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By Bill May 17th, 2012
Retirement?
Retirement is working out pretty well. I have a part-time job I love. I am writing for this blog every week, a regular discipline that keeps me motivated. Carol and I just completed an eight week writing class at the Lighthouse, a Denver writer’s collective. I have even started a short story. I am using my history degree in my work and my writing, something I never did in thirty years of water treatment or eight years as a counselor.
I am more engaged now than when I was working full time. Most of those full time work years involved rotating twelve hour shifts. The longer I am away from those shifts the more I realize the toll they took. Shiftwork affected my health, my daily energy, my relationship with Carol, and …
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By Carol April 24th, 2012
“The only way I am leaving this house is in a body bag,” asserted one of our new friends, a founder of the Denver virtual village now known as A Little Help. Along with Bill and me and 90% of those responding to a recent AARP survey, she prefers to age in place in her home rather than contemplate a move to a senior care community.
On the other hand, younger family members can become concerned about this trend which means more elders living alone and unsupervised. Are they safe? Are they happy? Are we doing enough for them?
The tension between these two viewpoints has given rise to many technological innovations designed to monitor an elder’s safety and daily activity from afar. These range from simple panic buttons that summon help in case …
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By Carol April 3rd, 2012
Many years ago our wonderful accountant Darv gave us the magic number. He suggested that we needed to step up our savings in order to have $500,000 put away to support us during our retirement years. Since at that moment our combined IRA’s and 401(k)’s totaled only a very small fraction of that amount, we were quite sure we would never manage to save such a vast amount.
Over the years we have revisited the idea of the magic number often, looking here and there for the elusive path to achieving financial security in retirement. We have filled out on-line retirement planners, gathered financial data together to calculate our net worth, and engaged the help of several financial planners. The experts all seemed glad to see us come in their office door. In the …
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By Bill March 22nd, 2012
Soaring Eagle
It does not seem like it, but I retired from my career in water treatment one year ago. I haven’t stopped working, but the work is part time and in some ways more rewarding. In addition, I do not find myself at work at three in the morning like I used to. I am mostly enjoying my retirement.
The thing that confuses me is that I don’t seem to have much more free time than when I was working full time. I do have more time to pursue my many interests, but I think I was expecting retirement to be free of responsibility and “have to’s”. Now, how unrealistic is that? After all, I’m married, need to eat, clothe myself, have a home, and maintain the web of connection I have …
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By Bill March 15th, 2012
Overload
I have been writing about retirement engagement, but I am currently too engaged. It’s tax time. One of my hearing aids died, so I had an appointment with the VA audiologist. My pickup toolbox got broken into and some stuff was stolen. Work at Four Mile is picking up, my other job is a bit draining. I am coming off a three week chest cold. I am building a cold frame so we can start plants outside. I have a weekly deadline for this blog. We are about to begin a weekly workshop at our local writer’s organization. As a family, we are preparing for another meeting to get living wills, powers of attorney, etc. etc. ready. The compost needs turning. We are getting ready to put in a drip irrigation system. We …
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