Name: Ken Bottoms
Age: 66
Home town: Grand Prairie, Texas
Ken Bottoms was a senior vice president of compensation and benefits at First Horizon National in Memphis. Three years ago, he began transitioning to retirement, training his replacement and working on special projects.
The hardest part? Not getting in the way of his successor, he says.
The major benefit of the slow changeover, he says, was the time it gave him to prepare for a life in retirement. After making the complete break last October, he and his wife moved to Texas to be near their children, grandchildren and Bottoms' mother.
"I didn't want to suddenly drop into retirement," says Bottoms. "This gave me the peaceful transition I was looking for."
NEXT: More time for volunteering, gardening
