Unretirement Project – Retirement Redefined

5 Retirement Strategies We Need to Start Planning For Now

November 14, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

At this year’s Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) annual conference, one of the early morning sessions focused on retirement strategies. Honestly, the session was more focused on what employers need to do for employees considering retirement, but as I was listening to the speaker, it occurred to me that these are things employees need to focus on too. So, I wanted to share them with you.

Reskilling. It’s no surprise that technology has a huge presence in our lives. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I love walking into a room and saying, “Alexa, turn on the bedroom lights.” And poof! they come on. It’s also fun during the holidays to say, “Alexa, turn on the Christmas tree.” But that means we need to stay up on the current technologies: read about them, try some of them out, and continuously learn. It’s not acceptable to say, “I’m not a technology person.” You’re missing out.

Repurposing. Everyone wants purpose in their lives. The question becomes what is that purpose. I recently took a FREE Coursera course titled “The Science of Well-Being”. It’s the most popular course at Yale University. The subject? Happiness. How to find happiness in our lives and not waste time on hollow pursuits. Professor Laurie Santos talks about the importance of young people finding their purpose. I can see how as we get older, we might need to recalibrate our version of purpose.

Reducing Stress. As I start approaching “retirement”, I understand the comments about it being stressful. Did I save enough money? How will I fill my days? How’s my health? And the list goes on. It’s important for us to have a sense of self-awareness and create habits and rituals that will help us manage stress. I wrote a post over on HR Bartender about “How to Create a Morning Routine”. It’s one of my favorites. There’s also equal time being given to the idea of creating an evening routine.

Reverse Mentoring. I must admit on some levels I dislike the term “reverse mentoring”. Why can’t we just call it mentoring? But I do realize that for many people, mentoring conjures up images of an older person passing along knowledge to a younger person. That being said, it’s time to break that stereotype. We should all look for opportunities to learn from individuals who are different from us. Both in terms of age and other attributes. It can help us with reskilling, repurposing, and reducing stress.

Phased Retirement. It really does make a lot of sense to start test driving retirement before going all in. We can do things like transitioning to part-time employment or starting a freelancing business on the side. This can be a win for both us and the companies we work with. As part of the transition, we can use strategies like reverse mentoring to help us. But it takes being open and honest with the organization as well as having some sort of plan about how we would like to proceed.

The more time I spend writing about retirement, the more I realize how big of a step it is and how much time it’s going to take to prepare. And I’m not just talking about the money part. This is a huge transition in life, sorta like when you move out of your parents’ house, and we need to plan for it.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Kansas City, MO

4 Unretirement Realities We Have to Face

November 7, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

One of the things that I find interesting is how much retirement conversation is starting to creep into everyday life. And not because I’m talking about this on Unretirement Project. I’m hearing more people talk about retirement at conferences, etc.

On some level, I figured retirement would be something only discussed among people who are retired or very close to retirement age. And it would only be discussed in the context of simply not working anymore. But that’s not the case. Retirement conversations are happening with people of all ages. This is a good thing. We’re starting to demystify retirement. But that also means it’s opening our eyes to what the future holds – both the good and the challenging.

If you have a moment, I would recommend watching author Elizabeth White’s TED talk on the personal finance crisis. Because it has a direct bearing on retirement. And the notion of unretirement.

Regardless of where you are in your unretirement journey, I thought White’s talk had a few harsh realities we will eventually need to face.

Being the first to “unretire” will be hard. Being the first at anything is hard. There are no rules or best practices. That’s one of the reasons we’ve started this blog. Hopefully along the way, we can document some of the great things people are doing and be helpful to future unretirees. But it’s important to keep in mind that we’re one of the first and we will need to use our past experiences to help us along the way.

We will have to change. In her TED talk, White tells us that we need to “Get off our thrones.” We’ve always known that retirement would be a change. But the question becomes how much. Make no mistake unretirement will be a change too. Even though unretirement is designed to ease our transition, that doesn’t mean it eliminates change.

