Can Successful Retirement be All Play and No Pay?

January 9, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I went to a wedding last night and was seated next to a charming gentleman, who politely inquired about my occupation. When I told him that I worked with Baby Boomers who did not know what they wanted to do when they grew up, and did non-financial retirement coaching, he gleefully informed me that he was retired.

When I asked him for how long, he told me that he had now been retired for 15 years and had not worked a day for pay in that time, now he only worked for charitable causes. In his former life, he had been a high-powered executive at a very large, well-known corporation.

volunteering in retirement can be all play and no pay During my fourteen years of working as a retirement coach, I have only had four clients that choose not to work for pay. So I was quite intrigued to hear this man’s story.

After he retired, he went to clown school! He told me how he had researched the few schools out there to find what suited his desires and then took on clown school with the same zest as he had with his corporate endeavors.

His agenda after clown school was to utilize his new skill as a clown for the local children’s hospital. That was most fulfilling and brought him a great amount of joy, while he brought a laugh and a smile to those kids.

His next educational adventure was to attend culinary boot camp, something he had wanted to do for a long time, but had never had the time. This training also brought him great joy, just in another way. Cooking for his family and friends is now a weekly occurrence.

What impressed me most about this man was that he had clearly made a successful transition from his corporate life into his retirement. He appeared happy, content and full of life. In fact, he possessed great Luster, one of the words Dr. Johnson uses in his book, The New Retirement, to describe those who are living in the present with "inner radiance, glow and personal brilliance” and not living on their past laurels.

What a great role model this gentleman is for his peers. In fact, I think I will call him up and see if he would love to join me at the next workshop I present. I know that his story would really enthuse and inspire many people, just as it did me. And I am debating whether to ask if he would wear the clown suit!

How will you keep your luster in your retirement years?

If you could take some fun, yet meaningful new training or schooling what would it be in?

And if you never had to work for pay again, what would you do fill your time, and how would you “BE?"

Join the conversation. Just leave your comments by following the “Comments” link at the top of this post.

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Posted by Joanne Waldman | Filed Under From Joanne's Desk, Giving Back, The Factors, Working in Retirement

2008 Purpose Prize Call for Nominations

January 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment

I am a huge fan of Marc Freedman and the various programs with which he is both catalyst and a contributing influence. Purpose Prize nominations celebrate the new rules of retirement

One of my favorite projects of his is The Purpose Prize. Each year, the Purpose Prize provides five awards of $100,000 each to people over 60 who are taking on society’s biggest challenges. It’s for those with the passion and experience to discover new opportunities, create new programs and make lasting change.

If you are like the Retirement Options team, you’ll get inspiration reading details about the 2007 finalists:

Ray Anderson, 72, (Atlanta, GA): Leading the business community by adopting practices for his own multi-million dollar carpet company that protect the environment and boost profits

Gloria Jackson Bacon, 69, (Chicago, IL): Training hundreds of low-income parents to inspire and support their children in school and help them succeed in life

Donald Berwick, 60, (Cambridge, MA): Enlisting wide-scale cooperation and scientifically-proven protocols to help hospitals improve care and save more than 100,000 lives

Sally Bingham, 66, (San Francisco, CA): Leading an interfaith response to global warming by helping churches, synagogues, temples and mosques buy green electricity, reduce energy consumption and add a moral dimension to environmental activism

Phil Borges, 64, (Seattle, WA): Utilizing stories, pictures and technology - podcasting, videoconferencing, and the Web - to expand cross-cultural understanding among youth around the world

Richard Cherry, 64, (New York, NY): Saving energy and providing green building services to low-income New Yorkers

Adele Douglass, 60, (Herndon, VA): Advancing the humane treatment of farm animals through the certification and labeling of meat and poultry

Jose-Pablo Fernandez, 62, (Houston, TX): Teaching Hispanic parents computer skills to get them involved in their children’s educations and to boost the children’s chances of success

Sara J. Gonzales , 71, (Atlanta, GA): Training new Hispanic entrepreneurs and linking them to the larger business world

Gordon Johnson, 74, (Daytona Beach, FL): Creating new approaches to foster care that keeps siblings together and improves the quality of care and attention given to each child

H. Gene Jones, 91, (Tucson, AZ): Accelerating student achievement by integrating music and art in a district-wide curriculum that improves critical thinking, problem-solving and test scores

Wilma Melville, 73, (Ojai, CA): Saving lives at disaster sites by training rescued dogs to serve on canine-firefighter search teams, 64, (St. Louis, MO): Saving the lives of newborns through home visits by nurseshttp://www.purposeprize.org/video/videopage.cfm

