PURPOSEFUL RETIREMENT With Milan Schwarzkopf

Hello, it's Howard Brown. It's the Shining Brightly

Show. Oh my goodness. We've got an unbelievable worldwide guests

from Prague. Milan. Schwarzkopf, welcome. How are you?

I'm fine. Thank you for inviting me. It's

my pleasure to be here

loves you halfway around the world for me. But

we're, I'm in Michigan, USA, we've got Prague, this is this

is the beauty of zoom and the beauty of meeting people all

over the world that are shining brightly in their own way. And

so let me tell you about Milan, oh, my God, he's lived an

incredible life. And his job is to lift people up, as they plan

earlier for retirement. And it's called the third act. And so I

found we met in a breakout room and I just found it so

interesting. I wanted to have him on the show. So he can kind

of you know, motivate, educate and inspire others as well. And

so he's got a bestseller called purpose, purpose, purposeful

retirement. And are that's the name of the show, but he's

living your best third act, how to be healthy, wealthy and happy

in retirement. Don't make the mistakes that most people do. So

we'll talk about the book a little bit later, though. So

Milan Schwarzkopf is the number one purposeful retirement

expert, teacher and coach, and he will help you arrange and

plan and live through retirement. He focuses on

multiple areas of your life. So the finance part now health part

relationships, and something that's really important, a life

purpose, life purpose part, we're going to dig in deep deep

into that. He teaches people to retire with no fear. That's a

big one, right? Because people are like, Oh, my God, you know,

I stopped working, what are the next right, and how they can

transition into the third act. And then if you are thinking

about retirement, and you should be earlier, planned for it, and

you can need help, and he's the guy to do it for you. So Milan,

thank you so much for being here. And also, share with me a

little, you know, something that we may not know about, you

know, I am trying to walk the talk, I am

really retired already. I am living my healthy, wealthy,

happy and purposeful retirement. For instance, I have fulfilled

my long term dream. I was traveling to Patagonia, Chile

and Argentina last year for five weeks. It was really, really

beautiful. Really nice. I could recommend this.

To you traveled to Argentina, Chile

and Argentina, Patagonia,

and you love the people and I bet you love the

beef. I heard the beef in Argentina is incredible. Yes,

it is. But I was mostly traveling to see the

beautiful nature landscape.

Well, I certainly appreciate that. Give us a

little background. Tell Tell us more about you and who you are

and what your life's been like.

You know, I have worked for decades as a

project manager, both employee and freelancer, leading large,

complex, international and global IT projects,

responsibility for huge budgets. And large number of people led

me to not sleeping well at night, and being overstressed in

later years. I asked myself, Why am I doing this? How long can I

extend this? How long do I want to withstand this? Is this job

still providing me meaning? My why, as it did many years

before? What will happen if my health deteriorates? Will I be

able to live decently from the state pension? For many years, I

suspected this stressful work, and the reliance on the state on

our Social Security pension would not provide me with enough

security for a decent retirement. Also, I knew if I

did not prepare in advance my house relationships, lifestyle

and fulfillment would deteriorate over time and to For

these reasons, I have been purposefully preparing myself

for decades for retirement which I am recently in. I have both

seen many people struggle in retirement and help my house in

relationships and life purpose is used. I decided to study what

was available on this topic. And spend two years reading and

understanding related books, articles and other literature,

consulted with experts from various professions, watched

webinars and trainings of work offers and data tasks I have set

for myself. I realize all aspects of our life are

interconnected. Everything affects anything When I finished

my plan, I had direction and satisfaction in this new way of

thinking, then I started to think others should be preparing

for retirement too. I have not found any other comprehensive

book on this topic. So I decided to write one, I have compiled my

more than 20 years of knowledge into this book, I basically took

the best and leave the rest. So you don't have to do all that

research. Using my guidance, you can have a roadmap to help you

on your own journey. It will be simpler and easier for you to

get there than it was for me, you will need some work less

effort and can avoid the occurrence. Much of the

information in my book is based on my personal journey.

