Here’s something a little different for you to enjoy this weekend. Our growing Epic Retirement community has been asking me to tell real stories of retirees living out their epic retirement and learning lessons along the way. So today I’m kicking off a casual, relaxed and conversational podcast which will be made up of short, interesting conversations with retirees and pre-retirees. I hope this is something you can enjoy on a walk or drive over the weekends. I’ll make sure we cover people from all stages of retirement and from all walks of life over coming months. I’ll try to release one each Friday. Edition 1: A chat with Mike Chesworth Host Bec Wilson, the author of How to Have an Epic Retirement talks to Mike Chesworth about transitioning from a big corporate role, finding things to do, his flirtation with gravel bike riding and blokes trips and finding a charity to get involved with. On this, our first edition of Retirement Diaries I speak with Mike Chesworth, a truly epic retiree. Mike retired from a big career six years ago, where he was the GM of Financial Planning and Advice for Westpac and BT. And since then he's been building what sounds like a truly epic retirement. I hope you enjoy the ideas and learnings Mike’s built up along the way. Highlights: 1) His attitude to retirement and retiring - and how he looked at the decision to retire. 1.15min 2) His transition to retirement journey - from doing a very big job to stopping for retirement and the things he did to challenge himself - "Throwing himself into things" 3.10min 3) The best holidays he's had in retirement - holidays in the south of France, expedition cruising in the Kimberley and Tiwi Islands 9.00min 4) Cycling and gravel biking - adventures into the country with friends makes a great weekend trip "Grey haired idiots in lycra" 13.05min 5) Blokes trips - An opportunity to drive to Dundee Beach near Darwin and go fishing with other guys, in a 10 year old Hilux talking politics and finance. We did 8000kms, went to country towns, went fishing. We loved it so much we drove out to Lake Ayr. 17.08min 6) Journey to finding your purpose and meaning - things with a higher sense of purpose. Find a hobby. Getting involved with a charity 20.00min You can watch us having fun on Youtube below: I’d love your feedback on this new format. Tell me what you’d like to see more of, and what we can improve on. And, I’m keen to find people with diverse and interesting retirement diary stories to tell. So if you have one and are keen to chat, please, email me on [email protected]. Have a wonderful weekend. Make it epic. Bec Wilson Xx PS: Mike talks about some villages in France - here is the region: “Les Plus Beaux Villages de France” or The most beautiful villages of France: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Plus_Beaux_Villages_de_France This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.epicretirement.net