Gary Maxworthy, 69, (San Francisco, CA): Using expertise from a career in food distribution to redistribute tons of nutritious produce at a city food bank - that would otherwise go to waste - to low-income people

Marian Kramer, 63, (Detroit, MI): Organizing a grassroots, legal and legislative fight for the right to affordable water in Detroit

Sharon Rohrbach, 64, (St. Louis, MO): Saving the lives of newborns through home visits by nurses

For video interviews with the finalists from 2006 and 2007, visit: http://www.purposeprize.org/video/videopage.cfm

Now it’s your turn. Do you or someone you know over age 60 deserve consideration for this year’s Purpose Prize? 2008 Prize nominations are open through March 1, 2008 for U.S. residents over 60 tackling challenges at home and abroad.

Nominate yourself or your favorite social innovator for prizes of up to $100,000.

Curious which 5 finalists took home $100,000 as 2007 Purpose Prize winners? Find the answer here.

Posted by Jody Murphy | Filed Under Advice for Retirement Coaches, Giving Back, Trends and News

Medical Insurance-the New “Major Player” When Considering Retirement

January 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment

medical insurance for Boomers and seniors

A new factor has taken center stage in the retirement decision equation, especially for those younger than 65. Medical insurance as always been a more of less “minor player” in the equation, but now it has graduated at least to major player status, if not premier player status.

In 2006, 74 percent of companies increased premiums for newly retired workers under the age of 65. That was a one-year jump of over 15%. But there’s much more to this than a 15% increase. Historically, in 1993 new accounting rules allowed companies to place a cap on the amount of dollars they set aside for retiree medical insurance. Now, over 60% of companies have already reached their cap, with another 20% projected to do the same in the next three years, according to Hewitt & Associates, a benefits consulting firm. This means that all future increases will be born, not by the company, but by the individual retiree!

When you “do the math” on this, the bottom line is that early retirees, i.e., those retiring before age 65 (as retirement coaches, we know that the average age for first retirement is between 57 and 58), has risen over 1,000% since 1993. Mary Jo Feldstein gives an example, in her syndicated column originating in the St. Louis Post Dispatch, of a man who retired in 2002, after 33 years with a very reputable company. When he retired his monthly medical payments were $78; today they are over $800. A small monthly payment isn’t a big player in the retirement equation … $800 surely is!

The repercussions of this “sudden” change on early retirement decision-making are titanic. Not only will currently retired persons postpone, or even forgo expenditures on travel and leisure that they ordinarily would make, but pre-retirees will be given great pause as to whether to retire or not.

I see a trend here.

I think people will still be retiring before age 65, for lots of reasons, but they will not be taking up the traditional retirement leisure lifestyle. Instead they will be looking for other employment simply to pay for their medical insurance. Even after age 65, supplemental medical insurance premiums have skyrocketed, forcing many retirees to shift their notion of retirement.

FOR RETIREMENT COACHES:

Bring ‘re-careering’ competencies and services into your retirement coaching menu. Retirees will, more than ever. Retirees will still want to “love their dream,” but that dream will have more to do with expression of their internal uniqueness (dare I call it spiritual gifts) not only for self-expressive reasons, but more and more for financial ones as well.

What’s your take on this topic? Please share your comments above, next to the date at the top of this post.

Posted by Richard Johnson | Filed Under Advice for Retirement Coaches, From Richard's Desk, Trends and News, Working in Retirement

The Bucket List

December 30, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I find myself wishing I were spending NY Eve in NYC. And not because I hanker to freeze my toes off in Times Square at midnight.

Right now, NYC is one of only 3 cities where Rob Reiner’s new movie, “The Bucket List,” is playing. It opens everywhere on January 11^th, but I would love to see it today as a celebration of the year ahead.

The Bucket List movie offers a call to action for Boomers and beyond

Perhaps you’ve seen the movie trailer on TV. Without fail, it strikes a chord deep inside me. My parents, conscientious savers and spenders, battled different cancers in their 60s and both succumbed before getting the chance to work on their respective bucket lists.

I feel confident their lists would have looked quite different from one another, which may explain why they avoided talking about such things. I’ve taken more than a few pages from chapters they left unwritten – which may explain why this movie captures my imagination.

And for retirement coaches, finally a movie after our own hearts!

Here’s what the official website says about the movie:

“It’s a story about friendship and love and discovering what’s really important in life. The point is, it’s never too late. To decide what matters and to then pursue that to the best of your ability is something that applies to everyone, no matter where they may be in the spectrum of age or circumstance.”

