Diving Into Life With Cathy & Art Neely

We are excited to catch up with the Neelys this month. Good friends of the Yamashitas, featured in last month’s Blog, they take adventure to a whole new level with their passion for the deep blue sea. Hard working, down to earth and yet always up for an adventure, you can never be bored when you have a chance to chat with them. In this Blog they share with us their deep seated values, strong and realistic work ethic, as well as their tremendous love of life and each other. Oh, yes – and their sense of fun! What a great time of year to explore the depths with Cathy and Art.

Cathy and Art enjoying everything the sea has to offer

I think I’ve known you both so long that I’m not sure I remember the years I didn’t know you! That’s crazy, right? But what I will never forget about you both is how you are always smiling, optimistic, hard working people with great senses of humor, yet at the same time seriously interested in working hard for what you feel is important and focused on achieving the results you want in life. You were one of the first couples to truly embrace financial planning and all that it could do for you. How did you come to be so focused? Tell me about your background, childhoods, and what made you the wonderful people you are!

Cathy: My guess is that it all comes from my parents and my typical boring Midwest family. My Dad was a fire fighter and my Mom was a stay at home mother. I think that the most important part was that they were always there for us (I have one older sister and one older brother), even my Dad. Because of his work schedule as a fire fighter he would be home 24 hours at a time, which meant that we had a lot of time to do things together as a family – Sunday drives after church, playing cards all day long on “snow” days, day trips to the lake for picnics and swimming, softball and croquet in the backyard. They also instilled the idea that before you could do the fun things you had to get your chores done – shoveling that snow before the card games, weeding a bucket full of weeds from the garden before you could go to the pool, homework completed before playing with your friends.

It wasn’t until my Father passed away and I started to help my Mom with her finances that I discovered how frugal they must have really been. They had accumulated quite an estate. They were not wealthy, but we always seemed to have what we needed. Plus they were able to save even on just my Dad’s salary. All of us kids were given a weekly allowance (even my parents only gave themselves weekly allowances for “want” items!). We were expected to manage that allowance and once it was gone it was gone until next week. The only way to get more was to earn it by doing extra chores. So although I don’t ever remember my parents talking to me specifically about money, I guess that they taught by actions and examples.

Art: I always worked since I was very young. I had some dry spells in my early 20’s and had some trouble finding steady work. I would take just about any job I could get. Some people said I was a hustler. I always wanted to work and make money. I have had so many different jobs, too many to list. At one time I actually had three jobs and remodeled a house at the same time. I was a lot younger then! If one job ended, I would just start another one and move on. Now, our hard work and living within our means, has paid off.

How did you meet? What drew you to each other?

Cathy: We met about 32 years ago in the Treasure Island pool – literally. I was getting my basic scuba certification and Art was training for his assistant instructor certification. As part of the classes there were three weekend trips for ocean training which meant that class usually camped out and had potluck dinners. Since Art was the bachelor we usually included him in our group. After getting our certifications we started to actually date. By that time I considered him a good friend, which I feel is always the best way to start out a relationship. We are still best friends and enjoy doing a lot of the same things together.

In the beginning I guess you could say that it was the love of scuba diving that brought us together. Since we were both “hooked” on diving that would have been a must for either of us. I also like his dry sense of humor. Some people might not get it but I have always thought that he is funny. He tries to say that he is shy, but I don’t believe it - it seems like he can talk to almost anyone almost anywhere. I think that he got that from his Mom. So I think he’s a little more outgoing than he gives himself credit for.

Art: I second all that, it sums it up. I was lucky to meet Cathy and it has worked out well. Our relationship is well balanced, our chores and household duties have been well divided up and we work toward the same goals.

Cathy and Art on their wedding day, October 1, 1983

Cathy, you and I have spoken often over the years about your incredible financial intelligence. I even tried to lure you to my field at one point! Share your career path with us. How did you decide what to specialize in and where have you worked? How did your profession evolve over the years and where do you think it’s heading?