It's you know, so you are the proof case, I love

it that you actually use yourself as an example to plan

and now you're sharing that with others. And that's part of

shining brightly to lift up others. It's really great. So

let's dig right in and say how would you define this third act

of life? What's your definition for that Milan

you know, we have all lift our first act of

life, which like in the first act of drama, most when we were

developing as human beings starting to know who we are

actually going up studying, improving our qualifications and

preparing for our second act of life. In which we expanded our

knowledge and expertise, working, possibly changing our

roles. Ideally, achieving the mastery level making money to be

able to support our family, building a house or anything get

flat, buying a car or and preparing resources for

retirement. One day we will retire and we will not work

anymore, unless we want to, we will actually change our life

roles. We will live from savings and investments, pension, Social

Security or company plans. But there is more to retirement than

just the financial part. That's why I use the term third act of

life. It needs a holistic view, including house relationships,

lifestyle, new life, meaning not based on work or or profession,

which originally has provided us purpose, community structure

challenges, accomplishment and satisfaction. And we will need

contribution to the world and happiness. No for the first time

in history is a third act of life is as long as our first act

20 to 30 years. If you are also even more and still kneeling,

nobody is preparing for this. If you are not preparing, it might

easily become a tragedy. I don't want that for you. I want it to

be a joy for you with a long duration. Imagine you will have

saved 10 to 14 hours a day for yourself. How will you use your

time, energy and resources you will be able to improve your

house or the relationships which may have deteriorated during

your second act. Actually, this surf extra fly may be the

happiest part of your life if you prefer prepare properly. And

if you really ever connect, so

tell me I appreciate that. So tell me what

are the pitfalls? What are some of the mistakes that people are

making right now that aren't preparing for the third act.

As I said the you can expect to live 20 30 or

40 years longer than expected. The average life expectancy in

the century will increase by 10 to 20 years. The aging

population is dramatically increasing. For instance, in the

US by 2030 20% of US population will be outdoors and 65 years

and nearly nobody is preparing for this longer retirement time.

In my view. This is a pitfall number one. Pitfall number two

is thinking that retirement preparation is just about money.

Number three, transition to retirement there'll be very

pleasant. People think I will have not to work, deal with my

boss wake up early or have any stress. I will have time for my

hobbies, travel garden and children. People saying Why

should I worry about that now? Pitfall number four, thinking

that planning for retirement is difficult. Number five under

estimating How differences in approach increase over time. So

small changes in preparation you do now will accumulate two big

changes and much better preparation in the future.

Number six, not building social contacts outside of work, and

possibly number seven, having work as main part, all of that identity.

Well, that's the early warning system right now,

because we are going to be living longer. And we want to

make that as enjoyable as possible. And those do take

financial resources. And so I read excerpts of your book, and

you recommend to start earlier, and not to ignore that. And I

think that's just very sage advice. And tell me about this

other part, not the financial part, but really the purpose

driven part of the third act and retirement.

So while you're while you're looking at your notes, I will

tell you that most people think it's just, I can go on vacation,

I can, I can go to the theater, and I can go exercise and you

know, that it's just, you know, complete freedom. And it's not

necessarily it comes with rules it comes with, you have to have

higher aspirations. So tell me about the purpose driven part of

the third act.

You know, the more people had their purpose

based on their work, the harder the transition to the retirement

will be, there is no general prescription of how to find the

purpose, I see that many people discover their purpose in

retirement in starting helping others it was my case as well.

That's why I have written this book, I am preparing the course

and I am coaching people on this topic as well. I have many

homework, many checklists, many questions in my book devoted to

purpose. But the real purpose for retirement is up to anyone

to discover and think about, it's never too late to start

this transformation, it can be done before retirement or during

the retirement.

I will tell you this, that you know, from my

book, that I will tell you that you're right, it is about

finding on helping others and lifting them up. And so finding

a charity cause finding something that you care about

and want to get more involved in and want to support with

volunteer time and dollars. And very simply, you can choose to

be kind, choose to be giving choose to be choose gratitude.

