In Other Words with Dave

A friend of mine recently retired, so I asked him to lunch to see how this new phase of life was going. He gently corrected me. Retired guys don’t do lunch—they do early morning coffee. I’ve been officially schooled. We met for coffee. 

He’s turning 65 this year, the age when AARP follows up, and follows up again, just to be sure you didn’t miss the first dozen mailers. He told me he finally gave in and became a card-carrying member, admitting that resistance is futile and the discounts are real. Sage advice. 

Retirement, he said, is treating him well, but he’s already itching for a second act. He’s fairly internet-savvy, so I told him, you’ve got a phone and strong opinions, you’re already halfway to becoming a social media influencer. Get a ring light and start lecturing the world about air fryers, snow tires, or why nothing has improved since 1987. 

Podcasting came up, but that would require talking to people. He shut that down quickly, saying he already gets enough of that over coffee, and besides, most people are only interesting for about ten minutes. Hmm, grumpy retired guy with interesting people 10-minute podcasts. There’s a niche. 

He floated the idea of becoming a life coach, but I explained that trend peaked in 2020, back when everyone was wiping down their groceries. Besides, “life coaching” is too broad now. It’s a specialized industry—executive coaches, mindset coaches, clarity coaches, burnout coaches, inbox-zero coaches, decision-fatigue coaches. You’re not that. You’re just a guy who’s figured some things out. 

Other options included Uber driver, poll worker, hardware store advice guy, or youth sports referee, which seems to require minimal running and maximum whistle use. 

For now, he’s sticking with coffee with friends and fully exploiting those 5% AARP discounts. Next stop: Denny’s. Honestly, it sounds like a pretty good second act already.