The Man With the Truck: What Volunteering Taught Me About Retirement

I spent part of this week chopping vegetables.

Not in my kitchen, nor for my own dinner – if it was, the Wife would have thought she’s died and gone to heaven – but in a commercial kitchen, surrounded by colleagues I don't normally see outside of meetings, trying to keep up with a chef who was explaining, with the calm authority of someone who has said this a thousand times, exactly how to julienne a carrot without losing a finger.

It was our company's annual community day. More than thirty of us had signed up to volunteer at a food rescue organisation – one of those operations doing quiet, unglamorous, essential work: picking up food that would otherwise go to landfill, turning it into meals, and getting those meals to people who need them. We were broken into four teams, handed an assortment of rescued ingredients, and given three hours to make something edible out of them.

Our team made a vegetarian cannelloni. I am completely unbiased when I tell you it was the best of the four meals prepared that day.

In three hours, we were told, our group had saved around 50 kilograms of food from going to waste. Fifty kilograms. That's not nothing. Fifty kilograms in three hours, before anyone had finished their second coffee.

But the number isn't the part of the day that stayed with me.

During a break between chopping and filling and rolling, one of my colleagues mentioned that her father volunteers with the same organisation. Not occasionally, not once a year on community day – three times a week. His job is to drive one of the organisation's trucks through a designated area, collecting food from partner supermarkets, then delivering it to charities and community organisations, or back to headquarters where groups like ours, and the regular volunteers and staff, would turn it into meals.

He's retired. He loves it.

She said he talks about it the way some people talk about a job they're lucky to have – with that particular combination of purpose and ease that you only find when the thing you're doing aligns with who you actually are. Giving back. Being useful. Spending his time on something that matters beyond himself.

Then she laughed and added: "And having a captive passenger in the truck gives him someone to talk to."

There's something in that image – a man, his truck, his route, his passenger, three times a week – that feels like a portrait of retirement done quietly right. Not glamorous. Not Instagram-worthy. No bucket list, no grand reinvention. Just a person who found a way to be useful in the world and keeps showing up to do it.

We talk a lot about purpose in retirement – how to find it, how to maintain it, how to make sure the years ahead mean something. The conversation tends to get abstract fairly quickly. Purpose becomes a concept to optimise rather than a thing to stumble into on a Tuesday morning while someone explains how to julienne a carrot.

But I wonder if the driver with the truck has worked it out more simply than most of us. He didn't construct a purpose framework. He signed up for something concrete – a truck, a route, a schedule – and let the meaning accumulate on its own.

Show up. Be useful. Have someone to talk to.

I'm not sure what I expected from a company volunteer day. Some team bonding, probably. A mild sense of virtue. Maybe a decent meal at the end of it.

What I didn't expect was to come home thinking about what a good retirement might actually look like – not as a financial destination, but as a life with a truck route in it.

The cannelloni was excellent, for what it's worth. The chef would probably disagree with a few of my cuts. But the 50 kilograms are real, the meals went out the door, and somewhere there's a man with a truck who will be back at it again on Monday.

That's not a bad way to spend a life.

Have you found your truck route yet? Or are you still figuring out what it looks like?

👉 Hit reply and share your thoughts – I’d love to hear what’s resonating with you.

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Your Investment Passport – Account Opening Requirements

Welcome back, L-Plate Retirees! After picking your ideal investment partner in our last session, the next logical step in Getting Started with Investing is opening your investment account. Think of this as getting your investment passport – it’s your official entry into the world of financial markets. Just like we learned about Personal Financial Assessment, choosing the right account type is crucial for aligning with your financial goals and tax situation.

There are several types of investment accounts, each with its own perks and rules:

• Brokerage Accounts: These are your standard, flexible accounts. You can invest in a wide range of Investment Vehicles, but profits are generally subject to capital gains and income taxes.

• Retirement Accounts (e.g., IRA, 401k): These are tax-advantaged accounts designed specifically for retirement savings. They offer tax benefits (like tax-deferred growth or tax-free withdrawals in retirement), which ties back to our discussions on Investment Costs and Efficiency.

• Education Savings Accounts (e.g., 529 plans): Specialized accounts for saving for educational expenses, often with tax benefits.

• Custodial Accounts: Accounts set up for minors, managed by an adult until the child reaches a certain age.

Opening an account isn't like buying a loaf of bread; there's a bit of paperwork involved. You'll need to provide personal information for identity verification (often called KYC – Know Your Customer). This includes your full name, address, date of birth, and a tax identification number (like a Social Security Number in the US). Financial institutions are legally bound to verify who you are and assess if the investments you choose are suitable for you, a key aspect of Risk Management.

You'll also need to outline your investment objectives and risk tolerance. Remember our deep dive into Risk and Return Fundamentals? This is where that knowledge comes into play, ensuring your investments match your comfort level with risk.

Finally, you'll need to fund your account. This can be done through bank transfers (ACH), wire transfers, or even rolling over funds from an old retirement plan. Each method has its own processing time and potential fees, so choose wisely.

L-Plate Takeaways:

• Choose Your Account Wisely: Match your account type to your financial goals (retirement, education, general investing) and tax situation.

• Be Ready for Paperwork: Have your personal identification and financial information handy for the KYC process.

• Know Your Risk: Clearly define your investment objectives and risk tolerance to ensure suitable investments.

• Fund Smartly: Understand the different funding options and their implications for speed and cost.

• Tax-Savvy Investing: Leverage tax-advantaged accounts like IRAs or 401(k)s for long-term goals.