
“I’ve had close family members and friends in the profession experience mental health struggles,” Dr. Gaughan said. “None of us are very far away from this.”
Large animals have been his focus since he graduated from the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine in 1981. After spending the first year of his career at a Vermont dairy practice, Dr. Gaughan realized his preference for horses and headed to a mixed-animal practice in Maryland, where he spent four years.
A subsequent three-year residency at Cornell led to faculty positions at Kansas State, Auburn and Virginia-Maryland. Dr. Gaughan’s career eventually took him to an equine practice in Colorado, followed by an eight-year stint with the equine unit of Merck Animal Health. He retired in 2022.
Throughout his career, Dr. Gaughan stayed involved in industry organizations, including the American College of Veterinary Surgeons and NAVC, where he served as president in 2009.
Today, he spends his days doing what he loves, including the hobbies he didn’t have time for while working as a veterinarian.
“I’ve brought back some interests from earlier in life that got put on the shelf for 40 years,” he said. “I love oil painting, but I also work with some leather and do some saddle making.”
While he enjoys being artistic, Dr. Gaughan’s face lights up when discussing his volunteer work with the Remount Foundation.
“Some warriors will come in who have been experiencing physical traumatic brain injury symptoms. And when they get in the presence of these horses, a lot of their symptoms just go away,” he said.
One veteran, David, left a lasting impression. After surviving very dark days, David showed up at the Remount Foundation office. The woman who runs the organization did the opposite of what the Veterans Administration typically does. She asked him not to share his story.
“He told her he thought the world would be better off without him,” Dr. Gaughan said. “And then the woman told him to go out into a pen of horses and see what happens.”
Later, David told Dr. Gaughan that he was scared of horses even though he was “kind of a big, bad warrior dude.”
“But he walked out there, and it took about 20 minutes for this one sorrel mare to walk over and just stand beside him,” Dr. Gaughan said. “When David touched her chest, he decided he would come back again the next day.”
According to Dr. Gaughan, that was the first day David realized he would be OK. He was going to make it.
“It brings tears to my eyes,” Dr. Gaughan said. “It’s so humbling to hear the stories of what other people do for you and me, and they pay a pretty hefty price. It makes me happy to try to help them.
“Maybe retirement is just about doing what makes you happy as long as you’re doing something.”
HOW TO RETIRE RIGHT
Retirement can mean different things to different people. Wherever it takes you, remember these tips for staying young long after you hang up your stethoscope.
1. Fill your time.
Dr. Linda Jacobson: “Complete retirement is probably one step in the grave unless you have other interests to fill your time.”
Dr. David Senior: “It’s important to do something with your time. Pick up a new hobby.”
Dr. Earl Gaughan: “I jokingly say I traded in my full-time paying job for a full-time volunteer job without a paycheck. But that’s OK. I’m getting paid in other ways.”
2. Find support.
Dr. Jacobson: “You need family and friends. In a profession like this, which can be really stressful, you need to have people to talk to and people you can lean on for support.”
Dr. Senior: “My wife and I had to actively generate a social group, but it paid off. Those connections are priceless.”
Dr. Gaughan: “It’s important to establish and maintain new, meaningful relationships after retirement.”
3. Maintain a veterinary mindset.
Dr. Jacobson: “A whole group of us retired vets are in demand because there’s a lack of veterinarians. You can basically write your own ticket. There are plenty of job opportunities if you want to stay involved in any capacity.”
Dr. Senior: “It’s important to keep your foot in the door, even if it’s just a little bit.”
Dr. Gaughan: “Helping friends with veterinary advice helps to keep my head in the game.”
4. Don’t dwell on having a purpose.
Dr. Gaughan: “I don’t want someone to get depressed because they don’t have some grandiose ‘I’m changing the world’ purpose. Sometimes, our purpose might be as simple as talking to someone and helping them get started on something.”
5. Prepare mentally and financially.
Dr. Gaughan: “You might get a lost feeling after retiring. Suddenly, you don’t have the same drivers pushing you up. Take some time before retiring to get your finances in order and explore your interests and the things that will keep you feeling young.”
6. Be flexible.
Dr. Gaughan: “You never know what’s coming tomorrow, so it’s important to be malleable.”
COMING AND GOING
According to an AARP story posted at bit.ly/3YPfQRy, retirees who moved out of state in 2023 most often headed to Florida, South Carolina, New Jersey, Texas and Washington. The states most frequently exited by retirees were California, New York, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania.