For years the banking industry “experts” have worked hard to make people believe that if you give THEM
Then what happens?
Many people who followed this advice found their “savings” dwindled away because of the various market corrections. The banks got bailed out but did you?
On the flip side, most folks don’t save at all. It is hard to save when the cost of living is through the roof and now, the years are ticking by. Retirement age is just around the bend. Now what do we do?
Retiring Without a Company Pension
Are you thinking about retiring soon but expecting little to no pension? Do you have more debt than savings? Unless you win the lottery, retirement probably won’t mean endless days of sunbathing.
You are not alone – you are part of the majority. AND the competition for “after-retirement” jobs is going to be fierce!
But, what if I told you there is a way to (mostly) retire?
First thing needed is a
There is More than One Way to Retire
Having a million dollars stuffed away in some corporate bank isn’t the only way to comfortably retire. So long as you change the definition of the word “RETIRE”. Like when you “Re- Tire” your car you don’t just let it sit and rot. SO when you re-tire yourself – think of it as meaning as “do something else” instead of “do nothing”.
Some people say they want to do nothing but really they just don’t want to go back to “that place” every day anymore. Many folks just want to do more leisure things. To be able to spend more time on their hobbies or travel a little. This type of retirement can be accomplished so long as you don’t mind working a
This is not a “get rich quick” scheme. I don’t of know any.
The Story of Two People who Worked a Little and Retired a Lot
My parents didn’t have much but still travelled and enjoyed retirement well into their 80’s and 90’s. They got to travel, spoil their grand kids, and had a reasonably relaxed retirement.
I learned some very important lessons on how to retire with very little.
A Bit About Joe:
My dad was a man of the 50’s and worked as an on the road salesman for a auto and marine parts company. He was away 5 days of the week. He drove up and down the province, stopping in at garages and various other industry, to try and convince them to buy what he was selling. My dad did not get paid if he didn’t sell. We didn’t eat if he didn’t sell. For more than 40 years my dad was paid by commission only.
There was no company medical, or company retirement pension. When he was (forced) to retire, he got a bit of Canada Pension.
Could you live this way? Only making money if you sold your product?
What if you KNEW, without a doubt, what would make people
A Bit About Muriel:
My mum was the “kool aid mum” – if you are old enough, you know what that means. She gave up working outside the home when she married. Dad was old fashioned that way and didn’t want his wife to work. I’m not getting into any political ideals here, just making a statement of historical fact.
They had two kids (my older sister and I), and our school friends would come play in our yard because we had a swing set and a big yard. Mum would serve up the treats and Kool Aid. She was ALWAYS home.
There is no Canada pension for stay at home mothers. There is only a small “old age” stipend.
They didn’t live in a mansion but they did own their property. When dad retired they moved into an old mobile home. It was on it’s own land. They also had two used cars.
AND they spent 4 – 6 months out of the snow and
They were happy!
When your income is entirely dependant on whether you sell or not, there is no room for entitlement. They grew up in a time when welfare LITERALLY meant living in the “poor house”. They didn’t have a bank full of money so when he was forced to retire, Dad found a way to make enough working part-time in the summer, so they could live in Florida every winter.
By now you understand this story isn’t about any “get rich quick” scheme. It is about how to retire happily by generating your own income (on a part-time basis) so you can be cheerfully relaxed throughout your later years.
What do YOU want out of retirement? Is happiness enough?
How I learned to Retire with No Money in the Bank
One year in my early 20’s I went to Pinellas County, Florida to visit my folks. They had what was called a “Park Model” trailer. It was a second, or third, hand trailer; permanently fixed in a trailer park lot. It was initially inexpensive to buy and sold for only $3600 USD when they were no longer able to make the trip after my dad’s stroke in his late 80’s. They enjoyed that drive and holiday in Florida for 20 years.