The movie’s producer sums it up beautifully:

“Anyone can have a bucket list. Just as there isn’t a human being on earth who doesn’t want to be loved, there isn’t anyone who doesn’t have, in the back of his mind, thoughts about what he wants to achieve.

But we often get caught up in the daily grind and sometimes drive into directions we never intended to go. The Bucket List is about two people who step up, who have the courage to pursue their dreams, which is – sadly and surprisingly – such a rarity in life.”

On the heels of a brand new year, I enjoy taking stock of how I’m doing — both adding to and crossing things off my “before I die” list. Progress, not perfection … that’s my mantra.

So, what’s on your bucket list? Do you find yourself actively working your way through the list, or have you gotten stuck?

Like the pair in the movie, will it require a life crisis to propel you into action? Surely some thoughtful hours with a certified retirement coach would prove a more prudent strategy to get you moving you in the direction of your heart’s desires.

Observing why his new movie will resonnate, Jack Nicholson nails it — “It’s always the things you don’t do in life that you regret most, not the things you do.”

Posted by Jody Murphy | Filed Under Advice for Retirement Coaches, Miscellaneous, Trends and News

AARP — I’m Turning 50 and Can’t Wait

December 28, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I have been waiting with great anticipation, for it to come in the mail, just like my ten-year-old waits for her Disney magazine. It has not come yet, but I know that I will feel validated and special when it arrives. AAPR I'm turning 50 - send me my membership card

I am waiting for my AARP card and the day in a few weeks that I turn 50 years old, or young, I would rather say.

I have been telling people that I am already 50, insinuating in conversations. I am like the child that says she is 6 ¾ wanting to be older and reach that next level. In September, I went to a birthday party for a friend’s husband. He turned 50 and felt awful about it. She threw him the surprise party to cheer him up.

I do not understand his attitude at all. I can’t wait to be 50! I feel that it is like a marker in time, that the next 50 years are going to be so much more interesting, so much more full, so much possibility.

Don’t get me wrong; the first 50 have been pretty amazing. But as we know, we supposedly gain some sort of wisdom as we age, and that wisdom is what is making the next 50 so enticing.

It is true, that somewhere around 50, plus or minus a few years, we start to see retirement as something within proximity, as opposed to something so far away. And although I am not sure that I will ever really retire, I was one of the lucky ones that got to change my lifestyle to my own design when I was in my mid-forties.

That’s when I became a career and retirement coach and, later, I took on the role of training others to become certified retirement coaches. This or some derivative is what I will do until I cannot do it any longer. What will change is my lifestyle once my parenting and eldercare duties are fulfilled. And I am starting now to plan how that will be different. But until that time, I am going to relish being fifty.

One of the reasons that this is such a big milestone is that my father died when he was three months past his 50^th birthday. It is hard to believe that I am now the same age as he was when his life ended. And the last conversation I had with him plays constantly in my brain. He had not done everything that he wanted to do in his short life.

That inspires me to plan, to dream and to keep going.

Because every day that comes three months after my 50^th birthday is a gift, and one that I plan to use with wisdom and zeal.

PS — what did you feel upon turning 50? Leave your comments (link is up top, next to the date). Let’s get a discussion started around feelings about this important crossroads of life.

Posted by Joanne | Filed Under From Joanne's Desk, Musings on Aging

Retirement Coaching is NOT One Size Fits ALL!

December 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment

How many times have you heard, “One size does not fit all?” In psychological adult development language, this is better said as: “As we mature we become more different from, not more alike, one another.” Well, if that’s true (and there seems no doubt) then by the time we get serious about retirement planning, we have become quite a collection of individuals. retirement coaching helps individuals tap into their own dreams

The reason why all of this is so important is because, Duh! We are all different!!!

So many retirement planning “programs” (I put this in quotes because I believe that most retirement planning “programs” representing themselves as true retirement planning programs are NOT really that; rather, they are opinions of the presenters and not based on fact or verifiable research.) simply teach to the crowd with no understanding that it is never a crowd.

Instead, it is always a collection of individuals with separate personalities, distinct histories, quite unique lifestyles, ideas, opinions, and most of all entirely different NEEDS than the person sitting next to them. If we don’t start from this premise than we are lost from the get-go!

Certified retirement coaches (certainly those certified by Retirement Options) are well trained in a whole cluster of lifestyle features, all of which feed into, and need to be part of, the retirement planning schema. Some of these lifestyle features are: your own emotional “terrain,” your unique personality, your attitudes toward work, your sense of self, your temporal orientation, your life focus, your activity level, your attitude toward growing older and others.

To give this psychological truth some flesh, I found an article** that says that pre-retiring individuals can be divided into at least four distinct “types.”

