October 28th, 2009
 My grandmother lived to be 101. I used to reflect on all the things she had seen in her lifetime and how she was able to adapt to change. I am not yet close to that milestone year, but in retirement I am learning that adaptability may be the key to successful living.
As you near retirement, you are told to plan. Plan for your expenses, plan where you want to live, plan for your health and plan on living life and having fun. Plan for the future.
Unfortunately, planning for the future based on today’s circumstances is a risky proposition at best. As older Americans we have learned that no matter how much we plan, the future is likely to be different. The adage “the future is now” has never been more true.
If someone had told me that I would see some of the auto companies go out of business, that my local newspaper might be a thing of the past, and that a major recession would change life for nearly everyone, I wouldn’t have believed it, and certainly would not have planned for these things!
A recent survey by AARP Magazine targets 45-64 year olds as “a high anxiety age group”. They are preparing for their retirement, but they are worried about other generations as well.
The AARP Survey called “A Closer Look” was last done about eight months ago, before the full effect of the recession was felt. New findings show:
30 percent of those surveyed have stopped contributing to their 401 (k) or IRA
18 percent have prematurely withdrawn funds from their retirement accounts
12 percent say they have, or a family member, have lost a job in the last year
Nearly half, 49 percent say they are not confident that they will have enough money in retirement.
So, with those sobering statistics, it is more important than ever to plan. Chances are things will not go like you thought, but it is the successful plan that allows for change and our ability to adapt to it. Once you realize that you can react and adapt to your life’s many challenges, life becomes a very exciting journey.
Tags: aging, budget, finance, Finances, generations, modern, money, retirement, retirement planning, savings, seniors, work
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September 16th, 2009
 Maybe it is the anniversary of Woodstock, but lately I have been thinking about different age generations, the labels that are placed upon them, and what that actually means. When controversial issues like health care are being discussed, we need to be careful about characterizing people based on their ages or arbitrary generational labels. This tends to divide rather than unite people.
It started with Tom Brokow and his book, The Greatest Generation. Who wouldn’t like that label? True, our WWII soldiers exhibited extraordinary bravery and the world is a very different place today because of it. However, this is also the generation that lived in a segregated world and had African American soldiers fight the war, apart from their fellow soldiers. It was also a world where women had limited opportunities. While it was a great generation, they were not without their problems. Tom Brokaw may have been a great reporter, but his view of history is limited and controversial.
The generational labels of Bridge and Baby Boomers are often described with less flattery and who wants to be considered second rate compared to the so called Greatest Generation anyway?.. Personally, I find these labels distasteful and as a Baby Boomer would like to think our generation might have had a hand in making our country great too. After all, civil and women’s rights came to be recognized during these years.
People of retirement age have enough labels placed on them already. To me, the labels placed on older people just limit us and we have more in common with the other generations than differences. We have forgotten what happens when issues are broadly categorized and we lose respect for other’s opinions.
Health care is an issue that affects everyone in this country and could divide us if we allow generational issues to influence these important decisions. While we might not always agree with one another on this issue, it is a call for civility and remembering what made all generations important in the formation of this great country. As President Obama has said, it is a time to examine the character of our country. And to do that, it will take every generation to show respect for all that have gone before and all that come after.
Tags: aging, family, generations, Health, life, retierment
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August 24th, 2009
 Traveling this summer has afforded my husband and I an opportunity to catch up with old friends. It has also given us insights as to how different friends are handling retirement.
We are blessed with good health, which may be one reason we have not considered retirement communities as our retirement option. Nevertheless, this year we have noticed that suddenly the lawns, trees, flowers and gardens, that were once a source of enjoyment for many of our friends, have now become a burden. The lawn is too much to mow. The rabbits are eating the garden and the flowers just aren’t worth the time-commitment. These friends are now considering retirement communities while planning for assisted living options.
