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That would never leave you hanging in the deep end. And this place is a way of giving you new family. Fire Country, all episodes now streaming on Paramount Plus. Good morning, I'm Jane Pauley, and this is a special edition of Sunday Morning, our money issue. Today, we're focusing on retirement, a magical word that for many conjures visions of enjoying the good life after years, even decades, of hard work.
all of which makes our retirement savings a crucial consideration. We'll take a closer look at that. And then we turn to Susan Spencer, who tells us how, for many lucky Americans, retirement means finally having a chance.
Well go for it. For author Maria Leonard Olson, keeping a bucket list has been a decades-long obsession. Three, two, one. A bucket list is a list of all the things you want to do before you die. That sounds slightly morbid.
It doesn't have to be. It can be a celebration of the time we have here. The do's and don'ts of bucket lips ahead on Sunday morning. It's been more than five decades since Cheech Morin met Tommy Chong and a legendary comedy team was born. Fifty years on, they've proven there's no retiring from funny.
This morning they're looking back on some truly high times with Tracy Smith. Cheech Marin and Thomas Chong made their names and their fortunes doing things their unique way. And now they're taking sort of a victory lap. You both could retire. I mean, financially, you're well off.
Yeah, but we don't want to retire. The crazy, amazing story of Cheech and Chong later on Sunday morning. Seth Doan will introduce us to some retirees who found the grasses a lot greener on the other side of the Atlantic. What made you choose Malta? It really was love at first sight.
Why? The peace, the quiet, the way of life. Whether lifestyle, community, adventure, or because it's easier than ever. What are the pluses and minuses to retiring overseas?
Well, one of the biggest ones is the cost of living. Why more retirees are going global? Coming up. this Sunday morning. David Pogue looks at the past, present, and future of Social Security.
Connor Knighton visits a very different sort of retirement community in Louisiana for chimpanzees. Robert Costa gets the inside scoop on AARP, the influential nonprofit for Americans of any age. Faith Saley meets some grandfluencers, older folks who become surprise stars online. Kellefasane introduces us to the man known as the father of the 401k. Martha Teischner visits a fifty-five and up community capturing the tropical vibes of Jimmy Buffett's distinctive music.
Luke Burbank meets some younger Americans taking extreme measures to save, and retire early. Really early. Plus, Lee Cowan on how retired military aircraft are once again flying high. and more on this special edition of Sunday morning. We'll be back in a moment.
However, the economic winds are blowing, for some 90 years Social Security has been a vital financial safety net for older Americans.
Now, as David Pogue tells us, many people are wondering just how safe that safety net is.
Social Security recipients are dealing with an unbelievable amount of chaos.
Social Security has been getting a lot of attention lately, and not the good kind. We paid it in and now we want to take it out and live with dignity. The Social Security Administration was already at its smallest size in fifty years when earlier this year, Elon Musk's Doge team cut another fourteen percent of its employees, seven thousand people. The chainsaw for bureaucracy. Frank Bizignano is President Trump's new Social Security Commissioner.
In an interview with CBS Evening News last spring, he insisted that the cuts won't affect people's ability to collect their benefits. We're bringing in a massive technology effort to transform the servicing agenda. We're going to bring AI into the phone system. I intend it to be completed this year. I'm getting calls now all the time from people that can't get through on the telephone, from people that can't get appointments in the field offices.
And it will in some cases delay benefits. This is a very tough thing for millions of Americans. Michael Astrew was the commissioner of the Social Security Administration under George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He takes particular issue with something Musk often said about Social Security before he left the government in May.
Elon Musk keeps saying that hundreds of millions of dollars are going to illegal. Immigrants. He's just lying. And that's one of the most ridiculous things I've heard anyone say in Washington. He's got it exactly backwards.
So they pay in. But they don't collect. In fact, what experts worry about is not fraud, which the agency itself estimates is below 1 100th of 1% of payouts. It's the Social Security time bomb. This social security measure gives at least some protection.
to thirty millions of our citizens President Franklin Roosevelt created the program in 1935 during the Great Depression as a safety net to help keep Americans out of poverty. The idea was that the government would take a small piece out of every worker's paycheck. And pay it to people reaching retirement age. Today, those checks average about $2,000 a month. and they're the primary source of income for 40% of older Americans.
If Social Security were not here, you'd have about 22 million Americans who would be considered poor under the federal standards. For years, this all worked pretty well.
Social Security became America's biggest government program. Today, it pays $1.6 trillion in retirement, disability, and survivor benefits to 73 million Americans. But when World War II ended, there was a shock to the system. Post-war America, with a building boom and a baby boom. And all those baby boomer babies?
got older.
Now there are a lot more people getting money from the system and a lot fewer people. paying in. And We started living longer. In FDR's day, the average age of death in America was 63 years old. Today, it's 77.
That's 14 years more payments per person. You will hear a lot of people saying there will be no Social Security for you. And that's, in all likelihood, not true.