1) The Slow Downers

Individuals who espouse this view of retirement see it as a transition to old age – a time to slow down. They see and treat the retirement event as the end of their working life, and the beginning of a lifestyle of quiet acceptance of life’s next stage. This next stage is a clear downshift into a lower gear that focuses on taking life slowly. These folks are headed for the rocking chair!

2) The New Beginers

Retirees in this group think of retirement as the welcome new beginning. They are delighted to march to the beat of their own new drums. Their transition is characterized by disengagement from work, followed by a quick plunge into new endeavors. Their feelings of revitalization accompany a sense of an emerging new or “true” self.

3) The Continuers

Individuals in this group do not experience retirement as a major life event. Consequently, they do not undergo transition in a psychological sense. They continue to purse their central and most valued sphere of activity. This may be work that they already know, sometimes part-time, and sometimes even beyond full-time. Work may not have been their primary focus throughout life, it may be family, or church, or community involvement, but whatever it is, this work or activity will continue.

4) The "Deer in Headlight-ers"

Central to these people’s retirement experience is their attitude toward work: they prized it as their main source of self-definition and identity. Retirement then, is equated with the loss not only of their most highly valued activity, but of part of themselves as well. Retirement can be devastating for them at first, or at least until they find more work, in what way or fashion that can adequately replace what they lost in their work or career life. If this goes unresolved, these folks are most vulnerable to depression and late life dissatisfaction and turmoil.

What does all this mean?

Certified retirement coaches, at least all those certified by Retirement Options, are equipped with tools, competencies, and knowledge to address the individual, not simply “preach” to the crowd. It is essential to look at the person – as an individual — in retirement planning, to see their reality, to touch what is important to them.

This is only achievable when the retirement coach undertakes a comprehensive assessment of the factors and/or lifestyle issues that carry the most meaning for that individual at that time.

Without this assessment, we are just wasting their time and yours!

** Primary source: G. A. Hornstein and S. Wapner, “Experiencing and Adapting to Retirement,” The International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 21 (4), pp. 291-315.

Posted by Richard | Filed Under Advice for Retirement Coaches, From Richard's Desk, The Factors

Dan Fogelberg

December 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I was sad to read that singer and songwriter Dan Fogelberg died yesterday from prostate cancer. He was just 56, only 2 years older than me.

I always hummed along when I heard his songs on the radio, but never purchased any of his albums. Soft rock … not really my thing. But I’m moved by his passing all the same. He was a memorable part of my early adulthood, back in the day when FM radio felt radically hip. What I have also noticed is that his death has hit others of my generation harder than they would have predicted. I can guess why.

He was 56 years old.

His death touches us. And, it feels much too close for comfort. It also begs those blasted esoteric questions like "Are you living like there’s no tomorrow?" and "Are you pursuing your passions and fulfilling personal dreams?" and " If not now, when?"

The questions resonate with Boomers like me because Dan’s death reminds us that we really are all in this thing together.

We drank a toast to innocence
We drank a toast to time
Reliving in our eloquence
Another ‘auld lang syne’…

From "Same Old Lang Syne" by Dan Fogelberg

Posted by Jody Murphy | Filed Under Advice for Retirement Coaches

Retirement Options Blog : We have lift off!

December 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Retirement Options, certification training for those who want to provide retirement coaching services It’s official. Retirement Options has entered the blogosphere!

Many of our certified retirement coaches have asked us about blogging, so we decided the best first step was to dive into the pool ourselves.

Through our blog, we will understand first-hand the strategic benefits of using this technology for business development purposes. Of course, we’ll share those insights and getting started "how-tos" in the Coach’s Corner to help interested retirement coaching students and alumni get their blogs airborne.

But, more than that, we intend for this to be a place where anyone can learn more about the coming age wave and the opportunities for personal and professional growth.

The primary focus of the Retirement Options blog is to provide content which engages individuals who:

Serve in an advisory role, work with or otherwise market to Boomers and seniors
Want to differentiate themselves by adding "certified retirement coach" to their credentials
Are exploring whether retirement coaching, either full time or part time, is a good fit for them

We welcome your contributions. Please add your comments to any post, submit articles you have written and share links you uncover to relevant news, people, resources and more. This is a conversation, not a monologue. We want to hear from you!

What we know for sure: Now is the right time and here is the best place to gain insights, establish momentum and optimize opportunities afforded through professional retirement coaching.

Richard P. Johnson, Ph.D.
636-458-0813
drjohnson@retirementoptions.com

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Posted by Richard Johnson | Filed Under About the Blog