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Last month, a reader suggested I explore the journey of retirees who have lived their life a little differently than many of us. That sounded like a fascinating idea. The problem? My retirement has been pretty standard. While I left the working world earlier than I had planned, I live in suburbia, have a steady life, and rather traditional goals for myself and my family. Something may go wrong at some time in the future, but I am not the person to ask about retirement done "differently." What I can do is share some examples of what a "different" retirement may look like. But, then, the real expert is you. Either you have approached this phase of life on a less-traveled path, or you know someone who has. This should be a an interesting learning experience for us all! I guess this is a natural followup to the previous post about retirement being a personal path. Examples of a Retirement Done Differently 1.  Retire to a foreign country Becoming an expat is the choice o...

This is a phrase I heard someone use at a meeting of a volunteer committee I was attending a few months ago at United Way. I like it. It summarizes an approach to life, especially a retirement life, that I endorse. Let's see where it goes. The first two words, Fail Fast, assumes a few things. One, that trying something new is encouraged, because without trying failure could not occur. That mindset is one that might have served you well during your working career. There are very few jobs where trying to improve something is not encouraged. Maybe you were not in a position to execute an idea, but you could certainly talk to a supervisor or someone else up the chain of command. Your idea to save money, serve clients more efficiently, be more productive, or improve workplace safety would be expressed. After retirement, we are in an even better position to experiment: a different housing or lifestyle setup, a new hobby, a desire to learn to sail, building furniture, making beautifu...

Since we sold our RV last spring, we have been staying rather close to home, enduring another blistering Phoenix summer .  There was a 4 day trip to Disneyland with the family in August. Otherwise, it has been a time of swimming  pools and family dinners with movies and games. As the temperatures began to cool off in northern Arizona, we took two trips within the last few weeks, just for a change of pace. In six days we managed to enjoy the beautiful red rocks of Sedona, the former ghost town, now artist community of Jerome, and the cool green of Flagstaff.  Actually, the Flagstaff trip was quite a family gathering. There was a fun run/walk to help raise money and awareness of Parkinson's disease. My son-in-law's father suffers from this progressive affliction, so the cause is very personal. We decided that twelve of us would go north, spend some time together, and then participate in the 5k run or 2k walk. With the help of a walking stick, even Papa was able to complete...

A month ago I had a post about working after retirement .  Then, there was one about volunteering. There have been posts about financial investing after retirement , moving , developing your passions. ...kind of a laundry list of topics that retirees have said are important. But, still stuck in my mind was a comment from earlier in the summer from a reader that took me to task for what may have been a bit of a contrarian view. He wrote that being busy, traveling, volunteering, or engaging with others isn't really the only way to took at retirement. His point was that not everyone wants to do those things to feel fulfilled. Not every satisfying retirement journey involves all sorts of activities.  His comment wasn't health-related. It was not that he can't do these things, it's that he chooses not to. His view is that he worked hard all his life to get to a point where he could stop, disengage, unconnect. Being alone with his thoughts, reading when he wanted to, sittin...

Over the past few months I have received several requests to share some of my wife's thoughts about retirement. This post was written about almost 5 years ago but not much that is important has changed,except we have been retired for that much longer. I have left it the way she answered the questions in January 2013. I will plan on a full update sometime in the coming months. Over the past 30 months of writing for  Satisfying Retirement   there have been lots of posts that have included information about my wife, Betty, and our journey together. Probably two or three dozen e-mails over that time have asked to hear more from her and what she thinks about the retirement from her perspective. So, I took the bait and posed some questions for her to answer. Wow! Her insight and responses were so interesting and important that I am turning this into a two part post. This time, you can read her answers to the first four questions. Next week I'll have par...

There are over 2.8 million apps for Android phones, 2.2 million for Apple smartphones. Those are incredible numbers. While it may seem that you have a large percentage of those on your phone, our actual use is surprisingly small. The typical person uses nine applications per day, from a core of 30 apps that are clicked at least once a month. Many more may live on your phone, but they are unused. I thought it might be interesting to share which smartphone apps we use most often. Which ones are essential to you everyday? Which ones are part of your regular routine, though not as often? Which one have you tried and deleted because they just didn't fit your lifestyle or they bombard you with too many ads and constant updates? What are the silliest or most unnecessary apps you have seen? How about my phone? There are 40 apps on my Android Galaxy. I am on par with the national average: seven or eight of them I use every day and another 10-15 get monthly use. There are several t...

Today, I am assigning you a task. It will not be particularly easy because it requires you to look at some of your preconceptions and decide if each is still valid. To keep things moving I am asking you to complete this challenge in the next two weeks, give or take. In 14 days, give or take, I will ask you to report on your progress. And, yes, I will participate fully.  To begin, let's think about what types of preconceptions might qualify for examination.  How we think about aging This is a biggie. I would guess all of us have certain images in our mind of what getting older means. Physical decline, financial struggles, moving out of our home, or the loss of a partner can certainly part of that preconception. Hopefully, the last 7 years of this blog have added notions like freedom to change and grow or learning to say, "No," and controlling our commitments. Realizing that plans change, life unfolds in ways we never expected, or that the decades we may spent in ...

The concept of working after retirement is not new. Over the years many folks have found their resources insufficient to maintain an acceptable  satisfying retirement  lifestyle. Others have planned well, but a catastrophic medical situation has devastated their retirement accounts. Some have found themselves paying for the care of aging parents. More than half of all retirees have debts when they stop working.  Whatever the reason, having a new source of income after retiring from a career or life-long job has become a part of life for many.  Retirement does not mean the end of producing income through some form of work. But, what is happening is a noticeable shift in the percentage of those over 65 working at least part time.  The most recent figures show that almost 20% work full or part-time. That is the highest level since the recession of 2008-2009. Consider that the average life expectancy was 63 years when Social Security was first created. Tod...

  A reader posed an interesting, and important question to me a few weeks ago. She is wondering about retired couples whose desires aren't always in alignment. What can be done if one half of a couple wants to go in one direction, while the other person doesn't. She cited travel as a good example of this type of conflict. One person really has his or her heart set on seeing the world, or at least someplace farther away than the local shopping mall. The other is a homebody and resists travel requests. Why? Health issues, financial worries, fear of uncertainty,....there are all sorts of reasons why travel is a turnoff for someone.  This type of disagreement is important to resolve. Travel may be one obvious point of contention, but  probably not the only one. In a post a few weeks ago, I wrote that loosening the purse strings is difficult for many of us. Downsizing or moving to someplace with a different climate, eliminating or adding possessions,  redoing th...

I will admit, the posts that get the most readership and comments are never the ones I expect. This one is a good example. First posted over 4 years ago, it continues to be read to this day. The original post had many more comments than I thought it would generate. I guess the topic is universal and we are all curious about what other folks do. In any case, here is the original post from early in 2013: One of the questions I get asked on a fairly regular basis is what a typical day of my  satisfying retirement  looks like. The answer I usually give is there are no typical days. Except for beginning each morning with breakfast and answering blog comments and e-mails, there is no set routine. I have made a determined effort over the last few years to not have my calendar look like it did when I was working. True, I have a to-do list of things I must or want to accomplish each day:things like reminding me to empty the trash and roll out the cans, refill a prescription, finis...