Retiring at 43...

Ok, what's next?

I retire in exactly 2.1 years. Two years, 1 month, 3 weeks and 6 days to be exact.

It’s become a consistent topic of conversation for anyone who happens to spend more than five minutes around me. At any given moment, if you ask me what my exit plan is, I can reaching my work bag and pull out my color coordinated calendar sheets covering the next 2.1 years. These highlights show the dates I “drop my papers”, start my leave, begin the VA claims process and every other check the box along the way until my final day.

The cool part about it is that I’ll be just 43 when the date comes, which is young to be considered a retiree but, a benefit of starting a military career young. Most people retire from the military and go on to start a second career but I’m pretty adamant about avoiding a 9-5 when I hang up my uniform. This usually shocks people when they ask what I’m going to do when I retire.

“What do you mean you’re going to do nothing?”

Well it won’t be nothing but it won’t be clocking in for someone else, that much I know.

Elisa will be 19, Jeremiah 14 and Noah just weeks shy of 8 by the summer of 2027 and I would love to be able to shift into a stay at home mom role. Are you still a stay at home mom if they’re all in school? I joked with my husband that I’d be busy enough just sweeping the freaking house all day because the floors in this place can’t stay clean for more than 5 minutes.

In all of this planning, I’ve been trying to figure out what I could do from home that would bring in money and be flexible enough for me to decide to stop whenever I wanted to. While I won’t need to work, according to the money spreadsheet I’ve been laboring over for months now, I’d still like to bring in some additional income above what my pension and VA disability will give me. I’m not talking any MLM nonsense or digital marketing bs that’s heavily targeted towards stay at home moms, but a business that affords me the flexibility to work on my own terms.

Most of you know I started, and never launched, Hey Love Design Co. I made no announcement about why or what happened because other life stuff was happening but it stalled and I ultimately decided that I wanted to do something different. As I was busy getting things set up behind the scenes, I decided that the business model wasn’t going to be the best fit for me. What do people do once they’ve bought a website template from you or a custom site? Unless you’re creating additional products, the likelihood of return business is low.

Not to say that it isn’t a profitable business model, I just didn’t want to one woman show a website plus template plus digital product biz. It had burnout written all over it before I could even start. I just wish I came to that realization before I sunk money into it but, it wasn’t a total loss. It’s still something I can offer folks on a case by case basis if I have the time to. But I probably won’t lol.

As I landed on the next great idea, I realized I was hesitant to share it because it felt just like well…the next great idea. Who knows if this new thing will stick, if I'll get tired of it or if it’s just a new ADHD rabbit hole I’m going down. I’ve spent the last few weeks mulling it over and too much time deciding how to share and what the reception would be. Especially on the heels of a business that never officially launched.

But then I thought…who cares? Who cares if it doesn’t stick? Who cares if I decide after a while to stop or to shift?

I don’t want to sound all motivational poster-y but I’d rather try and fail (if you’d even call it that) then just wonder what if. How much more would you do if you didn’t let the fear of failing stop you? Or thinking about what others would say? Most of the time, the negative comments or feedback are from people who are too afraid to step out on faith and try in the first place.

So here’s to new endeavors, wherever they may lead us. I’ve got a few things I’m tidying up, my new website mainly, before I fully share what I’m working on but I know at the very least there’s a good handful of you who will always grab the pompoms and support ya girl and for that I am eternally grateful.