Granted, it pays to plan ahead, but friends who really should be enjoying their health and good fortune are looking to the end of their lives and not living fully in this moment. While I can certainly understand not wanting to spend a good part of my day mowing the lawn, I don’t want to hasten the inevitability of not being able to or looking forward to the time when most of lives are spent looking through windows at the world passing us by.
On the other end of the spectrum are friends that have decided to seize the day and have an adventure that many of us dream about. They have bought an RV and are going to travel while they can and enjoy the thrill of being able to do what they want to do. And that is the kind of friend I want to emulate. Those who realize we’re only going around once and enjoy it for all that it’s worth.
While not everyone has the ability or desire to move to a retirement community or travel in an RV, there is something that everyone can do and that is to appreciate every day. We may be the last generation that will be able to retire gracefully in relative financial security. Let’s seize this opportunity. Enjoy, but don’t overindulge. Exercise our brains and bodies every day. And enjoy our time. Those of retirement age will certainly understand that time is flying by and every moment is now precious.
Tags: Lifestyle, retirement, retirement communities, travel
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July 21st, 2009
 
Do you ever have times when you are not really paying attention to what is on T.V?. Then all of a sudden something is said that really catches your attention. That’s how it was when I heard Kathy Freston talking about her new book, Quantum Wellness Cleanse: The 21-Day Essential Guide to Healing Your Mind, Body and Spirit recently on the Ellen DeGeneres show. With typical Ellen humor she was confessing that she wouldn’t be able to give up everything that was advocated in the 21 day Detox Plan. Specifically alcohol. That is only one of the things that Freston suggests in her 21 day healing plan. Also, included is sugar, gluten and meat. Essentially everything. She advocates a cruelty free lifestyle and choosing food with integrity and consideration of how it arrives at our table.
Detox plans or fasting seem to be the newest craze. Opening a magazine, the headlines in Elle question “What if you could reverse allergies, mood swings, stomach ailments-even some chronic diseases-with a periodic three-day cleanse?” The medical community is embracing the ideology of Jeffrey Bland, the co-founder of the Institute of Functional Medicine in Washington State. In essence his theory is: the body is constantly dealing with foreign chemicals that it (ingests, breathes, absorbs) from the outside world in a two-step process. In phase I, liver enzymes break down the chemicals into compounds that are often more dangerous than the original stuff- in the process, creating free radicals that cause “oxidative damage” in the cells (or rust). In phase 2, the liver neutralizes these compounds with the help of other nutrients, including key amino acids made from the protein we eat, and the waste is excreted. The theoretical justification for fasting is that it removes the bad stuff from fat-cell storage. If the body doesn’t take in the necessary nutrients during a water fast, the liver doesn’t get the nutritional support it requires to neutralize (phase 2) all the free radicals produced in phase 1, which can wind up making you feel worse.
So what does all this mean? One of the themes that seems to hold for all the Detox Plans is that it is a healing mechanism which supports balance in our bodies and minds and offers an alternative to conventional Western medicine.
All I know is, that as I get older, I want to do what I can to feel better. While the jury is still out for me on whether detox programs are effective, I do believe that thoughtfully considering what we eat can only be a positive action. In the words of the Muppet Miss Piggy, “Never eat more than you can lift.”
Tags: againg, anti-aging diiet, detox, diet, Health
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June 24th, 2009
 When our neighbors were discussing their upcoming cruise and how much it would cost to board their dog, my husband and I decided we would offer to watch “Muffy,†an eleven year old Shitzu.
The irony is when we were working and gone most of the day, we always had a pet. However, once we retired and had more time to have a pet, we have remained petless. So, this was our opportunity to see if a dog would prove enjoyable with our new lifestyle..
Dogs are still the pets of choice in the United States with 74.8 million households having dogs. However, for sheer numbers, cats outnumber dogs with 88.3 million, since many households have several cats. For those looking for pets with a little less upkeep, (although I am sure that is debatable when it is time to clean the tank)12 million households have freshwater fish and 9.6 have saltwater fish. 16 million households have birds, while another 24.3 million have small animals. 13.8 million households have horses, followed closely by 13.4 million with reptiles. So, what does this say about Americans? I am not sure, but apparently many people derive great pleasure taking care of something other than themselves.
