Finding Creative Opportunities After Retiring

Investing time into developing your 'second act' can pay off

By Patricia Corrigan, Next Avenue

Ann Nessa presenting one of her shawls

Tone deaf? Turned off by a blank canvas? Two left feet?The arts enhance the lives of older adults, but even if you have no desire to sing, play an instrument, paint a picture or take up the tango, many other options for expressing creativity exist.

That was evident at a recent pop-up art show at a home in my neighborhood, where colorful lithograph prints, origami-inspired leather purses and wallets, handmade kimono jackets and abstract art crafted from recycled materials were on display.

Whether you’re interested in exploring a new area of endeavor or want to reinvigorate a passion from the past, finding the right path can be part of the process.

Four people who did just that include a doctor-turned-sculptor, a former astronautics and aeronautics engineer with a sweet job in a chocolate shop, a veteran of the corporate world who reinvented herself as a photographer and a retired buyer at a manufacturing firm who knits gorgeous scarves she calls “neck art.”

Credit: Compliments of Susan Emmerson

 A longtime ear, nose and throat surgeon in Illinois, Susan Emmerson took early retirement, earned two fine art degrees and now works as an artist in Boston. Clients make appointments at her studio or view her work at the Kingston Gallery.

What do they see?

“People tell me they see vague body organs, interesting shapes and shadows — and some say they enjoy the colors,” said Emmerson, 60. “I started drawing what I was most familiar with — the inside of the body. Now I draw on Tyvek®, heat it and sculpt 3-D globular objects.”

Emmerson has long been interested in both art and science. “I knew I couldn’t do both at the same time — you have to throw yourself into both careers — but it was always in the back of my mind that I would retire early from my practice and go to art school,” she said. Emmerson left medicine in 2004 and completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees in art in 2012.

“If people want to retire to write or be an artist, I encourage them to find a way to do it,” Emmerson said. “Yes, it takes time. But you may as well be doing something you love to do, because time is going to go by anyway.”

‘Being Creative Is a Form of Relaxation for Me’

Astronautics and aeronautics engineer, ski racer, information systems technician,

Compliments of Doug Cale

consultant, house flipper, marathon runner, homebuilder, proud grandfather and owner and head chocolatier at Birmingham Chocolate in Birmingham, Mich, near Detroit. That sums up much of Doug Cale’s life to date.

“I’m a risk taker,” said Cale. “I like to take chances, and I’m not big on the word ‘retirement.’” Cale, 71, left his “first collection of careers” in 2002. One day, while working on a house he hoped to flip, he met with three friends who also had left the corporate world. One was making chocolate, which interested Cale.

“I’ve been in the chocolate world now for 10 years,” he said. “I’m not trained in the pastry arts, but I come up with ideas for new recipes. I’m always asking why we can’t try this or work on that.”

One of the dark chocolate truffles at Cale’s shop is flavored with Jamaican rum. A white chocolate truffle has hints of blood orange. A specialty bar, made for a pie company, combines a streusel crumble with berries.

Cale also finds job satisfaction developing marketing strategies, exploring new partnerships and experimenting with his business model.

“For me, life is all about engagement,“ he said, “Coming up with new ways to do things day in and day out, what I get out of this job is the creativity. And being creative is a form of relaxation for me.”

Credit: Compliments of Pete Rosos

‘Photography Is My Second Act’
“Originally, photography for me was a way of hiding, but now it’s about making connections, meeting new people and hearing their stories,” said Carol Thomas. “Photography has opened my eyes and my heart to the beauty of the world.”

Thomas, 71, lives in Berkeley, Calif. She got her first camera at age 12 and has considered herself serious about photography since the 1970s. But only recently has she started identifying herself as a photographer.

In 2012, Thomas retired as the CEO of Education Northwest in Portland, Ore., one of 10 federally funded regional education labs. Her list of retirement goals included improving her photography skills. “I looked for local resources, started reading more photography blogs and enrolled in a class,” she said.

Since then, Thomas has joined two local photography clubs and she is an affiliate of Pro Bono Photo, a group of volunteer photographers that works with nonprofits. This year, Thomas was invited to join Berkeley Fine Art Photographers and her work has been included in exhibits at galleries.

“Photography is my second act,” Thomas said. “I wasn’t very good at first, because it was a hard switch from being so analytical and literal in my old job to being more creative and abstract. Now, it’s cool to think of myself as a photographer!”
‘Making Shawls Brings Me Lots of Joy’

Ann Nessa never goes out without wearing one of her shawls — wardrobe accessories she calls “neck art.” Nessa knits them from colorful yarns, including silk, merino, linen, angora and even bison. Many of the yarns are hand-dyed, and they come from all over the world.

“I look for unique yarns, and I want no distraction from the design. I want the yarn to do the talking,” said Nessa, 75. “Some of the shawls are big and some are small, and I wear them with dresses or jeans.”

When Nessa retired in 2009, she was already a knitter. When she noticed new and different shawl patterns available, she decided to make shawls. Each one takes a couple of weeks to finish, depending on how often Nessa sits down to knit. How many has she made? She admits to “hundreds,” each one unique. “Making shawls brings me lots of joy.”

