Hi again it's Jason from Fraser valley rose farm and today we'll talk to you about my
retirement and don't mind me I'm just gonna be doing a project at the same time here I'm
steaming this would but my retirement in this case I'm not talking I want to be clear up
front about you too I hope to be around for a long while and you too but I'm talking about
my day job and I made a video several months ago called. When can I quit my day job to
farm full time. And I got a lot of good advice from my viewers it sort of fell into 3 basic
categories there were some people who were very hawkish and said oh yeah I know you things
are going really great for you now you've got the farm income you've got you too things
are moving quickly you should go ahead and do it so that's one group of people there
was a second group of people who are far more bearish he said you know make sure you have
all your ducks in a row financially have a number of months of savings in the bank maybe
get somebody hired on the farm and Sir transitioning over to your farm life. And that was the second
point of units in the third group was more philosophical I would say a long lines of
well you'll know it when it's the right time and I have to say. That not only was all this
advice really helpful but I think all 3 people were right I had to take the time to make
sure I had a my finances in order and my family was protected and I did that. You know got
some savings done and I also took the advice of taking it slowly and I approached my employer
announced can I cut down my number of days can I go down to 3 days a week which he agreed
to. The second group that said it or the other group that said go for it yeah the right I
mean this is I feel like this is unfortunate and this is a rare opportunity that not only
is my farm income increased dramatically over the past couple of years but also you too
revenue has come along in kind of an unexpected way kind of started YouTube as a as a lark
in a way to support the business in terms of giving out information and it's actually
turned into some revenue and all strike while the iron is hot there and then of course the
question of knowing the right time to do it yeah I felt it I I I got the impression that
this was the right time to move forward. Now some people taken issue with. For my use of
the term retirement I think family and friends particularly first of all my mother couldn't
quite get the get the story straight that I was leaving and not being fired she's like
Hey is he is he firing other people too right now mama didn't get fired my brother was more
like a reality call you know dude you're not retiring you're going full time to your other
job you're starting your business full time and I agree with him on that but I want to
keep the word anyway and I'll tell you why. So one thing I will say is that retirement
was always going to look like this for me there was never a scenario under which I left
my job and then. You know started to travel or you know do retired person things this
was always the plan whether it happened when I was 50 or whether happened when I was 60
a rather happy when I was 70 it was always gonna be the case that I would take this time
and start spending it on growing plants for myself growing my business here on the farm
and that I will keep on going just like that so return this was always the retirement plan
the second thing I'd say is I'd like the mindset about it because I've I've been working so
hard for the past. No 1215 years on my career and I've missed out on some things I've missed
out on I mean I love to kayak I love to hike on there being years in this stretch where
I haven't taken the kayaks out even 1 time you know being able to go for a mid day walk
with my wife and the dog or being able to drive my daughter to work a couple days of
the week drive my daughter to it to school a couple days a week you know those are things
that I'm looking forward to doing and so I think I'm gonna keep the retirement mindset
but point taken this isn't fully the financial retirement I am obviously relying on my business
to carry me through the final thing I want to talk about here is what I expect my retirement
to look like and that's where I live I'm doing this project here and I'll show you this the
sales card that we're putting together here I was actually built by somebody else but
the reason why I'm doing this and the way it ties into this video is that there's lots
of things at least and I talked about doing in the business here that we always were like
well that'll happen some day that'll be something that we can afford the time for or that we
can put into our business some day and hosting people on the farm here was 1 of those things
you know if you've been watching my channel that I did I tour a few weeks ago but plans
to change around the farm to make it more to our friendly this is another 1 of those
changes the sales car is where you know some people come here to buy plant some people
come here just to look at the grounds but I'd like to have them have some way to purchase
a you know a souvenir or memento my daughter is a really good photographer and so if she
takes pictures of roses she's gonna digital art should put those together and postcards
are little you know photos that you can buy all market those here but we're also talking
about packaging things like popery or rose petals things like scented oils or or maybe
soaps or candles or whatever you know the the stuff that you have when you exit through
the gift shop and that's what we'll have this up by the front sale shed will have this cart
and it's got a roof on it it looks quite nice and the idea is that if people come here and
I do they don't find plants they want for the rose that they want or if they can't.
They don't have the space for something in the garden right away that they can still
come see the property have a look around and then like I say exit through the gift shop
by something and still have a way to support the business so that's the idea here. Funny
enough and just a slight aside about this card itself is the person who built this doesn't
usually make these carts so much in fall and winter there they're usually a spring and
summer type farmers market a roadside stand type product but he did have a. A television
movie production in town I don't know if everybody knows this but Abbotsford and mission here
that's the communities I'm closest to is the place where if you see those cute towns in
Vermont in the hallmark Christmas movies that's in in many cases that's obvious for her mission
they do a lot of that video production here so they rented this card he when he got back
it was all covered in holiday bling the kind of glitter and and and green and red paint.
And so he sent it out for some brought back to us that's how we will get our hands on
this at this time of year just incidentally the production that was used in that you may
see it if you watch these kinds of movies was called 9 kittens for Christmas which I
can only presume is a boat a career oriented veterinarian who returns to the town he grew
up in upstate New York and house to either find receive some kittens and along the way
falls in love with the a quirky but lovable coffee shop owner who he grew up with that's
what I assume it is it's that's probably not even close but but that's that's what I think
of those hallmark movies anyway when I think of them. So anyway I just want to update you
on what my retirement is going to look like here it's gonna be a lot more time on the
farm here a lot more pro Jackson how time you know for for more conversational type
videos like this obviously I'm gonna stick with the project videos and and the US and
the topic videos as well because you know I'm a kind of a a focused person that way
but anyway I thought I'd give you that update and thanks so much for watching if you have
any comments or questions please drop those down below the video.