I get a lot of questions on how our family is doing now that I am retired. Today marks my 2-month Anniversary since officially retiring from my day job in the corporate world to focus on family and my passion for helping others achieve their health, fitness and financial goals. Many people did not understand our decision at the time, especially given that my wife Julia and I both have advanced Ph.D. degrees in Science and are still in our mid-30s in age. Most people did understand though and were VERY supportive. To be honest, most of the people that were shocked were older friends from work that still live by the assumption that you must work a traditional job, most often not aligned with your true interests or passion, that calls for “full retirement” at age 67. Can you imagine? And what will we do for insurance? Gasp! (It’s really not that bad being self-employed, ha).
Many of these people are the same people that do not look forward to coming into the office each day and are building the dreams of others, not their own, and can have their job “eliminated” at any time. Then what? And what are the options if vacation time is exhausted and there is a family emergency or you need to leave an important work meeting to support your kids in a school event?
So, mid-30s… Too early to retire, right? Others were also shocked given that my corporate job before I left was an amazing opportunity to lead teams in a fast-paced Research and Development environment with strong financial incentives and bonuses. However, in just this short period of time since I retired, we have realized that this has been one of the BEST decisions of our lives. We have achieved true work-life integration for our situation and renewed focus on family with our 1- and 3-year old children! We will never regret this decision to be free…
With all that said, I am retired, but obviously still “working”. We now fall under that class of people working in retirement. Many people do work in retirement, actually, ranging from retired athletes to motivated business leaders. What is common is that many people working in retirement are actually doing something they truly love that almost feels more like a hobby. Although we are not independently wealthy in our mid-30s, which is what some people thought when I left a good J-O-B in Corporate America, we are doing very well. What we have is a strong residual business that builds even when we are not working.
I get a lot of questions on how we could find the time to build a strong, legitimate personal business while working full-time at a demanding day job, while raising two young kids and household. Well, it wasn’t easy and much of the credit goes to my wife for taking on additional responsibility at home so that I could focus on the business in the limited free time available. Trust me, she sacrificed a lot, but I believe she is enjoying our current lifestyle now that we are both at home. The time management schedule that I developed to help focus my daily activities is shown below (click to enlarge). This is how we made it happen, and your family has to be on board to make something like this happen. You can see that, for the most part, any free time was leveraged to help build the business. I was essentially working two full-time careers. And for those wondering, my performance reviews at my day job were still very strong! However, many hobbies and other activities, including sleep, were sacrificed in the short-term to build a long-term, sustainable business. I used this schedule for several years and it worked for me. Of course, this particular schedule may not work for everyone, but a good time management schedule and execution is critical! And, you can certainly build a successful business without full-time hours. My first two years in the business I averaged 2 hours a day working the business and built a nice-sized organization, however, we made a decision to accelerate with more hours in recent years. I always laugh when people say that they don’t have time to build a part-time business on the side. I did not have time either. It all depends on your WHY and motivation to be consistent to make it happen. Our WHY is our family, and we made it happen.
My Time Management Schedule – BEFORE Retirement
Below you can see our new schedule now that I am retired (click to enlarge). For the most part, my day job has been replaced with time with the family. It has been A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I have added a few extra hours for the business, and, clearly, it still looks like a full-time career. However, much of my time involves working out and helping others get dialed into the right fitness and nutrition solutions or supporting my coach team. Getting paid while getting in shape… it is very rewarding and I love it!
The best part is that the business is a recurring, willable, financial legacy for our family. In fact, we got home from our Beachbody cruise trip two weeks ago, and, unfortunately, the next morning received some bad news related to a family emergency in Pittsburgh. We live in Minnesota. Without hesitation, we got in the car to drive the kids to Pittsburgh. We were gone for a week on top of the week we were already gone for the cruise. Even though I could only put in minimal work focused on the business given our travel and busy schedule, the paychecks those 2 weeks were as high or higher than previous weeks when working many more hours. That is the potential power of a network marketing business… get up and leave on a moment’s notice without having to ask permission, and getting paid when not even working. The expenses-paid cruise was nice too:) Nothing special about us doing this full-time, we have just put in the work consistently OVER TIME.
So, I encourage everyone to reflect on their life and circumstances to align their long-term goals with actions that can facilitate the process to control YOUR future and lifestyle. Anything is possible if you make a decision and follow-through to drive success, no matter how challenging the process. I wish you all the best my friends!!
**Beachbody does not guarantee any level of success or income from the Team Beachbody Coach Opportunity. Each Coach’s income depends on his or her own efforts, diligence, and skill.**