For Nessa, knitting is not a solitary art. Before she moved recently from Whitehall, Mich., to Buffalo, N.Y., Nessa was a longtime member of Pints and Purls, a knitting club that met at a craft microbrewery. In her new city, Nessa has learned about one knitting group, but hasn’t ruled out starting another.

“I’ll go to a library and see what groups they have, or maybe I’ll settle in at a coffee shop and start knitting,” she said. “Other knitters will come right over to talk. Who knows what might get started?”

Patricia Corrigan is a journalist and the author of numerous books, including a guide to San Francisco that expresses her great joy in her adopted city. Visit her blog here.

 

Are You a "Solo Ager"?

By Richard Eisenberg

With her recent book, Essential Retirement Planning for Solo Agers: A retirement and aging roadmap for single and childless adults, Sara Zeff Geber brought the term “solo agers” into the national vocabulary. By Geber’s definition, a solo ager (sometimes called an “elder orphan”) is a boomer without children and/or grandchildren. Geber, a 2018 Influencer in Aging based in Santa Rosa, Calif., is a retirement coach for boomers, a life planning and retirement transition expert, a professional speaker, a workshop leader and a Forbes contributor. She has a Ph.D. in organizational behavior.

Next Avenue: Your bio says: Sara has been among the first professionals in the field to recognize that the baby boom generation would re-invent the whole notion of retirement in a very exciting way. Tell me about that.

Sara Zeff Geber: In 2010, nobody was talking about this. Boomers were primarily in the workforce. I was looking at the trajectory of the boomer generation and what we’ve changed in society and the likely changes we will enact in our later years. Now, we’re starting to see them bigtime.

Why is there so much interest in solo agers now?

For one thing, there are so many of us. Almost 20 percent of boomers don’t have kids and as I keep being told in my talks, solo aging is not limited to people who don’t have kids. Lots of people are aging alone with kids who live a long way away and a lot of them don’t want to rely on their kids.

Some people refer to older adults without children as ‘elder orphans,’ but you don’t like that term and many others don’t either. Why?

I hate that term. I find it offensive; the word ‘orphans’ has always had a negative connotation. I wanted to use words that are positive or at least neutral. I think I coined the term ‘solo ager’ eight years ago and now I’m pleased others are using it.

What are the challenges and opportunities solo agers face that are different than other people?
Opportunities? You absolutely have a lot more freedom to decide where you’re going to live. You don’t have the tug of kids or grandkids to live in a particular climate you don’t want. And you can go wherever you want.

What do people ask you about solo agers when you give talks about it?

People are very interested in the topic of where they should live. I’m not the biggest fan of aging in place; I like to see people focus on aging in community. It’s so important to build and maintain a social support network. I encourage people to think through to the end of life when we need people around us.

What do solo agers need to do first for their retirement planning?

They should use professionals like financial advisers and estate attorneys and get their paperwork in order — advance directives, wills, trusts, powers of attorney. That forces solo agers to think through: ‘Who will I name on those documents?’ And they have to talk to those people; you can’t just name them and let it go. You need to tell them your values and your vision for your future.

What happens when a solo ager asks someone to be in charge of their end-of-life wishes?

I can’t say people are always very gracious and say: ‘Yes, I’d be happy to do it.’ They’re not always comfortable at first. Help them understand you need people in your corner as a solo ager. If you tell me ‘I asked one person and she declined,’ I say: ‘Move on to the next person.’

I encourage people to start with family: a niece or nephew who lives near them.

What happens is often people go into a crisis after a fall or a medical event and there they are in the hospital and somebody needs to be there as an advocate waving paperwork saying: ‘I am power of attorney.’

What do you want your legacy to be?

I want people to remember me as a person who opened the world’s eyes to the fact that many people in the coming older generation of boomers, and possibly generations to follow, don’t have the safety net of adult children as we get older. And we need to plan in many ways what want to be, who we will be around and how we will avoid isolation and loneliness.
 

Richard Eisenberg is the Senior Web Editor of the Money & Security and Work & Purpose channels of Next Avenue and Managing Editor for the site. He is the author of How to Avoid a Mid-Life Financial Crisis and has been a personal finance editor at Money, Yahoo, Good Housekeeping, and CBS MoneyWatch.@richeis315

An Emotional Playbook for Couples in Retirement

Credit: Adobe Stock

6 tips to navigate a time of life that brings so many changes

By Joan Fischer

We’d only been retired for a few weeks when the questions started coming.

“How’re you doing with so much time together?” we heard from friends, both the still-working and the long-retired alike, their voices knit with concern.

I was a little puzzled. My husband and I had been married for nearly 35 years and got along just fine. What mysteries could possibly await us?

Yet apparently we’d stumbled onto new ground in Elder Country, where each couple must blaze their own trail. We met one pair who can’t get enough of each other, traversing the country in the close quarters of an RV and spending months at a time volunteering at national parks, often living in remote sites with no TV, cell or Wi-Fi.

And on the other end of the spectrum, we met a couple who’d agreed to more or less ignore each other until 5 p.m. on weekdays, mimicking the schedule they’d kept during their working lives. This was not done with any hostility; it was simply a pattern of interaction that worked for them.

Where would we fit in?

As time went on, I realized that our concerned friends had a point: Retired couples do need to hash things out.

