Retire on Fire – Cathy Bishop-Clark

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Aug 26, 2024

Cathy Bishop-Clark, a recent retiree from Miami University after 34 years, shares her rich journey of transitioning into retirement. She emphasizes the emotional complexity of leaving a fulfilling career and the necessity of a retirement mentor. Cathy discusses her adventurous spirit, including cycling across America, while navigating the joys and challenges of retirement alongside her husband. The conversation touches on the importance of prioritizing health, social connections, and exploring new experiences to thrive in this new phase of life.

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ADVICE

Retire When Health, Curiosity, And Finances Align

Do retire when non-work goals requiring good health and time align with financial readiness.
Cathy retired after biking across America and once she maxed her 34-year pension, prioritizing physical-adventure plans.

ANECDOTE

Biking Across America Was Epic And Mundane

Cathy biked from San Diego to St. Augustine over 52 days with a group to see the country differently.
The trip was “epic and boring,” offering accomplishment through persistence rather than speed.

INSIGHT

Retirement Phases Often Overlap

Retirement phases can overlap instead of occurring sequentially, causing honeymoon, experimentation, and loss to hit simultaneously.
Cathy experienced vacations, classes, certification attempts, and a strong sense of loss all within her first year.

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Time to take charge of your future? Design Your New Life in Retirement

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Transitioning to retirement comes with challenges. And what if you love the work you’re retiring from? That makes it harder. Our guest today, Cathy Bishop-Clark shares her experiences in transitioning to retirement – and why you’ll want to have a retirement mentor.

Cathy Bishop-Clark joins us from Ohio.

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Bio

Cathy Bishop-Clark recently retired after a 34-year career at Miami University of Ohio. She finished her career as Associate Provost of Miami’s regional campuses. and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Applied Sciences. Prior to her Dean position, she was a professor in the Computer and Information Technology Department, a Department Chair, Assistant Dean and Associate Dean.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, an M.S. in Quantitative Analysis and a doctorate in Educational Foundations. Over a period of 34 years she taught a variety of computing classes and she has published over 40 articles and a book, most of which related to the scholarship of teaching and learning.

She enjoys exercise and new adventures including hiking, kayaking, camping bicycling, learning new things, and traveling. A couple years ago she rode her bicycle across America.

She and her husband (who was a third grade teacher) have two adult daughters and a son-in-law.

Cathy and her husband both retired a year ago. While her husband has excelled at retirement, Cathy has found the transition more difficult. To help her learn about that transition she took Joe Casey’s group program, intensely studied retirement and taught a course on the topic of retirement this past Spring.

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Mentioned in This Episode

Riley Moynes

Andy Robin

Barbara O’Neill

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

If You Love Your Work, What Challenges Will You Face in Retirement? – Michelle Pannor Silver

The Power of Reinvention – Joanne Lipman

Live Life in Crescendo – Cynthia Covey Haller

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Wise Quotes

On Having a Retirement Mentor

“…and he talked about one thing that really resonated with me that I have paid attention to – and that is having a retirement mentor. You don’t think about that right? Everybody thinks about having a work mentor. We have mentors at work and I had done this in a way before I retired. I invited people who had retired to lunch and I said Okay what do I need to know about retirement? But the thing is everybody’s retirement journey is so different and so some would say things like There’s nothing to know about retirement. It’s it’s so easy and it’s so great and there’s nothing to learn. And other people would say Well, you know I struggled a lot with the schedule.” And so interestingly, my retirement mentor has been the same career mentor that I had and she retired about five years ahead of me. I admire what she has done and so I continue to use her as my retirement mentor.”

On Trying New Things

“So first for about a year a half, you just have a great big honeymoon. It’s just fun, fun, fun, fun, fun. And then you start looking at different things to do. And then you start feeling a loss. Well, I think I simultaneously, like on day one, jumped in on all three things simultaneously. So I did vacation, in fact, and since we retired in May, I’ve been on nine different trips and I’ve been to Colorado many times, that’s where my daughters are, Norway, Michigan, New York, Galapagos Islands. So we did lots of honeymooning and vacation. And then at the same time, I did a lot of experimentation. I took some new classes through a retirement group. I explored some new things, with my husband, we explored some new faith communities. We hired a personal trainer. I got into yoga. I started to deeply understand our financial planning. I had known it as a superficial level. And I also tried things that I had never tried before. First, I’m a computer scientist. I think very logically, I’m very analytical. And I took classes in art and history and I became certified to be a depth doula. And so I tried things that were just completely outside of my realm of possibilities.”

On the Transition to Retirement

“So vacation, experimentation – and I did feel a big loss. I felt I missed the people I worked with. I missed the structure and I really missed the work. So many people say, Oh, I miss the people, but I don’t miss the work. I miss the work. I missed thinking that deeply and working with people and working with people in the community and working with students and watching them grow. And I missed a busy schedule. I was at a position where somebody else created my schedule and I just looked at where I was going from hour to hour. And now I woke up and I didn’t have a busy schedule. I would make sure I had a few things on there. And so I had a hard time. And as I reflect on this, if you’ve spent your whole life living pretty intensely and you’ve had a pretty tight schedule and then Boom, you flip a switch and you’re supposed to just relax, of course people are going to struggle with that. At least I struggle with that. So I’m starting to settle down a little bit and I would describe it as settling down because I think the first year has been more challenging than I anticipated.”

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About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.2 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.