And this is really what it's being so you know, me being 58

and getting close to the, you know, the magic number of 60.

You know, I choose to you know, being a cancer survivor, I

choose to help raise money and spread awareness on cancer,

there's so many good causes out there that you can find one that

meets your needs and brings joy to your life. So I'm in complete

agreement with that. And so, yeah,

I fully agree and it is I would add to that it

is best done, not for yourself. But this is an external help.

You can read a book, you can hire a coach, you can discuss

this with somebody. You should also include all four pillars

you should include including your relationships, including

improving your health. And most probably, you will have to build

new life routines to keep you on the new track.

I agree. So the question after you know people

listening and watching this show are going to say, Milan, how do

I get started? Where do I start? It seems overwhelming. How do I

get started? And so what would you advise for people to get

started?

I would say first of all, realize the

importance of this topic. Start immediately. Don't say I have

time enough. Start even with small steps. Have or build your

vision. Keep discipline and consistency, you should be also

prepared for some short term sacrifices for long term

benefits. You should learn how to avoid comfort zone trap, or

learned helplessness, that is fear of any loss, you should

avoid choosing the path of least resistance. It's time to act,

it's never too late to learn.

I love that they that your statement about the

short term sacrifice for the long term benefits is, is really

good thinking it's it's quite important to do that, and you

can't start today. So one of the ways is to, you know, take your

life's work, which is your book, which is going to help people so

that that's the first step that I think someone could take as

well as to actually get your book as well. So it's a short

show. So I'd like you to put on your sunglasses, Milan, because

we're going to actually do something called the shining

brightly spotlight. And we're shining our light on each other

and the world to think about the third act. And so I would love

people to tell people how you can get a hold of you, you have

a giveaway, and then share some inspiration with me to close out

the show.

I will share with you my web page. Third act

resources.com. There are there is some quiz, podcasts

recordings, overview of some toxic panic beliefs and so on. I

will share a special freebie 10 simple habits to live longer and

better. I will share my book link, my link get in contact my

Facebook group and my introductory video. If you buy

the book, you will get an access to another web page which is

full of templates, freebies, handouts, checklists,

and so on. Lots of great resources, I appreciate

that. So share with me a quote or story some inspiration to

conclude the show.

I would use a quote from Michael Kenny, those

who do not think about the future cannot have one.

That's powerful, right? So we've got to even

though we're not sure of it, we've got to plan for it. And

and you lay out the steps how to do that. So really important

topic. This is just a tease to share with you, your experience

your coaching, and your book. So thank you for that. Let's let's

start thinking about the future today. So thank you for for

sharing that inspiration with us though. This has been the

shining brightly show. I'm Howard Brown, you can reach me

at shining brightly.com. And my book is up there. If you want me

to come in and speak at an event or a fundraiser or, you know,

facilitate a panel please let me know. Also the this podcast

there's feeds there as well. And we're reaching a lot of people

throughout the world and trying to share a little light and

inspire people there. And then also my advocacy which is very

important to me, which is helping others in the world of

cancer. Babson College and entrepreneurship and the

interfaith world, we need a lot of work there, done for that. So

just remember that if we choose to shine brightly, a little bit

each day for ourselves, and then go lift up others, the world

will become a better place. Milan is a pleasure. Thank you.

You're doing such important work, and all the way from

Prague. Really, thank you for being a great guest on my show

today.

Thank you. It was my pleasure. And thank you

again. Absolutely.

And all that information will be in the show

notes and beyond public when I released the episode on LinkedIn

and Facebook and Instagram. And I'll give a quick shout out to

the people that make me look great every day, my publishing

house friend and publishing, read the spirit.com that comes

out every Monday and my podcast team that makes me look good

from amplify you. And then also the diamond moments magazine

that I've been featured on the cover in the month of May. So

with that keep shining always Milan and thank you what a great

show. Bye bye.

Thank you