The stakes are high. While nearly 80 million boomers are retiring at a rate of some 10,000 per day, according to the Social Security Administration and other sources — the divorce rate of older Americans is also rising. Among people ages 65 and older, divorces have roughly tripled since 1990. At least some of that discontent is caused by problems that surface in retirement.

Couples in Retirement: Preparing for the Next Stage

“Due to our heightened expectations of marriage and also to our healthier life spans, most people are no longer willing to stay in a boring marriage ‘until death do us part,’” noted sociologist Stephanie Coontz, director of research at the Austin, Texas-based Council on Contemporary Families.

But even if divorce is not on the menu, couples need to prepare — beyond finances and health care — for a life stage that brings so many changes. Most of us don’t blithely stumble into marriage or childbirth, perhaps because those transitions carry so many obvious red flags. Retirement, on the other hand, seems like 100 percent ease, a hard-earned gift of time. In spite of that, couples need an “emotional playbook,” said Miriam Goodman, author of Too Much Togetherness: Surviving Retirement as a Couple.

Navigating the Challenges, Enjoying the Experience

Luckily for all of us, a number of sociologists and other experts have weighed in on marital harmony in retirement. Here are six key pieces of advice:

Communicate clearly “It’s not you, it’s me.” If one of you needs more alone time, make sure your partner understands it’s a part of your nature, rather than a rejection of his or her company. Presumably, your spouse knows a bit about your temperament after so many years together, but a whopping 40 hours a week of newly freed time can be a wake-up call to each partner’s needs and plans. A need for “more space” can be addressed quite literally by designating separate rooms for each partner as mostly his or hers, if possible.

Cultivate separate hobbies and friendships “Couples should focus on building their individual social lives to avoid becoming too dependent on each other or spending too much time together,” advised sociologist Rob Pascale, co-author (with Louis H. Primavera and Rip Roach) of The Retirement Maze: What You Should Know Before and After You Retire. “In addition to maintaining and strengthening existing friendships, retirees can consider joining clubs and organizations so they have opportunities for developing new independent relationships.”

Spend time with others as a couple “People report the happiest feelings when they socialize with their partner and other adults, not just with the partner,” said Coontz. “And a whole lot of studies show that having friends beyond your family or spouse as you age is an extremely important contribution to people’s mental and physical well-being. It’s a protective factor on the same order as keeping physically fit and not smoking.”

Understand that retirement brings different challenges for men and women By most accounts, men have the tougher time. Many women have moved in and out of the workforce while raising children, and, culturally, have been encouraged to place a higher value on close friendships. They’ve also been assigned more of the day-to-day domestic activities that await the retiree.

The emphasis of men’s role as providers first and foremost, spending less time cultivating friendships and managing the home, leaves many men more at a loss when the workweek vanishes. That, in turn, can become a problem for women who find their husbands suddenly underfoot.

Couples can kill two birds with one stone by: a) agreeing that each partner will pursue new activities and friendships and b) negotiating an equal division of domestic chores, even if the woman had done the lion’s share while both partners worked.

Partners who both work should retire at the same time, if possible “Researchers have found that when spouses retire together, the marriage is seldom affected by their joint decision; good marriages will stay good and bad marriages bad. But problems can occur when only half of a two-income couple retires,” said Pascale.

By retiring together, partners avoid such issues as changes in the dynamics of the relationship —only one person “bringing home the bacon,” for example, can cause problems — or interference with the retired partner’s ability to participate in certain types of activities or social events. Retiring together also provides each partner with some emotional support as they try to adjust to their new living arrangements, Pascale noted.

Allow yourselves time to adjust “Be patient with each other,” said Goodman. It takes time and experimentation to find a groove. Maybe one partner will decide to take a part-time job or a significant volunteering commitment that feels like a job, while the other is happy with less structure.

It is sobering to recognize that retirement represents our last years of life, our time to finally do whatever we wish — health and resources permitting. That freedom is a tremendous gift; one that, with good communication and understanding, couples can make the most of together.

Classic Auto Show Returns to Fredericka Manor

Anniversary edition to feature cars and trucks from five decades

Rev up your engine, get your motor running and get ready to feast your eyes on sparkling electric blue and glossy lemon yellow exteriors, wood grain dashes and bright silver chrome shimmering in the sun. It’s time for the Fredericka Manor classic auto show and barbeque!

In conjunction with Fredericka Manor’s 110th anniversary celebration, the communitywill host the show from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on August 23. You are invited to join residents for this special anniversary event. RSVP by August 20 to 619-205-4116. About 15-20 autos including T-buckets, street rods, muscle cars, custom and classic cars and trucks representing five decades will roll into the Fredericka Manor parking lot courtesy of the South Bay Cruisers Car Club.


“There is a rich nostalgia that comes with classic cars,” said Fredericka Manor Executive Director Craig Sumner. “Many of our residents are hobbyists or made their living working on and driving many of these classic cars and trucks. The cars symbolize a proud era in American history.”

Among the cars and trucks scheduled to appear at the free event are … a ’37 Dodge coupe, various ’55 Chevys, a ’68 Mustang convertible and a ’55 Ford F-100 pickup, recently featured as a showcase truck at the San Diego Auto Museum. Darrell Rocke, an artist who specializes in intricate wood carvings of cars and trucks, will be a special guest.