There is no doubt that pets require a commitment. Just like our traveling friends, if you have a pet that is not traveling with you, someone must take care of them in your absence and it is not an inexpensive proposition. They also require time and planning. No longer do we just walk out the door. We now have Muffy to consider. Has she been outside lately? Has she been fed? Not that we have to worry. It soon became apparent that Muffy would train us in no time. The first few days she was up at the crack of dawn and ignoring her was not an option. No matter how often we begged her to go back to sleep, she would have none of it. She was then ready for her morning walk.
Ironically, when people saw me walking my new pet while they were taking care of theirs, they confided that as soon as theirs went to the Great Beyond, they probably would not rush out to get another one. However, I have other friends who have lost pets and rush to get another to fill that void they are feeling.
Unquestionably, research shows that petting an animal can lower blood pressure and add another dimension of pleasure to life. But it’s not for everyone. I have enjoyed having Muffy, partly because I know I am helping our friends and she will be going home. And it was an opportunity to see if we would enjoy having a pet. I no longer feel guilty to say I don’t .
My advice: never be pressured to get a pet. Try caring for a friend’s pet for a couple of weeks and you too may come to the conclusion we did, pets are not for everyone.
Tags: blood pressure, companion, dog, Health, lonely, pet, pet sitting, retirement, shitzu
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May 24th, 2009
 Several years ago, when I retired, one of the first things I noticed was that I had time to do things with some forethought. That included shopping. No longer did I quickly run in after work and pick up something off the shelves. I was able to read labels and do some comparison pricing. Now, with the current recession, I am doing comparison shopping, but with a different goal: saving money. On a limited budget, finding ways to save is a necessity and I have become one of the best. Here are some of my tricks:
There is a certain sense you develop when shopping retail. If you see something you want, let’s say a dress, you have to assess whether it will go on sale. If there are a limited number in your size and if you don’t act, you have to weigh how disappointed you will be if you don‘t get it. Nine times out of ten, things will go on sale and then the real game becomes how low will it go. In this economy, stores are marking things down to incredible savings. Now, the beauty of retirement kicks in. When you read the ads or see something on-line that you have been wanting, you have the time to beat everyone else to the sale.
Shopping for cosmetics is also an art.  I have tried to hone the skill of waiting, but am not always successful. If I see something I want, I ask for samples. At least then I can try it before spending a lot of money. Also, if I decide that it is something I must have and call a store to send it, they will often waive the shipping fee, if asked. Also, if you develop a rapport with staff in certain lines, they will alert you to sales, or give you complimentary gifts. I have a friend who always buys her perfume from the same salesperson. She is alerted to the new scents of the season and she is also rewarded with free samples.
Clipping coupons is something I would have never bothered with when working. Now it is fun. Sunday’s paper if full of coupons and as more and more papers disappear, coupons are available on line. I try to plan our weekly menu around what is on sale. I also look for two for one specials and share them with our neighbors.
This is also a time when companies are willing to negotiate to keep their best customers. Always pay your bills on time. Never be afraid to ask if you are getting their best price. Things change and although you might have needed 70 cable channels in the past, you might not need them now.
My last trick is really a wake-up call. Again, it is practicing the art of patience. Instead of buying spontaneously, I write down what it is I want and how much it costs. In a week or two, I go back and review the list. If it is something that I still want, I may buy it, or I will note how much money I have saved by waiting. Remember, the whole art of negotiation is being able to walk away if the price is too high!
Retirement is tricky. There is a fine line between having enough money to enjoy things and being too frugal that you forget how to enjoy things. Becoming a savvy shopper helps.
