Retirement: A Full-Time Job

Don't Blame the Fat Lady

2012-01-25T11:39:00-08:00

It’s the time of year when many of us turn our attention to our health. Ok, let’s be honest, by health I mean weight. Now three weeks into my resolution to lose six pounds, I’m down two. Not exactly a stellar performance, but it beats the alternative.

The startling facts are, according to the CDC, 33.9 percent of U.S. adults are obese, and another 34.4 percent are merely overweight. Which leaves those folks at healthy weights in the minority.

There is certainly no shortage of approaches to weight-loss. The multi-million dollar weight loss industry hawks thousands of books, magazines, weight-loss centers, and food substitutes. Our problem is not from lack of information, or even for lack of trying. I know very few people, even in the healthy-weight category that aren’t trying to drop at least a few pounds.

To be fair, the problem for obese people is a lot harder to tackle, it’s not just their imagination. Tara Parker-Pope’s NY Times article, The Fat Trap, explores the frustrating problem that so many people encounter of gaining back weight that they so diligently worked to lose. Turns out it’s not a problem of willpower or discipline. And it also turns out it’s not true that a calorie is a calorie is a calorie.

A typical 30-year old woman who weighs 190 pounds can eat about 2,600 calories a day and maintain her weight. But the same woman who achieved that weight by losing over 10 percent of her body weight will only be able to eat about 2,300 calories per day without gaining weight. Yes, unfair!

To blame are the metabolic and hormonal changes that accompany significant weight loss. So it really is harder for someone to keep the weight off after losing it than it is for someone who never varied from that weight in the first place. To really add heft to the unfairness of it all, this effect on calorie burning may last up to six years.

Which brings me to my six-pound goal. I am not overweight by any measure of the word. But I have consistently gained a half a pound a year for the last 16 years. So I’d rather reverse that course now, before I land in the land of the metabolic catch-22. And for that, I will share a little inspiration, Michael Pollan’s, Food Rules, an Eater’s Manual.

Most of us have figured out that it’s easier to keep up a moderate exercise program consistently than a drastic, complicated, intense one. Well, it’s the same with an eating program. I don’t buy the philosophy that the more complicated it is, the more effective it is. I think we all know what to do, we just need a little reminder.

Michael Pollan’s compact book is just that, a quick reminder of what you already know. The book contains 64 rules, they read much like a series of blog posts. They revolve around the central advice, “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” The first section defines food. For example, food your great-grandmother would recognize as food, things with ingredients that a third-grader can pronounce, foods that aren’t pretending to be something they are not. The last two sections are on making the healthiest food choices and tips for portion control.

If you, like I, need a little inspiration to keep the resolution you’ve made year after year by following advice you already know, I recommend this short read. It’s not rocket-science, it’s just common sense, something we can all use a little of from time to time.

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Picturing Retirement: Dance Like No One is Watching

2012-01-13T08:27:25-08:00

Photo Friday: Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner. My favorite picture of retirement so far, from Banjo Steve. (I only wish the image were larger!)

Talk about pure joy!

(To submit your picture of retirement, email me a photo with how you would like it credited.)

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The (Half) Million Dollar Question

2012-01-09T11:36:55-08:00

Posted in Money Mondays

If you already had “enough” money to retire, would you work a full-time job for one more year if you could walk away with $500k from that year’s work?

I enjoyed reading all of your comments and email responses to Friday’s half-million dollar question. As some of you pointed out, it’s obviously hard to know how you would answer a hypothetical question with so many possible variables and without really having “skin in the game.” My initial reaction is why not try it? If you hated it you could always quit. But that’s not really participating in the discussion in the spirit in which the question was asked.

Money

It’s clear that the price-point is different for different people. A couple of you wouldn’t do it for $500k but would for a million. I imagine others would do it for less than half a million. A few of you are ready to start tomorrow.

Money is relative, absolute numbers don’t usually work across the board for these kinds of discussions. My guess is there is some price point where everyone would say yes, what if I said $10 million? Because really the question boils down to how valuable your time is to you, how much money would you need in order to to commit to giving up that valuable resource, time, to an employer?

And if you already had “enough,” what would you do with “more?”

Time

As many of you mentioned, your time is more valuable to you than the money. You have kids or other family members you want to spend time with. You have travel dreams. Or you prefer to spend your time volunteering for something you feel a calling toward. It’s hard to imagine giving up that time for money when you might be giving up the opportunity to participate in that particular experience all together.