So if Congress does nothing, they'll get about 80% of what they get now. And that will be a significant hit for a lot of Americans. That hit is expected to arrive in 2033. That's eight years from now. We've seen this moment coming for years.
All kinds of solutions have been kicked around. We could increase the tax a little. we could shrink the payments a little. We could delay the retirement age, which is now defined as sixty two. Or if you're a high earner, Today you're taxed on only the first portion of your income.
So we could tax more of your income by raising that cap. Or eliminating it altogether. Finally, we could invest your Social Security contributions in the stock market instead of Treasury bills, but that's really risky. A market crash could wipe the whole thing out overnight. Than people.
Astru expects it'll be some combination of those ideas. The likelihood is that Congress will panic. right toward the deadline. there will be some cuts in benefits and there'll be some increase in taxation. In the meantime, Astru worries about the more immediate problem The indiscriminate cuts.
The way they're doing it, which is just meat acts cuts that are fairly random, is not the way. It's actually going to impair the agency's ability to make productive changes. And to be clear, you are a Republican? I am. I voted for.
President Trump.
So I'm all for change, but I'm all for intelligent change. And the people who are trying to drive this change don't understand the system. I don't think they care. Many of us have dreams about what we'll do when we retire.
Some of us even draw up bucket lists, and as Susan Spencer discovered, Anything goes. Watching her quietly do crafts at home. You'd hardly guess what 83-year-old Bobby Oxford really wants to do. At the top of her bucket list, driving a race car, a real race car. How fast do you want to go?
As fast as I can. Maybe 130. 130 miles an hour? I would like. You really would.
You're serious. I'm serious. She's been serious for some six decades, since as a teenager she had to watch the hot cars from the side lines while her brother went drag racing. I would go and see him race. But you weren't allowed to race.
Not then. Because you were a girl. Yeah. But times have changed and Bobby, who retired from her day job at 69, says she has never been more ready to hit the track.
Well left. We have a plant. You're holding the wheel, you're in the car, the motor is running. and you can hear it. That's the adrenaline.
And it's purring. It's purring. It's saying, come on, Bobby, let's go. It doesn't have to do any persuading. No, not at all.
But you would concede that not many 83-year-olds probably share this dream. Yes, I would. And yet she's not that unusual. In a Stanford University study, nine out of ten people said they'd made a bucket list. 15% included something daring.
I want to go skydiving. What is the appeal of skydiving? It's scary. It's something that not everyone will do. I am afraid of heights.
It is on your bucket list. It's on my list. Maria Leonard Olson is what you might call a professional bucket lister. The 62-year-old attorney turned author started her bucket list more than a decade ago. How about, let's see, getting a tattoo.
I have three. Oh, scratch that one off the list. How about hot air balloons? I already did that. What?
I did that. We're 6,000 feet up in. In a hot air balloon. I am frightened, but I'm doing it. Here we go.
Is there anything that you absolutely would not put on a bucket list. Bungee jumping. Smart girl. There's nothing that appeals to me about hanging upside down. But this would be the ultimate challenge.
It might be. We'll see. I think it goes on the list. Know what I did for my 65th? What?
Took unicycle lessons. Trying to jump up into the air, bring your weight. Good. I would do that. Yeah.
Thank you for that idea. Put that on your list. I will put it on my list. Go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go. Yes!
Also on her list, so much travel she needs a map to keep it all straight. You've hit 70 countries so far? I have, and I'm striving for 100. 120 would be even better. She's already checked off Antarctica for For good.
I did a polar plunge. I jumped into the water. It was horrible. It felt insane. It was insane.
I'm sorry. Suck it list or not. Three, two, one. So what does it feel like to take a polar plunge? Like a thousand needles injected into your body.
Oh my god, that's terrible. This is not pleasant. It's not pleasant, but it really made me feel alive. My gosh, it was crazy. Isn't there a phenomenon as we get older where we're less interested in what other people think?
Yes, I think older people are more likely to do what they want. Dr. Richard Friedman, a psychiatrist at Weill Cornell in New York City, has a friend whose 96-year-old mother recently went skydiving. He says chasing thrills is okay, at any age, as long as we do it for the right reasons. I would simply say go with the things that you love, even if you think that they're not all that curious to other people.
Do them because you want to do them.
So how much of our bucket listing, if you will, is motivated by a need to show the rest of the world how interesting we are? Probably a fair amount because we see novelty seeking as socially desirable.
So for example, studies have been done in which people are asked, what kinds of foods do you order in restaurants when you're by yourself versus with other people? And it turns out that people will order more exotic choices when they're around others, in part because they think it's desirable to be open to novelty than to pick what it is like a hamburger that they have been. I've been in high school. We're social creatures. Oh my god, it's a scare me!
But Bobby Oxford's need for speed is real. The day after our interview, we met her at a racetrack near her Colorado home. In full racing regalia, and with a busload of astonished friends. Thanks to Wish of a Lifetime, a charitable affiliate of the AARP. Bobby finally would get to put the pedal to the metal.