I guess you could say that I never really decided to specialize in my career, I just kind of fell into it. I had always been good at math (it was my minor in college). I came out to visit my sister after graduating from college and she got me a summer job working in the I. Magnin store planning department. I was supposed to help the interior designer 50% of the time and the project accountant 50% of the time. The workload increased significantly with numerous projects and I was hired full time to help the accountant. I continued to work there and decided to go to law school at night too. I did a full year of law school and decided it wasn’t for me. I like problems to have a correct answer (the math side of me) and not have an answer based on how well you can argue! I continued on in the construction accounting/management field through various job changes from the owners, general contractor and subcontractor sides. I liked the area of construction accounting because, although it was accounting, there was always something different about each project. The various players in the project change every project so you are always involved with different procedures, places and people, making the work more interesting. And at the end of a project there is an actual finished project and you can see something tangible that you had a part in.

Art, your work with Kaiser has spanned a very interesting period in the history of that company. What are some of the more important changes you’ve witnessed? How did you end up in your field, and what might you say to those thinking of working in any facet of the field of Optometry?

The biggest changes were automation and computers. When I started in the optical field, computers were not invented. It was a hands-on trade, everything was done in your head and written down. Now its robotics, laser barcodes, automatic arms and conveyor belts to move the jobs through the lab. I liked it the hands-on way. I ran my own lab for another business in San Leandro, one of my part time jobs. I did everything from start to finish. It was not as boring as production line manufacturing for a major company. As usual I was looking for a job, I was on the waiting list to be hired by the Oakland Fire Department, and laid-off from my job as a pipe fitter due to winter slowdown and low man-under-union rules. I thought about going back to pipe fitting, but landed a low paying job with Bausch & Lomb Optical, being somewhere between a janitor, a mechanic and a “gopher.” I got an interview with Kaiser Hospital and the rest is history. Thirty-five years, some good some bad, but I was thankful I always had a steady job. The pay was good, not great, but the benefits were excellent. I worked in manufacturing and sales. Optical manufacturing has changed with skilled technicians no longer being needed. There are still opportunities in dispensing and sales. If you have your own store you can do very well in sales.

Would either of you change anything about your career path? Or let me ask it this way: if you were just starting your careers now, what would intrigue you? Has the technology revolution of the past few decades influenced that?

Cathy: Actually, if I thought now about changing anything it probably would have been to have majored in engineering (electrical or mechanical) rather than political science in college. I would still have been in the construction field but more involved in the actual building of something. I assume that technology has drastically changed the engineering field over the years, so that would also have meant getting more involved in computer sciences.

Art: I thought and did apply for other jobs in the early years with Kaiser. But as time went on, I decided to just be a lifer. I never planned on a career in optical, it just evolved. I took a couple of extension classes at U.C. Berkeley and just stuck with it. I am not sure what field I would want to go into now, I am just enjoying retirement. And working at Kaiser helped make an early retirement happen.

What advice do you have for couples who want to retire while they are still young and healthy? What would you say were your successes in getting to this point and what might you recommend be handled differently?

Cathy: I guess you need to know as a couple what your goals are and that they are the same for both of you. There is nothing that causes more arguments between couples than money! So you both need to know what you are working for and be on the same path to get there. Plus there is also a level of communication so each party knows what is happening and why with their finances. As an example, I read about the benefits of paying a little extra on your mortgage. I decided to just pay an extra $100/month and it cut our mortgage by three years. With the interest we save it was well worth it. I have some friends who now say to me that because we have our house paid for we do not have that interest paid tax deduction. You pay the IRS or you pay the bank. We think that it was better to own our house and not continue to pay the bank. I have refinanced three times over the life of our mortgage but always because of rate changes and never to take any equity out of the house. Because we decided to stay in our original starter home and fix it up rather than buying something a lot bigger we have been able to take our great vacations and retire early.