Entertainment and a barbeque will highlight the event. Tours of the community will also be available. RSVP by August 20 to 619-205-4116.

How to Turn Your Passions Into Retirement Income

4 ways to profit from the activities and interests you love


By Nancy Collamer for Next Avenue



Walt Galvin is a dog walker for Rover.com
 

Last year, Mike Liff, now 71, relocated with his wife from San Francisco to Portland, Maine to be closer to family. The retirees explored their new hometown and thanks to a chance conversation at a barbershop, Liff learned that MaineFoodieTours.com was looking for part-time guides. After hearing that the job would give him a chance to walk around the city, share his enthusiasm for history and food and meet interesting people, Liff decided to apply.

“I’m having such fun,” he said. “I like to say I didn’t retire, I ‘rewired.’ To have a place to go and a purpose is really important to me — and my wife appreciates it too.”

During the height of the tourist season, Liff works six mornings a week, leading a 3-hour tour around the old Port city. After winter arrives, the sports fan takes on a different part-time job, working as an usher for the Maine Redclaws, the developmental team for the Boston Celtics. He gets to watch “really great basketball,” while earning supplemental income in the process.

Like Liff, you too may be able to generate income from your passions and hobbies. Here are four strategies to consider, along with resources to help get started:



Mike Liff is a part-time tour guide for MaineFoodieTours.com

1. Find a part-time job. Take inspiration from Liff and look for a part-time job that offers the chance to engage with your hobbies and passions on a more regular basis.

For example, if you love plants and being outdoors, you might find it satisfying to work at your local arboretum, community park or garden center. Or, if you’re open to traveling for part-time work, you can search on CoolWorks.com for seasonal jobs at the National Parks, ski resorts and dude ranches.

If food is more your thing, take a look at GoodFoodJobs.com where you’ll find a variety of part-time opportunities. Current listings include a recruitment manager for a nonprofit teaching kids from all socioeconomic backgrounds what real food is and a food demo specialist.

2. Become a gigster. Eager to strike out on your own, but don’t want the headaches of starting and marketing a business? Consider applying for short-term gigs that play into your passions by using gig technology platforms and mobile apps.

For example, if you love pets and would enjoy working as a pet sitter or dog walker, you could sign up on Rover.com. You set your own schedule and rates; Rover.com handles the payments and insurance for dogs in your care. In exchange, the company takes 20 percent of your earnings to cover administrative costs and overhead and to make a profit, of course.

It’s proven a lucrative option for Walt Galvin, 66, a recently-retired defense contractor and dog lover based in Woodbridge, Va. “As a retiree, Rover provides me with a great monthly supplemental income. And it’s great exercise, too!” he says. Galvin averages $1,500 a month from Rover, he told me.

On his Rover.com page, Galvin says: “I love dogs! Over the years I’ve fostered over 150 dogs as a volunteer/board member of a local lab rescue group. I don’t foster anymore, but as a new retiree with time on my hands I’m looking to continue to interact with dogs and their families.”

If you Google “gig platforms” you’ll find that there are many other possibilities. For instance:

Coachup.com: Sign up to offer coaching services to local clients.
Gigmasters.com: It matches people who provide event services (like music entertainment, wedding photographers, magicians and officiants) with prospective customers.

EatWith.com: Apply to be a dinner party chef, working out of your own home.

3. Sell your art or crafts online. Many retirees enjoy hawking their wares at local venues like craft fairs, art shows and farmers markets. It’s a nice way to get out of the house, interact with customers and generate income in the process. But why not expand your reach by taking advantage of online marketplaces as well?

For example, James Hartman, 67, a California-based artist, uses UGallery.com as part of his marketing mix. Hartman says UGallery connects him to a broad audience of people who otherwise would never have seen his paintings. “I find the experience very personable,” he says.

UGallery.com, which represents about 500 artists, splits the sale of artwork 50/50 (the company also covers the costs of packaging and shipping). Interested artists must go through an application process to be accepted.

Other online marketplaces for artists and craftspeople include Etsy.com (primarily for crafters), Amazon Handmade and Zibbet.com. Before setting up shop at any, make sure you compare fees and services, since terms differ among the sites.

4. Teach your craft. Whether you’re a polished piano player, a witty writer or a master at mahjong, you can likely earn income in retirement by teaching others how to do what you do so well.

If you prefer to stay local, look into teaching opportunities at continuing education programs offered through your town, community colleges or private adult education programs. Or you can offer lessons out of your home (just be sure to check zoning restrictions before hanging out a shingle).

To take your teaching online, you can deliver classes through your own website or by creating a class using an online teaching platform like LinkedIn’s Lynda.com, Skillshare.com or Udemy.com.

Networking Can Help, Too

Finally, remember that as great as technology is, the best opportunities for part-time work in retirement often surface as the result of everyday networking. So keep your antennae on alert.

As Liff’s story shows, you never know when that random barbershop conversation might lead to the semi-retirement gig of your dreams.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.

How to Declare Your Financial Independence

Tips from a man who did, plus apps and sites that can help you
By Richard Eisenberg for Next Avenue

 

Jonathan Chevreau now lives the life he wrote about in Findependence Day

We’ve just scooted passed the 4th of July, so what better time to talk about a few ways that could help people in their 50s or 60s declare their financial independence within the next few years?

