Book by Wooster man can help people prepare for retirement
Jeff Drouhard of Wooster recently wrote “Prepare for Retirement, Protect Your Future, How to Save, Invest and Grow Your Money on Your Way to Retirement.”
Most people would like to save for retirement, but not everyone has an idea how to do it. Jeff Drouhard had a good view of that happening.
The Wooster resident has been involved in the insurance industry for three decades. He recently began to sense a gap in the area of personal finance and saving. Many people simply lacked information about how to save and prepare for their lives beyond the working years.
With that in mind, Drouhard wrote “Prepare for Retirement, Protect Your Future, How to Save, Invest and Grow Your Money on Your Way to Retirement.”
“I wanted to take my business to more than just ‘I want to put you in a product,’” he said. “Maybe I can just move the needle a little. It’s been in my heart for years. Then my wife said, 'Why don’t you just write a book about it.' I’ve taken courses upon courses and been trained by economists and CEOs and what-not. You might get one idea out of chapter five, or somebody might get two ideas out of chapter seven. There’s something for everyone.”
Drouhard covers such topics as IRAs, 401(k)'s and getting money working for you. He discusses preparation for the unforeseen — things that could dash retirement plans no matter how well conceived they are.
He also covers saving for retirement, even as a late entrant into that game. Most suggest saving for retirement for a lifetime, but Drouhard believes it’s never too late.
“That was my message: Don’t think you’re too old because you’re not,” he said. “What if you took that 50 bucks every week and put it into a savings account, something that grows money? You want it to grow. Who knows what people go through? It’s easy to look at their house or car, but you never know what’s going on inside. If I can give them one idea, just one idea, that’s OK.”
Once he had the idea, Drouhard hit the ground running and put the book together in just a few months. He got an outline together and then would sit down in the evening for hours and type.
“It was really cool,” he said. “At first I didn’t think I was worthy of doing something like that.”
Using a self-publishing company in Summit County, Drouhard had 100 copies of the paperback printed. One from the original run was overnighted to him, and he was beaming.
“I opened it up and read it, and I said, ‘Man, this is mine; this is really cool,’” he said.
Drouhard, who is using local marketing channels to sell his book, said he hopes to get it on Amazon and local stores. The 61-year-old said he would be happy to sell 300 or 400 of them. He plans on having a booth at the Wayne County Fair next year.
“Trying to market is not easy,” said Drouhard, who added he’d like to have an ebook version at some point. “I’m not expecting to be a New York Timesbestseller.”
With his first book in print, the 61-year-old is already thinking about another.
“There will be a follow-up,” he said. “I want to keep going on the path I’m on. I’d like to get into public speaking on this stuff too.”
For more information or to get a copy of Drouhard’s book, email him at j.drouhard@yahoo.com.