Tags: recession, retirement, save, shopping
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April 25th, 2009
No matter how old I get, there are two things that never seem to change: in the fall, I want to buy school supplies and in the spring, I want to get in shape. I want to be swimsuit ready for the summer, even though I notice that each year that seems a little harder to achieve.
I always find it ironic that Girl Scout Cookies are sold in the same month that the Sports’ Illustrated Swimsuit issue arrives at the check-out line in the grocery store. However, when you think about it, these events are somewhat related.
First, you want to be able to enjoy life. You can’t give up everything and Girl Scout Cookies come but once a year. However, just when I am ready to open another sleeve of Thin Mints, I am reminded that moderation, or more likely deprivation, is the way to the toned abs and sleek thighs of the swimsuit models.
I belong to a gym and go with some regularity, but it is this time of year that I want to kick my routine up a notch. I begin noticing the muscle-bound trainers and their students. Recently, I mustered enough courage to ask a trainer how much he charged and if he would be willing to train me. His response made me really question what I am willing to do. He asked, “What are your goals?â€Â My goal is to be in shape. But am I really willing to do what would be necessary to achieve that goal? And what does it mean to be in shape? Does that mean being able to walk a couple of blocks to our favorite restaurant or does it mean being able to run a marathon?
Do diets really work? Maybe for the short term, but nearly every article I read stresses that fad diets just don’t work over the long term. But after I have been on the treadmill for ½ an hour and see that I have only burned 200 calories, I realize that exercise without some diet modification is probably not the answer either.
Dr. Dean Ornish, president of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, has recently published a book called Spectrum. In it, he advises people to eat with awareness, noting that you get more pleasure and fewer calories when you really pay attention to what you are eating. He thinks exercise is an important part of staying healthy, as well as losing weight.
In a recent article in “Allure Magazine“, he contends that walking 20 or 30 minutes a day, not even all that fast, can reduce premature death rates by half. More intensive exercise makes you more fit, but really doesn’t add much to your longevity, according to Ornish.
So, maybe the key is to exercise, eat with awareness and use the money I would have spent on
Tags: female, fun, funny, senior, summer, swim suit, women
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March 25th, 2009
There are have recently been many events affecting retirement. It is hard to know when we will pull out of our current recession, but it does make one wonder if we will be the last generation that will be able to retire. The American Dream, as we once understood it, may be very different for future generations.
For people that have been retired for awhile, it is a scary time as retirement funds continue to dwindle. People looking forward to retirement may postpone it, if possible, and continue to work until things improve. The latest government report shows household net worth dropped by 9 percent in the third quarter, which is the most since records were first kept almost 50 years ago. Even if people want to go back to work, the outlook is bleak as more people are losing their jobs and the number of unemployed has reached an all-time high with 5.3 million people receiving unemployment benefits, with another 1.4 million receiving extended benefits.
For the first time in history, there are as many women as men in the work force.
While women have made strides in recent history for equality in pay, we are still not there. So the fact that more women are working is a mixed blessing as it also means that those being laid off are often those with the higher pay, with women being retained due to their lower pay. Loss of pay is only one of the affects of unemployment. Families that that suffer this monetary loss of income, also suffer from emotional loss of self-worth and purpose.
Everyone is ready for this recession to be over and to go back to life as we knew it. Economists and newscasters continue to look for signs of progress and sometimes report hopeful stories. So when the stock market goes up, will people believe that it can be sustained?
I have always heard people speak of the American Spirit. From what I have observed, we are actually witnessing a time in history when people are showing hope, when all the indicators would show otherwise. It is a time to stay positive and to stay away from people who blame the government for all our ills and offer no solutions themselves.
Hope and optimism are contagious, but unfortunately, so are doom and gloom. Our country was built on optimism and I believe we will return to more optimistic times. Let’s make it so.
Tags: 401(k), American spirit, retirement, stretch money, toughtimes
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February 25th, 2009
 This past week over 550,000 people filed a new claim for unemployment in the United States. The reality is that in the coming months millions of additional Americans will lose their jobs.  Is this a recession or a depression? To the millions of people who are losing these jobs with little hope of finding a new one soon, it is a depression!