Happiness and the Vicious Cycle

I got an email from someone who said they would do it if it was something they were good at, “A year of failure isn’t worth any amount of money.” A few would do it for the peace of mind that the extra monetary cushion would provide.

In another email, Cindi’s comment hit home to me: “The problem is, it's easy to say you'll do it for only one year, but then when the year is up, it's the same exact question again, and if you were willing once then you're willing to do it again. Meanwhile if it's not what you wanted to be doing with your life, you're life is slipping by.”

The truth is, I am a sucker for appreciation. I imagine if someone were offering me that kind of money, I would feel like they really wanted me and therefore really appreciated me. I would likely be so flattered by the attention that I would probably do it. But that doesn’t mean that I think that would be the right thing for me to do.

I think I would regret it. Because it probably isn’t what I’d want to be doing with my life and I would be letting life slip by, even if it was only just a year of it.

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Picturing Retirement: Procrastination and Brain Teasers

2012-01-06T10:56:52-08:00

Photo Friday On procrastination: I've been thinking of many blog posts over this last silent month but getting none of them on (virtual) paper. Sorry about that. On brain teasers: The reason is because of what we bean-counters (even part-time bean-counters) call Busy Season. I'm only somewhat embarrassed to admit how much fun I've been having using the left side of my brain these last few weeks. When a part-time job demands full time, it's a lot easier to handle than when a full-time job feasts on your soul as well.

Which brings me to the next brain teaser. Yesterday I received a great question from a reader, Craig. He asked, "Although you already have "Enough," if you could work for exactly one year starting tomorrow, and make $500k after tax (working full-time but without killing yourself), would you do it?

The truth is I haven't figured out the answer to that one yet, but I'd love to get your answers to get the conversation started. Especially those of you that are retired or are not yet retired but hate your jobs. (Obviously if you are already working in a full-time job you love, this would be a no-brainer.)

(To submit your picture of retirement, email me a photo with how you would like it credited.)

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Picturing Retirement: Bring it on Santa!

2011-12-09T18:10:32-08:00

Photo Friday: For some reason, for the last two years of my retirement, I haven't managed to get my Christmas tree until a day or two before Christmas. Seems funny that I couldn't find the time until the last minute, but it did mean a significant discount on trees those years (although not much of a selection to choose from.) But last night I got the tree decorated, poured myself a glass of eggnog, and enjoyed the scene TWO WHOLE WEEKS before Christmas!

(To submit your picture of retirement, email me a photo with how you would like it credited.)

How Much Time is Too Much Time to Waste?

In Praise of Slowing Down

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Retirement from Retirement

2011-12-08T12:35:35-08:00

There’s a buzz around the early retirement-sphere this week as Jacob, at Early Retirement Extreme has announced his unretirement. I’m a little late to the discussion, but as a gal that has added part-time work to my own retirement recipe, I of course have some opinions on the subject. (To follow some of the other discussions on the late-breaking news: Unretirement, at Canadian Dream, Thoughts on Early Retirement, at Brip Blap, and Mr. Money Moustache Gets Passed the Early Retirement Torch.)

Jacob’s situation is a little different than my own as he is giving up full-time retirement entirely in favor of full-time work. And it’s not just a little keep-you-busy job, it’s a serious career. He will be a quant trader/researcher and will be moving from California to Chicago. I don’t exactly know what a quant trader/researcher does, but I imagine it involves a huge commitment of both time and brain power. This wouldn’t be one of those jobs that I would describe as a “fun job in retirement.”

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. Retirement really just means that you get to think about what you want to be thinking about all day. If you can get paid for thinking about what you want to be thinking about all day, well good for you!

And I’ve also said this before, you can’t just keep doing the same thing year in and year out for the rest of your life or you will become bored and unfulfilled. That’s true when you’re working and it doesn’t stop being true when you retire.

It’s totally understandable that Jacob got tired of thinking and writing about the early retirement lifestyle. My guess is that at some point he will grow weary of thinking about whatever quant trader/researchers think about all day long too, and then he’ll do something else. Just like all of us should be doing when we get tired of thinking about what we’re thinking about all day long.

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Related Posts:

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Guilty Feet

2011-11-30T11:39:03-08:00

Posted in Wellness Wednesdays

So I’m feeling a little guilty because I didn’t actually tell my part-time employer that I’m in Hawaii this week. I really only go to the office a day or two a week and I was there on Monday, so I’m not sure they will even notice I’m gone. As long as I have an Internet connection, whether I’m home or out of town is kind of irrelevant to them. But this year I already spent a week in Hawaii, two in Canada, and then three in Australia. And that’s not counting a few quick trips to Las Vegas sprinkled in here and there. So I’m kind of embarrassed to tell them I’m skipping town again.

