Before I start, welcome to the Retirement Diaries podcast if you are new here. This podcast is delivered to Epic Retirement subscribers on a Friday so you can listen to it over the weekend. And you’ll also receive our Epic Retirement newsletter on a Wednesday. Have a great weekend! Bec Xx
A few years ago Mary Palaric stepped away from her big corporate career in Sydney and later, Adelaide, to seek out and set herself up a life that had more flexibility and more quality time. Join me as I chat with Mary about her 5:2 part time retirement or ‘intermittent work’ life as she calls it.
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Highlights of our conversation:
1.55 - Mary’s vision of retirement
2.40 – What is a 5:2 retirement career, a five day weekend with two days of work, a choice of how many hours you work a day on two days of the week, driven by passive income. Mary explains in detail how she makes that work for her.
4.35 – What the transition from a big career looked like and how she spent 6 months planning before she made the change. Her pragmatic perspective of how long her career might last, and how she could transition her skills to building up her own business.
5.50 – Valuing her own expertise, recognising the volume of ageism in the market, understanding that her skills were convertible into business.
6.50 – What does her life look like now, in her own version of a part-time retired life. Her invigorating morning walks, fitting her work in after her morning routine and finding time to herself.
7.50 – She now doesn’t have any excuse for connecting more deeply, looking after her health and doing things she never had the opportunity to do.
8.25 – What it felt like the day she resigned from her job. Mary felt a big load come off, and some fear. She explains her circumstances that enabled her to generate income.
9.40 – The conversations you should have with your partner and your adviser, about what you need to have to be able to move into business.
10.28 – Intermittent work is what Mary likes to call it. Feed your body rest rather than work, and schedule your activity so you can nurture your body, your brain and your relationships.
11.10 - Recognising that she could not sustain the way she had been working and when she crunched the numbers, she worked out how much she needed to really choose to retire.
12.30 - How she finds social connections now she is not in the workplace. How she built up friendships and community when she was working, and when she stopped working. Rebuilding friendships after giving up work.
13.30 – Mary talks about where she finds fun in Adelaide, the wineries, the arts, the festivals and the goals she set herself to immerse herself in them, goes to opening nights and meeting artists.
14.30 – Doing the Bloody Long Walk and Coasttrek, 35km walks from the hills to the beach, and discovering parts of Adelaide she’d never seen. A lot of women do these walks.
15.15 – Hosting a read and talk group, and talking about the things they’ve read and meeting people that she never would have met before and formed a connection. And they are challenging her and stretching her genre.
16.00 - Mary is quite a goal setter. We discuss how she goes about setting her goals. She discusses her plan to live to 100 and in good health. This is her BHAG. Mary sets goals every month, and participates in a business goals club that sets goals for life, for being a leader, and for being in a ‘lifestyle business’.
17.40 – Discusses her goal setting group in more detail, and the power of setting goals and reflecting on them. She has really been able to see her progress.
18.35 – Do a bucket list – a ‘love your life now bucket list. Don’t wait for retirement, just do it now. Do something once a month, or organise things that give you deeper connections and more engagement.
19.35 – We discuss the 60 before 60 being done by someone in Canada, and how much enjoyment she seems to be getting from it.
20.21 - How hard it is to find things to put on your bucket list, beyond the first 20. We talk about ways to think about more.
21.00 – We discuss Mary’s attitude to retirement – is it a time when you age politely or age disgracefully? Challenging the norms and yourself. Thinking about the number of finite years you might have to have a good time.
23.00 - Time for the fast five. Enjoy Mary’s action-packed answers to our fast five questions.
Would you like to feature on our Retirement Diaries podcast?
I am delighted to be able to chat with people who are living out epic retirements that others can learn from and be inspired by. If you have a story to talk about on the podcast, please reach out to me on bec@epicretirement.com.au. I’m keen to keep telling inspiring stories
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Making the shift from a big career to a part time retirement with Mary Palaric - How it really played out