Kim Hurt:  

I read a book titled, "The Adventure's Guide To Early Retirement" by Billy & Akaisha Kaderli a few years ago. I caught up with them in Chiang Mai, Thailand and we became friends. It was my privilege to be interviewed by them for an article on their website. The following is the interview. It will give you a lot of insight into what I have been doing since graduating from West High: The journey towards retirement is different for everyone. Since we are all on various places on this continuum, we thought Kim Hurt's account of leaving the working world and entering retirement would be informative to those of you who will be facing that challenge soon yourselves. Kim purchased our book, The Adventurer's Guide to Early Retirement, then tracked us down while we were living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. After many personal discussions about himself, - both his past and what his shift to retirement is like - we thought his story was intriguing and worth sharing. At the age of 11, Kim first lost his Mother, then after being the primary caregiver for his Father when he was ill, 5 years later his Father died. He credits his Father for giving him a moral compass and in guiding him to strengthen his character, especially during the time his peers were being tempted by drugs and a salacious lifestyle. He earned scholarships in order to attend college and since he was on his own early in life, he learned the value of being self reliant and having relationship skills. Kim, thanks for taking the time to answer a few of our questions about your newest adventure, retiring early. Could you tell us how old you are, and how far along you are in your transition to full retirement? I turned 57 on September 19th of 2007. My quest to position myself to be able to stop working and take up my passion for travel began in earnest about two years ago in 2005. If you define full retirement as meaning that you can pick up and leave at any time, be gone for an indefinite period and have no work responsibili- ties, I would say I am about 75% there. I have a pretty conservative nature and rather than just chucking my career and jumping into retirement, I decided to phase myself into retirement. In February of 2007 I began planning a two month adventure. Southeast Asia was my destination of choice which was inspired by your book, The Adventure's Guide To Early Retirement. Thank you. Could you tell our readers a little about your business background? After graduating from Northern Arizona University in 1972, I was recruited into a management training program with a company named Trus-Joist Manufact- uring in Phoenix, Arizona. They transferred me to Santa Rosa, CA in November of 1972. Trus-Joist is in the construction supply business. Due to a severe recession in the commercial construction industry in 1975 they closed the Santa Rosa facility. I was the assistant manufacturing plant manager at the time they closed. I did not want to move from the Santa Rosa area so in 1975 I got my real estate license and began my new career. In 1980 I, along with two coworkers purchased the real estate company we worked for. For 14 of the next 18 years I was the managing broker for our company which employed 32 sales people. I sold my interest in the real estate company in 1998. I affiliated with a friend's firm at the time and still have a desk at that office. I truly love helping people and I get great joy from serving people as their real estate representative. I decided in 2005 to position myself to follow my passion for travel. How long have you been planning Early Retirement? And what gave you the final push to make the commitment? I started considering my options regarding retirement in early 2005. I knew that if I wanted to travel I would need to redirect my equity in real estate into other investments that did not require me to manage them. By the end of 2006 I had converted much of my real estate equity into investments that do not require management on my part. At that point I was financially independent and no longer needed to work. I heard the two of you being interviewed by radio talk show host Clark Howard sometime in 2006 and the timing was perfect. I knew my passion was to travel but I did not know exactly where to start or how to go about it. I purchased your book, The Adventure's Guide To Early Retirement, and it was the perfect vehicle to help me create a vision of how to go about making the break from everyday work life. Your book is truly what gave me the push to make the commitment. What has been your biggest challenge to taking the plunge? I really had two equally large challenges to taking the plunge: 1. A big challenge has been to make sure the people in my real estate business, my clients, many of whom have become good friends and who depend on me, are well taken care of in my absence. Fortunately I have been able to resolve this issue. 2. I had several real estate investments which I personally managed. Property management is very time consuming and I knew if I wanted to travel extensively I would have to eliminate or at least substantially reduce my management responsibilities. In addition, the return on my equity (cash flow) from the properties was low because while the properties had gone up substantially in value over the years, the rents had not. I needed ...Expand for more