In a no-joking around NASCAR racing vehicle. It must have been at least 120 miles an hour. Maybe 75. Maybe 75. Does this take this off your bucket list?
Yes, ma'am. At any speed, racing is clearly Bobby's speed. Take it quick. Ticky quick, ticky quick! 20 years from now, Maria Leonard Olson may be right behind her.
So, retirees, listen up. We are told retirement can be about going off into the sunset and relaxing, but that's not for me. Maybe it will be at some point, but not yet. It's become a rite of passage for many of us, maturing into middle age and beyond, joining AARP. Our Robert Costa pages through its storied history.
Yeah. Oh my god! There is such good energy in this room. Drew Barrymore is beloved for her youthful energy. She also turned 50 earlier this year.
And in a recent chat on her talk show set, she embraced being on the cover of AARP. The magazine. Everyone keeps telling me that this magical age of 50 is when you really start to let go of things. And I would love that to be true. AARP.
Today we empower people to choose how they live as they age. Aging is a tricky business, but it is the business of AARP. The nonprofits magazine's readership is staggering, nearly 40 million people. The average issues audience, the largest for any print publication in America. In the magazine, what we're trying to say is: we get you, we're going to talk.
about things that matter to you because you matter. At 86, Myrna Blythe is editorial director. We know health works, money works, lifestyle works. Advertisers and celebrities recognize the power of older Americans. How did you get Bob Dylan to be on the cover?
He called us and asked us. He called you? Yes. Dylan doesn't call anybody. He called the editor.
We're all growing old at the same rate. And you know, it's rather comforting to know that Time just can't be managed. In 1958, educator Ethel Percy Andrus founded AARP after growing alarmed about the struggles facing older people. Is there still a sense of alarm? About the state of affairs for older Americans?
Definitely. As a nonprofit organization, Dr. Maesha Minter Jordan is now the CEO. We represent 110 million Americans who are in the 50 plus demographic. People are living longer, they're staying in the workforce longer, and so the needs are changing, but the needs are still urgent.
In 1999, they stopped being the American Association of Retired Persons and became just AARP. While it is nonpartisan, it's not immune from controversy. Over the years, it has been criticized from left and right for its lobbying efforts. What are your members worried about? Our members are most worried about Medicare, Social Security, and family caregiving.
They don't think those things will be there for them? They're very concerned. This is something that people are earning their entire life. They're paying into for Social Security, and they're very concerned about their access to that. And additionally, family caregiving.
We're hearing more and more from people who are in the sandwich generation, taking care of younger children, taking care of their aging parents, and the financial hardships that that can bring. As for the future, it's about welcoming new generations. We're growing up, and now we get to be on air. ARP. And Drew Barrymore is excited about everything to come.
When you look down the horizon at your own life, how do you think about age, and even possibly retirement. I had never thought about the concept of retirement. because I started working at 11 months old. And I'm still working. I've never known what life is like without that.
So, It seems like an exciting prospect. But things are so good right now. That I don't want to be unappreciating everything that's happening in my life right now.
So, It's not Soon. But it's something That like I get excited about dancing with in some ballroom one night. Like this new stranger will walk in and sweep me off my feet and his name will be retirement.
Some American retirees are finding the good life by going global. Seth Doan introduces us to a few of them.
Well, that's right. That one's not a good idea.
Well this is nice. Lovely out there. Welcome to Gozo. Had you ever heard of Gozo? Did you know where Gozo was?
I barely knew where Malta was.
Now Gozo is home. It's part of Malta, a picturesque Mediterranean archipelago where Californians Mary Charlebois and Kevin Scanlon chose to retire. Hit 70, and it's, you know, hey. I only have so much time left, time to enjoy. music and dancing and Wine, food.
It really was love at first sight. And then there's the low cost of living. We would never have been able to stop working. We couldn't live on our Social Security. And that's really what we both wanted.
And here we do it easily and we have a a good standard of life here. Much better actually. Their rent for starters is $750 a month. One of the things you wanted Was a view. A view.
Definitely. And you got it. We got it. They were able to get rid of their carp, and they say groceries cost half what they did in the U.S. Kismet.
Yeah. Rental income from their California house helps the couple qualify for a visa. What about health care? What if either of you got really sick? Would you want to go back to the U.S.?
I was in the hospital. Couple of days here. Part of our residency is that we have to carry private insurance, which is less expensive than Medicare charges, and it pays 100%. And the quality of care? It was great.
I started looking at Italy, did a deep dive and realized how hard it was going to be when I don't speak the language. Retiring in a country where English is widely spoken is what drew Lisa Kleinschus Kamamoto to Malta a year ago. She worked with PricewaterhouseCoopers to help with the paperwork. They determined that I could probably do this on a certain type of visa, the Malta Retirement Program for third country nationals. Her Social Security income helps her qualify.
She's among about 800,000 people receiving those benefits abroad. What do you miss about the U.S.?
Well, not much. I have found everything I did in Seattle. I can do here. I volunteered at the animal shelter, found a Bollywood class, which is really good. Go to the gym.
