Okay, you're planning for retirement, but what exactly are you planning for? I don't think most of us think about this. We work and save and work and save, but spend little time figuring out what we'll actually do when we retire.

In this episode, I interview Tom Schwab of Goodbye Crutches and Inbound for eCommerce.  Tom is a great example of someone that overcame a potentially devastating business set back to build a business that he can enjoy well into retirement. There are a lot of great lessons we can learn from his story, such as:

* How your lifestyle choices can set the tone for your entire life.

* Why we're created to serve.

* How to bounce back from a set back.

* The importance of focusing on people and experience rather than things.

* How to organize your life to stay engaged well into "retirement."

* How to think intentionally about your career.

Those that retire successfully don't retire from something; they retire to something.

Roger Whitney

How You Can Help the Show

Subscribe to the show in iTunes and leave a review. I'd really appreciate your feedback and support.

 

Full Transcript

The Retirement Answer Man Episode #53

The one lesson I’ve learned from all the people that I’ve worked with over the years is that those that retire successfully, they don’t simply retire from something, they have something to retire to.

Well, hello! This Roger Whitney. Welcome to the Retirement Answer Man Show!

This is the show dedicated to helping you dream up your ideal retirement, plan a course to work towards it, and most importantly, living out a plan that fits what you and your family care about most. I’m very excited to have you here today.

Today, we’re going to start to answer a really important question. I had a question from a listener, Steve, just this morning. He is 59. Sounds like he’s fairly set financially – or he’s done a lot of work, a lot of good work financially – and he’s wondering, “Well, what do I do from here? What do I do in this next phase? I need the structure of my work but it’s killing me!”

We’re going to start to try to answer Steve’s question and then we’re going to have our first retirement profile. I’m going to profile a gentleman who’s in his fifties named Tom Schwab. Tom and I got to know each other here in the last three or four months. About two months ago, right before the “Can Carl Retire?” series, I had a talk with him about how he lives and his thoughts on retirement. He has some very unique views that really resonated with me and I think, from my position anyway, Tom has mastered the art of living life intentionally and I think there are a lot of great lessons that we can all learn from this conversation with Tom and I’m anxious to get your feedback as you listen to it so I look forward to that.

But, before we get to that, let’s have that all-important disclosure and that is only you know your entire financial situation so consider this podcast, my blog, and anything you read on the internet as helpful hints and education because we don’t know anything about you – we really don’t. We’d love to get to know you but I don’t so this is just helpful hints and education. Before you make any decisions, consult the people that do know you and that could be your financial advisor, your legal advisor, or your tax advisor. That’s a fundamental principle of planning well in your life.

Before we get to Steve’s questions,