What does Stripper Retirement look like?

I picked up my dog-eared copy of The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss this weekend. I read it several years ago when I was in my SuperStripper Zone working my ass off and making mad cash. It’s interesting how much you can get out of a second read when you have a different life perspective. What I learned the first time I read is was how to build a business that made money while I slept. What I learned the second time I read it is life changing.

I semi-retired last year on my 11 year anniversary of stripping. For you longtime followers, I’ve blogged about what I “thought” I would do when I retired for years: start a family and be a SAHM. It was nothing like what I thought: I got divorced and moved back and forth between Dallas and Scottsdale more times than I can count right now.

I thought having passive streams of income to replace my dancing income would make me “happy” Through trading and SGR I was able to pay my bills without working for a while. My boyfriend at the time was a doctor, we moved in together, he didn’t want me dancing and “took care of me” It was awesome…for about 3 weeks.

Back to Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Workweek p 51 “What is the opposite of happiness? Sadness? No. Just as love and hate are two sides of the same coin, so are happiness and sadness. Crying out of happiness is a perfect illustration of this. The opposite of love is not hate…it’s indifference, and the opposite of happiness is-here’s the clincher- BOREDOM”

I couldn’t take the boredom, and the Dallas winter…so I broke up with Doc, moved back to my Arizona winter sunshine paradise, and returned to dancing at my favorite club in the country: Babes Cabaret in Scottsdale. It’s small, really small, like smaller than the 2500sf home my ex-husband got in the divorce small…but it was a strategic move. I capitalized on the super busy nights during tourist events. But as the desert is now heating up to 100 degrees the tourists are dwindling and I’m thinking….”What’s Next?”

So I planned a trip to Europe with my Mom this summer, she’s 67 and we are hitting something like 10 cities in 12 days.

After that…guess what…I think I’m going to get a personal training job at my health club. I’m certified, I’ve taught group exercise classes there since 1996…never in a million years would I think I would get a J-O-B after dancing. The difference is that I have the FREEDOM to do what I  LOVE…even if it doesn’t pay very much.  And if it wasn’t for the 11 years of stripping, I may have never had the opportunity to experience this freedom.

Now, this may not be exactly what Tim Ferriss had in mind when he wrote the book, but it’s my personal adaptation.

Just thought I’d share my experiences…so back to the original question: What does stripper retirement look like for you?

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