But What Now?

I thought I was going to retire about 2 months ago. Guess what? I didn’t.

It’s not entirely due to the recession. In fact, I’m liking my job better these days which helps a lot. But, I’m also spending nearly all of my “off hours” working on building a business of my own.

Let’s face it, I don’t want to stay at this job more than another 3 years, max.

Building a business isn’t for the faint-hearted. The biggest lesson learned over the past couple of years is that I have to have a plan and I have to have focus. What does that mean?

My plan is taking shape in a couple of excel spreadsheets right now. I’ve also create an LLC and I’ve gotten a business license. In addition I’ve got a business bank account and VISA card. I’ve even got my own UPS account. Doing this has made it very real for me. On paper I am in business. Come tax time I’ll be reminded of this - but by that time I fully expect to have at least something to report.

My focus? That’s another story. Internet marketing can lead one down a million rabbit holes to nowhere. Without focus my business will get nowhere. I’m getting better at following my plan and not getting caught up in the latest and greatest training that’s offered. In fact, I’m currently getting untangled from something I wish I hadn’t signed on for, but that’s how it goes. It’s making me tougher and helping me to understand that I need to do my homework before signing up.

Of course I am picking and choosing the tools of the trade and I’m finding some really good ones. If there’s any interest in the tools and resources I am choosing, please comment and let me know. I’d be glad to share them.

I’ll most likely write another post in the fairly near future listing what I am using. Believe me, when I don’t like a tool I ask for my money back (there’s one in particular that I was turned onto that turned out to be very problematic - and while I finally got my money back it was a big hassle - make sure there is a trial/money back period… ). The ones I’m using now, I’m very happy with and I find them to be extremely useful. Especially because I’m still working and need all the help I can get if I ever want any time off at all!

Thanks for reading this and please comment with your own experiences. I’d love to hear from you.

This might be a terrible time to write about going back to school after you retire. Where I live (in Seattle), I read new horror stories about state higher education funding being slashed just about every day. At the same time, tuition is going up. All in all, it might seem like both a bad time to retire and maybe even worse time to try to take a college class.

There are other ways to go back to school, though. You can volunteer at a school. Tutors are always in demand and you could even get paid for that. Or you could volunteer as a teacher’s aide in an elementary school classroom. Special education classrooms are usually in need of more people to help out, especially if you have any expertise in this area.

Maybe you’re a great storyteller. You could create your own “storytelling” hours at your local library and become famous with the local kids. They’ll love being entertained by you and you’ll love hamming it up for them.

If storytelling isn’t your thing, but you enjoy being around books, most libraries welcome extra hands to shelve books and answer questions. I’ve worked in libraries and personally love the atmosphere and the people who I’ve worked with.

Another way to earn some money with your own unique skills is to teach a Discover U or other college extension class. Do you have special talents in gardening, martial arts, writing, sports, crafts, travel planning, painting or drawing? How about teaching computer applications, such as Photoshop or Microsoft Excel? I could go on and on.

Speaking of computer skills, if you’re a computer wizard, whether is be programming or networking or systems, you would most likely be welcome at your local community college to work in the lab to keep the systems running and help students with their programming assignments.

These are just a few ideas, some would be volunteer and some might get you a little extra money. Any of them will get you into a new community and out of the house.

And, who knows, you might actually be able to sign up for a class to learn something you’ve always wanted to learn but haven’t had the time before retiring. You can go to an extension class and learn anything from ballroom dancing to oil painting to art history. You may even be able to audit a college class.

Don’t forget to polish an apple for the teacher and if the teacher is you, sink your teeth in and savor every delicious bite!

Today I am minimum retirement age old. This is the birthday I have been waiting for. It’s pretty amazing to me how easily it got here. All that teeth gnashing and groaning about still being at work, all for nothing really.

I can remember four years ago being absolutely certain that I would be retiring on this date. Well, here I am, but I’m not retiring yet!

Thankfully, my job is more enjoyable and satisfying and, of course, that counts for a lot. And, well, it’s a job that I’m not worried about losing. As I read stories in the paper about people who are having anxiety attacks and losing sleep over just worrying about losing their jobs, I feel extremely fortunate.

I feel fortunate not only because I have a job that pays well and that I enjoy, but I also feel fortunate because I crossed a threshold a couple of years ago where I became fully aware that I create my own reality.

Today, if I really hated my job, I could leave it. I’ve reached this milestone where with my employer’s rules of retirement I could walk away with a small pension and health insurance for the rest of my life. Today, I’m choosing not to do that.

There is nothing more empowering than knowing that I am truly the captain of my own ship. I call the shots and I know that the decisions I make are my own. I am not a victim.

I’m also aware that if I watched television for 8 to 10 hours a day as most people do, I might be having needless anxiety attacks about losing my job or about being attacked by a terrorist or fill in the blanks. It’s bad enough reading the newspaper for a couple of minutes every day.

Doesn’t anyone besides me wonder about all the amazingly wonderful things happening to people every day that are not reported in the news? A couple of days ago the Seattle Times was filled to the brim with news of multiple killings. What about killing someone makes it newsworthy?

I’m afraid I’m about to go off on even more of a tangent. A couple of weeks ago I was at the gym. There are TVs in the locker room. There was surprise, surprise, a killing that morning. The TV reporter actually said something to the effect of, “well, it’s been a busy morning, we have lots to report, stay tuned.” Yikes!!!!

Ok, stepping off my tangent because I’ve given this too much air time already, life is a wakeful dream and it’s everything I continue to make it every single minute of every single day. I’m not always wildly happy because, well, I’m human, but I am aware. And that is so very wonderful.

Happy birthday to me!!

In the latest issue of Tricycle there is an interesting article called Why Buddhism Needs the West by David Loy. I’m not sure that this question was answered, but it did raise some timely questions for me, namely about why we are so dissatisfied (or maybe why I have a tendency to be dissatisfied with things going on in my life).

Mr. Loy states, “It’s because our sense of self, being a delusion, is incapable of finding lasting satisfaction.”

Well, ok… That’s a little hard to grasp, or my ego sure finds that hard to grasp. But then he goes on to give examples from history on how it’s not just a personal issue, but a cultural or societal issue. As he puts it, looking at it in Buddhist terms, social/society vs. the cosmos.

In early times, rulers in Asian Buddhist countries “maintained harmony between the state and the cosmos.” In essence, they were considered to be gods by their followers. And any unfortunate circumstances were explained by karma.

Ancient Greeks, on the other hand, were the first to think in ways that are distinctly Western now. That is, they made a distinction between the cosmos and society and believed in individual choice. This was pretty radical for the times.

So, I put together my short list of what may be causes of our dissatisfaction.

Our history
How we compare ourselves with others
Who we are individually
Who we are culturally
What we know and what we’re exposed to (this could be considered a sub item to any of the above items.

Imagine being very poor but having access to a TV. I realize this example has been used before, but it’s relevant. This poor individual, living in, say, Cambodia, watches American TV day in and day out. He sees affluence unimaginable to his life.