We will need to develop a new relationship with money. Speaking of change, one of the biggest changes we will have to make is with money. In fact, it might extend to all of our resources. How we budget and spend our resources will change. We will need to prioritize our needs and wants. Many of us already know this, but we haven’t had to live it yet. It’s one thing to discuss “tightening the purse strings” and another to do it.

Think retirement strategy, not money failure. So much of retirement is caught up in finances, I think it’s important to realize there are other aspects to retirement. Our retirement strategy includes quality of life, our health, etc. This could relate to money in terms of “Do I spend money on a trip or a pergola for the backyard?” Ultimately, we have to understand what’s important to us to develop a good retirement strategy.

I’m really excited that conversations about retirement and unretirement are more frequent. It tells me that people are planning for retirement as a new beginning. Because that’s what it can be. If we plan for it.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of San Francisco, CA

2 Reasons to Maintain Social Media Accounts As You Age

October 31, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

It might be tempting as we get older to say, “I don’t need to be on social media anymore.” Well, I’ve recently heard a couple of comments that made me realize being on social media isn’t something we can simply abandon as we age.

Social media helps us find opportunities. If taking on a side hustle is part of your unretirement, then staying on social media should absolutely be a part of your strategy. I ran across a press release from Challenger Gray & Christmas recently discussing what I would call the double-edged sword when it comes to social media and aging.

Organizations have been told for years to use social media for marketing and recruiting. It’s cost-effective and can allow organizations to distribute their message to a wide audience. It totally makes sense.

BUT keep in mind the audience is only the people who are on social media. So, if only young people are on social media…well, you get it. Then only young people get the message. If you’re thinking to yourself, “I’ve survived the past five years without being on Twitter so no need to join now.” Well, maybe it’s time to rethink that. Or if you’re saying, “I only need LinkedIn if I’m going to work in an office environment. Once I retire, I’ll delete the account.” Again, maybe it’s worth keeping. And more importantly…using.

Social media helps to establish our identity. I was listening to an AARP webinar recently that talked about personal branding and they made an interesting comment – having a social media presence is important because it proves you’re a real person. I have to admit, this was both obvious and insightful at the same time.

I don’t know about you but there are many times when a company tries to call me or connect with me that the first thing I do is look them up on the internet. Are they “real”? Or is this just spam? I’m sure people do it with me as well.

Even if you don’t plan to have a side gig in unretirement, it could make sense to keep a social media presence. For example, Keith and I recently met some couples in our new community. We had a nice time and talked about staying in touch. Of course, they’re already retired so they don’t have business cards. I thought, we can just connect on Facebook. Well, they don’t check their Facebook account. They have an account. But it just sits there. So not only are they not using it to connect with people, but they aren’t making sure it’s not a target for hackers.

I understand that there are days we all want to close our social media accounts and shut out the world. But there’s also some really fun stuff on social media. Like this article about gay penguins rescuing a neglected chick at a Denmark zoo. And a lot of really nice people. Bottom-line: social media can bring value to your unretirement and retirement. Start making the investment to learn and use it.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of Las Vegas, NV

What We Are UP To – October 2018

October 24, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby 6 Comments

Watching | Baby Driver

> I know this movie has been out for a while, but I heard so many wonderful things about the soundtrack, I had to check it out. While I thought the movie was somewhat predictable, the soundtrack is awesome and if you like chase scenes…you have to check it out.

Reading | Fair, Nonpartisan Election Information

> This year’s midterm ballot in Florida is over two pages long with amendments! I take voting very seriously, so I’m looking for good resources that will educate me on the issues. AARP recently ran an article listing four resources for election information: VoteSmart.org, RealClearPolitics.com, Ballotopedia.org, and PolitiFact.org. Get educated and take time to vote on November 6, 2018.

Remembering | The “Big” City

> One of the things that we knew we would have to deal with in moving to Gainesville, Florida was the size of the city. The population is about 130,000. We’ve always lived placed with 1M+ populations…and gotten accustomed to all the retail shopping, entertainment, restaurants, etc. that comes with a large city. During our last two October trips, we’ve found ourselves saying, “Oh! There’s The Container Store…” or “Ooooh, can we stop at Sephora?” LOL!

