Background of the Show

I'm so glad that you've stopped by.  Below is a “transcript” of this week's show, Listener Question: A Couple's Retirement Endeavor. It's not word-for-word because we wanted to make sure it is in a readable format.  I recommend that you listen to the episode if possible, and you'll see the links to do that on this page.

We've been producing this podcast for you since 2016.  This show addresses topics that most shows don't.  We talk about retirement lifestyle and retirement endeavors.  When we started this show, there literally weren't any other shows in this genre.  I know because I searched for them.  These are the topics I wanted to listen to but I couldn't find any.

Then other shows I found started with similar topics.  I was happy to see that and reached out too many to see if I could help. You know a rising tide lifts all ships.  I was hoping that eventually, retirement lifestyle would be its own topic. Sadly, many of the shows I tried to help have gone off the air.  There are new shows now, ones I listen to that have huge audiences.  But they aren't as targeted as us.  You know, the Baby Boomers with a few Gen Xers mixed in. A lot of these shows are targeted at the FIRE community. FIRE stands for Financially Independent Retire Early, Mostly 20s, 30s, and 40-year-olds.

The Rock Your Retirement Show has covered a lot of topics.  We've talked about what to do when your mom needs assisted living.  Whether you should retire overseas.  And yes, we've even talked about dating and sex.

Retirement Endeavor (as a couple)

A lot of us may struggle to find common ground with our spouse or partners in retirement. Sometimes they may have different needs and wants than we have.  Although we may have been together for years and years, retiring can put a lot of stress on a relationship and having the same retirement endeavor can be difficult. That's because we've been together, but also alone, and we've worked that out.  It can be tough when we retire, because now we have all the time in the world, but our loved one doesn't necessarily want to do the same thing we want to do with all that time.

That's what is facing our listener today. She wanted to work a seasonal job, that's what she wants for her retirement endeavor. Our caller is having a problem finding things to that they are both passionate about. Also, she wanted to know how other retirement couples have managed to both find a very meaningful seasonal work effort together.

Responses from our Rock Your Retirement Experts:

I reached out to two of our past guests for expert advice on the subject.

Janelle Anderson, who's been a frequent guest on the show, weighed in on Shirley's question:

I would suggest that possibly look at your strengths one person might have a strength that they can bring to the business or the idea and the other person could bring a different perspective or strength to it.

It's actually hard to say if I don't know since I don't know the particulars of what you want to do. So I'm just kind of guessing but let's say one person has the idea to make jewelry and create this business and the other person doesn't really want to make jewelry, but maybe they have an expertise in marketing or you know, getting the word out about it, or maybe they're really good at doing the bookkeeping.

So,