But this gets me off track of my own dissatisfaction. After all, I live in the US and by world standards, I am very wealthy. By US standards I am middle class, as long as I continue to work.

However, I don’t want to work, I want to create my own financial independence. I am told that I can and I believe that I can, but I’m not there yet. My father was a self starter. He believed that education was a ticket to working for the man or worse yet, living a lifetime of poverty. He built his own business and did very well. In fact, if he were alive today he would surely be a multi-millionaire from the internet.

When I got my technical degree in Architectural drafting in 1979, he suggested that I create a book of architectural plans to mass market. I didn’t listen then, but now I wish I had!

Even still, I’m doing ok. I actually like my job these days and I have a nice work arrangement. I work with great people and continue to learn new things every day. At the same time, I’m determined to make money on the internet. I’m building a business that I have every intention of being successful.

So, does my dissatisfaction come from my history or from myself? From my ego? Or am I delusional as the Tricycle author states? You know, maybe the delusion of self he was talking about isn’t that hard to grasp after all.

Ah, well, I call it the dream of simplification because today about all I can do is dream of simplifying my life. At this point, I think I’m about 2 or 3 years away from truly having the freedom to wake up every morning and do exactly as I please.

Until then, my life is anything but simple.

But, to sleep (or maybe to wake!) perchance to dream…

I imagine getting up in the morning after the sun has risen. I’ll leisurely do some stretches or some yoga or the 5 Tibetans with no worry of being late for work if I don’t hurry it up. After my shower I’ll make myself a tasty smoothie and if the weather is nice go out for a walk in the sun.

And now comes the fun part. I’m off to my studio to create art. Every day I have the time and luxury to draw and create and get better and better every day. Every day!

Hmmm, and I have friends. I actually have time for friends. Not just my online friends, but real flesh and blood humans in my life that I meet downtown to have lunch with.

I’m also making music again. My guitars are coming out of their cases. I’m taking my favorite guitar out of its case and actually playing it. My fingers are getting callouses again. Oh, the sweet feeling of mastering a song and then another and another.

I have a journal and I’m filling it with my observations about life, my joys, my ups, my downs and I’m reading everything I can get my hands on about Buddhist art and I’m writing about it. I have time to go through the troves of pictures I’ve taken in SE Asia and I’m writing about them and sharing them on my blog.

Ah yes, to sleep, perchance to dream. Maybe my freedom will look much different than this. Today my life is all about keeping my job and continuing to learn new skills for my job which is rewarding in its own way but very time consuming.

As I get older I become more aware of how important my time is. Some days I feel as though I need to live as though today is the last day I’ll be here. But obligations prevent me from that. Is that crazy or what?

So, the challenge now is to schedule time for myself. I know that I can live this way because once upon a time I did live this way. When I was younger I worked part time at jobs I could leave behind at the end of the work day. I played guitar, I sang in choruses, I took classes, I had lots of friends.

But, then, I wanted to have a challenging career. So, now I have it.

Ha ha, are we ever satisfied?

I have to say it was cathartic to write the post on Worry and Fear. I’m not kidding. A weight has been lifted.

And what I’ve discovered about myself (that I’ve really known all along) is that persistence pays. It pays in self esteem and it pays in actual productivity. I’d been feeling like I was peddling backwards some. Like I was really getting no where because I was trying everything out… yet not following through on anything in particular.

In the last month that’s changed and what a relief!

Right now while so many people are losing their jobs and everything seems to be on such a downswing, my plans for retirement got sort of trashed. I really wanted to leave my job in April. I had some backup plans, such as to work part time as a contractor.

Now, it feels kind of ludicrous to even think of leaving my job.

However, in the last month I have created an LLC, gotten a business license, and begun the process of really building something that belongs to me and, I really believe, will replace my current income and then some.

While I may not be able to leave my job in April as originally planned, I’m fairly certain that I’ll be able to leave by the end of the year. I’ve also made some changes at work and I’m enjoying my job more. That never hurts!

Bottom line is that it’s vitally important that I stick with my plans and keep plowing forward, even as I work through stuff I’ve never done before. I don’t let that stop me, I allow myself to learn, and more importantly, I allow myself to make mistakes while I’m learning. They’ll teach me more than if I don’t take the risk at all.

At the same time, I truly appreciate what I have right now. I’m grateful for my job and the people I work with and the cool stuff I still get to do there knowing that I’m making a difference every now and then.

I’d love to hear from others what persistence means to you. Please write!

“Drag your thoughts away from your troubles… by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it.” ~Mark Twain

Isn’t it amazing how much we know that worry is a useless waste of our time and how much of our time we spend in worry anyway? Waz up wit dat??

I’m going to lay it all out on the line just to show you how ridiculous it all is.

What I’m worrying about today…

That I’m no longer respected at work. (antidote: what other people think of me is none of my business)

That I’m not going to leave my job when I wanted to. (antidote: I’ll leave my job when it’s time and I’ll know it when it comes)

That I’ll never make any money online. (antidote: I’ll keep doing the things that I need to do to create an online business and the money will follow… or not)

That I’ll die before I do all the things I want to. (antidote: You never get it done, so enjoy the moment!)

That I’ll die before I retire. (… well, let’s hope this doesn’t happen, huh?)

That I’ll never lose this weight that I recently gained. (antidote: give myself a break, already! and… what other people think of me is none of my business)

That I’ll lose my cat. (well, I will one of these days, but I sure love having her around now, so enjoy every precious moment)

Ok, phew, got all that off my poor, worried chest! The amazing thing is that we all do this. Day in day out. When I get ahold of myself and realize that I’m making all this up in my head, I get a few moments or even a day or two of relief.

This is what separates us from other animals. We have the capability to think and reason. What a curse upon us.

“If you can’t sleep, then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying. It’s the worry that gets you, not the lack of sleep.” ~Dale Carnegie

I love this quote. It gives me permission to turn on the light and read or do anything to get my mind off of my worries. Sometimes simply telling myself that there’s nothing I can do about whatever I’m worrying about right now will actually stop the thoughts and allow me to relax into sleep.

Fear is the killer. It causes anxiety attacks and it keeps us from living in the moment.

“As a rule, what is out of sight disturbs men’s minds more seriously than what they see.” ~Julius Caesar

Judging by these quotes, we’ve been worrying for a very long time. Maybe President Obama should create a Ministry of Worry, especially in these trying times.

Everyone asks this question. It’s in books on how to find your passion, it’s on websites about finding your passion, and it’s probably in the back of most everyone’s minds.

But do we really take the question seriously? Or do we take it too seriously? It’s like our life is hanging in the balance waiting for the right answer. That’s enough to scare anyone into not knowing the answer.

At what cost, though? I’ll venture to say, it’s at the cost of our very lives!

Life is now. Always has been and always will be. Has been and will be were now and will be now. So why all the anxiety?

I know why for me. I’ve gotten caught up in the definitions. I’ve gotten caught up in “doing it right.” And I’ve gotten caught up in being the perfect employee. Let’s face it, who are we trying to impress?

