This is not about investments!

Choose, don't settle.

Retirement strategies means more than managing your investments. Having enough money when you retire is important but not the only thing you need to manage. Retirement can mean 10 to 30 years (maybe more) years of your life. What you do with those years will make the difference as you look back on the day you die. Retirement strategy means what you did with those years, how you handled the resources of time, life experience and accomplishment. Were those years satisfying and fulfilling? Did you meet your life goals? Did your life matter? The answer lies with you and how you met the challenge of retirement.

It’s very personal.

Retirement strategy is a personal decision. There isn’t any universal measure of success or failure. It starts with what is important to you. It can be personal and self-satisfying or universal and altruistic. It can be timid or bold. In the end, nobody else’s standards matter. You are the master of your life.

Have conviction! 

Once you decide to make a plan, you have committed to taking control of your retirement lifestyle. You won’t accept just anything. Your life is important and you will do whatever necessary to make it as you want. But what are the options. I see it like this. There are three retirement strategies that you can embrace in your retirement plan. They are all good because they represent your decisions. So long as you have considered the options and selected the one that makes you happy, any strategy can be the right one for you.

Once you pick, you aren’t stuck with your choice. You can change strategy at any time. Don’t get hung up on which is the right one. Start by picking the one that feels right. The worst thing you can do is fail to choose because when you don’t choose a strategy, you aren’t in charge. You don’t know what will happen and somebody else will make decisions for you.

Strategy One: Stick with what’s working.

Keep doing what you love.

Maintain your current portfolio of life activities, relationships and environment. Change the amount of time you allocate as needed but don’t change much else. This would be most appropriate when you are pretty satisfied with your lifestyle or it might be what you choose while you try to decide what changes you want to make.

Strategy Two: Learn some new things.

Become a master

Choose this strategy when you know that there are some parts of your lifestyle that don’t work they way you want. This doesn’t mean you change everything at once. If you find more than one deficiency then pick the one that is most important and learn something new to make it better. This could mean taking up a new activity and becoming good enough to satisfy yourself. It could mean improving on skills you already have and becoming more expert. Then change your lifestyle to include your new skills.

Strategy Three: Shake things up.

See the world!

This is the most risky because you move away from what is familiar and you can’t always get back if you find you made a mistake. It also has the most potential to transform a dull retirement into something outrageous. This strategy could mean moving to another place, traveling more frequently. It could mean making a reality out of a long time fantasy like becoming a beachcomber or a volunteer for a foreign aid program. With this one, there are ways to test out the changes on a short term basis before committing to permanent change but if you don’t feel drawn to a big change in your life, this one may not be right for you.

Your turn! 

I hope you have chosen a strategy and aren’t letting control of your life drift. Leave a comment to let me know which path you are on and how it’s going.

What is your retirement strategy? is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Make New Friends

Even if you have a healthy and active community of friends and family after retiring, you need more.  Most people find that their community dwindles after retirement.  Maybe the friends from work no longer relate the way they used to. Maybe you never developed friendships because of work and family responsibilities. It doesn’t matter the reason. If you don’t have a community of friends and family in retirement then build one. Start by asking yourself who you would like to be part of your community and them plan your life to make room for them. Ask yourself three questions:

1. Who are they?

2. What do they like to do?

3. How can you rearrange your life to make room for the things they like – and them?

Be  Proactive

They can be a grandchild, someone you know distantly or people you don’t know at all but once you identity them then you discover what they like to to and start doing it. Include the activities that they like into your life so that there is a natural place for you to interact. Then offer to share the things you like to do with them. Doing things that you both enjoy makes a  natural way to develop a relationship and even a friendship.

Don’t to remember:

• Don’t expect them to decide they want to spend time with you and take the first action. They won’t.
• Don’t invite them to do things that you like – unless you know that they like it too.
• Don’t wait for them to reach out to you.
• If the chemistry isn’t there, don’t push– move on to someone else.
• Don’t focus on one person.

You are the person in charge and you must be active and positive. Make yourself into the kind of person that the people you want to relate to like by doing the things they like to do and offering to share with them. Don’t be a wallflower hoping to be recognized. It won’t happen. If you do all the right things and it still just doesn’t happen, then move on. There are other people worth forming relationships with and no reason to limit yourself.

What would you do to be able to spend more time with them?

Originally posted 2010-08-30 09:17:38. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Outrageous Retirement Wishes- Who do you want to spend time with? is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Dave Doolin at Website in a Weekend – a go to site for bloggers- has been interviewing all the participants in the Pre-Writing Challenge from earlier this year.  Since I was one of the participants, my time came this week.  Dave had given me the questions a few weeks ago and I prepared responses.  This week he warned me that the interview was on deck and did I want to change anything,  Yesterday the interview went live.  Dave asked some probing questions and the interview is perhaps better in some ways that what I prepared for my about page.  Certainly it gives a different take.  If you are interested in more about the old dog and what he thinks then head on over.   You really should be reading Website in a Weekend regularly anyway even when he is chasing the old dog off the porch.

Originally posted 2010-06-12 07:08:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

The Old Dog Interview at Website in a Weekend is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

I’ve got a list! You might call it a bucket list

Actually it is more than one list- of things I want to do and have. I started it early on in life.

