Purpose Driven Retirement – Jet Vertz

The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Work provides a central sense of purpose for many people. What happens when you leave the arena of full-time work? What will be your new purpose? Jet Vertz is the author of Purpose Driven Retirement: Generating a Purpose Driven Bucket List. As a retiree, he’s learned that your new purpose isn’t likely to come from one thing, but from three areas of life – self, family and community. He also shares why you should upgrade your bucket list. And remember your business card? Jet believes you need a new calling card for the new version of you in your new life in retirement.

Richard “Jet” Vertz joins us from Rhode Island.

_________________________

The next Design Your New Life in Retirement small group program begins April 12th – a Very Early Bird offer ends March 1st.

Learn more

Retire smarter. Don’t procrastinate until you start wondering What Now? Get a head start on your next phase of life.

____________________

Bio

Jet Vertz is a retired aviation business executive who makes his home in South County, Rhode Island. Prior to his retirement Jet was a Vice President at Pratt & Whitney Aircraft. While working in the aviation business Jet was honored with the Young Engineer’s Award, Manufacturing Engineering Award and a US patent on laser and electro-discharged machining.

Prior to going into the aviation business Jet was commissioned an Ensign in the US Navy via the Officer’s Candidate School at the Newport Naval Station and served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War era as a US Navy Surface Officer.

Jet is married and has two grown children. His hobbies are teaching at the University of Rhode Island Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, volunteering for South County Habitat for Humanity and snowboarding.

Jet holds an MBA from Xavier University of Ohio and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Mississippi State University.

____________________________

For More on Jet Vertz

Purpose Driven Retirement: Generating a Purpose Driven Bucket List

__________________________

Podcast Episodes You May Like

Independence Day – Steve Lopez

When Will You Flip the Switch? – Dr. Barbara O’Neill

The Four Phases of Retirement – Dr. Riley Moynes

Writing New Chapters – Anne Montgomery

__________________________

Browse all retirement podcast episodes

__________________________

Mentioned in This Podcast Episode

Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI)

___________________________

Wise Quotes

On Being a Giver or a Taker

“…after playing golf so much and going up and down a mountain and snowboarding, we became just a taker. We still have a so much more to give. And I think there should be some sort of a purpose in the remainder of your life rather than just being a taker. Because think about it, today most people like myself, when we retire at 65, we still have another 20 or 25 more years to go. That’s almost a quarter of our life. So do we want to be just a taker in the remaining quarter of our life – or do we want to be more productive and have some purpose? ”

On Upgrading Your Bucket List

“We have another quarter of our lives to be lived. Why not apply all the things we learned during professional career? So that’s the way how I felt about having a purpose driven retirement. People think a bucket list is something that you want to go and do, like travel – sort of a single focus, something you’re just doing for yourself. So I came up with an idea where a bucket list should contain three categories: Something you want do for yourself, then something that you want to do for your family, and the third thing is something that you want to do for your community, country, or the world. So that’s somewhat a little bit different than just a bucket list, it’s not just a list of one thing, but a list of things to do in three categories. During my workshop, I ask people to come up with two things to do in each category. So altogether six minimum.

So let me just go over three things that I’m going to do. Number one, for personal, I am a big snowboarder and skier. So I decided that I want to ski and snowboard on five continents – which I did, and I accomplished that in five years. Then on the family side, I decided I will help my children to buy their own house, and I gave them interest free loans so they could buy their own house. And for the community, and for the country, I decided to develop this purpose-driven retirement idea into a workshop in which I can promulgate for those retirees who want to develop a purpose-driven things to do. So I can guide them through, making their purpose-driven retirement in three specific type of things to do. So that’s, that’s my special purpose-driven bucket list.”

On Your New Calling Card

“And I asked them do that by actually generating what I call a personal calling card. It is a way to replace your business card. When I was in business, whenever I met somebody, It was always, Hi, how you doing? Shake their hand and I take out a my business card and hand it over to them to let them know how you can contact me. In many ways, that business card defined who I was then. So I wanted to replace that with a personal calling card defining who you are today.

So I like to share my calling card to define who I am now and have the information where they could contact me.What I have on the left hand side of my calling card is me jumping up on a snowboard because that’s who I am. I love snowboarding, and once somebody looks at this calling card, they know right away, Wait a minute, this is a snowboarder. Is that you? So that somewhat defines who I am. In the upper right hand corner, I have my name, telephone number and email address, so they could contact me if they want to. Then on the bottom, on the right hand side, I have a quotation which says, Retired Aerospace Engineer whose passion is snowboarding and lives by the motto Just Do It, but Do No Evil and Go Where No Man Has Gone Before. When you look at that business card, it defines who I am. Surprisingly, whether you believe it or not, people love this part. They love designing the card, defining as who they are. And guess what? 99% of people who attend this, they design the card and they actually go to Staples, and you can get a 500 copies of it made up for $10. Okay? So it’s, it’s very good way to start redefining who you are.”

________________________

About Retirement Wisdom

Delaying retirement? Use the extra time wisely to prepare for your next phase. You’ll be glad you did.

Schedule a call to discuss how my one-on-one Designing Your New Life in Retirement, Tiny Habits and Mental Fitness coaching programs can help you gain clarity and direction.

___________________________

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career. He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking.

Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1.5 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes. Business Insider has recognized him as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference.

He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.

___________________________