Why am I writing this? I’m writing it because life is now and I’m sorry to report that I’ve squandered so much time not being present. Not just thinking about what I’m going to have for dinner but thinking about what am I going to be doing in 5 years?

I used to hate that that question even existed as such a big deal for goal setting. I think it’s such a huge disservice to even ask it. Sure, maybe there’s merit to having some idea about where you want your life to be, but I think it can kill our spirits. It’s as though we have to align ourselves with some corporate business plan.

In the meantime, here we are, flesh and blood, alive, not truly living.

So, what do you love to do? Do you even have a clue? For me, I don’t fully know. Let’s see, I love to eat, I love to walk on the beach, I love to spend time with my cat, I love to build computer systems, I love to sit in coffee shops and play on my computer, and sometimes I even love to play my guitar when I’m not worried about playing like Jimi Hendrix… Wow, maybe I know more about myself than I thought.

And I love to keep learning new things. And I love having a good night’s sleep. That’s the beauty of being alive, now. It doesn’t matter how old we are, it matters how alive we are.

2009 is here for sure and I am here along for the ride. I’m thinking about what the year will bring.

My thoughts create my reality.

Ok… then I’m going to have a great year.

There’s a lot of bad economic news out there. I read the newspaper but to me it’s information. I don’t fully take it in and believe it. It’s not that I don’t believe people are losing their jobs and we’re in a recession. I know that all of that is true.

But I don’t believe that it’s going to affect me. Even as I start a new business. I believe that I will be successful.

First of all, I have made a decision to be successful.

Second of all, I am persistent in my actions to become successful.

Sometimes I don’t know exactly what my success breakthrough will be, although I have a pretty good idea. In the meantime, I’m doing everything I need to do to pave the way.

I have created an LLC. That’s a very important step for me. This is real. I have tangible proof that I am in business and I’m no longer putting everything on my own name.

I’ve educated myself and I’ve weeded out what feels right and what doesn’t. After all, this is my business.

In an environment of so many choices (and so much noise) about how to make money online, I am getting clear about what makes sense for me. I’ve spent my money and I’ve paid a few dues.

I know I haven’t paid all my dues yet (do we ever??).

I’m truly excited for this year for many reasons. Sure, we’re in a recession, but we’re also beginning a new chapter in the U.S. and hopefully in the world.

What I think is important and what you think is important, too. What we all think together is really the key. Let’s think abundance and peace.

Abundance, well-being and peace are all possible, in fact they’re where we really are if we only allow it.

Happy New Year! This year I am going to make some real money online and become financially independent! This is my year.

http://butwhatnow.com/go/moremoney365.php

I found this offer today on the Warrior Forum. There was so much interest and high regard for it that I had to check it out immediately. I’m glad I did. I now have a whole new arsenal of products to market. And not only that, but the tools to promote them and learn as I go.

What more can this internet marketing semi-noob with only 3 months to go until retirement ask for??

You get a 2 week trial to poke around and check it all out for yourself. Anyone who wants to make money online will do themselves a big favor to look at what’s here. It’s not the usual internet marketing fare!

This is truly for all of us newbies (even those of us, like me, who have been trying to make money online forever, it seems). It cuts through the BS and confusion we’re all so familiar with.

I know this confusion has killed my own focus needed to really be successful online.

This is because there are so many ways to make money online… MoreMoney365 provides you with a simple, proven type of product to sell - the sort of product that has 95% or more profit is the best kind for getting started.

That’s what it’s all about - getting the biggest profits by selling “digital” products like guides and software.

You could invest lots of time and money in creating your own product, but it’s really not necessary to do that. All you have to do is get the “license” to promote some lucrative products - and a
web-site for each one.

In fact, as a beginner, you don’t want to be creating your own product before you know how to test the market. How would you feel after you’d spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a product only to find out there’s no market for it?

And writing and putting up web-sites to sell products is no big deal if you know how to do it…but if you don’t, the costs of paying other people to do it can add up.

That’s why I bought a membership with MoreMoney365.
-
And, you can kick the tires for 2-weeks where you pay nothing if you aren’t completely wowed by what’s offered.

You get 1000s of products and the web-sites to sell them. That’s huge - because you get the graphics and everything to start becoming a software and ebook-selling machine!

The best part is that the people who put this amazing web resource together are really committed to sweating the details and providing support to their members. They give you the products to sell and also incredible training resources so you will know exactly what to do to start making money.

I’m planning on taking baby steps to get up and going, making a little money to start. As I learn more and more and find out what works for me, I’ll scale my business up and continue to earn even more money.

The MoreMoney365.com membership offers a one-stop resource site where you can download 1000s of products to sell… and keep 100% of your profits. You won’t have to wait to get paid when you sell one of these products online. The money will come straight to your PayPal account.

The secret to making big money online is to control and profit from lots of products in several different niches. That way if one area is not showing such good results you are still making good money in all your other areas. But, again, I’m going to take it one niche at a time and not get way ahead of myself too fast.

Researching and creating products in even one area is a lot of hard work and it can get expensive. When you start with what is called PLR -Private Label Rights products you get the rights to improve or add new information to the product. You can take 2 or more products and combine them together
in a package… you can customize products and sell them to specialized markets for even bigger profits.

This site teaches you step-by-step how to do it all. All you have to do it get started and take action.

Having purchased so many “how to make money online” programs over the past couple of years, I’m convinced that you could easily spend 100 times what this one package costs and not get as much value.

The real secret to success online is to get started and take action. MoreMoney365 offers fantasic support, too, so I know that my questions will get answered quickly. I’ve read some amazing testimonials on the Warrior Forum from long standing members attesting to this.

Many internet gurus, including Rosalyn Gardner, have said that there’s little need to pay for expensive content when there are so many PLR products package just like this one.

I don’t know how long they will keep offering a 2-week no-risk trial membership, so if you’re interested you probably shouldn’t wait to take a look.

Let me know what you think of it.

I had dinner with a friend last night that retired a year ago. John hadn’t thought about retiring at age 58, but as things got less enjoyable at work, he looked at his finances and decided he could afford to retire. Like so many people, he was rather at loose ends for the first few months of his retirement. When we’d meet we’d talk about things he could do. But it was hard for him because work had been his whole life. We had discussed a number of options, like engaging in some artistic activities that interested him, volunteer work for a favorite charity or returning to work part-time as a contractor.

Last night he said he felt like his brain was turning to mush – he had to do something! I’ve heard that before from people who have retired, they feel less “sharp” and it scares them. Sometimes this is what it takes to “jump start” them into something new. It’s true that what they need is an intellectually stimulating activity. John has made some progress in his quest for a life after working. He is starting his own business so he can do some contract work part time. He has talked about taking a foreign trip with an old friend and I hope he does it. I think that’s a good start, but I hope his retirement doesn’t become like his work life, where it was all work and no life. Balance can be as hard to find in retirement as it is while you’re working.

