This retired couple kept working and stayed home. But from their view, they’re sitting on top of the world.
Sunlight flashes through the clouds, and the mountainside flickers to life in dazzling hues of green. Scotty and Nancy Pressley live on this forested canvas in rural Glenville, North Carolina, part of the Blue Ridge Mountains that stretch 550 miles through 8 states. The couple adores this family land as they toil here daily in their transition into retirement.
“I love this pattern,” Nancy says, leaning to inspect a delicate cone-shaped tree bud at the tip of a branch. The steep mountainside is covered with 14,000 Fraser firs, filling about half of the 25-acre farm. New saplings are wisps—barely a foot tall—when the Pressleys plant them.
To see Scotty, 73, through his thick bristly beard, you might not take him for a romantic—until he waxes poetic about this family land he cherishes. “I’ll be out here in these trees working, and I need a break,” he says. “I’ll lay down on the ground and stretch out and just melt.”
Shirley Pressley Road—named after Scotty’s grandfather—snakes its way up the mountain to where a person can stand 4,000 feet above sea level and survey the surrounding peaks: Glassy Rock, Big Ridge, Bear Mountain.
It’s a fitting vantage point to appreciate one couple’s breathtaking view of retirement, which they’ve realized through hard work, steady planning, and a mix of investments.
The Pressleys certainly aren’t alone in working in retirement. More than half of Americans (65%) expect to do so to help afford it.1 According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, retirement-age Americans are the fastest growing group in the U.S. labor force—expected to reach a projected 13 million by 2024.2 The largest share of workers age 55 and older (42%) is in management and professional roles, but the Pressleys show that manual labor such as growing trees and hauling rock also remains feasible for active retirees.
Scotty and Nancy Pressley are retiring on their 25-acre mountainside tree farm that they want to preserve for their family.
A gradual retirement—with work at its center
The Pressleys’ farm is situated about as far south as Fraser firs can thrive. The moisture, cool temperatures, and acidic soil of the higher elevation, sprouted a thriving local industry: Some 3.5 million Christmas trees grow in Jackson County, as tallied by the local growers’ association.
The couple first planted their own trees in 1975. But their choose-and-cut business began decades later, through word of mouth among friends and neighbors. It became a reliable income stream in the wake of the Great Recession, as families flocked from as far away as Atlanta and Florida.
Working on this mountainside is part of what Nancy, 64 and retired early, calls their hands-on retirement. “It’s a tangible thing,” she says. “It’s very tactile.”
Some might say it’s also reluctant: The Pressleys, married 47 years, still operate their tree farm with 2 adult children. And Scotty, who’s survived a pair of heart attacks and a stroke, still works as a grading contractor maintaining 12 miles of gravel roads for a local housing development. It helps him ease into retirement—both emotionally and economically. It’s more the former; if he stopped working today, the Pressleys still could afford a comfortable retirement.
“I’m tapering down,” Scotty says. “I’ve been tapering for 10 years.”
The Pressleys crafted a gradual retirement with satisfying work at the center of it—partly by intent, partly by necessity. Scotty may not have the same energy to toil from sunup to sundown, but he says he loves to stay busy, and wants to maintain his connection to these trees and slopes. He just makes sure to finish the heavy labor before noon.
He touches every tree on the farm at least monthly. With a pair of clippers clutched in his left hand and a shearing knife in his right, Scotty can trim a 6-foot tree in a minute. He swings the blade from the bill of his ballcap in one big swoop that ends alongside his right knee.
“My grip on my knife is similar to my grip on my fly rod,” he says with a grin. He does like to fish, in a nod to a more traditional retirement.
A retirement built with wood, plastic, glass, and other everyday materials
The Pressleys’ backyard retirement—a backyard that happens to be a mountainside—is fairly simple and thrifty. They built a new smaller double-wide modular home 4 years ago next to their old model. It was an economical choice familiar to so many retirees who downsize. The Pressleys were able to connect to the same septic and water systems and live in a more energy-efficient home. Saving money on living expenses also helped them protect their most precious asset: the land and tree farm.
