The Retirement Survey
I got a reminder today from Cornell University to participate in their Retirement Activity Survey. I decided to fill it out more for interest about what they were asking and trying to sort out rather than to be a good retiree. To begin with, I feel a little funny being considered a Cornell faculty retiree. Yes, I taught at Cornell for ten years and yes, as a 50% employee I qualified for retirement benefits, which I am happy to have. But the truth is that I could no sooner live off my Cornell retirement than I could off my social security….probably much less so. But I am, technically, a Cornell retiree and I try to get the most out of it even though I am only occasionally in Ithaca (I do have a house there for a few more years…more on that later).
It seemed to me that the survey wanted mostly to understand three things: 1.) Do you use the retiree services provided and which do you value? 2.) Do you volunteer in various ways for University-related activities or are you a generally good citizen of the Cornell retiree world or are you a slug, and 3.) Do you still work somewhere else or part-time for the University and are you otherwise supplementing your retirement income?
I can’t speak to all the retiree services, but I am sure that if I was fully retired and living in Ithaca, it would be an idyllic world of attending free lectures, concerts and art exhibitions and generally tapping all the great stuff at a large research university. As for volunteering, I think it’s great that Cornell tries to sponsor volunteerism, something I think of which everyone should partake. There is no better way to get people motivated to do things in this regard than to ask them if they are doing any of a list of things. It genuinely makes people think twice about how they may be wasting their time and perhaps what they should be doing to pitch in. As for the last type of question, I am a bit more suspicious of the intended purpose other than pure voyeurism. I am not a private person, but I also don’t want anyone using my activity pattern to decide I don’t really need or can otherwise afford on my own, whatever offerings I am not currently using.
This survey is like the monthly AARP magazine I have been getting for ten years. I do not toss it in the trash until I have read it lightly from front to back. I want to know what’s going on in this new group I am joining. I probably read it more over the last decade due to my “academic” interest in pensions and the retirement phenomenon. Now I read it for that purpose and to see if there are topics that specifically apply to me. I must admit that I skip most of the money management stuff (at least one third of every issue) on the theory that I know so much more about the topic than most of the people who write those articles. Another third of the stuff is about health-related stuff that is either for very old people heading to managed care or hospice or its preventative maintenance. I should probably pay attention to the preventative topics, but I can’t bring myself to be a latecomer to the arena of being careful and attentive to my lifestyle choices. I have spent 65 years largely ignoring that stuff, not for good reason and perhaps to my detriment, but I can’t bring myself to start now. I am reminded of that old W.C. Fields story about him asking for a bible on his deathbed. When asked why he said, “looking for loopholes.”
I sometimes feel bad that I have a nice underutilized house in Ithaca that I pay taxes, maintenance and utilities for. I “bought” this house twenty-three years ago from the University. Actually, I took a 99-year leasehold, something that most Americans barely understand (much more common in the UK). Financially speaking, that is as close to an outright purchase as you can get, given the net present value of the asset. That will mean little or nothing to most people, but it was good enough for me. I understood that the University wanted to never completely lose control of property that was so close to its main campus (the house is one of only two directly on the Robert Trent Jones University Golf Course). I was in my “shrewd” stage, so I did a fancy-ass tax deal where I gave the leasehold back to the Business School with a twenty-five year life use of the property. That means I would get a nice tax deduction and use it for 25 years if I lived that long (so far, so good). I then completely renovated the place and put in a pool and a carriage house to make is a very nice property that I am supposed to give back in 2021.
Here’s the thing (and yes, I know Cornell people read my blog so I’m not making a big secret of any of this), this is a strange deal that sits in an old file somewhere in the Business School. None of the people there in 1996 are there now. It does not fit neatly into any category of giving. The Business School does not have a property management unit like the University does, so who would maintain it? The tax, maintenance and utility costs more or less equal the value one could derive out of leasing the property year-round. I suspect that one of several things will happen in 2021: a.) No one at the Business School will realize it’s time for them to take it (the tax bills are sent to me), b.) If they realize it they will try to ignore it so they don’t have to deal with it, or c.) They will try to make a deal with me to either just take it for some use I don’t know about or ask me to keep it for the time being. I, in turn have to decide how I want to handle this and that has more to do with my kids and whether they want to use it. I have already decided I could give them a nice check for free vacations that would be a lot cheaper than maintaining a property I don’t use.
Luckily I have two plus years to figure it all out. Now there’s a solid post-retirement activity none of us anticipated. I should have done a write-in on the survey and said something like “looking for tax and University donation loopholes.”