And I walk everywhere like I walked in Seattle. The family, friends. They come. I mean, I've had probably a visitor every month since I moved here. I think it has never been easier to retire overseas than it is today.
Jennifer Stevens is executive editor of International Living, a publication which offers advice and seminars for those considering living or retiring abroad. It's not by chance that this conference is taking place on the beach in Portugal. It's beautiful here. It's for some people the first time in their lives that they can make a decision about where they're going to live. It's not about where a job took them.
They can kind of decide and have that freedom. Foreigners, expatriate. The three-day seminar earlier this year gave a taste of life budgeting and finding a home in Europe. 52-year-old Ron Devlin from Los Angeles is considering Portugal or Greece. This was a fast-track opportunity to actually hear about all of those different countries and consider them all at the same time.
The organizers are calling it speed dating for retirement. Yes, yeah. Budget is the top reason retirees are looking overseas in increasing numbers, says Jennifer Stevens. You really can live well on a Social Security tech in a lot of these places and live at a level of comfort that you would be hard pressed to enjoy in the U.S. on the same budget.
But Lisa Kleinch's Kamamoto adds another reason. I knew I needed another adventure in my life, so here I am. I have this motto, nothing happens unless first a dream. Not long ago, many Americans counted on pensions to sustain them through their golden years. Then, along came the 401k, which changed everything.
So, where did it come from? California goes straight to the surprising source. If you've recently been spending lots of time thinking about your retirement account, You can probably thank this unassuming 83-year-old. I've heard you described as the father of the 401k. Is that true?
Are you requesting a paternity test? Actually, that label was given to me by Money Magazine. You were working in this office park when the idea came to you. That's correct. A little idea that changed the country.
Yeah, could have been anywhere. Meet Ted Bennett. He created the first 401k plan in 1981. And you didn't get to name it, right? You would have probably chosen something catchier.
401. Is a section of the IRS code that covers all retirement plans. And you go paragraph A, B, C. What happened was in 1978, They added paragraph K.
So, like all the best stories, this one starts with a revision to the tax code. Exactly. Back then, as co-owner of a small insurance company outside Philadelphia, Benna noticed an obscure provision in the code that allowed corporations to contribute tax-free to workers' retirement accounts. You're imagining that it's going to supplement the pension, and instead it turns out, to kind of replace the pension. That's been the result.
Not a good thing that companies have abandoned. pension plans, but That was going to happen, frankly, whether there was 401k or not. Venice says the 401k was attractive to employers who wanted to get out of the pension business. But for employees, there was a learning curve. Generation X was like the guinea pigs, and they're kind of the first generation.
That is in this world where all of a sudden you've got to figure out your own retirement. You've got to take an active role. Yeah, it's scary. I'd say the major reason it's scary is just educationally they weren't given financial courses. I mean, it seems like one difference between the 401k and a traditional pension is that the traditional pension is automatic.
The 401k, it requires a little bit of knowledge and attention and the employee has to really kind of take ownership of that a little bit. Yeah, it's changed to some degree, fortunately. And the reason why it's changed is there's been legislation enacted now that if you have a plan, employees are auto-enrolled, you know, and I help support that legislation. And also, your contributions are going to be automatically increased. They've kind of idiot-proofed the 401k.
Well, that's recent. You know, so that's certainly going to help going forward. A 401k can be idiot proof, but it can't be market-proof, as the financial turmoil earlier this year demonstrated. What most people want when they think about retirement is stability. predictability.
And that's not generally what the stock market provides. Oh, it's absolutely a problem. In the bond market either. You know, the bond market is oversold. being more stable.
A lot of people are really nervous about the performance of their 401ks. How's yours doing? I don't have any in a 401k. You no longer have a 401k. I rolled it.
Yeah, rolled it into an IRA. Forty-four years after inventing the 401k, Ted Benna is still planning for the future. As someone who helped a generation Save for retirement. How did you think about your own retirement? Yeah.
Yeah. Well, 83, I'm not retired yet, so. Am I wrong to see this as you conspicuously failing to practice what you preach? Yeah, probably. If you think social media success is just for the young, Faith Saly says, Think again Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. When Diane Schiffer retired from working as an educator and social worker, she thought she knew what her life would look like. Reading, doing a little sewing, taking a walk. And now you do all those things, but you film them. Right, that's exactly it.
At age 68, she's what's known as a grandfluencer. During the pandemic, she decided to start making daily videos, scenes from her life. I had a video of me doing my hair. That I had accidentally shot in time-lapse.
So I was like, okay, what the heck? I'll put that up right. Good morning, my sweeties. It was her second TikTok ever. That video went viral and got millions of views.
Millions. Mm-hmm. Now she has nearly a million followers on Instagram and another million on TikTok. I might do some sewing. Where she dubbed herself your chubby vintaged Nana.
Then I'm ready to go. What do you think it is about you that people love to see? I think that that image of like a grandmother, an elderly person, all they want to do is support you and love you and make you warm cookies, right? That's it. Her videos range from posts about her favorite vintage finds to offering comfort and advice.
