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8 Reasons to Learn About Social Security Early in Your Career

February 6, 2019 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

retirement fund, Lucky Lunch Counter, sign, social security, retirement, retirement life, money

I used to think the right time to learn about Social Security was right before I need it. No sense in learning about something and then having to learn about changes. Well, I’ve changed my mind on this. I received a copy of the book, Social Security Strategies: How to Optimize Retirement Benefits [3rd Edition]. Sad to say, I received this book over a year ago. And it’s been sitting on the corner of my desk for quite some time.

I finally started digging into the book and realized that understanding Social Security is going to take some time. And it’s possible that one book isn’t going to answer all of my questions. So instead of rushing to learn Social Security when I’m in my 60’s, maybe it makes sense to start learning about it when I’m younger. 

While I’m sure that I don’t know everything that I need to know about Social Security, I did learn a few things from reading about it. The book authors also have a website with additional information. Here are my takeaways:

  1. Social Security benefits are driven by age. I’m sure most of you already knew that. But it appears that for some individuals, the date when you can collect benefits is changing. For example, if you’re turning 62 in 2019, your full retirement age is 66 years, 6 months (that’s a two-month increase from last year).
  2. You will want to discuss Social Security strategies with your spouse or significant other. While many benefits are focused on the individual, the amount of your Social Security benefit can change depending on your marital status. You’ll want to decide as a family when each person might want to consider taking their benefit.
  3. You will want to plan your filing strategy years in advance. There’s a lot of writing about getting the greatest monthly benefit when you wait until you’re 70 to file for Social Security. But if your goal with Social Security is to draw as much money as possible, then it could make more financial sense to draw early and collect longer.
  4. If you don’t know how to manage cash flow, you’ll want to learn. Collecting Social Security means living on a budget. And budgets mean understanding cash flow. It’s about having money when you need it, and that includes for emergencies.
  5. You’ll want to monitor your estimated benefits. And start thinking about living within that budget. Speaking of budgets, another aspect of finances to think about is changing your lifestyle to live within your means. It’s possible that all of the things that are necessary right now, we won’t need to purchase in the future.
  6. If you’re planning to work while drawing benefits, you’ll want to understand the impact. If you’re planning to freelance or consult during retirement, you’ll want to think about how much money you’re trying to make while collecting Social Security. Because…see #7.
  7. Social Security doesn’t mean you’re no longer paying any taxes. There are limits on how much money you can make without incurring tax penalties. You’ll want to know what those numbers are because it will drive your unretirement strategy.
  8. Finally, you’ll want to know how to apply. And the necessary paperwork to bring. Don’t wait until the last minute to figure out how to apply. Can you apply online? Is it better to apply in person? What paperwork do you need to bring with you? 

Regardless of your financial position, chances are Social Security is a part of your retirement plan. Don’t wait until the last minute to start learning about it. And one other thing…if you’re thinking that you will need Social Security someday, then don’t ignore the conversations happening within government. I’m not here to tell you what to think. But if you don’t want someone to mess with your retirement without you getting a say…then learning about Social Security sooner (versus later) makes sense.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at Lucky’s Lunch Counter in San Diego, CA

Filed Under: Careers, Money, Retirement Life Tagged With: career, money, retirement life

What We Are UP To in January 2019

January 23, 2019 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

Sandusky, January, retirement life, unretirement, retirement, Unretirement Project

Disclosure: Occasionally we receive free products for review or include advertising links in posts, but no one impacts the honesty of our opinions. 

Watching|Bohemian Rhapsody

> I’m a fan of Queen’s music, so I thought this biographical music film was awesome. I was surprised how many people were in the movie theater when we saw it early in January. The film has been out for months. It will be interesting to see how the film does during “awards” season. 

Reading| Steal Like an Artist

> The focus of Austin Kleon’s 2012 book is how to be more creative. I’ve been wanting to read this book for a while. At the same time, I was a bit intimidated by the subject matter. When I think of creativity, I think Picasso and Prince. Not to worry, Kleon’s book is filled with practical tips to make better use of your creative spirit. I loved the idea of having an “analog” desk. 

Remembering|Bag Man

>I just finished listening to Rachel Maddow’s podcast series called Bag Man, about Spiro Agnew. I must admit that I was young when it happened. Maddow does a great job with this history lesson. The takeaways are very timely given what’s happening in government today. 

Working On| Cooking at home

> Keith and I like to cook. And we find that we enjoy our cooking over most restaurants. While we’re still trying to get out and explore Gainesville, we’ve decided that we miss our own cooking. I found a local grocer that sells slightly blemished fruits and vegetables, so we spent a January weekend making banana bread and muffins. I hate food waste and consider it a personal challenge to use as much as I can. I’m looking forward to doing more cooking and baking. 

Feeling| Settled in

> I can’t believe that I have no business travel on my calendar for a month! While I love to travel, it’s nice to be home. Even if it’s in a rental house. Ha.Ha. I’m hoping to use this time productively, including learning more about Gainesville. For a small town, there are so many things to see and do. 