There is a disturbing trend during these economic hard times. Most companies and governmental entities are attempting to solve their economic problems through layoffs. This week three venerable American companies all announced layoffs: Microsoft, Starbucks and Harley Davidson.  All are profitable companies who see these hard times as an opportunity to do what human resource professionals call “right sizing“, the politically correct term for eliminating higher paid positions, often filled by senior employees, to improve the bottom line profits. Oftentimes these executives who are leaders in this “rightsizing†movement in America are awarded for their efforts with fat bonuses.
A new term for staff members in our American companies is human capital. This human capital is even accounted for like other capital and a price is placed on it and compared to other capital expenditures like buildings and equipment. This concept is not limited to the private sector, as I noted this week when one high ranking public school official in our area said he thought it would be less desirable to close some school buildings than layoff some school employees. Unless, of course, he became that laid off staff member.
I fear that this recession will be tougher than past ones because of our lack of respect for the people who work in our companies and organizations.  Not only is it now fashionable to layoff staff to improve the bottom line, we see another revolution to lower the wages of people that are already paid the least in our companies. I do not believe that we can be a great country without good wages and full employment. We are going to exacerbate the current hard times if we do not realize that the life blood of our country is the American worker who certainly deserves a better future. People are not human capital but our relatives, neighbors and friends, a group that deserves a lot more respect and consideration than they are receiving today.
Tags: finance, layoffs, recession, retirment, senior employees
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January 23rd, 2009
 January ushers in a season of hope: a new year, a new president and another chance at making things the way you want them to be. However, as optimistic as I try to be, the current economy makes it hard to enjoy my retirement years as I had envisioned.
I don’t like it when I am listening to economic analysts who have pretty much written off the entire year, predicting that 2009 may make 2008 look good. And I have to admit that if I allow myself, it can get pretty depressing listening to the dismal projections that seem to bombard us at every turn.
So, when I heard the interest rates were at an historic low and that banks are once again beginning to lend money, it seemed like the perfect time to explore refinancing our home. Being on a fixed income, or retiring and relying on your savings that are no longer what they once were, can make the idea of refinancing and reducing monthly payments very appealing. Average rates for a 30 year fixed rate loan are now below 5 percent. This translates to savings of about $200 a month on a $200,000 loan.
Being of retirement age, my husband and I have bought and sold homes throughout our careers, but when they say times are different, they aren’t kidding. I am reminded of Harry Truman’s adage that when your neighbor loses their job, it’s a recession, but when you lose your job it’s a depression. Similarly, we had watched the stories of declining home values, but we thought that applied to our neighbors, not us. So, in applying for a new mortgage, it never occurred to us that our home value had dropped as dramatically as the appraisers reported.
I don’t want to say I was over-confident, but when the process started, we were told we had a good credit rating, not only good, but very high. Therefore, I thought, this should be easy. Just pay your non-refundable application fee of anywhere from $400 to $1000 and wait for them to call us for the closing. After all, we are attempting to refinance through the same bank that currently holds our mortgage, and our principle has decreased through the years, so were are actually asking this same bank for less than we originally financed the home for.
Now the sobering reality.  Your home may not be worth as much as it was when you bought it and your financial institution may not be as inclined as they once were to even loan you the same amount you currently owe on your home!  Yes, this seems incredible that we home owners who have never missed a payment on any debt in over 40 years may no longer quality for a loan on our principle residence.
Whether or not you decide to proceed with refinancing, or to keep your current loan, it is an opportunity to think about what you want to do in the new year to make it a great year. After all, even in bad times there are opportunities to do things that will improve your future.  It is all about looking for that silver lining in the dark clouds that surround us, and refinancing at historically low rates may just be one of these opportunities to consider.
Tags: home sale, interest rate, refinance house, save money
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