Working On | Tracking

> Weight Watchers has changed their name to WW and announced a new focus on wellness and wellbeing. I really like it. But I feel to get the full benefit that I’m going to have to do a better job of tracking my activities, which I must admit, I’m not the best. It’s all about taking it one day at a time.

Feeling | “Falling” For the Season

> Fall season in October could possibly be the very best. ‘nuf said.

Planning | Holidays

> Since we haven’t completely unpacked from our move, we’re trying to figure out the holidays. Of course, we have no idea how into the holidays people get around here. I must admit that very few people decorated for Halloween. But gosh, when we lived in Cincinnati, Halloween was a big deal. So, were trying to figure out if we make new traditions or keep old ones? Should we unpack the holiday decorations? Decisions, decisions…

Loving | Vionics

> As a speaker and trainer, I spend a lot of time walking and standing. So, I’m trying to be kinder to my feet. Especially since I’ve had two ankle fusions. I’ve seen Vionics for years but finally splurged on a couple of pairs. Very nice shoes, fashionable, quality materials, and most of all – comfortable. It did take some time to figure out the right size, but once that happened…I would recommend them highly.

Geeking | Duolingo

> Duolingo is an educational language app. I played around with it a couple of years ago and tried expanding my Spanish vocabulary. I must admit that I don’t believe I had the right mindset and quickly gave up. I’m not sure an app can make you fluent in a language. But I do like learning languages, so I decided to give it another try earlier in October. This time I’m going to work on my French. And maybe be less hard on myself…we’ll see.

What’s UP with you?

Create Your Own 10 Word Retirement Definition

October 17, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

I read a very interesting post over on the Intentional Retirement blog titled, “My 10 Word Definition of Retirement”. I hope you’ll check it out. It’s a good read. Two things I found interesting about the post:

Everyone’s definition of retirement is different. And I mean this from multiple viewpoints. On an individual level and as a family. Because everyone’s definition is different, the path to get there is going to look a little different as well.
Everyone should take the time to develop their own definition. I think we have the foundation for the definition in “not working full-time” or “collecting Social Security”. But what does it really mean in terms of how we spend our time?

My real takeaway from the 10 word definition post is that we can create this activity for ourselves. You can do this a couple of ways:

Make a list. Put a date on your calendar to come up with 10 words that describe what you want out of retirement. Or put a piece of paper on your refrigerator and write down one word a day for 10 days. You get the point. After you create the list, put it aside for a few months and come back to it. Does it still describe what you want from retirement?

I could see this being an annual activity. Once a year, pull the list out and make sure you’re okay with it. If you want to change words, do it. At some point, you might want to share your list with family members. See if there are common words. Maybe there needs to be some discussion or compromise about other words.

Make a vision board. If you prefer visuals to words, find 10 images that represent retirement. You can keep them in a paper journal or post them on a site like Pinterest. (And if you’re not ready to share your images with the world, just label your retirement board “secret”.) Like with the words, you can revisit your images whenever you wish and change them as you like.

One of the things that’s nice about vision boards is you can eventually create smaller sections for areas like second careers, retirement locations, or retirement finances and add articles you want to refer to later. The other thing that’s nice about vision boards is you can search the internet for plenty of creative inspiration. Just be sure that the inspiration is something you really want.

It’s never too early or late to start thinking about the definition of your retirement. The definition is going to change. Trust me, I’m not retired (yet!) and my definition has already gone through some changes. And I’m cool with that.

My last takeaway from the post was that even when I become retired, it might make sense to every once in a while, revisit my definition of retirement. Very similar to my career. My career goals when I was in my 20’s weren’t the same as when I was in my 40’s. I could see retirement being the same way.

I’m beginning to think that the key to a successful retirement involves many of the same skills that I’m using to manage my career. Who woulda thought?!