Nothing wrong with being you. Uh You take your warm beverage. To what she calls sit and stares. Feel gratitude for the beauty. Little meditations and daily musings.
But mostly, it seems to be her soothing voice and her infectious laugh that draw people in. She is just one of a growing number of older content creators who are finding audiences. And post retirement careers in social media. with videos about everything from fashion People don't think old people should be in the gym to fitness. But I say the heck with it.
A single post can be worth upwards of $10,000 because for companies, creators represent an opportunity to reach their enthusiastic young fans as well as appeal to affluent older ones. 76-year-old Barbara Costello retired in 2007. Here we go! You know what? You don't have to spend a lot of money on Easter arrangements.
She started her channel, Brunch with Babs, because her daughter insisted people would want to hear from her mom. What's the highest compliment?
Somebody that says you remind me of my mother. You know? Hopefully it's a good thing. She's an unfussy domestic doyen who offers up recipes. Prosecco vodka grapes.
If you haven't had them, you're missing out. And tips and tricks you might not have known. I know you know where your dryer filter is, but do you know where your washing machine filter is? Oh my goodness. Look at that.
Babs has more than 9 million followers across social media now. I call my online family. Yeah, so yeah, I have a big family. Her second book, Every Day with Babs, was released in April, and her social success has attracted the attention of big brands. I've never been busier.
Even when I was raising four kids, even when I was running a business, I ran a preschool, I have never been busier than today. As for Diane Schiffer, she isn't making money off her channels. Oh. But she does have a book deal, and she says the appeal of becoming a grandfluencer is something greater than the influence. When I'm long gone.
those videos will will still be out there. and I can still be you know, giving to people. And please keep making videos. I'll try. That's it.
Tule Cowan with proof that when it comes to adventures in retirement, the sky's the limit. Arizona's famous dry heat is what entices snowbirds to thaw out from the corrosive pain of winter. But for snowbirds with real wings, it's no different. This is Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson. Where for almost eighty years military aircraft have flocked to this sun-soaked desert by the thousands to live out their retirement.
There's some airplanes out here that are older than I am. Here these retirees sit. tails of detention like tombstones in a boneyard. Just don't say that in front of the former unit commander, Neil Aurelio. We have a love-hate relationship with that title.
It connotes. Junk. notes Decay connotes trash. He bristles at the suggestion that his 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, or AMARG as it's called. is here just to warehouse old war birds.
The way he sees it, he's giving these retirees A new life. The truth of the matter is, once they come in here, we see it as the aircraft starting their new mission. Their vital organs are harvested and shipped off to keep other planes flying. Ours and our allies.
So last year we pulled over 9,000 parts, total cost avoidance to the taxpayer. about $470 million. That's because this place acts as kind of the nation's strategic back pocket, where some of our best are cocooned from the ravages of time. First sealed in black latex, then in white to reflect the sun's heat. They can sit safely like this?
For years. Hey, their number may be called again to replace Uh someone else in the fleet? It happened during the Berlin airlift in 1948, when C-47s were resurrected from the boneyard. Last year, two B-1s in storage here for three years are now flying again. A dream come true for some aircraft that, like us, might just experience retirement remorse.
You can go to the Smithsonian or Pensacola or Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum and see airplanes sitting there in the same place they've been for two or three decades. But you can't hear them, you can't smell what the exhaust smell like. Which might explain why retired Air Force pilot Chris Fahey, who's F-16 is also retired.
Now does this. That's a Soviet-era MiG-15 that Fahey now flies in the skies of Racino, California. Flying in the United States, the single seat MiG that we have, I think this is the only one. Fans come out to see it in the air, as well as other retirees, here at Plains of Fame, the oldest non-government aviation museum in the country. It keeps its aging aircraft active.
by keeping them fly. There's a lot of debate. Quite honestly, around the world, in that we ought to park these things and they're too valuable. But there are more airplanes flying now, World War II airplanes, Korean War airplanes, than there were in 1970. That's in part because of the museum's founder, Ed Maloney.
who started buying up hundreds of surplus aircraft after World War II. It looks like Junk was not. I mean, you know, anything you can get, you get. Steve Hinton is now president of Planes of Fame. 3,000 horsepower.
3,000 horsepower. He's restored over 60 military aircraft, and he's taken most of them. back to their rightful place in the sky.
Sounds like some of these you've been flying longer than they were actually in service. Oh, way, way, way longer.
Okay. Take his nineteen forty-four P-51 Mustang.
Okay, you ready? Can't wait. Today it survives as a flying visceral reminder. that retirement isn't the end of the story. Yeah.
There are three keys right there. We all have another chapter in us, no matter our age. and while the sun will eventually set on all of us. You good? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean I could stay a barrel by eight. Our glory days aren't a trifle. They're what made us. That was beautiful.
So good.
