The Perfect Retirement Job

Bob Shirilla was 57 when he took a retirement package and left his project manager job at a Fortune 500 company where he'd worked for three decades. "It turned out I wasn't emotionally or financially prepared to retire," Shirilla says. So he didn't.

Finding the Ideal Retirement Job

Instead of kicking back full-time, he created his dream retirement job by going into business with his wife. As it turned out, at the same time Bob was retiring, JoAnn was closing down the two retail stores she owned that faltered in the recession. They found the perfect business when Bob used his IT savvy to set up a website to liquidate the stock from her stores. She had a lot of throw blankets to sell, and they noticed that the Pokemon blankets were really popular. "We sold thousands," Shirilla recalls. "We thought, why not sell throw blankets." So they set up a site where they could direct-sell personalized blankets and wall tapestries. They got college accounts and corporate accounts. They sell sympathy throws with condolence messages that can also be personalized.

Keepsakes Etc. thrived, in large part because Shirilla knew how to make it grow. He and JoAnn scouted gift trade shows to figure out what sells; ultimately, they added a second business, Simply Bags, when they saw the handbag booths crowded with buyers. Shirilla bought Google key words so that his company would rank high in searches.

JoAnn and Bob didn't have much trouble divvying up their duties. "She runs the warehouse; I do the internet marketing plus anything else that involves computers," he says. The money their businesses bring in allows them to travel and to belong to two country clubs. "I love it. We have a tremendous amount of freedom. I do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it," Bob says. "At my old job, I remember working for a client at a steel mill. I was taking half a day a week to golf. My client said he didn't like that. Now I make the decision. I can work a 12 hour stretch, then take a day off to play golf."

Running a Business With Your Spouse

Because their duties don't overlap, there's no work friction between husband and wife. "I can't believe how well it's worked out," Bob says. "JoAnn manages the employees at the warehouse, and my work is up in the cloud. At 63, life has never been better."