Success in just about anything can be boiled down to two things: 1) Knowing what works and 2) Doing what works. At Intentional Retirement I try to balance my writing between those two things. Sometimes I write about what it takes to have a secure, meaningful retirement. Sometimes I put those things into practice and then write about my experience.
Not surprisingly, I plan on doing more of that in 2015, but with a small twist. During the week I’ll continue to write about the nuts and bolts of a great retirement, but each Saturday I’ll write what I call a “Bucket List” post. It will be a short story about something fun or interesting that I’ve done (or am in the process of doing) from my Bucket List. I’ll include a “How To” with each article in case some of you want to try it out. I’ll post them on Saturday to give you a little weekend inspiration and also so you can feel free to pass over it or save it for later if you’ve had a busy week.
To make it fun, I thought I’d do a little giveaway with some of the posts. And by little, I mean I’ll be giving stuff away all year and it will include small things like books and big things like plane tickets. I’ll post more on the prizes and rules below.
I hope you follow along and enjoy the articles, but more than that I hope you’ll use them as inspiration for your own adventures. We’re not designed to just sit around and think about life or endlessly make plans for “Someday.” We’re designed to live life. The only way to make that happen—to make 2015 different and better than any other year—is to make plans and execute them. Knowing what works. Doing what works.
Bucket List Giveaway Rules
How do I enter? There are two primary ways to enter. First, you can follow one or more of the Intentional Retirement Social Media sites. For example, like us on Facebook and you’ll get one entry. Follow our Pinterest page and get another entry. Ditto for Twitter and Instagram. If you already follow us on one of those then you’re already entered in the giveaway (see how easy that was).
Second, you can tell your friends about the site and encourage them to sign up for our Free Retirement Toolkit. If someone you refer signs up for the Toolkit, I’ll give each of you 5 entries in the giveaway (note: if you’re already signed up then you’ve already got 5 entries). For example, get 10 of your friends to sign up and you get 50 entries and they each get 5. The only catch is that I need to know who to give credit to, so you just need to let me know. There are two easy ways to do that. You can CC (or BCC) joe@intentionalretirement.com on the email when you tell your friends about the site. Then if any of the people in that email sign up, I’ll give you the credit. You can also just have your friend respond to the “Welcome” email they get after signing up to let me know who referred them. Bottom line, just let me know who to credit.
Can I enter more than once? Yep. Every time you do the things described above you’ll get an additional entry (or entries). And no, you can’t “like-unlike-relike” or “subscribe-unsubscribe-resubscribe” to get multiple entries. All of the entries will be cataloged in a spreadsheet and maintained throughout the year. Winners will be randomly drawn from that spreadsheet, so the more entries you have, the greater your odds of winning something.
What are the prizes? The grand prize is $1,000 plane ticket on your airline of choice, anywhere you want to go. This will come in the form of a gift card on that airline, so you can use it for multiple tickets if you prefer. I’ll give that away on New Year’s Eve of 2015 so you can ring in the New Year by going somewhere awesome. Throughout the rest of the year I’ll be giving away books that I’m reading, books or guides that I’ve written, gear associated with certain Bucket List items and things I pick up on my travels.
Legal mumbo jumbo. Void where prohibited. No purchase necessary. See the official rules over here.
Five-second summary: Follow along throughout the year. Get your friends to do the same. Win cool stuff. Repeat.
As always, thanks for following along. I’m excited for 2015 and I hope you are too. Touch base if there’s ever anything I can do to help.
~ Joe
Dear Joe. I am a long time follower of your column in the OWH and online. I love all of your advice. Unfortunately, I failed the big test!
I think the contest sounds good but I have a problem with some of the rules. As one of your older followers (retirees) I don’t do Facebook, twitter, etc., and I’m not sure a lot of us do. Some maybe, but I don’t believe a lot of us do. Therefore, we have an unfair disadvantage and won’t have as many chances of winning anything.
Just thought you’d like to know.
Mary Cabral
Hi Mary. Thanks for the comment. I totally understand about the social media thing. There are more ways to enter though. You can either sign up for email updates at the site or just send me an email telling me you want to enter. Since you’re in Omaha and follow along with the OWH articles, you’re already a winner in my book, so I’ll send you a copy of my book The Bell Lap. 🙂 Just go to the “Contact” tab above and either call or email me to let me know where to send it. Thanks again. Have a great week!
~ Joe