Friday, October 26, 2018

Meaningful work

I suppose everyone wants to always do meaningful work but I am finding myself 65 years old and basically retiring but wanting to do meaningful work the rest of my life.  SOOOOOOOO, thanks to my wife helping me come up with the right words "meaningful work" I found my retirement calling.  Now don't get too worked up because I really don't want to work 40, 50 or 60 hours a week, maybe 20.  The rest I want to spend with grand-kids (Grace), gardening, drinking coffee with friends and ministry projects like my sunday school newsletter or blogging.  Sure hope someone reads this stuff.

So here goes: Basically I am doing 3 things,

  1. helping folks select a financial advisor which I have already done several times in 3 or 4 weeks.  One person I saved over $8,000 per year and they have same investments.  Long story but call me if you want help in this area.  405-410-2918.
  2. showing folks how to organize their financial matters so when something happens to one person there is a plan document on what to do.  I  would like to think this was my idea but my wife asked me over 35 years ago what should she do if something happened to me so I organized and developed a book on precisely what to do.  She loved me for it.
  3. coaching young and old on how to build a budget, manage debt (get it paid off) and how to get ready for retirement.  
Actually there is a lot more to it but this is a pretty good idea of what I am doing and yes I charge for the help but so far I have helped every and I do mean every person save more than it cost them.

Back to retirement: 
    I watched my mom and dad retire and it looks about the same for me as it did for them.  They always were busy doing something and what I loved most was their hearts for helping others.  Dad left a legacy of hard work and helping others and Mom is still kicking at 90 but she does not get out too much these days.  I will say she walked 5 miles a day up until about 2 years ago and she was always a work horse until the dementia grabbed hold of her mind.  She is still beautiful as ever but just missing a link in her mental chain here and there.  I guess I should mention this is at least the second retirement I formally took.   The first one was about 14 years ago and that is a long story.

So what do you learn in the Osage?
  • Build a legacy for your kids and grand-kids and in my case it was an excellent work ethic and you can see it all the way up and down the family tree.  I am very proud of my kids and nephews and nieces who are all hard workers and productive citizens.  We are blessed.
  • Love others and forgive often, just like Jesus would do.
  • Find something "meaningful" to do or another way to say it, "retire to something not from something"
Thanks for listening,
gary@thepioneerman.com
or 
golson21@hotmail.com