You may have noticed that the goal of “financial independence” and its close cousin “financial freedom” seem to be replacing the traditional goal of “retirement.”

“Freedom and freedom money really resonate a lot more than ‘retirement’ when we do focus groups,” said Chris Brown, a partner at the Hearts & Wallets financial services market research firm.

Freedom, Not Retirement

The financial advisory industry is onto this, too. Merrill Lynch, for example, has announced a holistic approach for clients, known as Clear. “It’s not just about investing. It’s about your life priorities and connecting your life to your finances to help enable those things,” David Tyrie, head of Retirement and Personal Wealth Solutions for Bank of America Merrill Lynch, told me.

Some smaller financial advisory firms say they’ve been doing this kind of client counseling for years. “We believe it’s the right way to manage money,” said Dave Richmond, a founding partner at Richmond Brothers in Jackson, Mich.

Living the Financial Independence Life

A guy who knows a lot about financial independence — and just began living it — is financial writer and editor Jonathan Chevreau. I relayed his advice last year when Chevreau was the editor of Canada’s MoneySense magazine (the northern version of our Money) and had just published the U.S. edition of Findependence Day, a “fictional finance” novel.

But on May 20, 2014, a month after his 61st birthday, Chevreau left his magazine job and declared his own financial independence.

Although he’s now blogging twice a week for MoneySense (“contracting back 40 percent of what I was paid as a salaried employee”), Chevreau is otherwise taking the summer off to watch the World Cup, travel to Turkey and read books on semi-retirement. After that, he intends to work when he wants and only as much as he wants, writing fiction and nonfiction and taking on speaking engagements.

“It’s experimental,” Chevreau said. “I’m learning as I go.”

In truth, he noted, his financial independence timing “wasn’t particularly mine.” But it was pretty close. “I would’ve preferred to go another year,” he said.

Chevreau’s 5 Financial Independence Rules

Now that he’s living the goal he novelized, I asked Chevreau whether he’d amend any of the five rules his book laid out on achieving financial independence:

1. Pay off your home in full.

2. Find multiple sources of income for retirement.

3. Develop “guerilla frugality” habits.

4. Save 20 percent of your gross income.

5. Invest with a “Lazy ETF” portfolio — selecting, say, three Exchange Traded Funds (a U.S. stock fund, an international stock fund and a U.S. bond fund) and holding onto them, rebalancing as needed.

Chevreau said he is not only sticking by them, he’s been living them, with a strong debt aversion and an allergy to excessive spending. He just sold his old Volvo and bought — for cash — a two-year old Camry Hybrid. “Its gas mileage is three times better than the Volvo’s,” said Chevreau.

Now that he’s not employed full-time, Chevreau said he’s an even bigger fan of the Easy ETF portfolio.

“When I was working full-time, I was constantly checking financial websites and listening to stock-oriented podcasts from The Motley Fool or Jim Cramer,” he noted. “Now, I’d prefer to have the Easy ETF portfolio in this phase of my life and not have the anxiety of individual stocks going up and down.”

2 Electronic Tools to Declare Financial Independence

If you’d like free electronic help to achieve financial independence, I have two suggestions:

Freedom$. This is a nifty iPhone app from the Hearts & Wallets folks. (You can find it in the iTunes store or at GoFreedommoney.com.

Freedom$ lets you see how you’re doing compared to others your age. More important, it quickly shows you how much sooner you’ll achieve “financial freedom” by adopting any, or all, of the 10 financial behaviors of the most successful people in the annual survey of households the firm has conducted (20,000 have been surveyed over four years).

You start by just entering your age, your total assets and your total consumer debt (other than your mortgage). Then, Freedom$ calculates your Assets to Income Ratio. The goal: to become what Freedom$ calls a “10-timer,” where your assets equal 10 times your income.

Next, you get a Freedom Score: an estimate of how many years until you’ll achieve financial freedom. This number that will shrink if you take on the “good” behaviors and get extra points for doing so. For example, Freedom$ says, try to “save in a burst” by turbocharging the amount you’re putting away, something that could be easier once you’re no longer paying for your kids’ college education.

“Burst saving is three times more common among 10-Timers — 64 percent of them did it — making it one of the most important differences between 10-Timers and others,” said Brown.

The whole process should take about 30 minutes, longer if you want to give yourself electronic reminders to take actions that’ll help you find financial freedom sooner.

FlexScore is an excellent, free site to help you with day-to-day money management. I wrote about it last fall.

Like Freedom$, FlexScore also calculates a score for you and shows you how to raise the number. Since I first talked about FlexScore, the company has now also created FlexScore Pro, a version financial advisers can use with their clients.

Hope you had a safe and happy 4th and here’s hoping you achieve financial independence when you want.


© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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The 9 Keys to a Happy Retirement

What the experts say, plus 8 great retirement books

By Richard Eisenberg for Next Avenue

 

Credit: Getty Images

 

It turns out that happiness and retirement do go together.

Well, based on the research and books I’ve read and interviews I’ve done since becoming editor of the Money & Security and Work & Purpose channels at Next Avenue in 2011, they can go together if you play your cards right.

And it’s not just about having saved enough money or having a great pension, though both of those help. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are nine keys to a happy retirement, one of them pertaining specifically to couples. I’ll lay them out shortly and suggest a few books that can help you retire happy.

