In Charge
Can you imagine a world where people who followed a few simple guidelines about diet and exercise but never visited doctors had health outcomes as good as those who do see doctors? Can you imagine a world in which wonderful music might come from people who played instruments but had little musical knowledge, training or experience?
The Maine photos of last week offered a respite from election turmoil. Life is heading toward normal now. The political advertisements relented suddenly, and election forecasting and handicapping stopped. Yet important policy issues, some involving seniors, remain unresolved, therefore a peculiar, almost restful anxiety appears to be growing in the country. Continue reading
A working Maine Farm, with barn attached to house, selling pumpkins.
I write tonight while most everyone else is likely watching election returns. After the votes are counted, let’s break away and go to Maine. Continue reading
In America we can always find things for sale that we do not need, and for most people longevity insurance may well fall into that category. A retiree who can manage investments and control spending should be able to provide his own longevity insurance. Continue reading
Along the Blue Ridge Parkway
People often wonder what they will do when they retire, and many delay retirement because they feel uneasy about striking out anew. Jim Keighton, a retired middle-school science teacher, has solved the problem for himself. Jim has doubled-down on birding, especially with hawks, a hobby he started as a boy. As I wrote about hunting, retired men often return to activities from their youth. Continue reading
Retired with an antique car—1927 Flint Roadster
When I ask people why they retired, or if still working, when they will retire, I often hear one or two reasons. Almost no one tells a complex story. The particular experiences vary among people, but not the degree of complexity. Continue reading
Learning some new procedures from a young staff member at Meals on Wheels
For retirees volunteering usually beats work. Volunteers are not usually competing against co-workers, are not facing pressure to make economical use of time, are not usually micro-managed or given impossible deadlines and are not ordinarily forced to accommodate oversized workplace egos. Instead, volunteers can focus on the work experience itself. Continue reading
People often idealize friendship, talking about true friends and soul mates with whom deep and lasting relations abide and in whom true sympathy resides. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote that way in 1841 in an essay on “Friendship.” He describes friendship as a high-minded, God-given relationship between persons.
Writing in January on our blog, Later Living, I took a more practical tack, speaking of friendship as human companionship offering goodwill and affection; writing that friendships make people healthier and help them live longer, and that to make friends retirees need to join activities with other people.
Is Emerson’s a more helpful view—one that leads to a healthier or more fulfilling later life? Continue reading
Two weeks ago we wrote about a 6-step investment model for retirees, and two days ago we saw that the model worked. Now we can show how to make it work better. The key is to further diversify the stock investments. Originally we used a mutual fund that reflects returns to 500 leading U.S. companies, and today we use one that reflects returns to the entire U.S. stock market.
Given all the aches and pains that intensify with age, it can be especially delightful to celebrate some things that were (or should be) left behind at the career place. Conquering the To-Do List in yesterday’s The Wall Street Journal may well deserve such a celebration. Many retirees gleefully toss out the old career-ladened to-do list, and despite Ms. Sue Shellenbarger’s excellent column, many of us can simply skip it. Now, back to that pain in my left shoulder …