The Gen eXit Playbook — Free for Gen Xers Stuck Between the 9-5 and Retirement
Too Young to Retire, Too Old to Keep Grinding?
I found the sweet spot between the 9–5 and retirement — without quitting tomorrow or waiting till 65. Here's exactly how.
- Ditched the Daily Grind: How I started moving from a 9-to-5 toward work-on-my-terms, using the five plays in this playbook, without blowing anything up overnight
- Stayed Relevant Instead of Replaced: How a $40K draftsman used what he already knew (plus a few AI tools that actually stuck) to stay sharp instead of getting left behind
- Started Loving Work Again: The one move underneath all five plays that turned "counting down to the weekend" into work that doesn't feel like a chore
Free. About a 7-minute read. No hustle-bro energy or smoke up your ass. Unsubscribe whenever — no hard feelings.
Corey Koehler
Foundry worker, then 17 years behind a CAD station as a mechanical draftsman, singer-songwriter on the weekends, 80s latchkey kid — Class of '90. Nothing on that list says "runs his own thing." I sure didn't think so. But I stumbled into a handful of ways to make money on my own terms, and this is the stuff I wish someone had handed me 20 years ago. Oh, and if you ever catch me sounding like a guru, do me a favor and tell me to knock it off.
Inside the Playbook
A short, honest read — not a system, not a course. Just what worked.
I.
The other half of the field — why saving alone leaves you exposed
II.
Five things that worked — the plays, in plain English
III.
The one move I'd make first, no matter what
If a guy with no business bone in his body can piece this together, you can too.
What Readers Have to Say
"If you're the one writing this, it's damned good writing… very personal, (actually interesting) captivating, compelling, etc. Bravo!!"
— Scott Zosel, journalist turned senior marketing manager and musician"Corey has provided a lot of inspiration and encouragement for making the final step from full time employment to full time self deployment. Better than that are the exercises he's suggested that really help clarify what it is I want to accomplish in life."
— Cory Tomesh, employee turned business owner, Sprint Graphics"Your posts always spark ideas for me. So glad I met you on my business ownership journey. And I like your newsletter, the voice and tone is fun and easy to read and helpful."
— Clorissa Osborn, CMA, career ownership coach & small business owner"This column may have saved my career. The AI Rory prompt helped put something in perspective for me about my new job and guided how I'm going to approach it going forward. I just wanted to say thank you!"
— Andy, Redefining Retirement readerWhy I put this together
This isn't really about retirement — the 401(k)s, the golf, counting down to 65. It's about making a change you can actually live with, and finding ways to get paid on your own terms while you're at it.
The old plan — grind for one company 40 years and hope it's enough — quietly stopped working for a lot of us in Gen X. "Just save more" isn't a plan. It's a wish with a calculator next to it.
I never had a business bone in my body. Foundry, a drafting table, a cubicle — none of it pointed toward "runs his own thing." I backed into all of it, one little experiment at a time.
This isn't a guru system. It's five things that worked for me, the honest story of how they came together, and the one move I'd tell anybody to make first.