First lesson I learned is; you can buy 2 old trailers on the cheap and they can still serve you for another 20 years+
The second lesson I learned while visiting Florida came from a WalMart greeter. Mum and I were out shopping and this older woman (I’ll guess late 60’s early 70’s) dressed in her WalMart vest, smiled as we entered the store and gave us a shopping cart. It had never occurred to me, until that day, that a woman would ever want to work outside the home so late in life.
I guess I was a tad sexist because my dad had started his new part-time job in his 70’s. Why couldn’t a woman be working in her 70’s? That is when I realised that “retirement” didn’t mean doing “nothing”. It meant doing something different so you had
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1. I can easily live a long life in reasonable comfort, IF – I am willing to work part-time.
2. To be happy and have the time to enjoy the things I want, I really don’t need a tonne of money.
This new reality opened my mind up and in washed the “I should learn how to make money from home” idea. I wanted to make more than a WalMart greeter but knew if I could figure out how to
Writing a blog (like this one) isn’t all that difficult. Starting up a small service business isn’t very difficult either. I am now past 55, retired from working for the “others”, and make a good living working from home. So can anyone who follows a few simple steps and isn’t afraid to put in a little money up front, time to study, and knuckle in to do the work.
Small Business Ideas for Retiree’s
Example 1: A good friend of mine has a business where he sells carpet. He is a “shop at home” guy. People call him up, he takes sample books with him, sells the flooring, pays a guy to install it, collects his money.
You might think you would need a big store and a bunch of inventory – – not at all. He has NO inventory, NO store, NO office. Just a website and a cell phone. He’s almost 60 years old. He sells 2 – 3 customers a week spending about 6 hours working in total. This generates enough income to cover the necessities like rent, food, and – BONUS – he just bought a new car. Not a bad deal.
You might wonder why people buy from him and not the BIG competitors – I am getting to that…
Example 2: Selling things online is another idea. People can resell stuff on eBay, Amazon, or kijiji. Sell home-made stuff on etsy, or eBay. Or, why not have your own store? One of the easiest online stores to set up is Shopify. That’s who I use to sell MY products.
A lot of folks work full-time into their later years thinking they can ONLY retire if they sock a bunch of money away. The unfortunate truth here is if the market takes a downswing or “correction” as it tends to do, all your money you worked so hard for could be GONE! Why not use YOUR money to invest YOURself, in YOUR future, in YOUR way.
Using What You Know to Start a Small Business
Maybe you think you have no real skills, but you do. AND more good news is; you don’t need to do the physical work yourself. For example you can start a lawn care business. Once you learn how to market that business to get sales, you let your subcontractors do all the labour work.
Take a few minutes and look around your town. What is going on in your neighbourhood that you think you could do better? Or what have you said “gee, they should …”? Or heard a friend say “it would be a good idea if someone…”?
Is there a need you could fill? A want you can provide?
Play around with these free tools to come up with business niche ideas that you can sink your teeth into.
Example 3: Using Service Arbitrage – I have a web service where other people built the websites. There are very skilled people you can hire online through various online service companies. No employees needed – ever! All you need to do is find the prospects needing your service and market your service directly to them.
Finding folks who need a website is as easy as picking up your local bargain paper this week. Are they advertising a service but don’t have a website? There is a prospect primed and ready for your service. Boom!
Example 4: Similar tactics can be used to start a moving company. People with trucks that will “haul anything” advertise all over the place. They can be subcontracted to move stuff. You just be the marketing manager to find the people who need movers. This is being a conduite or using service “Arbitrage”. You don’t do the work you just connect the people who need one another. And if you set it up right – BOTH parties will pay you for it.
Even if you decide to come up with a business idea of your very own and want to work in it, like mowing lawns or cutting hair, you still need to learn how to market that business. Learning how to market your home based business is crucial to finding paying customers so you can have comfortable and relaxing working-retirement.
The bottom line here is; if you learn how to be a marketer, you can be in ANY type of business.
Here is some more information on how to start a home based business. and a list of home based business ideas to get started.