Nancy, who retired 3 years ago from her most recent job at an equipment rental store, relishes sleeping in later than 5:30 a.m. and the flexibility to go on an impromptu “day loafer” with Scotty. Or to welcome their grandchildren onto the farm that they’ve preserved for this younger generation.
“That’s something you don’t get back: time with those kids,” she says.
The couple’s retirement is so tangible that it can be categorized according to the materials that helped them piece it together:
Minerals: Nancy grew up as one of 6 children whose father worked in an asbestos mine. Retirement didn’t seem like a realistic notion to her family. People simply “worked until they absolutely couldn’t work anymore,” she says, with Social Security and relatives as the only safety nets. In that sense, the Pressleys embody their heritage of perpetual work, even though they can rely on a larger and more diversified set of assets.
Wood: Scotty’s ancestors were lured here by the logging industry, when oxen and mules dragged timber to the steam mill, then on to the nearest rail line. When he was too young to work, Scotty could join the men in the woods if he stayed within arm’s length of an assigned tree far from the falling timber.
“I learned a lot, watching how they worked,” he says. Seeing the men strategize the placement of every tree before it crashed to the ground taught him to think ahead to the next move.
As a teenager, Scotty would take his younger brother and their spotted horse, Toby, and a bag of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and chop trees after school until dark. The brothers hand cut as much as 11 tons of wood in a week to sell on Saturdays, learning the value of incremental savings based on hard work.
When it comes to their tree farm, the Pressleys inherited half the land and purchased half from Scotty’s parents. And they’ve already anticipated their next move with the tree business: They transferred it to their children through a tax-friendly LLC.
Plastics: Nancy worked the bulk of her career—26 years—at a plastics factory in the nearby town of Cashiers, where she contributed faithfully to her employer’s Principal®-administered 401(k) plan with its employee stock ownership plan (ESOP). She painted plastic parts for about 7 years before being promoted to foreman, then quality assurance.
Scotty encouraged Nancy to contribute to her 401(k) and take advantage of the “free money” of matching company contributions—what Nancy considers the first financial advice she received.
“That first dollar you save is going to earn you the most money of any other dollar you’ve got,” Scotty says.
“And the easiest money that you can make is the money you make with your money. If you don’t see it, don’t touch it. Leave it alone, it’ll work for you 24-7. The earlier you start saving, the better off you are.”
At its peak, the plastics factory employed about 300 workers, before local manufacturing gave way to more service and tourism jobs. A grassy 5-acre field at the heart of town is all that remains of the workplace where Nancy built so much of her retirement savings.
Steel: The couple’s equity is tied up not only in trees and mountain acres but the massive steel of earth-moving equipment they’ve purchased for Scotty’s contract work for the grading business—the dump trucks, excavators and backhoes paid for themselves throughout Scotty’s career and will be sold to generate additional retirement income.
Practical money tips from the Pressleys
Ryan Marsh, a Principal financial advisor and senior managing director for the office in Charlotte, N.C., has worked with a variety of clients in his state and region, and says there are mounting financial pressures on all retirees, particularly working-class Americans.
“Sometimes the working class feels like they can’t afford advice, or they don’t have the money an advisor would want. But everybody needs to have a conversation around wants and goals, regardless of income or lifestyle.”
Scotty and Nancy Pressley talked with Principal over the phone as Nancy transitioned into retirement. Most financial companies offer this service, so even if you don’t work with an advisor, take advantage of milestone consultations with the business that holds your retirement accounts.
Here’s what else worked for the Pressleys:
- Stay on top of your bills. Don’t let them sneak up on you.
- Keep track of everything.
- Don’t get into late fees.
- Even if you build your own retirement plan, start saving money in diverse assets. That could include your own version of a tree farm or earth-hauling machines, as well as an IRA. Talk to a financial advisor about your options.
- Be smart about taxes. One benefit of operating the tree farm is that the Pressleys can enjoy a lower tax rate for their land compared to the standard residential rate.
- If you get a raise, put at least half of it into a savings account. If you never see it, you don’t miss it.
