Lou Giorla, my grandfather, is now entering his 10th year of retirement. When we sat down to talk for this post, I pulled up an article written about him in The Philadelphia Inquirer. His first reaction was, “How did you find this? I never told you guys about this.” That made sense, because I only found it while Googling him many years ago. Revisiting the article seemed, important, since it was written two weeks before he retired, and I know that in the past 10 years, his life has immensely changed. Through our conversation, I used this previous interview to guide me through his life shifts in retirement, and to see how much his work has stayed with him. 

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Tom Lippo to get his input on how he believes young people like me should prepare for retirement. Tom is a 35-year veteran of the Philadelphia Police department, who is entering his 12th year of retirement. His day-to-day has shifted from researching his own investigations to watching them on television. Rather than hanging out with his fellow officers everyday, he gets to hang out with his wonderful granddaughter (Did I mention that was me?). Although Tom has a healthy pension, his savings and investments are what granted him a comfortable retirement.  In our conversation, he shared his tips and tricks, and also stories of hardship that led him to be a “Super Saver.”