How to add 10 years to your life and retire early!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dallas, Texas― October 1, 2012- If you are able to pick up and move to Monaco, where the average life expectancy is near 90, or can pack your bags and retire to your beach mansion in the next few weeks, more power to you!  The fact of the matter is that most good, hard working people do not have the money or the knowledge to achieve these fairytale goals. Most people desire to live a long, significant purposeful life, build a strong family tree, achieve financial freedom and develop a secure plan for their future in these uncertain times. The challenge is knowing what to do with the rest of our lives and how to do it. Doug Hagedorn, author of the book, A Lasting Legacy says “We all face a shortage of future.  Though my heart, hairline and waistline have all failed me, what matters is that we aggressively plan and act now to ensure we live a life that counts. Life offers no curtain calls.  This is your life and no one will do this for you. You can pursue your future with passion and purpose and succeed beyond your wildest expectations!” The prescription for a longer more successful life may not be what you normally think of or quite as hard to accomplish as you think.  Numerous studies and research via AARP, a Harvard study, The Blue Zones, and Health Magazine, show over and over that you can add years and maybe decades to your life by acting in some key areas:

• Discover a greater sense of purpose in your life
• Develop written goals and plans to accomplish them
• Put family first
• Share your life and time—develop close relationships and volunteer/serve
• Make your marriage work
• Find God and be involved with faith-based communities and spiritual values
• Laugh

A Future Focused Life: Accomplishing some of these may actually be easier than that next fad diet,  making 5 weekly trips to the fitness club, or saving 10% of your income starting at age 25. Hagedorn shares how he overcame major health, financial and family issues to live a purposeful, full life.  Despite a rare neurological syndrome, a recent heart surgery, and the product of a divorce, he shares his life-long “living proof”successes and failures to help the reader live a rewarding “second half”, live financially free, develop a thriving family and live out an authentic faith. 

Designing Your Future: We now live longer than ever before.  Life expectancy has risen from 47 years to 78 years in the last century.  However, the escalation of uncertainty, turmoil, and stress in our lives can make those extra years a burden more than a blessing—IF you don’t have a plan for your future, your family, your finances, and your faith. Yogi Berra said “if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”   Most people do not experience continual peace, joy and laughter because they don’t have a plan.  Many are so fearful or worried about the issue or struggle of the day that they have not given much thought or energy to their “2nd half” or their legacy. 

How to Retire Early & Live a Legacy Lifestyle: A Harvard study showed that the 3% of its graduates that had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them earned 10 times as much money as the 84% that had no specific goals at all, or the 13% that had not written them down.   Finding your purpose, setting goals, focusing on your family and reshaping your life priorities is what Hagedorn describes as “Living and Leaving a Lasting Legacy”.  How can a person practically live a legacy lifestyle?  It can be oh so rewarding. Mark Twain said “20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did.” 

A Buffet! According to Michele Howe “Hagedorn has created a veritable banquet of inspiration, instruction, and eternally
impactful resources that will recharge, redirect, and refocus you on the how-tos of leaving a legacy. Readers will be delighted (and informed) by the authors lively storytelling and his countless interactive exercises (which are both interesting and insightful).”  A Lasting Legacy, is a unique smorgasbord of practical tools that provide the reader with a “solution buffet” that does not stop with the “why to’s”, but gives the reader many practical “how to’s” and “what to’s”.  Hagedorn’s writing style, storytelling, and his heartfelt passion for the reader are evident throughout.  He doesn’t just write about it.  He has lived it.   Chuck Bentley, CEO of Crown Ministries says “Doug Hagedorn is a man with a passion to help others and a wealth of knowledge to accomplish it. He gracefully guides, directs and coaches those who desire a life that matters. How much better to learn how to have A Lasting Legacy than from a man who is actually doing it!”

According to early readers, A Lasting Legacy is an essential, comprehensive guide manual for LIFE!  Ordinary people have said:   “This is a life changing book”, “It is hopeful and helpful”, “an easy and delightful read” “practical, personal and funny”, “his asset is his life experience and ability to communicate passionately”“he is a strong encouraging voice in uncertain times!”

Key book points: How to: Live a Purposeful Life, Document a Plan for your 2nd Half / Retirement, Live out your Dreams, Think and Act with a multi-Generational mindset, Secure Hope, Joy and Peace for your Future, Parent Purposefully and Connect with your kids, Create lasting Memories and Pass the Baton successfully, Develop a strong Marriage, Invest and Protect your Investments in Difficult Times, Achieve financial freedom & Retire Early, and How to experience an Authentic Faith

Key tools:  Legacy Thermometer, Retirement Readiness Scorecard, Develop a Life Plan, Purposeful Parenting Plan, Marriage Check-up, Finishing Strong Report Card, Educational checklists, Creating a Memory Museum, Develop a Life Ladder and Life, Financial, and Family goals, a Debt solution plan and Budget, a Financial Freedom Test, and Retire Early success factors.

Doughboy: Doug Hagedorn is a cusper straddling the Boomer and Gen-X generations.  He has survived and thrived raising 3 kids with his wife of 20 years. They also eliminated massive debt > $100k and were debt free by age 33. Doug is an author, speaker, teacher, business owner, private school founder, board member, volunteer, corporate employee, community and church leader.  He has been a nationwide radio guest on dozens of talk radio shows.

So what? We are all leaving a legacy.  We all will be remembered for something.  To maximize the God-given time we have left and to live a longer, more purposeful, happy life you might start with the 7 items listed above.  Doug states, “It was one humble individual that ignited a fire in my life to spur me on to develop a plan for my life, my family, and my finances. It is my passion to do the same in other people’s lives. I am no one special, but that is the entire point. We ALL leave a legacy.  It is time to hope and dream again….time to live and leave a rich, memory filled, “no-regrets” lasting legacy.”  

 "Doug Hagedorn was a fine guest on our nationwide talk show! His enthusiasm, passion, and knowledge made for excellent radio and assisted thousands of listeners--evidenced by response from the shows. His interviewing style and approach connected very well with the listeners and helped them greatly. He has a genuine, natural ability to touch people's minds and hearts.” 
—Marlin Maddoux
National Religious Broadcasters Hall of Fame

A Lasting Legacy can literally change your life.  Doug Hagedorn does an excellent job of helping you assess your life and helps you plan your future. What legacy are you leaving? Do you have a plan for your family?  Do you know what to do with your finances in uncertain times? This book helps you answer these questions.  I highly recommend this book. Read it. Apply it. There is great wisdom, and it will change your life and help you leave a lasting legacy.”
—Kerby Anderson
President of Probe Ministries
Host of Point of View radio talk show

“A Lasting Legacy is one of the most useful resources I have ever read.”
—Roger Marsh, author of Internet-Protect Your Kids
Executive Producer, “HomeWord with Jim Burns”