So much fun. Both man and machine. What the deal is, man, is that every time we say man, you know, man, we get like seventeen and a half cents. That's our royalty, man. You know, so like we try to get as many men as their man's is and as we can, is that right, man?
That's right. Man. Seventeen and a half cents, huh? I forgot what I was supposed to say there for a minute, man. This may be our retirement issue, but it's fair to say our next subjects will never retire from being funny.
The legendary Cheech and Chong are in conversation with Tracy Smith. What kind of joint is this man? Oh, it's a heavy duty joint, man. That looks like a toothpick man. No, it's not a toothpick, man.
Hey, it is a toothpick, man. Oh man, it's just... These are too big. Say the names Cheech and Chong, and this is probably how you picture them. Is that a join, man?
Two friendly stoner guys getting sky high in a Chevy lowrider. Quarter pounder, man. Richard Anthony, Cheech Marin, and Thomas Chong made their names and their fortunes playing laid-back potheads. Am I driving okay? I think we're parked, man.
But the men behind those characters were show business trailblazers who took every chance and grabbed every opportunity. What's that? She's hitchhiker. Hey watch out! Come on over!
Duran Mole! Sure, they cultivated a party image. You ain't a chick. Yeah, I know, but listen, that's the only way I can get anybody to stop, man. But on tour, they'd often spend their downtime working out.
Now, on a bit more of a serious note, we were trying to determine how you'd describe your brand of humour. How would you describe it? Funny. It does seem like in a way You two have been underestimated. Do you think that's fair to say?
Oh, all the time, yeah. We went against the protocol of movie making. For instance, they often wrote, directed, and starred in their own projects. And that model was a moneymaker. Their first movie, 1978's Up in Smoke, cost around a million to make and took in more than 40 million at the box office.
The first rock and roll comedians. No doubt about it. You sure we're going the right way? We're in the middle of finging nowhere. We're southwest of finging nowhere.
And this, in name anyway, is their final cinematic effort: Cheech and Chong's last movie. The documentary, which opened last spring in theaters only, takes them from their early days in a Canada improv group. Jeech came out of college and he had, you know, I mean, he was a singer. He used to sing like Johnny Mathis. And he had short hair and he'd meditate, you know, everybody'd be smoking dope.
Is he a nerd? They thought it was an art for the longest, yeah. By the early 1970s, they'd become comedy superstars. How many people here smoking? Congrats.
At one time, they were so big that Bruce Springsteen opened for them.
So, what are your hopes for this movie? Oh, the investors make their money back. Yeah. That's what I hope. And if they don't, it's cool because we got another idea that we make more money.
Chi Chin Chung's other last movie. What are you working on? I am working on a little old carving of mine. In between projects, Tommy Chong does wood carvings in the garage of his home in one of the tonier sections of Los Angeles. It's a skill he says he honed 20 years ago while serving a nine-month prison sentence for selling drug paraphernalia.
And some of these may or may not wind up as parts of a bong. But this is for treasure seekers. Chong is 87 now and loving it. What's your advice for dealing with aging? Aging?
Enjoy it. You know, the aches and pains and all that? You got a choice. Aches and pains means that stop doing whatever you're doing that gives you aches and pains. When you Look at where you started and where you are.
Today. What do you think? There's a God and he really likes me. The other half of the duo is counting his blessings as well. New York has the Met.
Paris has the Louvre, and Riverside, California has the Cheech. The museum houses a jaw-dropping collection of Latin American art. And most of it is his.
Now, this is. Not all of your collection is displayed here. No, no. This is one of the rotations. I gave to the museum about.
Mm-hmm. Wow. And that's a doom for Lowell. Here's something else you might not know about Cheech Marin. He won the first ever Celebrity Jeopardy, beating out Anderson Cooper.
but there is some truth to his movie image. What's your relationship with Weed now? Very friendly, you know? Very friendly. You know, the thing is, I'm in an enviable position, if you want to characterize it that way, as that I don't go out looking for weed.
Weed finds me. No matter where I go, I swear to God. I thought he was locked up in Folsom.
Well, maybe that a weekend pass. You may recall he was Don Johnson's partner on this very network. And Cheech Monen's still active in show business. But at age 79, he says he's become something of a survivor. As you've gotten older, what's become more important and what's become less important?
Time has become very important. You see, um all your contemporaries dropping off, you know. Every day, you know, I read the obituaries and it's like my age group, you know, so that's important to me to make the most out of the time that comes up. What's least important to me, worrying about it. Worrying about it that is not important to me at all.
They may have gotten older and wiser, but at an age when most people are hanging it up, they're still Cheech and Chong, still looking for the next punchline. Cheech and you mentioned legacy. What is the legacy of Cheech and Chong? Part of our legacy is that we have joined the kind of immortal comedy teams, you know, with Laurel and Hardy and Abbott and Costello and Martin and Lewis and all those guys. We are part of that legacy.
The Smothers Brothers. The Smothers Brothers, yeah. And we're proud to be in that, you know, because that's who we grew up with, you know, and that's who. became our contemporaries and now we're we're the people that other people grew up with, you know, so they're yeah, there's a certain pride in that. And we're the old farts that just won't go away.