I have another friend who retired in her mid-50s. Bobbie had hoped for an early retirement offer, but when it came, it was sort of a shock. There had been no forewarning and she had a mere three days to decide. She opted to retire. After a few months of catching up on her sleep, as she put it, she volunteered for the local Red Cross. She helped them develop a new training program, and when that work was finished after a few years, she decided to move on to something else. She always had artistic interests, and started a Masters of Fine Arts program that allowed her to further develop her artistic interests. She finished her art program several years ago, but continued to show her art at various exhibitions.

We have lunch about once a month, and I’m always glad to see her and hear about what she is doing. She has always enjoyed traveling and takes a couple of “big trips” each year. When I saw her a couple of weeks ago, she told me she has decided to stop participating in formal art shows. She continues her work, and has a gallery that displays and sells her work, but there is no pressure for deadlines or a particular type of work. She can create what she wants.

Bobbie has been retired now for almost 20 years. When I look at the pattern of her retirement, it strikes me that she took on lots of projects at the start of her retirement. As time has gone on, she shed some of those, and became more deeply involved in others. I would say she’s had a very successful retirement so far. She’s done many things she didn’t have time for while she was working. She has also found new friends and new interests.

John has just started his retirement journey. He’s still looking for his path. I hope that as time goes on he will find the right balance of activities for him.

It takes time to find your path in retirement. Your really can’t follow anyone else’s path, you have to find your own. There may be false starts and dead ends but if you can enjoy the journey, you’ll find your way.

Contributed by guest writer Kathie G. Larsen, Ph.D.
Kathie is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Seattle, Washington.

Maybe I mean that literally since I have an outdoor lighting site, but seriously folks…

I had my sights set on a retirement either at the end of 2008 or in the spring of 2009. Things are not looking very bright for either of those dates right now. So, not to get too discouraged. I’m still young, there’s still time.

Wait! That’s what’s tripping me up. This whole time thing. I’ve always had time. As long as I’m here I have time. What’s more important is how I actually use my time.

After I finish spending money on new courses and partially doing this one and that one, I also find time to eat and sleep and for about 15 minutes every morning even exercise. This whole time thing can really bring me down, though, if I let it.

I can beat myself up (and lose precious time) for not being productive, for not being focused, and for taking time off playing a silly video game. Hey, I don’t watch TV, I’ve gotta have some down time, don’t I?

Time permeates everything we do. I need to get it out of my system because I’m taking it much too seriously.

So, I have a date with EFT this Saturday. More on that later. For now, I’ll just say I think I’ll be tapping on time. Maybe musically, too.

As I sat down to dinner tonight, I picked up the business section of this morning’s Seattle PI (yes, it’s true, I never read the paper in the morning) and read an article from the AP called “Retirement Detour.”

Not surprisingly, more retirees are wanting to go back to work. And it’s not necessarily about wanting something to do, it’s about paying the bills and putting food on the table. AARP reported more than double the number of people attended its annual job fair than last year.

Not to be alarmist, but now as retirees, we are competing for jobs with people half our age also looking for jobs because they’ve been laid off from their jobs recently. One woman talks about feeling that even though she may have better skills than her younger counterparts applying for the same job, the 20 or 30-something doing the interviewing will most often hire the younger person.

That is certainly true in some cases. However, finding a job is still about keeping up-to-date with skills and with the marketplace. For instance, there’s a wide spread belief that people in their 50’s and older don’t have good computer skills. Being a 55 year old geek myself and knowing plenty of other 50 and 60-something geeks, I know that to be flat out untrue.

After all, it was our generation that really got on board with this stuff. Bill Gates is my age and so is Steve Jobs. So, that’s one of those old myths that may die hard. Something the 30 and 40 somethings may want to consider is how will they be perceived in 10 or 15 years? Not such a long time, after all.

Having said all that, keeping up with the skills needed in the workplace is important and it’s true that many of us, young and old, don’t have the required computer skills needed for many positions, such as how to create Excel spreadsheets or format a document in Word. Or worse yet, how to save and organize files, manage email and even something as basic as to know how to log on and off a computer.

Happily, most of us probably know how to post our resumes online. If you don’t, it’s time to learn unless you want to bag groceries at the local Safeway. Speaking of posting our resumes online, the article provides a pretty extensive list of online job sites for retirees and older job seekers.

Sites included are RetirementJobs.com, RetireeWorkforce.com, RetiredBrains.com, Retirement-Jobs-Online.com, and agingworkforcenews. That’s just the first 5 in a list of 15. To read the article and see the rest of this list of resources, see Retirement Detour by Dave Carpenter.

Even though I have a job (and what some would consider a very good job) I have dusted off and re-written my resume because I am looking for a new challenge in a new environment. Contrary to the perception that older workers don’t like to go to trainings, I just want to ask, who have they been talking to? It’s sure not my experience.

I’d love to hear yours.

I got back from my yearly 3 week international trip a week ago. Since coming home, I’ve spent almost every waking hour while not at work creating my Nepal pictures website. I finished that last night. If you want to see it, go to marlandc.com/Nepal/index.html. We spent all of our time in the Kathmandu Valley which is a very colorful place. It’s also very poor, so I spent some time re-examining my thoughts about law of attraction. How can an entire nation not know this stuff? Or maybe that’s just my Western mentality about prosperity.

The truth is, when most people saw us coming, they saw dollar signs. We are so much more prosperous money wise, but maybe not spiritually. Their religion, mainly Hinduism, is their culture. And it’s not like a fundamental religious mentality. It just really is their culture. Which is probably the main reason everything is so colorful. Hinduism and Buddhism live peacefully side by side, even as combined faiths in some quarters.

I am less than 6 months away from taking an early retirement from my job. I’ve actually thought about staying on because the economy is so in the pits and I have to work. I have to work because I haven’t made any money with internet marketing yet. And I haven’t made any money with internet marketing yet because I’m constantly looking at the next training and the next training and on and on and never fully focusing on one thing. It’s truly maddening. The more I look at this stuff, the less I feel like I know and the more paralyzed I feel in accomplishing anything.

So, I’m freaking out a little. It’s time to focus. Before I left for vacation, one of the trainings (if you can even call it that) I purchased was Wake Up Productive. It’s a weekly series of exercises by Eben Pagan to help become more focused. He talks about our 3 brains, physical, emotional and logical and how to bring them into alignment and how to understand what each of them wants as an outcome. Once we know what we want our outcome to be, we can begin to focus better. I’m on Week 6 now, learning to use a timer to do 50 minute chunks of work. The Nepal website was more like 3-4 hour chunks and has nothing to do with making me more money, but it’s done now. Now I can figure out what I really need to do and do only those things.

I have started to unsubscribe from email lists that continually bombard me with the latest internet marketing training or worse yet, the latest product launch. I wonder when we’ll see the end of the product launch frenzy. I’m sure it works for people and that’s why they do it. I just don’t want to know about any more of them.

No, it’s time for me to settle down into a rhythm of learning a particular technique and then putting it to work. Over and over again until I’m good at it and I’m making money.

