He Retired in Maine Without Enough Saved. The Oldest State in America Became His $3,800-a-Month Second Act
A 67-year-old with a shortfall he could not cut his way out of found an unlikely fix hiding inside the oldest state in America, and the numbers behind his 22-hour workweek tell a story most retirement planners never mention.
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The math was simple and it did not work. At 67, a former hardware store manager in a mid-coast Maine town had $210,000 in a 401(k), $2,150 a month from Social Security, and a paid-off house. Even without a mortgage, a standard 4% draw on the retirement account plus his benefit fell short of what a household in his position actually spends. The Bureau of Labor Statistics pegs average annual expenditures at $78,535 in 2024. He was staring at a gap he could not close by cutting cable.
He is working because he has to. His response is what makes the case worth studying.
Why Maine Needs Him More Than He Needed a Second Act
Maine has the oldest median age of any state. Contractors who will show up for a $900 grab-bar install or a weekend ramp build are scarce across northern New England. New construction is not filling the gap either. National housing starts came in at 1.24 million units annualized in July 2026, down roughly 12% from the prior month, and existing home sales sat at 4.06 million annualized. Older homeowners are staying put. Their bathrooms and staircases are not.
His hardware store decades are the qualification. He knows fasteners, code basics, which caulk works in a Maine winter, and which customer needs a ramp before Thanksgiving. He got licensed and insured. He picked a lane: grab bars, wheelchair ramps, stair rails, walk-in bathroom conversions. Inside three months he had a waitlist.
Twenty-Two Hours a Week, and What They Buy
He works about 22 hours a week at a billing rate of $60 to $75 an hour. After materials, insurance premiums, and self-employment tax, he nets roughly $3,800 a month. Combined with Social Security, that clears the average retiree spending benchmark with room for property taxes and a slush fund for the truck.
The larger prize is the account he does not touch. Leaving the 401(k) alone for six years at an assumed 5% annual return takes the balance from $210,000 to roughly $280,000. Maine helps at the margins. The state’s cost-of-living index is 97.05, below the national benchmark of 100. Living costs in Portland or Rockland are not Boston or Portsmouth.
He Claimed at Full Retirement Age, So Working Does Not Cost Him
Most people in his situation assume any earned income clips their benefit. The Social Security Administration’s earnings test stops applying once you reach full retirement age. He claimed at his FRA. His practice income does not reduce his monthly check.
Cost-of-living adjustments help too. The 2027 COLA is currently tracking toward 3.1%, with one of three Q3 months in.
How a Fee-Only Planner Turns a Side Practice Into a Nest Egg
Netting $3,800 a month covers the bills, but building wealth from here requires a different setup. A fee-only planner earns their keep on three specific mechanics:
- Quarterly estimated taxes. A W-2 paycheck withholds. A handyman practice does not. Miss the IRS’s quarterly deadlines and penalties compound. A planner sets the payment cadence against projected net income.
- Self-employment tax planning. Sole proprietors owe both halves of Social Security and Medicare. Structuring the business correctly, tracking deductible mileage, materials, and insurance all change what lands in the bank.
- A solo 401(k) as the wealth-building vehicle. A solo 401(k) lets a self-employed person contribute as both employee and employer, materially higher than an IRA allows. It converts labor income into tax-advantaged retirement savings inside the same six-year window the existing 401(k) is compounding untouched.
What to evaluate first: whether your Social Security claim is already past FRA. If yes, the earnings test is off the table and a second-act practice is pure upside (we mapped the four tax traps that ambush people who phase out of work slowly in a free semi-retirement playbook here: Retire Twice). The mistake to avoid: running the income through a personal checking account, paying no estimated taxes, and skipping the solo 401(k). That turns a rescue plan into a tax bill.
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Jake has been been working in financial media for almost 15 years. He focuses on all things personal finance for 24/7 Wall St. with high hopes to educate and entertain. Most recently, Jake spent 12 years working various roles at The Motley Fool. He started copy editing fool.com content, worked on premium and marketing campaigns, and helped launch The Ascent, a personal finance brand.
His work has been featured on platforms like MSN, Yahoo Finance, USA Today, and more. He's written about credit cards, social security, ETFs, savings accounts, and just about anything else you can imagine when thinking about money. Jake love to cook, play golf, and tell people he's never had a cavity. (It's true!)