How To Build Your Elevator Pitch

October 10, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

As working professionals, we’re aware of what an elevator pitch is. It’s those couple of sentences that we say to someone we’ve just met that answers the question, “Who are you, what do you do, and why should I pay attention to you?” No one would really ask this question, of course, and I didn’t write it this way to be evil or mean. But let’s be honest – this is the intention.

It’s called an elevator pitch because it’s supposed to be brief. Something you could easily say between floors during an elevator ride. Elevator pitches still matter as we’re approaching unretirement. Whether you plan to transition to part-time or try freelancing, having an elevator pitch is a perfect way to start a conversation or capture someone’s attention.

During AARP’s webcast on “Sharpening Your Networking and Interviewing Skills Online”, they talked about elevator pitches still being relevant, especially in job search. But here’s an example of how to use an elevator pitch when you’re not looking for a job:

Tell people who you are. As in your name, title, etc. I am amazed at times when I’m introduced to someone that they say their name but nothing else. For example, “Hi! I’m Joe.” doesn’t tell people who you are. But saying “Hi! I’m Joe, owner of MoJo Bakery” does.

Share what makes you special. Add a little something extra to your introduction like, “Hi! I’m Joe, owner of MoJo Bakery. We have the best brownies in the city of Denver.” You could also tweak this to reflect an accomplishment like “Hi! I’m Joe, owner of MoJo Bakery. We just won Denver’s Best Brownie award.”

Explain what you’re looking for and what you can offer. Sometimes people will upfront this part as in “We’re looking for tasters to try our latest brownie.” Or “I’m looking for a company to put brownies in their employee breakrooms.” Another approach is to introduce yourself and wait for a question like “Nice to meet you Joe. What brings you here?”

Elevator pitches have value in building relationships. And, in our unretirement, relationships are still important. They help us get jobs, volunteer board positions, and frankly, just build friendships.

Many of the skills we’ve learned over the years – like elevator pitches – are going to help us in our unretirement. We just have to refine the message to align with our unretirement goals.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the Queen Mary in Long Beach, CA

Unretirement: Create Your Own Aging Strategy

October 3, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

I ran across a very interesting article on NextAvenue titled, “Let People Choose How They Age”. It’s a good read you might want to check out.

The gist of the article for me was that individuals should break some of those traditional stereotypes when it comes to retirement. You guys know I totally believe that. It’s what “unretirement” is all about.

But I think there’s a difference between saying, “I want to redefine retirement.” and actually doing it. Let’s face it. For decades, we’ve been told that, at a certain age, we stop working, and that’s it. We’re supposed to save enough money to take care of ourselves. Today is different. We don’t need to stop working at a certain age. We can earn money while collecting Social Security.

Again, if we’re trying to break the retirement mold and create our own unretirement, it takes time. And it means thinking about our aging strategy. And then being prepared to put those thoughts and plans into action.

How do we want to spend our time? There are so many different things we can do: traveling, volunteering, working, etc. And frankly, there’s no reason we can’t do them all. It seems to me though, as we age, we will need to reprioritize the ways we spend our time. We need to be prepared to do that on a regular basis. And communicate it to the people in our lives. That includes family, friends, managers, and co-workers.

What impact will health have on our plans? At some point, we have to confront our health. Even if we eat right and exercise regularly. As our health changes, can we find activities that we enjoy? Is it possible to still volunteer or work part-time? If possible, it could make some sense to take a personal skills inventory and identify some knowledge and skills that we want to work on now…when we have the time to do it at our pace and convenience.

Will our finances force us to change our retirement plans? It would be wonderful to say that when we retire that we won’t have to live on a budget. Chances are that won’t be the case. So, first, we must learn how to create a retirement budget. In addition, we must make some very adult decisions about things we might never do because the budget doesn’t permit. When we’re in our 20’s and 30’s, we figure the money will always show up. At some point, we have to address the possibility that it won’t.

As we think about our unretirement and retirement, we have the ability to pave our own path. But that doesn’t necessarily mean we will be able to do whatever we want. It will be necessary to balance our wants and needs with the resources we have available to us. That doesn’t mean we can make our unretirement and retirement an enjoyable and fulfilling time.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the streets of San Francisco, CA