I did this nearly 15 years ago when I decided to change careers to become an IT systems administrator. I studied day and night towards one goal, which was to pass the Microsoft MCSE exams. I did that for 2 years because I took the 2000 exams shortly after passing the NT exams. It was a lot of work, but I had my eye on the prize. I had a firm goal. Once I got my first MCSE, I relentlessly went after finding a job and I found one fairly quickly. Then I advanced quickly to where I am now.

Alas, now it is time for a change. And it’s time to stop freaking out. I know what I need to do. And even if I leave this job before I am making money on the internet, I have the skills to go somewhere and work part time. I have options. I’m glad I wrote this, it’s helped me sort this all out. Thanks for listening!

So, you’ve done great planning and you know what you want to do next. You’ve outlined your steps; maybe you have even set a date for your retirement. Then comes the great 2008 financial meltdown. But what now?

If you’re like most of us you spent last week holding your breath as you watched the stock market dive - not just the US stock market but stock markets all over the world. And you watched the savings that you spent years and years putting away dissolve.

Terrifying.

So, what does this mean for all the planning you’ve been doing about what you’re going to do when you retire? I think one of the lessons of this is that you have to be flexible about your plans. You don’t need to give them up but you need to figure out how to make them work in a new environment.

Surviving the Meltdown

Financial planners are saying that right now our most valuable asset is our ability to bring in a stream of income. That is, the job that we have now is what enables us to continue to live as we have. It’s not our stock portfolios or our homes that pay the day-to-day bills, it’s our paychecks.

So that makes giving up the job that you’ve probably looked longingly to give up for so long much less practical. But it doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your plans and your dreams for how you’re going to reinvent yourself for your next stage of life. Instead, what it means is that you have to figure out how to move forward without losing your income stream.

Keeping the income stream

There are a number of ways to maintain your income stream while you move forward with your plans to reinvent your work life.

For some people it means that they go to school at night while they are still working so that they can pick up new skills. For others it means that they spend their after work hours developing their new enterprise while they continue to bring in the income that allows them to live and move forward with their dreams.

Some people will choose to stay in the job that they have now but work fewer hours. They might then negotiate with their employer to cut back their hours as they start to create a new income stream, or they might negotiate to retire but come back as a consultant.

For a great many people who are looking forward to retirement, what they’re looking forward to is to creating their own work - working for themselves rather than working for someone else. The good news about this goal is that it lends itself well to a gradual transition. You can be in control of the timing.

Transitions

People often think of transitions as ending one thing and starting the next thing right away. There really aren’t all that many transitions that are like that. Far more often, there are gaps or overlaps or false starts or experiments that don’t quite work or unexpected things that happen and things that work better than you ever could have imagined.

I don’t think there is any entrepreneur who would say that they needed less startup time than they took. I think almost everybody would say that they needed more. So if you’re planning on starting your own business, think of this as a long ramp up time. It almost always takes more time to bring in money than you were expecting.

So now that it’s clear that you’re not going to be able to make this transition in exactly the way you wanted to do it, how do you keep the focus on what’s important to you? How do you sustain that when you’re not able to make that leap out of that job that you were in to the next thing as quickly or as cleanly as you’d planned?

Moving forward with your plans

So, as you look at what you’re going to do next, you need to think about how can you move forward with what you want to do in this changed environment.

Keep in mind - every day – what your goals are. Remember the direction that you are taking and find ways to move yourself forward on a consistent basis. Some steps are small: reading what others are writing about what you want to do, talking with someone who’s already doing that kind of work, doing pragmatic things like applying for a business license. There are all kinds of ways to move forward… an endless list of things to do that take you closer to your goals.

Make a plan and a timetable for the things you want to accomplish. You can revise these as needed, but just having a plan will help keep you moving.

Making your plans more flexible

There are always things that come up that you hadn’t thought about. There are always considerations or changes in the environment that mean that you have to make revisions. That’s ok, just keep your eye on where you’re headed and keep yourself moving forward.

We get to where we want to go only if we can be flexible enough to see that there are many paths.

Contributed by guest writer Kathie G. Larsen, Ph.D.
Kathie is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Seattle, Washington.

When I retire I will spend lots more time walking around Seattle taking videos! And I will no longer be the Hammering Man (or woman in my case). Those days are almost behind me and today’s misadventures at work will be but a distant memory.

I took this with my new Flip Mino, which I am enjoying immensely. Hammering Man lives outside of the Seattle Art Museum, located in downtown Seattle on First Avenue at the top of the Harbor Steps.

I hope you enjoy the video. The music is by Kevin McLeod at http://incompetech.com.

I don’t always read the Job Market section of the Sunday Times (for me it’s the Seattle Times) because it’s usually not very interesting to me. However, today’s was all about boomers looking for a job. Since I might be in that position myself in another 8 months, I was interested in reading it.

Turns out, according to this article, is that the biggest obstacle is “aren’t you overqualified?”. Ok, are they worried that once we get in we’ll be so upwardly mobile that we’ll want their jobs?

All kidding aside, the article initially focuses on someone who spent 25 years in information technology in Dallas. Maybe that person just didn’t have good interview skills or maybe the Dallas IT market just isn’t very hot. From what I hear in Seattle, if I want a job in IT once I leave my current job, I probably won’t have much difficulty finding it. Especially since I am no longer concerned with receiving benefits and would prefer to work as a contractor.

I suppose it’s beneficial in some way to know what others are experiencing by reading these articles. Having said that I am a firm believer that I will manifest what I desire. Even though my life hasn’t fully been a bed of roses, I have never gone hungry and I’ve pretty much always gotten the jobs I’ve gone after.

Just so you know, though, this article states that “workers 55 and older take an average of 21 weeks to find a job, five weeks longer than younger job seekers, according to the AARP Public Policy Institute.” Sounds like reason to celebrate. After all, haven’t we earned that extra five weeks off? I mean, really!

Back to the guy with 25 years in IT in Dallas. He never did find a new IT job so he started his own business. I’ll bet that’s what he really wanted. He obviously had the drive and now he’s his own boss. I celebrate his achievement. I work in IT now and while I love a good technical puzzle, I don’t love being a slave to the machine. It’s a fine line.

Bottom line, we’re living longer, we’ve got dynamite skills and we’re always starting over. The world is truly our oyster. Let’s not forget that.

First of all I have to come clean about neglecting this site for so long. I’ve been way busy. More busy than I’d like to be. In fact, my job, that I only have to report to for the next 8 months, has been a major distraction from what I’d rather be doing.

Ok, hopefully none of my bosses (too many bosses) read this blog. I kind of doubt it, but if they do I guess I may hear about it now. That out of the way, let’s get onto what will I miss when I retire, the reason for writing this post.

I’ve been thinking about this question since picking up Don’t Retire, Rewire! by Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners. It wasn’t a question I had been thinking about because I’ve been more focused on just wanting to leave. The truth is that there are some things that I will miss about my job.