Guilt notwithstanding, it does seem that I’ve cracked the code. All those years of working I resented only being able to travel three weeks a year (a few more when I worked somewhere where I could game the system). Then when I retired, I finally had the time to get out of town a lot more frequently. But here I am now with the best of both worlds, a little extra income to finance more frequent trips AND the time to take them!

Now guilt has no place in a healthy retirement and exercise definitely does, so I’m off to take a long walk on the beach now. It’s just my health I’m thinking about.

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Home Exchange for Beginners

2011-11-29T23:20:07-08:00

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

As I mentioned last week we invited ourselves to Hawaii with a couple of friends this week. This is not our first tag-along vacation. I’ll be the first to admit, we are extremely lucky to have some very generous friends. But for those of you that draw the line at imposing on your friends, there is another way to score some free lodging: home exchange.

After all, your house is just going to sit empty while you are on vacation, why not go to another person’s empty house while they enjoy yours? If you are exploring this option, here’s my short list of tips for the first-time home exchanger.

1. There are many reputable sites on-line to find home exchanges. The one I like the most is homeexchange.com because they have the largest number of listings and you have to pay to join. Actually, you only have to pay if you want to create a page to market your own home. You can email anyone with a listing you like when you browse for the site for free, but I’ll just tell you I never respond to those inquiries. For one thing, I find some comfort in knowing that the site has your credit card and knows your identity. If you just email me and don’t even have a listing for me to peruse, I not only don’t think you are serious, I don’t even know if you are real.

2. When you do find a homeowner that you’d like to approach for a trade, write a personal note explaining why you found their home attractive, share your plans for your trip, and tell a little bit about yourself. This is a chance to highlight a few great things about your house and things to enjoy in your area as well. If you do wind up trading homes with this family, you are going to spend months building a relationship. You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

3. When you are browsing listings on the website, keep in mind that the actual home will never look better than the photos your exchanger has posted on their exchange page. If you have any reservations after viewing the photos, you probably won’t be comfortable there.

4. I recommend practicing with a local trade, just to get your feet wet. Go away for the weekend somewhere that’s not too far away. If it’s not exactly what you bargained for, at least it’s only two days and you will come away with a better idea of what you are looking for next time.

5. During the course of building your home-exchange relationship, you should work out how you expect to leave each other’s homes. Just strip the beds or remake them too? Where does the trash go? No matter what they say about how to leave their house, just remember, no one will ever fault you if you leave it tidier than they expected.

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Related Posts:

Intro to the Home Exchange Vacation

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Picturing Retirement: Coco-sitting

2011-11-25T06:00:00-08:00

Photo Friday: My neighbors are out of town for the holiday week so I get to spend a little quality time with Coco each day while they are gone. Today we watched a couple hours of television together. Studies have shown that petting a cat brings blood pressure levels down, which is very helpful when watching the talking head "news" shows.

(To submit your picture of retirement, email me a photo with how you would like it credited.)

Will Work for Wine

Picturing Retirement: Quality Time

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Heaven on Earth

2011-11-24T04:30:00-08:00

Posted in Happiness

I saw this movie a while ago called Wristcutters: A Love Story. I’m not recommending it, it really wasn’t that good. But on this day, the day that I contemplate what I’m most thankful for, I thought of this movie.

It’s set in a surreal afterlife where the people that commit suicide wind up, stay with me here. This afterlife doesn’t look like heaven or hell; it’s just a place that looks a lot like our normal life, except that everything is just ok. The pizza tastes ok, your apartment is just ok, your job is just ok--not terrible but not wonderful either. Just ok. Even the cinematography adds to the view that everything is kind of blah.

Even though that movie was technically a love story, and not really a lesson on how we should live our lives, I went away with a lesson anyway. It occurred to me that lots of people live the life they have right now like that Wristcutter’s afterlife, viewing everything as not good enough. Not terrible but not great either.

I happen to think the life I’m living is pretty much heaven. I’m making the most of it because I think of it as a great gift, and I'm grateful for it. Whether or not you believe that there is another life after this, why not be sure to enjoy this one, appreciate it, relish it. You know, just in case.

Hoping you all have a wonderful holiday enjoying the company of the ones you love.

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