Of course, the definition of retirement isn’t what it was even 10 years ago. For many people, retirement in 2016 is not about quitting your full-time job full-stop at 65 and then living a life of leisure.

 

What Is Retirement, Anyway?

For one thing, 65 was the retirement date set in 1935 when FDR signed Social Security into law. It made more sense when people didn’t live as long as they do today and at a time when most employers provided guaranteed pensions once their employees retired. A March 2016 Ameriprise study said 71 percent of current retirees rely on guaranteed pensions from their former employers while 75 percent of pre-retirees plan to rely on anything-but-guaranteed 401(k)s when they retire.Catherine Collinson, president of the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, recently told me that many workers now envision retirement as a transition, something that happens over time. The current catchphrase is “flexible retirement,” which means either going from full-time to part-time work or working in a different capacity or working as long as you’re able.

That said, here are the nine ways to increase your chances of being happy in retirement:

 

1. Figure out in advance what you want out of retirement. By that, I mean things like: how you’ll spend your days, where you’ll spend them and what would make you fulfilled.Stan Hinden, the author of How to Retire Happy, recommends starting to think seriously about retirement when you’re around 50 or 55.

One key decision is where you will retire and how much traveling you’ll want to do. Some people choose to retire in another country. It’s not for everyone, but a recent survey of 389 expats by the website Best Places in the World to Retire found that 81 percent were happier in their new country than where they lived before.

Why is that? For one thing, the cost of living was often less — sometimes much, much less. That meant they didn’t need to worry as much about their expenses or finding a high-paying job in retirement.

Many of the expats also said they were less stressed than before because their new country wasn’t as fast-paced as America. Many also said they loved their new “simple life,” especially because they now had more free time to volunteer (I’ll come back to that last point shortly).

If you’re wondering which are the best places in the world to retire, the answer depends on which survey you believe. International Living says the top places are Panama and Ecuador. And the Live and Invest Overseas site has picked the Algarve region of Portugal and Cayo, Belize.

2. The corollary to No. 1 — If you have a husband, wife or partner, talk frankly together about what you both want out of retirement. Neal Frankle, a noted financial planner, recently wrote on Next Avenue that he finds it helpful for couples to discuss their retirement dreams and write them down. Then, he says, they should mark each item as a “must have,” a “want” or a “wish” and be ready to compromise.

One thing you’ll want to figure out is how much time the two of you will want to spend together, since this may be the first time you’re both available all the time.

Hinden told Next Avenue that he and his wife came up with a system that worked for them: Early in the week, they each would spend time alone or with their own friends. Then, toward the end of the week, they’d do things together, like go to museums, theaters or restaurants.

3. Come up with a retirement income plan. By that I mean: sit down and figure out how much your 401(k) and other accounts will translate to in monthly income; how much you’ll get from Social Security and any pension; how much you can afford to withdraw each year (the rule of thumb is around 4 percent) and which accounts you’ll tap first for withdrawals to keep taxes down.

Devising a retirement income plan before you retire will relieve stress once you are retired. But only 52 percent of pre-retirees have done so, according to Ameriprise.

By the way, don’t be surprised if your retirement income or expenses don’t turn out the way you expected. When Ameriprise surveyed retirees, it found three types of expenses were higher than the retirees expected: health care, food and taxes.

4. Choose when to retire and then follow through (if you can). The authors of an excellent book called The Retirement Maze surveyed 1,477 retirees to see what made the happy ones happy. One thing they found was that workers who were able to retire by choice were happier than ones whose retirement was thrust on them: 69 percent of the retirees who retired by choice were satisfied with their lifestyle but only 36 percent pushed into retirement said they were.

I realize many people aren’t lucky enough to be able to decide when they’ll retire because they lose their job or their health forces them to stop working. But if you can pick your date, you should.

5. Stay engaged and healthy (if you can). The career coach Bill Ellermeyer says the happiest retirees he knows are either engaged in some kind of meaningful activity or are actively employed. Some have become entrepreneurs; some have started encore careers, doing either paid work or volunteering for the greater good, some are just volunteering here and there.

He also says they “eat well, sleep soundly, play often, exercise at least three times a week and maintain strong social connections.” In fact, a survey by Age Wave and Merrill Lynch of 3,300 pre-retirees and retirees said “good health” as the No. 1 key to happiness in retirement.

6. Get a part-time job in retirement. Some of the happiest retirees are people who phased into retirement by gradually reducing their full-time hours. But if you can’t arrange to do that, then just quitting your job and then finding part-time work can be very satisfying, not just financially but psychically. Studies show that working in retirement helps keep your mind sharp and helps you avoid getting isolated and lonely.

The trouble is, not enough employers are helping their older workers work out a flexible transition to keep a job there part-time in retirement. A recent Transamerica study found that although 61 percent of American workers envision a flexible transition to retirement, only 25 percent said their employers offer the opportunity to shift from full-time to part-time work as they phase into retirement.

So, it’ll probably be up to you to figure out how to work part-time in retirement. Maybe you can take the initiative to come up with a plan through your current employer. If not, try securing a part-time job somewhere else, perhaps by setting up shop as a consultant or a project-based contractor.