1. I’ll miss technical problem solving. I love a good technical mystery and I really enjoy figuring out how to fix what’s wrong.
2. I may miss being a team leader. When my team was in full swing and fully operational I really enjoyed the camaraderie and mutual respect we shared while building a successful enterprise system.
3. I’ve enjoyed the trainings and conferences and will probably miss them too.

Those are big deals. The good news for me is that I know that I’ll experience all of them in new pursuits after this job is over. I know that it is time to leave this position. I’ve done all that I can and I’m ready for a new challenge. The organizational landscape has changed so much in just the past few months that I have already had the opportunity to let go of number 2 on my list, and that feels really good to me now.

And for even more good news, I am “rewiring” before I retire. I’m learning many new skills and meeting lots of very interesting people, some of whom are becoming friends. I envision lots of new trainings and conferences in my future that I’ll be attending. Probably more than I do now, in fact.

As far as number 1 is concerned, I’m fairly certain there will always be technical challenges and I’ll continue to hone my troubleshooting skills. I doubt that I will ever be an enterprise systems administrator again, although I don’t know that for sure right now.

I do know that when I retire from my current job, I’ll still need to earn some money and I know that I’ll have plenty of choices in how I do that. The closer I get to leaving this job, the more excited I am becoming thinking about all of the possibilities awaiting me.

What will you miss when you retire or what are you missing now about what you used to do? Is retirement what you thought it would be?

Ok, so maybe you think that headline is a little too optimistic right now? What with the US economy tanking, stocks going south, housing markets crumbling, unemployment rising?

Yikes, it’s enough to make us want to continue to work forever.

But stop and think. Now is our now. It’s the now we have. We’re here and we’re ready to realize our dreams. There will always be outside factors that we can blame or use as excuses to stay stuck wherever we currently are and where we don’t really want to be.

Like at our current job. Speaking for myself, there are days I think, ok, I can appreciate this and this about my job and if I had to I could stick it out a little while longer. But ultimately, that’s a cop out. Sure, I can stick it out and maybe it’s the easy way to go, but I know I have other options

Why has there never been a better time to retire? Other than what I’ve already said, the very cool thing about now is that we are living in a time of mega community.

We are so plugged in. No matter what our dreams, interests, or ambitions are, there are at least a few thousand others to share them with.

It’s a little scary because it’s so new. I’m stretching out into the internet marketing realms and I won’t tell you that I’m making a ton of money yet or that this is a complete walk in the park.

Nothing that we do that is different from anything we’ve done before is easy at first. It takes time to learn new things. It takes perseverance, patience, faith and probably most important of all, community. Not only can we twitter each other endlessly, but we can find meetups with people who share the same interests and ambitions and dreams we do and we can meet them in a local cafe weekly or monthly.

We don’t have to go to the bar to meet people anymore. Or take classes or play softball. Not that any of those ways are bad ways to meet people (except maybe the first one, although I’ve met some pretty cool people in bars).

Here’s my plug for this post. If you really want to learn about internet community and maybe even earn some money in the process, check out the 30 Day Challenge. It’s free and it starts on Aug. 1st. Did I mention it’s free? I’m psyched and ready to go. I hope to see you there!

And if you want to follow me on twitter, here I am.

Planning to retire while still fully engaged in the day to day work world can feel a little confusing at times. To help I read other retirement blogs and books, that is when I have the time!

Today I noticed a new post on Ernie Zelinski’s blog after no activity for many months. Granted it’s an Amazon blog, he may have another somewhere.

The announcement is that he has 2 new free ebooks coming out. Here is the full post.

“I am creating a new book of quotations called The 777 Best Things Ever Said about Money and another book called The Joy of Being Retired: 101 Reasons Why Retirement Rocks (and Work Sucks)! that will soon be available as Free E-books on my websites. Another of my diversions is orchestrating one-page websites of retirement resources. Check out Free Retirement Speeches, The Retirement Letters Café, Retirement Jobs at the Real Success Resource Center, The Retirement Gift Ideas Café, The Retirement Poems Café, and Retirement Humor at the Retirement Jokes Café. “

With only 9 months to go until my own long-awaited retirement, I relish everything this man has to say on the subject. His writing contains an over abundance of wisdom and humor. In fact I’m going to re-read the 2 books I have of his on my shelf. I need the boost in confidence that I am truly making the right decision.

And I know that, yes, I am! Viva la retirement!

Go to Ernie’s blog here.

I can hardly believe that it’s June 20th already. I have been gone most of the month on job-related travel. I have a conference and 2 more meetings in the next 4 weeks, then things should settle down for awhile.

On my way home from my last meeting in Phoenix, an old friend and co-worker who I haven’t seen in nearly 10 years walked up to me in the airport and said, “Are you Cheryl?” I recognized her immediately, in fact I had actually been thinking of her not long ago. It was Sue. She and her husband, Dan, were headed up to Seattle on the same plane. They were continuing on to Anchorage where they both grew up and met.

We talked there in the Phoenix airport while waiting to board and then somehow managed to chat for most of the flight with poor Sue in the aisle most of the time taking abuse from the harried flight attendants. Fortunately I had a seat right behind first class, so this was actually possible.

We met probably 20 years ago when we were both contract draftswomen. We both got contracted to Burlington Northern in Seattle to update their technical manuals with drawings of track layouts. An interesting assignment for someone trained in architectural drafting for sure!

We worked on the 24th (or something like that) floor of a well-known bank building (the bank no longer exists and I’m completely blocking out the name). In the morning we sat with our lattes and muffins and watched the sun rise over Mt. Rainier and Puget Sound. The view was amazing. I think we worked there about 8 months.

As we were catching up we were reminiscing about where each of us worked after that and if we ever actually worked together again. We realized we didn’t, but we did maintain a friendship and contact for many years after we worked together.

We discovered that we both worked for Metro in the engineering department. I said, “Did you work with Rich?” Sue said, “no” I said, “we drew drawings of pump stations,” and she said, “so did I! I worked for Les Race.” I said, “He was my boss, too!”

I remember Les. He was a good boss, I worked for him for a little over a year. Every Friday he brought donuts in.

Anyway, Sue went on to ask, “Do you know how Les died?” I told her I didn’t. Turns out he died in 1993 about 2 months before his retirement. He had a heart attack while waiting for the bus. When the bus pulled up that morning he was there but no longer alive.

I don’t know how old he was, probably around 60. None of us can predict when we’re going to die and we can’t be afraid of it (what’s the point?). Besides, everything I hear about dying doesn’t sound so bad.

But, there are things I really want to do yet on this earth that don’t involve competing with my current job for attention. But I am also aware that I cannot put off what is important to me while I’m waiting to retire. I must live in the now, it’s the only time any of us have.

I know I won’t be retiring with a full retirement fund. I know I’ll have to do something to augment the small amount I will be bringing in. But I have a feeling that I’m going to be having a lot more fun bringing in the bucks in a year from now than I am now.

It’s such a strong feeling, I know it to be true.