Image by jayneandd via Flickr

There were the things I could do when I grew up; when I graduated; when I got married; became a father. And then the big kahuna of lists; the things I would do when I retired. I still have those lists because I never made everything on those lists happen. All along my life, I believed that there would be time to make them happen. I deferred for various reasons but the biggest was that I always believed I would have the time or money later. I thought that working harder now would make it possible eventually to have them all.

There always seemed to be more time.

It is easy to excuse the failure to check things off the list when you believe that there is still time. Moving from stage to stage in life, it is always the next one where you think you will have the time and the money to make them happen. You fool yourself with the fantasy that tomorrow will be different.. So you move along through the phases of your life, failing at each phase to be the person you want to be and do the things that you want to do. “No problem,” you think. There is always retirement.  And that is where you get the bucket list.

Retirement: the final frontier for lists

Retirement is the final frontier for my lists. Anything I missed doing along the way got moved into my retirement list. Retirement was the elephant’s graveyard for everything I didn’t accomplish in life. So here I am in retirement with the mother of all lists. Some of those tings are now impossible. It’s way to late to spend afternoons helping my sons perfect their Little League pitching style or taking then fishing. I can cross out all the tasks that were time dependent because they are lost opportunities that I can never have. That is certainly one of life’s important lessons that I am learning too late. You have to grab opportunities when circumstances are right because many of the joys in life are offered only once. You can’t defer them. These are the things I wanted to do but now can never have because I missed the opportunity.

Now I need a sense of urgency

Still I still have a long list and the sobering realization that if I don’t attack it with all my energy, there is no next stage of my life to push them into. Retirement is the last lap of life. I can see the finish line from here. Once I cross that line, my list is history. Whatever I check off goes into my memory and legacy. Anything left undone is a puff of smoke.

So today I have a sense of urgency in my retirement. I know that each minute diminishes my remaining time and physical strength. I don’t have a second to waste. I need to study my list daily and attack something. That list must be shorted by the time I cross the finish line, because I can’t take it with me.

Originally posted 2011-01-12 09:14:41. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Develop a sense of urgency – to pare down that bucket list is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

A year ago I wrote about the proper way to think about obstacles.  They aren’t reasons to change course.  They may be lessons we need to learn or tests for our convictions.  If you are committed to reaching your goals then  you need to be  overcoming  obstacles instead of avoiding them.

If you would like to add your own experience with obstacles in life, please leave a comment.  And if you like the video then subscribe to get access to more.

Originally posted 2011-01-14 10:22:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Revisiting Obstacles is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

To read more about turning your retirement wishes into retirement plans, check out my other posts:

Do you have retirement wishes or a retirement plan?

What does early retirement mean anyway?

Retirement Wishes Alone don’t work- You need a Retirement Plan is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Originally posted 2009-10-16 09:44:42. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Stirring Things Up is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Getting the retirement you deserve

If you are already retired you may be disappointed if you didn’t plan ahead. If you don’t make some decisions then your retirement may be disappointing. If you don’t plan your retirement directions, you can end up in the wrong place.  Use the links below to find out more about how to take control of your retirement lifestyle.

“Retirement can be a self-imposed exile from life, exhilaration and fulfillment.  On the other hand, retirement can be a time of growth, excitement and satisfaction.” 

It starts with your thinking. What do you expect and what do you think you deserve. What do you know and do you know what you don’t know?

“At every stage in life we face an incredible obstacle that limits our ability to grow and develop. We don’t know what we don’t know.”

One challenge is what you believe you can do and what you think you can’t. It’s all in your head.

“What are you good at and how did you get good? If you got good at one thing you can get good for another.”

 Than you have to make a choice.

“Senior Living or Outrageous Retirement Lifestyle: It’s all up to you.”

Finally it comes down to life balance: balancing all the important facets of your life.

“Life balance is managing three important areas of life – financial, health and social. Retirement puts a stress on this balance that is more significant than in earlier stages of life.”

Retirement Lifestyle: It starts by thinking about retirement directions. is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Friday I blogged about happiness being within your control.  Nobody can make you happy unless you decide that you want to be happy. Over at Mashable we find examples of people using the web to share their happiness.   There is even a contest for the best ideas so if you share your happiness get over to Mashable and let them know.  You could be a winner.

Mashable is proud to present the Zappos.com Sharing Happiness Giveaway Contest!

Originally posted 2009-12-14 11:19:48. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

More on Happiness is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.

Another month, another look at the visitor stats. Not a big change but the numbers are up for the most part. Pageloads grew from 76 to 83 on a daily average basis. Unique visitors are essentially unchanged and first time visitors is down slightly but returning visitors is up. I take the most encouragement from the returning visitors. Those are readers that find value in the information and return. Returning visitors have overcome the loss from last month and a little more.

These stats are reassuring but don’t give me help so far as changes go. I will take them as reassurance that what I am doing is at least ok and continue the same level of activity and time commitment. One other frustration is that so far Google hasn’t deigned to rank my blog. I don’t know their criteria but since it is an accepted acknowledgement of blog success, I keep looking for it to change. I remain a PR 0. I am not whining at this point but from now on it will be part of my status report each month. My Alexa rank at the end of October was 949,466. If I remember, it was slightly higher last month. By including the rank, I will have a better understanding of my progress for November.

Originally posted 2010-11-03 08:36:05. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

Site Visitor Report for October 2010 is a post from: Ralph Carlson Blog If you like this post stop by Ralph Carlson Blog - How to create your own unique retirement lifestyle. for more.