I loved your posts about retirement thinking and marketable hobbies partly because I am now there at 70. I am intrigued partly because my interest in this topic let me to write a book, Why Not Do What You Love? An invitation to calling and contribution in a world hungry for your gifts. It’s only been on the street for a month, and, given that I’m new to the internet, I’m not quite sure how I ended up here with kindred spirits. In addition I’m intrigued to be among a different generational group and note that at least on this issue, we think alike. Since I’m eager to learn how 20 somethings think of things, I’ve subscribed.

What I can tell you is that I didn;t anticipate before I reached 65 how much my peers and I now talk about legacy. Did our lives matter and is there still something we can do about it with our remaining time on the planet? I wish I had thought about it earlier, but when I was young, I never could imagine being 70 realizing time is so precious.

I believe almost anything you really love can be turned into income and the book happens to cite about 50 people, mostly “ordinary people” from my region, Western Massachusetts, across the age spans, who have done that.

Encouraging others to dare to exercise purpose and passion happens to be what I have always loved, although I didn’t really recognize it until mid life. At 70, less mobile, and less energetic, I can still exercise this passion.

I’d love a 20-something review and if Mr. Miller will tell me where to send a book, it would help me understand if the message makes sense to your age group.

Thank you for the opportunity to participate and contribute.

Martha Johnson

I love meeting people. I love hearing about them and I love introducing myself to them. I don’t think I can get paid for that, but I can look into working for a social site. I’m going to be starting my own personal finance blog this week just for the heck of it, but I don’t expect it to make any money. I do hope people will enjoy commenting though, that’s fun to read!

2. What are you good at that others are willing to pay for and you’d probably like doing more than what you’re doing now?

I give great budget making and savings advice to friends and family, but I don’t think I want to turn that into a career. I like helping people for free. They feel good knowing they are getting the best advice I can give, but I’m not wasting anybody’s money if I screw up.

3. Now, what barriers do you need to eliminate to ‘retire’ and pick and choose from what you just listed?

My husband and I save 35%-40% of our money for retirement and financial opportunities so we can retire at age 52 (we’re 26 and 27 now). We both want to vacation travel (which we do now too). He wanted to continue being a sports official and have more time to play games (Magic, board games, video games, etc) and I want to volunteer full time with the Houston SPCA and Meals on Wheels.

4. What examples of following their natural interests (and getting paid) have you seen from others in your life who have been successful?

My dad loved math and his career as a Civil Engineer. Now he’s retired and he and my mother enjoy cycling. I don’t know of anyone else in my husband’s family or my own that followed a dream.

I answered those honestly, but it looks depressing. I’m not actually depressed. I have a solid job that I’m great at and don’t mind too much. My husband is going to graduate school in order to get a job he’ll like more next semester. We are very happy together and are working our way to an early retirement every day. I’m glad we’re happy even if we haven’t figured out what we really want to be when we “grow up”.

Far too many of us are dreaming our way through life instead of living our dreams.

I for one, am a writer and photographer and only just recently figured out a way to get paid for my art.

But notice I said I “figured” it out.

After dreaming it out (I’m good at dreaming!), and becoming lost in endless hours of “planning” – I simply moved purposefully in the direction of my goals.

It works!