Having Choices When You Get Older

In this edition of Living The Retirement Lifestyle Podcast we chat with Bob Clarke about why it’s important to have choices when you get older, why age 50 was pivotal for him and his wife Rosemary and what he discovered in his foray into the online world

Its a fabulous story and we know you’ll have lots of takeaways from it so listen in and hear what he has to say

Like so many of us Bob loved his job working as a health care professional running infertility laboratories up and down the East Coast of the USA but retirement was on the horizon and like so many of us he didn’t want to be dependent on the government or to potentially outlive his money. He wanted to be in control and have choices when he got older

And it’s at that point you start looking (usually while you are still working at your job) and then the shiny objects pop up and because you don’t know any better at this point (been there and done that!) one thing leads to another and you find yourself one of the ‘dabblers’ making a little bit of money but not enough to write home about.

But then something happens…

There’s a a ‘trigger point’

For Bob and his wife Rosemary it was a change in Bob’s job combined with an unexpected heart problem and a lot of stress… and that led to the decision that this online thing could be the answer but that it would require an investment into learning how it all worked and then being able to focus on it part time until they (well Rosemary actually) could see it working for them

The key word as you will hear Bob say was FOCUS. When you sit down to work on your business you can’t go jumping around all over the place because suddenly that 6o minutes you had planned to use is gone in an instant!

So you decide you’ll retire and then you’ll have the time to do this “thing” and that’s when the realisation kicks in that you have to make it work and that requires discipline and the activities you are involved in have to be results or income producing activities. When you focus on that and have a good mentor to help and guide you then you can start to achieve your goals

Now you are “officially retired” we asked what are you doing now?

Bob told us he was working now because he wanted to and he was having fun doing it but that the danger was loving it so much you lose track of time and end up compromising your lifestyle and that’s not how it should be so you have to set boundaries. Time in the office for work. Time in the home for relationships, family and fun.

I want to be that person just like you and Susan where I can say I’ve been in the trenches and because of that can help fill the gaps for others because of what I know that they won’t have to spend endless hours and days trying to find out.

How do you encourage entrepreneurship in retirement?

We know from our own experience that self belief and ‘will it work for me‘ are the conversations that go on inside the heads of people looking at this entrepreneurship thing so we asked Bob how he approaches this. His answer was quite interesting but actually really sensible. “We become their role models” he said. “Almost but not quite like their parents LOL 🤣 These people are watching you and they need to see that you are doing what they want to do. You’ve got to share with them the results of what you’re doing aka the lifestyle but also that it takes work to achieve those results.

What books would you recommend reading for the first time entrepreneur?

We asked Bob to share his favourites and like us he went straight for the classics we all know and love – Think & Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olsen, The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. We definitely agree on these and added to it The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann.

Last words of wisdom

We couldn’t end our chat without asking Bob for his final words of wisdom. We loved that he said “keep it simple… There are many moving parts of a business – things you must do every day like generate leads, make sales, grow your audience, build your list… those are the important things that will move your business forward.” Added to that because it’s super important is setting yourself a goal or goals.

Here’s an example Bob uses. If you are in network marketing for example, and your goal is to build that business then the income producing activities you need to focus on are prospecting and showing your company’s presentation to as many people as you can and following up and supporting your team and customers. Do these things first before anything else and you can say you’ve had a successful day. And when you get better it takes less time than in the beginning!

Last but not least don’t work just to work – work with intention and make sure it’s doing something that gives you joy. Something that turns you on or just don’t do it because it won’t work out well.

Gosh there was a lot of wisdom for you to digest during our chat with Bob and hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.

We read on a recent post of his on Facebook which really sums it up

So grateful for the life we now have.

It wasn’t always like this.

There were many years of living paycheck to paycheck and having more month at the end of our money.

There were lost weekends at work and putting off vacations.

We sacrificed and delayed gratification.

There’s no luck involved in the life we now live.

We deserve it

You can connect with Bob below

Facebook

Blog

YouTube

Thanks so much for joining us and learning why we and Bob and Rosemary believe that entrepreneurship in retirement is not only a way to generate an income so you are not dependent on your government during this time of life but also a way of living a good life and doing it in a way you love while also helping others

Picture of Chris & Susan Beesley

Chris & Susan Beesley

We’re former accountants and management consultants ‘of a certain age‘ with 5 great kids, 5 grand-kids, 1 grand-dog and a little old cat called Vincent. We love skiing, the mountains and travelling the world and we’re passionate about helping others to start and build successful businesses online to generate them a full or part-time income to support their retirement lifestyle.

Our Story
Picture of Chris & Susan Beesley

Chris & Susan Beesley

We’re former accountants and management consultants ‘of a certain age‘ with 5 great kids, 5 grand-kids, 1 grand-dog and a little old cat called Vincent. We love skiing, the mountains and travelling the world and we’re passionate about helping others to start and build successful businesses online to generate them a full or part-time income to support their retirement lifestyle.

Our Story

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