Member Profile: Eva Bennett
13 Sep 2019
Eva Bennett is a retirement presenter, inspirational trainer, professional speaker and author with over 25 years’ experience running public speaking and personal development programs.
As the incoming president of Kingscliff Probus Club, Eva Bennett knows a thing or two about life in retirement. When she and husband Peter turned 60 and retired, they moved north and she found there was not a lot of information about how to live the retired life. “There was not a lot written about life in retirement. It was all about super and money,” Eva says.
So, she set about writing a book herself; something that focused on the personal challenges and the healthy living that keeps you young in retirement, not just the financial worries.
She wanted to look at how people handle moving from work life to retired life and what they found most challenging about being a retiree. With a simple five-step process, Eva looks at how to make the most out of retirement. “Retirement isn’t about stopping living. It’s about enjoying life,” she says.
Eva has now written two books on retired life and presented over 300 seminars. But her passion to help people reach their potential goes back to the late 1960s when she became a teacher. Using the skills she developed over 20 years of teaching, she went on to develop her own training organisation.
“I have learnt that people who have other interests during their life, besides just work, transition into retirement more easily, with a new sense of purpose, than those who don’t. It also creates new friendships outside of just work colleagues,” Eva says.
“Heading into retirement is like getting your L-plates all over again! And learning how important it is to develop a life plan as well as a financial plan has steered many people towards getting their P-plates so that they start to transition more confidently into this new stage of life. As one door closes, another one opens.”
When Eva wrote her first book, So What Do We Do Now? The Baby Boomers’ Guide to Enjoying Retirement, she did not expect to have a new career as a retirement coach. But she’s happy to be able to help people both in their Probus club and outside.
“Instead of fearing this new stage of life – ‘What am I going to do all day?’ – so many people have told me how much more confident they feel about retirement and the things they can start doing to prepare for it. Also, people’s feeling of self-worth stays strong.”
For more information, visit plansretirement.com.au
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