7. Learn new things or pursue your passions. Those passions could be ones you had when you were much younger but somehow stopped doing over the years, like playing an instrument or painting. Retirement is a great time to discover new passions, too, by taking classes or finding one-on-one instruction.

Check out local colleges for adult education and continuing education classes, too. These courses could teach you new skills or just provide knowledge for the pure joy of it.

8. Keep a schedule, but not like the one you had before you retired. I came across one study from Taiwan that said the key to a happy retirement isn’t how much free time you have, it’s how you manage whatever free time you have.

 The authors didn’t recommend blocking out every minute of every day, but instead advised setting goals and priorities for your free time and then evaluating whether they were appropriate and achievable. Then, they said, organize your activities on a daily or weekly basis — just not hourly. Having some kind of schedule prevents you from getting bored, depressed or lonely.

 

9. See your children and grandchildren if you have any. Hinden said his favorite tip from his retirement do’s and don’ts list was: Do find ways to be friends with your children and grandchildren, even though they are very busy. You need them, Hinden added, and, whether they realize it or not, they need you.

Incidentally, just retiring itself is likely to make you happier. A study by Utah State and George Mason University professors found that retirement immediately tends to improve both happiness and health, and that the effects of this life satisfaction are long-lasting.

And here’s one last piece of good news: Most retirees say they are happy because of all the things retirement has given them the opportunity to do. In fact, a MassMutual Financial Group survey found that retirement just might pay you a happiness “bonus.” In its poll, 82 percent of retirees said retirement gave them an opportunity to enjoy themselves and about two-thirds said they now had a chance to have new experiences and feel fulfilled.

Finally, my reading list — here are some Next Avenue articles and some books that could boost your chances of a satisfying retirement:


Next Avenue ‘Happy Retirement’ Articles

These Next Avenue articles have more details about the nine keys to a happy retirement:

 

The Secret to a Happier, Healthier Life: Just Retire

The 4 Traits of the Happiest Retirees

Time Management Is Crucial to a Happy Retirement

 The Secrets of How to Retire Happy

 Retirement Just May Pay You a ‘Happiness Bonus’

 How Couples Can Make Smart Retirement Decisions Together

 4 Reasons Expat Retirees Are Happier Than You Are

 The One Retirement Book You Need to Read


8 Books for a Happy Retirement

Happy Retirement: The Psychology of Reinvention by Professor Kenneth S. Shultz

How to Retire With Enough Money by Teresa Ghilarducci

The 5 Years Before You Retire by Emily Guy Birken

The Retirement Maze by Rob Pascale

The Couples’ Retirement Puzzle by Roberta K. Taylor and Dorian Mintzer

The Encore Career Handbook by Marci Alboher

Second-Act Careers by Nancy Collamer

Getting the Job You Want After 50 for Dummies by Kerry Hannon

 

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.

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Digging for Dinosaurs in Retirement

Credit: Museums of Western Colorado
Caption: Retiree volunteer Tom Lawrence excavating dinosaur bone fragments in the field

One volunteer in her 70s made a world-famous discovery
By Cynthia Drake for Next Avenue

As a young boy, Tom Lawrence was fascinated with dinosaurs and dreamed of becoming a paleontologist. Life had other things in store.

But now, at 69, Lawrence drives each week to a building marked “Dinosaur Journey” in Fruita, Colo., walks into a laboratory and helps prepare 152-million-year-old dinosaur fossils. He’s been doing it since 2010. “It was a dream come true,” Lawrence says, of his first experiences working at Dinosaur Journey, operated by the Museums of Western Colorado.

Lawrence and a legion of retirees are finding opportunities to get their hands on prehistoric fossils by volunteering for museums across the U.S. and Canada. And they’re greatly appreciated. Since dig sites are rich with specimens, more help is always needed.

“As a small museum, we rely a lot on volunteers to help fill roles that otherwise we wouldn’t have the staff to do. Volunteers are awesome to work with out in the field — without their work we wouldn’t be able to run the operation the way we do,” says Rob Gay, paleontologist and curator of education at the Museums of Western Colorado.

A Major Discovery

Kay Fredette, 78, began volunteering at Dinosaur Journey in 1986. She sought to reconnect with her interest in natural history after her children left for college.

In 2014, one of Fredette’s discoveries made headlines across the globe.

“We were just digging, and I found a lump, and I said out loud, ‘Oh no, another vertebra,’” she says. “We find many, many vertebrae, and some of them are very, very hard to prep because they’re so complex. The [piece] that I thought was the ball of the vertebra dipped down and rose back up again, and there was another lump. We basically had the end of a drumstick. It was the knuckle end — the distal end of a femur.”

The two-meter-long femur, which took four years to dig out, wound up breaking the record for the largest known Apatosaurus femur in existence.

True, dinosaur digging can be physically taxing for someone in her 70s. “Ibuprofen works wonders,” Fredette says. She keeps showing up to chase the bones, donating about 20 hours of her time each week.

“Every time you find a new bone it’s exciting, because it’s the first one that’s ever been seen by human eyes,” Fredette says. “Even if it’s just a fragment, it’s that kind of jigsaw puzzle solving that’s always fun.”

Volunteers are trained on what to look for when preparing fossils and progress to more challenging projects based on their abilities and comfort level, Gay says.

