Standing on the Edge

While Bob never had a million-dollar nest egg to finance his second half, he says he managed money well so that he would be able to pursue his passions, and more important, take what he loved doing  —  cycling  —  and find a way to pursue significance with that without “causing my family to starve.”

“I always knew I wouldn’t be able to live off my retirement, so I made sure I set money aside in savings,” says Bob. “As I approached retirement, I had this hollow feeling. ‘What am I going to do that makes a difference?’ Retirement clearly wasn’t for me. I had enjoyed success and wanted significance.”

The Liftoff

Bob developed a plan. He decided he would retire at fifty-eight and started making a list of everything he wanted to do. “I had no idea where I was heading,” he recalls. “What I did know was that I had gotten myself pretty fit physically, loved that feeling of athletic challenge, and I’d always dreamed of getting in an RV and traveling the back roads.”

All the pieces of the puzzle seemed to fit: Why not ride his bike across the country and do it for the causes he wanted to commit his energy to? Appropriately he dubbed it “A Ride for 3 Reasons.” He would raise money for ALS, hospice, and cancer, having been a survivor himself.