Retire In Style Blog Too

No matter where my husband and I travel we always check to see if there are any vaccines that we need. Even when we are traveling in the United States, we educate ourselves to make sure we are taking the proper precautions. We don't like our trips spoiled by a preventable illness.  For example, an article on the front page of the Tucson newspaper talked about the dreaded Valley Fever  ( Coccidioidomycosis) . Anyone that is a regular visitor to the SW United States knows that this malady is nothing to mess around with. They probably also know that it is misdiagnosed a great deal of the time.  My husband contracted it several years ago and probably suffered for several weeks before I even realized what was going on. He was fatigued, suffered from night sweats and even broke out in a blistered rash. By the time we arrived home in Oregon he was in such bad shape that I feared for his life. The Oregon doctor was so uncertain of the cause and unwilling to listen to the informat...

Marc Freedman, has a message for retirees. He thinks that boomers can continue to have a real social impact after they have left their careers to retire. In the article that appears in the Harvard Business Review,  A New Vision for Retirement: Productive and Meaningful , the founder and CEO of Encore lays out the foundation for his ideas. I am on Freedman's mailing list and I receive information from time to time about what he finds interesting for people like me that write about retirement. The email I received from him yesterday caught my attention because it dealt with something I learned about several month ago...the Prudential Day One Stories TV and bill board ads: You’ve most likely encountered Prudential's Day One stories campaign, telling us we need to prepare for a seemingly endless retirement. On billboards and bus posters, in radio and television ads, Prudential says we’ll be retired for 6,000 days – or many more – after working for 12,000. The financial services c...

Is Motor Home Travel for You? I want you to enjoy life as you go along. My mother taught me that waiting to have fun is very risky.  Stuff happens along the way and it is not always good. Life needs to be lived day by day. I'm just saying. I think that people nearing retirement may be planning for an eventuality they cannot even wrap their mind around. If you are going to make a reasonable plan for retirement, then you need to understand what a life of no work is truly like. You can do this by following my advice and just enjoy little bits of retirement as you go along. How can you get a feel for a life without work? If you live a life that includes periods of real down time, you are going to get a feel for what retirement is all about. Why should you do that? Well...you are not going to quit work and go on vacation to Hawaii for the rest of your life. A trip to a tropical resort is NOT retirement. It is fun but not what a retirement lifestyle is all about. I think it is better to...

The train is leaving the station...are you on it or just dreaming about going? Don't let life slip away. I don't suppose you remember when my husband tipped over in the kitchen. He had managed to drink as little water as a man can possibly drink and finally went totally dry. He always simply said he didn't like water and refused to let it pass his lips.  The tipping over resulted in a 911 call, a trip to the hospital, a big bag of water being pumped into him and a night spend visiting the bathroom. He was astonished that people actually went that much. He learned a very hard lesson. But then so did I. That was the first time it dawned on me that the wait was over. We needed to make our dreams come true if we possibly could...the sooner the better. The next morning I woke up, drank my coffee and announced that I was buying new golf clubs so I could enjoy them. I asked my husband if he wanted to do the same. That was when I broke the news to him that we were going to die one ...

What happens when you remove career from this puzzle? What do you see as being successful in a life without a job ? When the perks and rewards that come with a career go away how will you find satisfaction without someone telling you how good you are? You may not realize it but I would bet that you will need to find a way to satisfy that part of your nature. So how will you do that? Find a Hobby that You Love I am a blogger and part of my measure of achievement comes with what happens when I write. You may be a golfer or a volunteer or even an avid lover of books. Whatever you do, I imagine that it validates you in some way. And validation is what we all need. Live on Your Past Laurels My family likes to joke that every adventure is all about the bragging rights. It is very true that humans do like to feel good about something that sets them above the crowd...it is natural to feel good about success. In some ways talking about success is the minds way of getting that feeling achievem...

Harriet Jacobs (1813–1897) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) While my blogger friends were talking the other day, the subject of readers, comments and success came up. We all love to have readers and encourage meaningful comments and suggestions. In fact, response from readers is a measure of our success. For example, today I received a book suggestion from Early Retirement Journey  for a book relevant to the post about Mississippi finally getting their name on the list of states that ratified the 13th Amendment . Comment :  My first thought on hearing this was "You can't make this stuff up."   I would also recommend an absolutely excellent non-fiction book written by an educated, former slave titled " Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl " by Harriet Jacobs . Harriet is amazingly articulate, and this book, released first in Europe in 1851, didn't make it's way to mainstream America until 1973. Harriet's story, beautiful and articulately written, makes it...

