Life after retirement is all about becoming a rebel retiree … the new breed of retired folks who are redefining what it means to retire in a big and meaningful way.

And while the people you are about to meet come from different backgrounds and have different levels of working experience, they do have a few things in common:

• They are all at least 50 years or older,
• They were looking for something meaningful
• They rebooted their lives in a big way

What do I mean by life after retirement?

Glad you asked because in the next few minutes you’ll meet these new rebel retirees who deliberately ditched the conventional idea of a non-working retirement and creating a new life after retirement.

In other words they kept working, but not at a 9-to-5 job. Instead they did something quite different …

They pursued a life-long passion or followed through on an idea they had for starting their own business all while past the age of 50 … some in their 60’s.

Life After Retirement: The New Way to Retire

If you’ve often wondered what your retirement lifestyle might be like when it’s your turn to retire, keep reading because you’ll see it can be anything you want.

Yet the one thing it doesn’t have to be is conventional.

Just ask Dave Bateman, who created a new kind of life after retirement.

Dave was a military lawyer for most of his adult life.

In fact, he climbed the ranks to Colonel with the U.S. Air Force.Then after serving his country for 20 years, it was time to retire.

He worked for a bit as an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Washington.And then created his own law firm.

That’s when a client asked for his advice on a new business acquisition. Luckily for Dave, the client just happened to live on the island of Kona.

Of course, that meant Dave and Trudy would have to visit the client at his home on the island. And while there, they got their fist sip of what was the best coffee the couple ever tasted.

In fact Dave commented, “If I could grow coffee like this, I could sell it around the world.”And that Dear Reader is what pushed Dave and Trudy into the coffee business.

In 2005, they packed up all their belongings and moved to Kona with the sole purpose of starting their own coffee farm.

They named their new adventure, Heavenly Hawaiian Kona Coffee Farms.Today, their coffee farm is one of the most highly awarded farms on the island.

Rebel Retiree: No Experience Necessary

Now, you’d think that in order to start a business, you have to years of experience in that particular industry of niche, right?

Dave and Trudy show that isn’t necessarily the case. But they aren’t alone.

Charlie Bright’s new life after retirement meant starting a bakery business without having any baking skills.

Say what? Yep, that’s right he got into the bakery business without ever being a baker.

Turns out that after a variety of jobs including a police mechanic and a few failed businesses, this 60-year old entrepreneur was looking for a new and different business opportunity.

In 2011, Charlie found out that a small bakery shop in his area was about to go out of business soon if no one bought it.

Although the bakery had its share of walk in customers, most of its business was comprised of selling cakes, jellyrolls and biscuits wholesale.

Now, Charlie knew nothing about baking but he wanted to start a business. And he had a few years of business start up experience under his belt, so he “sorta” knew the ropes.

But he also had a crew of bakers who wanted the shop to stay open and would do their best to make the business work.

And make it work they did. Today, the bakery remains open and continues to offer some of the best-baked goods around and makes enough of a profit each year to keep every happily employed.

Follow Your Gut Instinct

What if your life after retirement idea doesn’t have anything to do with baked goods but instead solves a problem most people experience while traveling?

You’d be onto something big. And that’s how it happened for our next rebel retiree Angie Higa.

One day in 2008, Angie decided to retire from her 30 years in the banking industry and concentrate on taking care of granddaughter.

See, her daughter was in the military and had just been deployed to Afghanistan. So someone would need to take care of the children.

Angie didn’t hesitate to say yes and stepped right in. Besides, staying home with her granddaughter would give her time to do what she loved doing in her spare time … sewing.

But the move her daughter’s home required a 7-hour flight across the country.

Unfortunately that’s also when Angie had her worst travel experience. She got really sick.

She felt like she might even have a fever because she was “chilled to the bone.”She asked the flight attendant for extra blankets to keep herself warm.

To her shock and dismay, there were no extra blankets to be found. Angie figured she wasn’t the only passenger to ever request extra blankets and be told, “Sorry, there are none.”

Right then and there she decided that as soon as she got to her daughter’s home, she come up with a solution. And she did.

Being a seamstress, it was easy for Angie to design and sew her own line of travel blankets and matching comfort pillows.

One year later in 2009, Angie launched Sky Dreams, which manufactures all sorts of travel related comfort items.

Angie recently added totes and pouches to her mix of products.

These are just a few examples of the new breed of rebel retiree … people who are creating a new life after retirement. They are scrapping the conventional view that retirement means collecting a Social Security check while just laying low.

What they are really doing is not relying on the government or anyone else for that matter. They are creating a life after retirement that is truly rewarding.

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