They linger we linger like an old fart. Wasting away again in Margarita Bill Searching for myself. I love sugar salt. We all know this beloved Jimmy Buffett tune, but as Martha Teischener saw firsthand, retirees living in real-life margaritavilles are far from wasting away. You'd think everybody drank the Kool-Aid before moving on to the margaritas.
If I said Margarita Vill, Jimmy Buffett, what immediately is the picture in your mind? The beach. Laid back. Cool vibes. It's a lot of fun.
It's like a resort here. It's actually Glatitude Margaritaville. Which then A 55-plus community in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Well first 55 and better. Tamara Baldanza Decker, Margaritaville's chief marketing officer, lives and breathes the brand. This is Latitude Margaritaville, Daytona Beach. Watching Sunbeep. Inspired by the tropical utopia the late Jimmy Buffett sang into existence and turned into a hospitality empire.
From the street signs, to the slogans plastered all over the place. to the elaborately decorated golf carts, Everything is Margaritaville messaging.
So come on, you parrot heads. Fins up. That also comes from Jimmy.
So, yeah. You got this to the left, bills to the right, and you're the only bait in town. It's a rallying call, it's a hello, it's a goodbye. Starting prices for the three thousand six hundred homes, the low three hundred thousands. This was the first of three existing Margaritaville adult residential communities, with more on the way.
Things up! Things up! Here in Daytona Beach, 300 would-be buyers camped out all night before sales opened in 2018. and party. The homes at Latitude Margaretaville Daytona Beach.
sold as fast as they were built. Since our visit they've sold out. There are now nearly eight hundred fifty five plus active communities in the United States. The market is growing by more than four percent a year and is expected to top eight hundred billion dollars by twenty thirty. My friends are gonna be there too.
Meet Jordan Statler. 72, divorced, a party-hardy Latitudian since 2019. She prefers rock and roll to Jimmy Buffett. But take a look at her house. It's a shrine to the Margaritaville mindset.
There's friends, there's people, there's music, there's food, there's drinks. It was like This is a built-in lifestyle. Instant community at an age when isolation can be a killer. To keep things friendly, it is a would-be politics-free zone, although partisanship isn't entirely absent. Did you come here expecting to meet somebody and get married?
I had lost my husband and I didn't even want to date at that time when I moved here. I just wanted friends. But one thing led to another for retired flight attendant Sally Kitchens and retired software product marketer Gene Schmidt. Recently? They got married.
People coming here not to... They didn't come here to die. They came here to have a good time. I need a margarita. During happy hour at the bar and chill.
We saw this. You gotta walk fast. And this fins up, man.
So, what else is there to say? But fins up. And it's five o'clock somewhere. Not bad. I don't know.
For a lucky few, you're never too young to retire, as Luke Burbank explains. On a recent Sunday morning at a Bible camp outside of Gainesville, Florida, Nick Johnson got up to preach. And you've decided to take the simple path to wealth. Not about hellfire and brimstone, but about a very different fire. Financial independence retire early.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, financial independence really ain't about us. It's about the people that we love and the causes that we care about. This was Camp Phi and its attendees were retirees and aspiring retirees who looked a little on the young side. Our first date, he had a coupon. When Johnson met his wife Adina some 30 years ago, she knew right away he was a saver.
I did use a coupon. Yeah. And I'm not a killer. I'm not ashamed about it.
So I knew that if I presented a coupon and she had an issue with it, she was not my soulmate. Adina, what went through your mind when you saw that coupon come out? How many other coupons do you have? What's the best deal? Wait a minute, wait a minute.
Let's see what we can do here. Ah! Nick worked in software while Adina was in higher ed and despite modest starting salaries, they managed to pay off their home and save $1.6 million by consuming less, saving more and putting 300,000 miles on their beloved minivan, Big Red. I shared this with Adina. I always wanted to be to the point that when I got 50, I didn't want to have to work.
And so honestly, I didn't exactly know How to achieve that. Then one day during the pandemic, Nick was poking around on the internet and discovered the fire movement, which led him to Camp Phi, a group of hardcore savers and careful spenders who share tips, tricks, and philosophical discourse with basically one goal. to get out of the rat race. It's all inspired by this guy. Blogger Mr.
Money Mustache, also known as Peter Aidney. American life is so inefficient. but we're all just kind of following each other, what each other does, and not realizing. Where all of this time and money is slipping through our hands.
So start doing things that are different from what other people do would probably be the first piece of advice. Aiden retired at 30 and turned 50 this year. I often think that because I retired so early, I've lived a lot longer than a normal 50-year-old. Like, I feel like I retired 100 years ago because I've had so many experiences. It's a great antidote to the usual thing where people say life goes by too fast and you miss it.