I quote a website called  Above the Law : Amazon link: Team of Rivals:  The Political Genius of  Abraham Lincoln Today the big story (at least in liberal circles) is that Mississippi finally officially ratified the Thirteenth Amendment , after two Ole Miss employees saw the movie  Lincoln  and decided to look into why their state hadn’t officially ratified the amendment. You can’t make that up: Mississippi needed a Spielberg movie to remind them to ratify the amendment banning slavery.... If you were one of the people that went to a theater and watched Spielberg's Lincoln , you know that the movie was about as good as it gets. I loved that it made enough of an impact to clean up an unresolved legal oversight. You go Mississippi...you may get it right yet!    Go see the movie and maybe even read the book that the movie was based on...it is called  Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln  and is written by Doris Kearns Goodwin....

Three important words: friends, flowers, fences. Friends (fellow bloggers) Flowers Fences I think I know why these words are important but I am more interested in what you have to say! Have a wonderful day. b+ My life is good...but then you know that. Todays schedule went like this: 12:00 noon: Lunch with blogging friends. 1:30-bedtime: open for engagements! Smile! bloggers: Linda Myers of Bag Lady in Waiting Bob Lowry or Satisfying Retirement Related articles About My Age...don't label me please! I'm almost done with (writing about) retirement! What's next? Figuring Out Life After Work - Advice from an EXPERT! A Time to Be Alone...learning about myself!

English: Woman at mirror, circa 1930s Item 78068, City Light Glass Lantern Slides (Record Series 1204-03), Seattle Municipal Archives. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) I am not going to talk about wrinkles or face cream or even exercise here. But I am going to talk about the mirror and what we can learn from a good facing down with the person you see reflected there. I am a fairly positive person usually. I have to admit that occasionally I feel the urge to pick life up by the scruff of the neck and give it a talking to. But that doesn't happen very often. I am grateful for that. We are doing some construction around the park model and I have a lot of opinions that drive everyone else nuts. It is hard for me...poor me. I was stewing over things that were out of my control. I didn't realize how much I was fretting about it until I walked by the mirror. See, when I am unsettled, worried or unhappy, the corners of my mouth turn down and I cannot get them to come up no matter how hard I ...

Valentine's Day is celebrated in many ways. Brits have their own twist on the holiday. What I loved about this infographic was the information on aphrodisiacs. Who knew that asparagus and garlic would do the trick? This Valentine’s Day infographic was created by Warner Leisure Hotels – click here to view the original blog post.

Business card or historic SPAM? Brief History: Civil War Pensions: The business card of one of the many attorneys specializing in pension claims, circa 1895. SSA History Archives. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If you are a blogger for business purposes or not, you know that leaving a connection in a comment to the place you work or write is risky business. I have always thought of it as leaving a business card. Others view it is SPAM! Wow! I suppose there is a very good reason for that but I am still a little puzzled about hiding out. Those of us that blog depend on our Google+ account or take the effort to leave a name and URL in the comment form. Honestly, I am not sure what we are hiding. The word recognition tool takes care of most of the computer generated spam anyway. I like the idea of making connections with the people that stop by to read. If I can help them, I am sure they will return the favor. Post a guest article with me. In the past I have charged for posts that had a busine...

I received this question yesterday from a reader:  It's wonderful to hear of other single travelers out there. How do you go about finding places to rent in different areas?  Boy can I relate to this! I remember feeling like a babe in the woods when we first started out. My husband and I traveled across the county in a small class c motor home. We stayed in trailer parks, and RV resorts. In those days we carried a Good Sam Directory and depended on our very new cell phone to make reservations as we went along. I always dreamed of finding a 10-10-10 rated park. The rating assures quality, service and location. I was never disappointed. On that trip we only found one on our route. It was right here in Tucson. A CROWD GATHERS...NO MATTER WHAT WE DO! If you are thinking that a resort like the one we spend the winters in would work, I think the RV directories are a good place to start. Woodalls, CampUSA, Good Sam Club are well known and reputable. Amazon has a large selection avai...