Retirement has a kind of ‘end of life’ connotation to it. What is so cool is that people are “retiring” from their jobs alot earlier than ever before. And once they “retire” they’re creating the life they deserve, not the life they feel they have to live to pay the bills.

This is what Pamela Skillings is writing about in her book Escape From Corporate America. I’ll be honest with you, I have not yet read the book, but the endorsements she is receiving are amazing. One of them is Barbara Sher, who I have admired for a long time.

The NY Times ran a story in their business section by Ms. Skillings. It’s a must read. Do You Love the Job, or Just the Paycheck?

While I still have 10 months before I plan to leave my current job, I am learning everything I can to become my own boss once I get there. When my retirement date comes, I will have no regrets, no anxiety about leaving and no looking back.

My paycheck may be a thing of the past but I will be replacing it with a great adventure much more valuable than the stress of being a manager and employee could ever bring.

Ok, it’s way past my bedtime and I shouldn’t be thinking such deep thoughts. Instead I should be brushing my teeth and getting into bed!

But, it’s Friday night, I’m not tired and there’s all kinds of noise going on outside. I think I’ll refrain from sticking my head out the door for now, though.

My darling cat is sleeping peacefully in the chair next to me. She’s probably wondering when the heck I’m going to get up to bed, but then she’s in no hurry to get anywhere.

Ahhh, and there’s my revelation. My cat is in no hurry to get anywhere. I really believe that she is living from one moment to the other, blissfully unaware of time as I know it. What’s it like to be inside of my cat’s head??

Instead, my head is full of too much wine and chocolate, thoughts about what happened at work today and what I need to deal with come Monday and why isn’t is warmer outside yet? All my precious cat wants to do is go outside as soon as she sees a hint of sunshine (or not), sit in front of the fire, eat chicken, steak or salmon when it’s offered or just sleep and dream.

She probably doesn’t even experience hot flashes but I can’t know that for sure.

For now, for me, life is about transitioning to becoming self employed and gutting out the last 10 months of working at my current job.

And it’s about getting up every morning, brushing my teeth, putting on my tea, turning on my computer, working with my teams, helping out where I can, playing my guitar, learning new things and generally enjoying life as I know it moment to moment.

So, I guess that is life. Please tell me, what is life for you?

Ok, I owe the title of this post to Barbara Winter, the woman who wrote the book!

This book was published in 1993 and it is still being reprinted and sold on Amazon. That’s how good this book is. It doesn’t even need to be updated. The subtitle is “Winning Ways for Creating Work That You Love.” I’m there.

I actually purchased this book around the time it was published, which, interestingly, was also around the time I started working for the organization I still work for 16 years later. Hmmm. What happened? First, I didn’t read the book. I knew I wanted to change, but I was focused on other things then. One of them was changing my career. So, ok, I was making a very big change, but I still had a job.

Now, 16 years later, I am looking at working for another 10 months at this organization. And I am elated. In fact, I’m very impatient. I want to leave today. But, it’s ok, I know I’m close and being close I am even more motivated to really look inside and learn what it means for me to be “joyfully jobless!”

Barbara Winter, a self-described personal growth junkie, describes letting go of a friend who only wanted to complain and criticise day after day. She realized that he was the only person she knew at the time who was not doing any personal development work. In the 70’s, she moved to California from a small town in southern Minnesota to find that if she wanted to she could attend a different seminar every night of the week.

And she loved it. She soon started her own seminar “Making A Living Without A Job,” and she has been doing it ever since. Barbara Winter followed her bliss.

I am revisiting her book about 15 years after purchasing it. I knew not to sell it with the hundreds of other books I’ve sold over those years. I’m only a fraction of the way into it, but already I’m really feeling pumped up by what she’s saying.

On page 20, Barbara asks the following questions,

“What would a balanced lifestyle include?
Where would you live?
How much time would you devote to working?
What non-working activities are important to you?
What people would you spend time with?
What personal goals have you neglected that would become a priority again?
How would you express your values through your work?
Where would you volunteer time and resources?
How would you be involved with a cause or community?
How would your family or other significant people be included?
How would your daily life become richer?
What about your current life would you eliminate immediately?
What rewards other than money would you expect to receive from your work?
What skills do you most enjoy using?
How can you incorporate more positive experiences into your life?
What material things would you acquire? Give up?”

Her questions are positively energizing and completely genius at the same time. As I scan the rest of the book I find it’s filled with this level of exploration. Naturally, every one of us will have our own answers to these questions. Barbara fills some of the pages of the rest of the book writing about the experiences of others who have chosen a life without a job. She offers guidance on how we can change our paths and follow our own bliss.

Barbara has been publishing a newsletter about being “joyfully jobless” since then, so there is where we will find our updates to this 1993 edition, although as a beginning exploration, the book has not aged.

You can visit Barbara Winter’s website at http://www.barbarawinter.com.

A friend wrote me an email recently asking if I wanted to join her and a friend to dinner. Seattle’s NW Source is hosting another 3 for $30 promotion at some of the city’s finest new restaurants. The catch is that you can’t go on a Friday or Saturday night.

I’m doing something both weekends at the beginning of May and they’re doing something both weekends at the end of May. Eileen suggests that we go on a weeknight.

Ha. I work on my weeknights too!

This will all change in less than a year. I am working at night to build a business so that I will no longer have to work for “da man.” Screw “he’s da man.” I don’t want to know him anymore. I especially don’t want to know him who lacks any leadership skills at all.

Maybe we will get together one night this month. I’m truly looking forward to when this won’t even be an issue. And that time is coming soon!

Going out to dinner during the week has its pluses. One of them is that many fine restaurants offer a half-price wine bottle night during the week just to bring in business. Viva la half price wine nights!

I’ll need those half price wine nights to help pay for my dinners out during the week. They’ll still be special because they won’t happen all that often. And making reservations will be a breeze.

If you have favorite restaurants where you live, please write about them in the comments. I also love to travel!

And here’s to Voula who has retired! Watch the video for the real story… I’ve driven by this place for the past 25 years and haven’t eaten there yet. I think it’s about damn time I did.

I was delighted to see an article in this month’s Fast Company called Medical Leave by Greg Lindsay. The article is about the state of health care in other parts of the world. Bumrungrad, located in Bangkok, Thailand was showcased in the article and is my personal favorite, mostly because I have been there numerous times and received first class care on every visit.

The opening quote of the article is

“This doesn’t look like a hospital, ” says Ruben Toral, showing me [the author] around. “It feels more like a hotel or an upscale mall.” After studying the gleaming lobby of Bumrungrad International for a minute or two, I’m inclined to agree. Americans in shorts recline across from Arab couples in flowing white dishdashas and black abayas, the latter accessorized with designer handbags and sunglasses. We’re in Bangkok in August, when even the asphalt is overripe and malodorous, but the only scent inside is a faint whiff of espresso from the Starbucks in the corner.”