Art: Well, work hard, live within your means!!! I think it is funny how some of my generation gets trapped into the materialistic things, which a lot of us rebelled against in the hippy 60s. Now some want a $3 million house in Danville, with BMWs in the driveway. Don’t get me wrong, we would love all that, but all my life I wanted to be in a position that I didn’t have to sweat money. We are free now and I am not a wage slave with loads of debt. We have a modest home in the East Bay hills (paid for), two cars (paid for), great vacations, no credit card debt and money in the bank!

Cathy and Art rafting in Fiji

One of the themes in our Blog is folks who just get it done! Art, you are one of those guys who just puts the tool belt on and makes stuff happen! You should have your own show! I cannot believe the amazing work you’ve done in your home and the quality of it. Where did you learn these skills? How do you decide what projects to tackle, in what order, and what to do on your own as opposed to contracting out to others?

I worked a lot in construction and I learned as I went. So finish what you start and don’t get in over your head. Painting, plumbing, electrical, etc. all just came naturally to me and I like to do it. Although at 60, my ladder climbing days, especially up to the roof, are slowing down!

Cathy, the same can be said about you: you just get it done! You are such a great thinker and organizer. How do you and Art use your respective skills in your life together?

Cathy: Well I guess that I have always been that way; it’s in my nature to try and be as organized as much as possible. I am used to multi-tasking, usually because I can get bored only doing one thing at a time. I also don’t like things “hanging over my head.” If something is going to have to get done, just do it. If you don’t all that happens is it will stress you out and make you worry more than if you had just gotten it done in the first place. I try to not schedule too much at once so as to avoid additional stress. And luckily Art is the same. Art and I will usually discuss a project, then I depend on his knowledge on how to do it and he then depends on my knowledge on how to pay for it!

Art: As I said, our household chores/duties have become well defined over the years and it works out well.

When I first met you, your dive business was up and running. Tell us about your passion for diving and how accomplished you are. What made you decide to share diving with others? It’s such a huge responsibility! Were you happy with the level you took your business to or had you hoped it would become your full-time career?

Cathy: Well it’s always been a passion for us – it’s where we met. I have always been a “water” person so I guess it came naturally to me. I love the feeling of being underwater with all of the fishes and feeling like one myself. It’s great when you go someplace and see something totally new. When we went to Fiji we saw our first hammerhead shark. Our last trip to the Florida Keys we were amazed to see a goliath grouper – they can weigh up to 900 pounds! Art and I would probably get a bit cranky if we could not take at least one dive vacation a year - you work to have fun! And we would try to not overspend in other areas so we could take those fun vacations.

Cathy earning her SCUBA certification

Art: I was certified in the 70s when I was young. Like a lot of sport divers I had a fantasy of working in the dive industry. I ran boat trips, organized dive trips, rented gear etc. But as the old saying goes, don’t quit your day job! I never pursued a full time career in diving. I found out that being a dive master can be a little stressful at times, when you are the one responsible for other people underwater. One time I was doing a checkout dive with a young teenager, his tank fell out of his backpack and his weight belt fell down around his knees. I had to put him back together underwater. It was a little unnerving. In the 80s, my uncle invested in a dive resort hotel in the Turks & Caicos. I was “promoted” to resort operator and we went to South Caicos to check out the resort. I found that the place needed quite a bit of help, especially in the dive area. Unfortunately the whole deal fell through and I never fulfilled my dream of working full time in the dive industry.

Your love of nature, joy of oceans, diving and even the tamer vacation known as “camping” make your adventures come to life! Share some of your more memorable travels with us and where you will definitely want to revisit.

Cathy: I get my love of travel from my Mother. Unfortunately she did not get to go to many places since my Dad was more of a homebody, but she always encouraged me to do so and looked forward to hearing about ours. I went to the Soviet Union (when it still was the Soviet Union) in college as part of a class. I visited Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Kiev and Moscow. I have thought that it might be interesting to go back and see how things have changed over the past 35 years. But we definitely would not dive there - too cold!