Confident About Digging Up Dinosaurs

Back in the laboratory, volunteer Betsy Leonard, 63, buffs away rock fragments (called matrix) from a fossil specimen using dental tools such as metal picks, wet toothbrushes and a tiny air compressor. She has been volunteering for about two years and says she’s growing confident in her abilities.

“My very first dig, I broke a [dinosaur] bone,” Leonard says. “I was devastated.” The staff members weren’t. Leonard recalls that they said: “Ah, don’t worry about it. Here’s the glue.”

Often, children will nose up to the windows of the laboratory, which face out to the museum. Then, Leonard will look up from her work, slide open the window and ask, “Have any questions?”

How to Get Involved

Several museums around the country have volunteer opportunities for retirees. Digging typically takes place in summer months and fossil specimens are prepared in labs year-round. If you’d like to become a dinosaur digger, contact your local museum or university to see if they could use you or know who you should try.

The Florida Museum of Natural History and the Wyoming Dinosaur Center at Big Horn Basin are two examples of programs actively recruiting volunteers to help.
If you get the chance to dig for bones in the field, who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next one grabbing headlines for a new discovery.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2017. All rights reserved.



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The Surprising Secrets of Successful Retirees

What 'The Retiree Next Door' author learned by surveying them

By Richard Eisenberg for Next Avenue

Credit: Thinkstock

If you’re in your 40s, 50s or early 60s, odds are you’d like to know what it takes to have a happy and successful retirement. To find out, a few authors — such as Wes Moss (You Can Retire Sooner Than You Think) and Bob Lowry (Living a Satisfying Retirement) — have surveyed retirees.

And now Marc Diana, the Los-Angeles-based CEO of the new personal-finance site MoneyTips.com site, has surveyed 510 retirees to learn the magic elixir. He published the findings in the free e-book, The Retiree Next Door: Successful Seniors’ Surprising Secrets (you can download it at the MoneyTips site).

I spoke with Diana, a serial entrepreneur who also founded Savings.com, to find out what those surprising secrets were and what pre-retirees should do now if they want to join the club. I confess that the results did, indeed, surprise me. (You can pose your own questions at The Retiree Next Door one-hour tweet jam Tuesday November 18 at 11 a.m. PT; 2 p.m. ET; I’ll be participating.)

Highlights from my conversation with Diana:

Next Avenue: What made you decide to do this survey?

Diana: We did a survey of boomers four months ago and found that half of boomers were not satisfied with their finances and a third had no plan. We thought that was a recipe for disaster for a large body of Americans, so we said: ‘Let’s reach some successful retirees and see how they are doing and how did they get there so we can help boomers approaching retirement.’

What did the successful retirees have in common?

They’re living within their means and they had a savings plan for retirement. About a quarter of them calculated how much they’d need to retire when they were in their 40s; another 21 percent did it in their 50s.

And how much were they saving each year before they retired?

Nearly 60 percent saved between 6 and 20 percent a year.

What surprised you in the survey results?

44 percent said they were comfortably retired with less than $500,000 in assets. That surprised me quite a bit. I’m in my 40s and that wouldn’t cut it for me.

What does this tell you?

It hits on one of the ingredients in the root of what I uncovered through the survey, which is that successful does not mean ‘I’ve got gobs of money and houses all over the place and cars.’ People who came to terms with what they wanted out of life and managed to figure how to budget and live within that were happily retired.

Are the successful retirees frugal?

No. They’ve been prudent, not frugal. Only 35 percent call themselves frugal; the rest said they spend enough to live comfortably. And 67 percent live on less than a $100,000 a year; 23 percent are in the 25 to 50 grand bucket.

The key is that two-thirds of them have been on some kind of monthly budget and stuck to it.

Did they use financial advisers to plan for retirement?

About 62 percent consulted advisers, at least some of the time, through their career to make investment decisions.

Was having a financial adviser useful for them?

Without a doubt. Engaging an adviser made them more likely to have a budget and to live within it.

What investment mistakes did the successful retirees regret making?

One big mistake they made was getting into the stock market too late or getting out of it too late. They tried to rifle-shot the market. And the other mistake they made was making bad real estate bets.

What keeps them up at night?

The fear of outliving their savings and incurring substantial health care costs. And twenty five percent are concerned about maintaining their standard of living. They worry that something might happen — like inflation or their lifespan increasing.

What are they doing to minimize the risk of running out of money?

More than half don’t have a car that’s newer than two years old. A lot own their homes outright. And they’re cutting back on extras, like travel and memberships.

I noticed that most of the successful retirees worked for large companies and in the public sector. They generally weren’t the self-employed ‘Millionaire Next Door’ types. What does that tell you?

That’s interesting because of what comes with being at those forms of employment. Things like matching retirement plan contributions are great because they push you into a style of saving. You lower your risk of not having a comfortable retirement by the sheer nature of working there.

Based on what the successful retirees said, what should people nearing retirement be doing so they can have successful retirements?

Number one: have an annual or monthly budget and stick to it. Number two: have a plan to retire. Number three: be disciplined as an investor. It’s very risky to make bets on the stock market or on real estate. If you’re disciplined, you can have a nice nest egg in retirement.

© Twin Cities Public Television - 2016. All rights reserved.



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