Bumrungrad is a state of the art hospital in the heart of Bangkok, easy to get to from the sky train or by very inexpensive taxi. My partner and I have been seeing the same dentist there for 3 years now. This year when we visit will make it our fourth time. A cleaning costs around US $30.00 compared with between $126.00 to $195.00 here at home. I pay $195.00 because they call it a periodontal maintenance!

We are considering moving to Thailand when we retire and knew it was important to check out the quality of medical care before we made a decision to do this.

When we decided to get part of our dental care at Bumrungrad, we easily made our appointments online and were instructed to arrive early so we could register at the international desk. Registration was quick and easy and a fascinating experience sitting amidst people from all over the world.

We noted that there are a lot of people from the Middle East who come to Thailand for their medical care. According to the Fast Company article, most of the Middle Easterners are “…humble servants, shipped in bulk from Riyadh and Dubai because Toral cut a deal with their government to outsource their care to Bumrungrad.”

It seemed incongruous when friends of ours recommended the Italian restaurant in Bumrungrad, but we decided to give it a try after a dental cleaning appointment. We were not disappointed. This was not your ordinary hospital restaurant!

Last year I got sick from something I ate in Sri Lanka. After suffering (needlessly) for 3 days thinking I would get better, I finally made an appointment to be seen at Bumrungrad. It was easy to make this appointment because I was already registered with Bumrungrad. My partner called the hospital, gave them my patient number and they made an appointment with a gastroenterologist for an hour later. Just enough time for us to get across town!

He spoke excellent English and spent a good 20-30 minutes with me asking questions and doing an exam with a nurse assisting. He ordered lab tests and prescribed medications: an antibiotic, an herbal anti-gas, and an anti-spasmodic. I felt better in no time and wished I hadn’t waited!

After my exam, when he brought me my prescriptions, he said he noticed I was from Seattle. He said he had a son there and he missed him so much. He gave me his son’s name and asked that I give him a call. I agreed and when I got home I called the son. I think he was pretty surprised! I wonder if the old 6 degrees of separation no longer holds true. Perhaps it’s only 3 or 4.

The idea of receiving medical care overseas is becoming more popular, especially as medical costs continue to rise so dramatically in the U.S. Couple that with over 48 million U.S. citizens without medical insurance. And for those of us with insurance, many companies are beginning to cover overseas medical care. I am insured with Blue Cross Regence. My visit with the gastroenterologist was covered in full as a reimbursement.

If you are interested in learning more, I highly recommend the Fast Company article. And if you have received medical care in other parts of the world, I would love to hear about your experiences.

Some people dream about doing great things. Others just do them. This was on the back of the bus I followed most of the way home earlier today. It’s an advertisement for a local community college, but I am using it as an introduction to this post about volunteering because I think it fits so well.

Each of us, if we choose, can make an enormous difference now that we have time after years of having most of our time committed to jobs and raising children. Volunteering isn’t for everyone, but take a look at this list and see if you see yourself here.

Later in this post I write about Lori Carlson and Ponheary Ly. This will be the first of many such volunteer profiles.

Reasons You May Be Interested in Volunteering

1. Looking to make new friends.
2. Just plain bored and need something to do.
3. Miss the routine and camaraderie that work provided you with and need a reason to get up in the morning.
4. Feel passionately about social, environmental or other issues.
5. Have a desire to give back to society and share the wisdom of your maturity with others.

What did you dream of doing when you were younger? What were you passionate about? Was it the environment, helping the homeless, ending hunger, or ending war? Or was it something less lofty like computers, teaching, writing or travel? Were you in the Peace Corps? I was not, but I have met so many people who were when they were younger.

The Peace Corps devotes an entire section of their web site to 50+ volunteers, with the slogan “Still asking what you can do for your country? Peace Corps wants you. It’s not too late”.

Volunteer Profile - Lori Carlson, Founder, Ponheary Ly Foundation

Volunteer opportunities exist everywhere. You can even decide to move to another country to make a difference. One such person is Lori Carlson, who founded the Ponheary Ly Foundation in Cambodia. Her transformational story is showcased on GoodTube in 3 amazing videos.

Ponheary Ly is a Cambodian teacher Lori befriended on a trip to Angkor Wat a few years ago. Ponheary was her guide. She tells her story in these videos, as well. I am calling her the Cambodian miracle worker! She is passionate about the need for children to get educated because she believes that the “killing fields” were allowed to take place because of the ignorance of the population. She talks about this on these videos.

Please comment about your own volunteer adventures. I would love to learn more about what others are doing.

While I was counting down to the end of this year as being my retirement date, I wasn’t taking it completely seriously because I can only retire then if the agency I work for approves early outs (named the early out authority). Because I am in IT and the agency is going through so many changes in this area, the chances for an early out are probably slim to none. Add an election year on top of that and I think it’s just not going to happen. It would be nice if it did!

However, a couple of weekends ago I went back to Connecticut to celebrate my mother’s 80th birthday. My siblings, nieces and nephews, friends, uncle and aunts, etc. all showed up and surprised her with a birthday party. It was fantastic. And, because her birthday fell on Monday, April 14th, we had it on Saturday, April 12th, which is my birthday. Aside from it being one of the best birthdays I can remember, I turned 55.

Turning 55 means that now I truly have less than a year before I can “retire” from my current job. I put retire in quotes because, while I’ll get a little monthly income and health benefits, it won’t come close to being enough to support me. Not unless I move to Thailand or Malaysia (which my partner and I have thought about, but that’s another story).

Since there are no plans to leave the country soon, I am feeling the pressure to learn everything I can in order to be self employed once my 56th birthday rolls around and I can leave my current job. Yey!

Affiliate marketing is something I have been interested in for a very long time, but I have not followed through with training I have purchased in the past. Most of the reason for this is that I’ve gotten stuck on the whole issue of picking a topic or a niche to move forward on. I’ve always felt that the things I’m really into are so popular that there’s no way I could ever compete.

I’ve decided to change my tune (literally) on that dilemma. Since I love the guitar and have played for most of my life, why not guitars? I’m going to go for it and I’ll see where it takes me. I also love photography and travel and have fun with those but will not focus on earning money with them in affiliate marketing (yet, anyway).

There are alot of courses out there, but the teacher I recommend the most is James Martell. He is currently teaching a 26 week bootcamp where he takes you step by step through the process of creating a successful affiliate marketing career. I’m taking the course now and I’m really enjoying it. The pace is right, I’m getting the support I need and I really love James’ teaching style. He’s been an affiliate marketer for the past 8 years and he’s been teaching since 2002.

I’ll post more about my progress as I go! Please comment with any suggestions for me or experiences with affiliate marketing you’d like to share.

by Minerva at Retirement Merry Go Round. Minerva writes that she was tagged by Ewa in the Garden and spent time documenting the blooms in her jungle garden. Instead, in Seattle, where the buds are beginning to pop and rhodies are blooming, we watched fat snowflakes fall from the sky this morning!

But, I have been tagged and what a great way to get a new post written on this Sunday evening.

The rules are following

1. Link to the person that tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share 4 things in these themes.
4. Tag 4 random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
5. Let each random person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website.

Four jobs I

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