Cathy having fun in the Soviet Union

I remember our first dive drip to Little Cayman.  We had to “buzz” the airstrip to get the cows off of it first.  They now have an actual runway!  Little Cayman is probably our favorite overall dive place for where we have been so far.  It is a marine preserve and somehow the sea creatures know it and come out to visit.  It’s the only place that I have ever petted a grouper.  We also were fortunate one trip to frequently be able to dive with a wild dolphin.  “Spot” was a juvenile male who had lost his mother.  He “adopted” our dive master and always seemed to follow the dive boat when we went out.  He would wait until the divers got in the water and then go to the bottom and roll over on his back so you could rub his tummy.  What a wonderful experience to feel the beating heart of a wild dolphin.

 
Press "Play" to enjoy undersea adventures with the Neelys

Then there was the time we were supposed to go to Grand Turk but were told that we had to go to Providenciales instead because the fire truck had a flat tire and they couldn’t land the jet there. When we landed a guy came over grabbed our bags and we had to run after him. It turned out he was a shuttle pilot that would take us to the right island but until we caught up with him we had no idea what was going on. We didn’t even know if we were in the same country. When we went to Fiji we ended up zip-lining through the rain forest over river gorges and then rafting down those same river gorges. Diving was absolutely wonderful there with a wide variety of undersea life and coral landscapes. It is still pretty pristine because it is so far away from everywhere else. We even had a dive there where they fed the sharks right in front of us, only about 15 feet away. We also decided that the Fijian people are some of the friendliest in the world – everywhere we went people would be yelling “BULA” (hello) out to us. Our favorite camping in California would have to be MacArthur Burney Falls State Park. There’s a lot to do there – hiking, swimming, fishing, biking, eating – I’m a pretty good camp cook. So if I serve Art a gourmet meal he does the dishes!

Art with the day's fresh catch!

Do you feel “retired” yet? How is being home together full-time working out!

Cathy: Well I think that it is just starting to set in. I actually still went into my old work place to help out now and then. But doing it that way, it was almost fun. I could just go in and do actual work and it was now someone else’s job to handle the stressful items. And since I am still friends with my co-workers, we would plan on a get-together lunch. I love to cook and have collected thousands of recipes over the years that I never had time to make, and now I get to try those new recipes. Since we don’t have a huge house, Art and I do get into each other’s way sometimes. But for the most part his jobs are usually in the basement or outside and mine are on the upper floor, and it works out.

Art: :)

What’s next on the adventure list? Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Cathy: I guess our dream dive vacation now would have to be Australia (we’re thinking about it!), or the Red Sea (probably not a good idea right now!). We have never been on a cruise because we would always want to be under the water rather than looking at it from above. But we have thought that if we did a cruise it would be one of the small boat cruises in Alaska to see the whales, the glaciers and maybe Denali National Park. In regards to camping we have lots of places on our list - Glacier National Park, the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon, Moab and more. Ours friends, Ken and Sue, also retired early, are our inspiration for where to go camping. So we’ll see what happens next.

Cathy and Art with Ken and Sue Yamashita

Art: In addition to our trips with the camping trailer, we might take a dive trip to Indonesia, via Singapore. We are in the process of planning a dive trip with a group of friends, probably in April. Our friend running the trip is a retired marine biologist from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, so we get quite the education besides. This will be a grand adventure, but as Cathy says, we must dive the Great Barrier Reef before we die - maybe next time!!!

If readers would like to reach out to you, what’s the best way to do so?

Cathy: By email at: clneely@sbcglobal.net

Cathy and Art living their passion!

So, dear readers, as you can see above, Cathy and Art are in the process of putting a group dive trip together to Lembeh in Indonesia for next April.  If you are interested in diving with the Neelys on that trip  (I think my fearless business partner, Marilyn, might join them!), or just want to chat with them in general, reach out to them at clneely@sbcglobal.net   I can see we’ll need another Blog on them in a few years to see where they go next!  Thank you, Neelys, for sharing your life and adventures with us!  Happy diving!