Definition
It is more than a word. It is a mindset. It might be who you are becoming.
re · tire · pre · neur
noun | Federal Trademark Registered April 2025
A purpose-driven professional who reinvents life after 55 by launching a business, monetizing decades of expertise, or building something meaningful without risking retirement security.
"You are not starting over. You are starting from experience."
Curt Roese, CPA | Founder, Retirepreneur
The Origin
The English language has always evolved to describe new kinds of people doing new kinds of things. Solopreneur emerged to describe someone building alone. Intrapreneur described someone building within a company. These words did not exist until the behavior they described became common enough to need a name.
Retirepreneur describes something that is happening right now, at scale. Millions of professionals in their 50s, 60s, and 70s are leaving corporate careers. Not to stop working, but to build something on their own terms. They are launching consulting practices. Creating courses from decades of expertise. Building coaching businesses. Starting the thing they always wanted to build but never had the time.
The word did not exist before because this generation did not exist before, at least not in these numbers. 4.1 million Americans reach retirement age every year through 2027. Most of them are not done. They just need a different framework.
The Definition
A professional with 20 to 40 years of real expertise
Not a beginner. Not learning from scratch. Someone whose career has accumulated something valuable and who is figuring out how to package and monetize it on their own terms.
Building for calendar freedom, not empire
The goal is not a unicorn startup. It is $3,000 to $10,000 a month doing meaningful work on a schedule that fits real life. Consulting, coaching, courses, or some combination of the three.
Risk-averse by design
A Retirepreneur cannot afford to fail recklessly. Retirement security is not a side concern. It is the non-negotiable constraint around which the entire business model is built. Low overhead. Conservative projections. Capital-light execution.
Motivated by purpose as much as income
The research is clear: 60% of retirees want a combination of work and leisure, not full withdrawal. A second-act business is not just a financial strategy. It is identity, structure, community, and proof that the best work may still be ahead.
The Contrast
Not a hustle-culture story
No rise and grind. No overnight success narratives. The Retirepreneur path is systematic, realistic, and built for people who have already earned the right to do things deliberately.
Not a passive income fantasy
Second-act businesses require real work. The advantage is decades of expertise that creates a head start most 25-year-old entrepreneurs do not have. That is the edge. Not automation promises.
Not retirement from contribution
Retiring from a corporate job is not retiring from impact. Most people in this demographic have more to contribute to clients, communities, and the people they can teach than at any point in their careers.
Not for people who need a guru
Retirepreneurs do not need inspiration. They need frameworks, data, and honest guidance from someone doing the same thing. Peer-level. CFO-lens. No hype.
The Models
Most second-act businesses fall into one of three models, or a combination.
Consulting
Apply your expertise directly to client problems. Project-based or retainer. High income potential per engagement. Best for professionals with specific, implementable knowledge in finance, operations, HR, legal, technology, or strategy.
Income range: $5,000 to $50,000+ per project
Coaching
Guide people through professional or personal transitions using your experience as the framework. One-on-one or group. Ongoing relationships with recurring revenue. Best for professionals whose value is perspective, pattern recognition, and personal transformation.
Income range: $500 to $3,000 per month per client
Course, Cohort, and Community
Package your expertise into teachable frameworks. Online courses, cohort programs, or membership communities. Highest scalability. Best for professionals whose knowledge can be systematized and taught to many people at once.
Income range: $197 to $1,997 per student
The Timing
Three things converged to make second-act entrepreneurship viable at a scale it never was before.
The internet removed the barriers to entry
A consultant, coach, or course creator with 30 years of expertise can reach their ideal client from a home office. No storefront. No staff. No large capital investment. The infrastructure exists and costs less per month than a car payment.
AI compressed the learning curve
Building a newsletter, creating content, developing a course. Tasks that once required a full team can now be executed by one experienced professional with the right tools. The solo operator has never had more leverage.
The financial reality demands it
The median Baby Boomer has $194,000 saved. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that is $7,760 a year. An extra $3,000 to $5,000 a month from a consulting practice does not just improve retirement. It transforms it. The math makes entrepreneurship a strategy, not just an option.
The Check
You might be a Retirepreneur, or becoming one, if any of these are true.
You have 20+ years of professional experience and wonder why no one is paying for it directly
You are approaching or past traditional retirement age and full retirement feels wrong
You want calendar freedom. Work that fits your life, not a job that owns your schedule
You are interested in consulting, coaching, or teaching but do not know how to package what you know
You need supplemental income in retirement but will not gamble your savings to get it
You want to build something that is genuinely yours. Not a job, not a side hustle, but a business with your name on it
The Platform
Retirepreneur is a newsletter and decision-support platform built for professionals 55+ who are monetizing their expertise through consulting, coaching, or course businesses. It was founded by Curt Roese, a CPA with 40 years of financial leadership experience who enrolled in a master's program in entrepreneurship at 62 and launched Retirepreneur at 63.
The platform is built on one principle: document the path in real time, not from the finish line. Every newsletter, tool, and resource is grounded in what is actually working. Not theory, not inspiration, not hustle culture.
CFO-lens. Conservative projections. Peer-level guidance. Still building.
Join the Newsletter
Once a month on the first, the Still Building newsletter delivers an honest account of what I am building, what I am learning, and what the numbers actually look like. Written by a 64-year-old CPA doing it in real time. No spam. No hype. Unsubscribe anytime.
Still Building.
Curt Roese, CPA | Founder, Retirepreneur | M.S. Entrepreneurship, University of Florida