Richard Ward helps people plan their lives after retirement and secure their financial futures. As a certified financial planner, he has made it his mission to help people secure financial success while sharing their time, treasures, and talents with those in our community that are less fortunate. Richard believes that financial success shouldn't be the only goal in life. Instead, he says, people should turn their success into real significance as the best way to live out the second halves of their lives, and he’s using his personal experience and professional skills to help his clients achieve it.
Listen to the complete interview of Richard Ward with Adam Torres on Mission Matters Money Podcast.
How did the journey begin?
Traditional financial planning, Ward explains, involves accumulating money and holding onto it in anticipation of the post-retirement period. He helps people do this through his work, and he also notes that the most significant rewards are enjoyed when we grow as people and help others learn, grow and thrive. After attending seminars in which successful business leaders spoke about how their boredom with their day-to-day activities led them to turn outward and help others, he decided to follow a similar path. This, he says, was an “Aha” moment that changed his sense of purpose, and therefore, his future as well.
Living a richer life
Ward says the meaning of a “richer life” can be different for everybody. It can be about obtaining a suitable or fulfilling job; it can be about family and parenting; it can be about starting or growing a business; it can take on many forms. More than that, he explains, we should also be thinking about our communities. He stresses the importance of having a bigger purpose in the second half of life; it’s necessary, he says, to keep growing and evolving after retiring instead of simply relaxing and becoming stagnant or bored.
Success With Purpose
Through his organization Success with Purpose, Ward helps build awareness of nonprofits in Orange County, connects organizations with donors and supporters, and helps people uncover their passion and identify potential philanthropic opportunities. He stresses the power of philanthropy to change lives for the better, and notes that annual giving is a critical component for organizations and the communities they serve. Charitable giving is of particular importance in the circumstance of a business transition or an inheritance, which can present a challenge for a recipient who is not familiar with new opportunities or who feels unsure about how to handle money. And across the board, Ward notes, it’s better to begin making plans earlier rather than waiting until a more advanced age. Beginning your long-term financial planning process sooner, he says, can create greater opportunities for helping others as well as ensuring your financial security for the future. This, he says, benefits everyone.
What makes your practice unique?
Ward and his team are unique, he says, in that they answer questions about balancing wealth and generosity. They first make a point to understand each client’s priorities and life-long legacy goals and then assist them with whatever they need to maximize opportunities for the future, learning how people wish to use their wealth to help themselves, their families, and the causes they care most about.
What’s next for Success with Purpose?
The goal, Ward notes, is always to continue helping people. A couple of years ago he wrote Redefining Retirement: Finding Purpose and Passion in your Second Half, which showed people how retirement could be best lived with continued purpose, rather than just relaxing. He’s also working on a new book, Living a Richer Life: True Stories of Impact due out in 2022 which will feature compelling stories of many local leaders sharing their passions and how they make them a part of their work and life.
To learn more about Richard and his work, visit successwithpurpose.org.
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