However, it doesn't solve your happiness problems. You know, one of my friends, who's also a blogger, says he still had to confront some demons and some emotional issues. And taking away his job just exposed them more because he could no longer distract himself from them. The key to saving for retirement, according to Aideny, is to figure out what's important to you and trim your spending everywhere else. You know, as you start to elaborate what's important, you realize, like, I'm going to minimize the amount of money I've spent because that's my life energy.
And there's some formula that arises in your mind of like, the less I spend, the more life I have. Vicki Robin is a sort of mythical figure in the fire movement as the co-author of the 1992 personal finance book, Your Money or Your Life, with Joe Dominguez. Robin's philosophy is less about early retirement and more about asking what is enough. Which differs for everyone, but the consensus of the fire movement is to retire, you have to save and invest 25 times your yearly expenses and then live off a 4% drawdown each year. It's just, okay, how can I have enough for a life that's really happy but no excess so that I can liberate my time to do what I find I'm called to do what I care to do.
And you know, that evolves over time. I have a little phrase that I've said. I buy my freedom with my frugality every day. A frugality Nick and Adina Johnson say they are now reaping the rewards from. along with their three children.
A life less defined by the stuff they possess and more by the freedom they enjoy. They're going to always remember this trip to Disney, but they're not going to remember, you know, the extra pair of tennis shoes I bought my son. My son's not going to look at me like, hey, dad, remember that blazer you had on? Man, it was awesome. What do y'all have planned for the rest of the day?
What's it look like? I'm jealous, whatever it is. What is a mom?
Well Well, I have to pick up the kids and then I have to take my son to football practice, and then whatever grocery shopping I may have needed to do while I was doing this interview, I need to go ahead and get some of that grocery shopping done. Doesn't sound like she needs my help for any of that. I'll probably go play golf. Seems like one of you is more retired than the other one. Hey, you know you are.
As our Connor Knighton can report, humans aren't alone in their quest for the good life. Spread out across 200 acres in northwest Louisiana. Chimphaven is the world's largest chimpanzee sanctuary. Every detail from the moat to the meal plan. has been designed to ensure the more than 300 residents here?
are getting the most out of their retirement years. A lot of the chimpanzees that are here at Chimphaven, they spent decades in biomedical research, but Chimphaven provides their happy endings. Raina Smith is the president and CEO of Chimp Haven. Chimpanzees have been used in research for decades. Back in the 1950s and 60s, they were part of the NASA space program.
Then in the 70s, kind of moved into infectious disease. They are ideal surrogates for men in tests involving potentially hazardous conditions. Chimpanzees were instrumental in the development of everything from rocket ships to the hepatitis B vaccine. In the 1980s, they were used in HIV research. But precisely because of how similar they are to us, attitudes about chimp research began to change.
In 2000, Congress passed the Chimp Act, establishing a sanctuary system to care for retired research chimpanzees. You've done a good job with this. It's a humane bill. The bill required the National Institutes of Health to kick in 75% of the funding for the retirees. It costs around $25,000 a year to care for each chimp.
And the banana budget alone is impressive. They go through an annual 117,000 of them. Colony Director Michelle Reiniger. Mike all the staff here.
Alright, Miss Fanny. Knows the chimps by name. There you go, puppy. For you, what is it about chimps that make them different than any other species? I think it's their personalities.
I like the sassy ones. I like the ones who you have to really work hard to get them to respond to you and to trust you. And when you get that trust, there's no feeling like it in the world to have that bond with an animal like that. Hi, Sparkles. To minimize disease transmission, staff only interact with the chimps while wearing masks and gloves.
Good job. Hey guys! The animals receive regular checkups from veterinarian Raven Jackson. Chimpanzee Medicine is challenging. It's like working with a really strong toddler.
Each day I start with: Am I smarter than the chimp? Are there days where you feel like they outsmart you? Oh, all the time. I work for them, and they don't work for me. Since Dr.
Jackson's patients were retired at different ages, plus a few are rescues or former pets. She treats a wide variety of conditions. If you were a doctor at a retirement home for humans, you're not seeing anybody until they're in the later stages of life, but you have much younger chimps here as well. Yeah, so as young as seven all the way up into the mid-60s. It keeps things very interesting, and I think it also keeps things interesting for the chimpanzees because we're able to put them in these very dynamic social groupings where you're going to see various age ranges.
Each of the 30 or so groups has its own characteristics in alpha leader. They don't always get along. But they're quick to make up. They always want to reconcile, right? Very quickly.
And so it taught me: hey, it isn't worth holding on to anything, like, learn from the chimps. One day, a sanctuary like Chimphaven may be unnecessary. Ten years ago, the NIH announced that it would no longer support any biomedical research on chimpanzees. While there are still some new arrivals, animals that the labs had initially deemed too challenging to move, eventually there will no longer be chimpanzees retiring. From careers they never chose.
Do you think we owe a debt to the chimpanzees? Chimpanzees have given so much of their life to science. And we feel like it's our responsibility and the government's responsibility to care for those chimps for the rest of their life.
Okay. Thank you for listening. Please join us when our trumpet sounds again next Sunday morning.