The Pressleys always have benefited from their homespun mix of real assets (physical assets such as real estate, land, minerals, or equipment like Scotty’s) to help diversify their savings. They even once joined a group investment in a few spec homes—the last 3 lots in a local development. They sold just in time, ahead of the 2008 housing market collapse.
Glass: “Mountain women have always been artistic,” Nancy says. Instead of crochet hooks or quilting needles, she wields a propane torch to melt 14-inch rods of colored Italian glass into earrings, necklaces, and other jewelry.
She began the hobby because she suffered from hand tremors. Her doctor prescribed either physical therapy or medication. She chose therapy. The precision work forced her to focus her hand and arm muscles to manipulate and melt tiny pieces of glass. Her tremors dissipated within six months. After a year, she was confident enough to sell her crafts at local shows. She now makes enough money to fund what she calls her “squirrel nest” that helps pay for holiday gifts and family vacations.
Nancy’s retirement hobby fills what would be the spare bedroom, crammed with coffee cans, vases, and drinking glasses full of tidbits. She sits at the table, fires up the torch’s clean blue flame, and switches on the 1,000-degree kiln that helps the glass gradually cool and harden.
“It’s obsessive,” she says. “Once I get into it I’ll sit there for hours making beads.”
‘Passing on your testimony’
To climb the mountain to the orderly rows of trees, Nancy hops onto “Miss Bessie,” her four-wheeler.
Buddy the beagle—who just appeared one day on the farm and became a pet—faithfully trots his own way uphill. He loves to sniff out a rabbit warren and howl his instinctual alarm.
The Pressleys no longer stable horses, but they recently added a coop with two dozen fuzzy chicks that will grow up to lay fresh eggs for them to enjoy and share with family and friends.
Nancy used to entertain the thought of retiring to Florida, the home state for many of the vacationers who flock to the golf courses and mountain resorts situated just down the road from their tree farm.
But now the Pressleys intend to stay on their farm for as long as possible.
“In the mornings I just lay there and look out at the green,” Nancy says. “You don’t get used to it.”
Scotty served aboard an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean during his four years in the Marines. He gazed at the Colosseum in Rome and toured other ancient wonders. He and Nancy also traveled to Italy when one of their granddaughters was born there. They remain more awestruck by the vistas of their mountain home.
They tried an ocean cruise—too crowded.
Their retirement is rooted not only in family land but in a sense of purpose in how they’re preserving their values and work ethic for their children and grandchildren.
Scotty pets Buddy the beagle, the Pressleys' farm dog who loves to chase rabbits among the trees.
“They know we’re old, and they know we’re still working,” Nancy says. “It’s about passing on your testimony. Teaching them that they’re not going to reach a certain stage and just sit there.”
The Pressleys’ retirement: How they did it
Scotty and Nancy Pressley gained economic stability by staying rooted to family land and limiting their everyday expenses. They also gradually built a business out of their available renewable resource: Christmas trees.
Nancy contributed early and consistently to her company’s 401(k) and ESOP. Because of the structured withdrawals of an ESOP, in retirement she uses the “big bathtub” of her ESOP to feed the smaller but more flexible “bucket” of her Principal IRA. She can easily withdraw retirement income from her IRA.
Nancy took her Social Security early at age 62. Scotty waited until 66. That represents about one-fourth of the couple’s retirement income.
Their Pressley Family Tree Farm generates about 30%.
Scotty still earns money from grading and road maintenance, while also gradually selling off his expensive earth-moving machinery.
Nancy’s jewelry craft earns enough to fund a modest “squirrel nest” that helps pay for holiday gifts and family vacations.
Nancy looks forward to turning 65 this summer, when she can begin Medicare coverage, with the same supplemental insurance that protected them so well (preventing too much out-of-pocket cost) during Scotty’s health scares.
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1 “Retirement Insecurity 2019,” March 2019, National Institute on Retirement Security, Washington, D.C. Based on a January 2019 online survey of 1,250 Americans age 25 and older.
2 “Older workers: Labor force trends and career options,” May 2017, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Asset allocation and diversification do not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.
Not indicative of future results. Results will vary based on retirement plan characteristics.
This document is intended to be educational in nature and is not intended to be taken as a recommendation.
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