Planning| Another move

> You guys know that Keith and I picked up and moved to Gainesville because we’re building our forever home here. Well after months of delays, we’re actually seeing progress in January and hope to be moving again soon. While moving is never fun, I can’t wait for this move to happen. 

Loving| Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary

> Keith and I recently learned that a group of squirrel monkeys were released from a U.S. Food and Drug Administration nicotine study and “retired” to Jungle Friends, a primate sanctuary in Gainesville. So, we’ve adopted a couple of them (named Gregory and Riot). Only seems fitting for us to help their monkey retirement. LOL!

Geeking| UV Sense

> I’ve mentioned before how taking care of my skin is important to me. I just picked up the La Roche-Posay UV Sense. It’s a wearable electronic UV sensor that provides information about the level of ultraviolet exposure you’re receiving. Very interesting data – even in January! 

What’s UP with you? We hope that your holidays were fabulous and look forward to sharing 2019 with you!

Filed Under: Fun, Home, Retirement Life, Wellness Tagged With: retirement life, wellness

Your 5-Day Plan to Using LinkedIn In Your Unretirement

January 16, 2019 by Keith Lauby Leave a Comment

LinkedIn Logo, LinkedIn, social media, career, unretirement

A little while ago, I wrote about using social media to help grow your messaging as an independent contractor during retirement. By now, you know that you can use social sites to gain practical experience that will help in unretirement. The first article was about Facebook. Today, let’s talk about LinkedIn.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network with over 562 million members in over 200 countries. Most of us have LinkedIn profiles and know how to connect with people. But did you know: 

  • Over 20,000 companies post 3 million jobs on LinkedIn.
  • 80% of the 146 million U.S. LinkedIn members want to have a mentor or be one to others.

Maybe you’re not officially looking for your dream job, but do you really want opportunities to pass you by? Even in unretirement, you want people to find you on LinkedIn.

How do you create (or update) your LinkedIn profile?

There are hundreds of articles that share great ways to structure your LinkedIn profile. Check out some of the best on the LinkedIn blog. If you want a couple posts that can help optimize your profile, check these out:

Creating a Killer LinkedIn Profile [INFOGRAPHIC]

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words, Make Your LinkedIn Profile Shine [SLIDESHOW]

Your 5-day Plan for Learning More about LinkedIn

DAY 1 – Read articles of interest. Your home page will have articles that your connections are posting. This will give you a good sense of what your connections find interesting. Try to find content that both you and your contacts will enjoy. Because a little later on, you will want to share articles with your connections.

DAY 2 – Add to Your Feed. LinkedIn isn’t shy about making recommendations and you will find a few along the right side of your homepage. Trending topics are first, followed by recommendations of people or companies to follow (yes, you can follow companies). It’s a great way to expand your LinkedIn community. 

DAY 3 – Check Out Suggested Features. Along the left side of your homepage you will see even more recommendations for LinkedIn Groups and hashtags. LinkedIn is trying to expand the use of hashtags so find a few that interest you – like maybe #unretirement and #retirement. 

DAY 4 – Get to Know Your Dashboard. Your Dashboard can be found in your profile, right under your profile section. It offers a quick and easy way to understand who is paying attention to you. It also gives recommendations on ways to expand your interactions on LinkedIn. 

DAY 5 – Write a Post. At the top of your feed is a box that says, “Start a post”. Since you’ve found articles in #1 above, share them with your connections. Please remember – LinkedIn has a business focus so save those vacation or adorable pet posts for Facebook.

BONUS! Publish an Article. That’s right, LinkedIn lets users publish their own articles. At the bottom of your new post box you will see a link to “Write an article”. This is your opportunity to share your expertise with the world! Once you do that, LinkedIn will create a page with all of your articles that everyone can follow.

There are a lot of things you can learn using LinkedIn and connections can be valuable. It should definitely be a part of your social media activity in unretirement. So go have some fun growing your community!

Filed Under: Careers, Retirement Life Tagged With: career, unretirement

Retirement Success: We Need to Learn About Happiness

January 9, 2019 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

pandas, panda statues, happiness, retirement, unretirement

Yale University’s most popular class ever is called “The Science of Well-Being”. The good news is you can take it for FREE on Coursera. And, just out of curiosity, I did. I could see how it might make sense to incorporate this program (or something like it) as part of an individual’s planning and preparation for retirement. Here are a couple of reasons why:

Happiness is about judgment and decision-making. The professor for this course, Laurie Santos PhD, started the course sharing the G.I. Joe fallacy, which is that the age-old mantra of “knowing is half the battle” really doesn’t help when it comes to making real-world decisions. So, if we want to be happy and satisfied during our retirement, then we need to *retire* the idea that just giving people information is enough. (No pun intended.)

Happiness means knowing what will make us happy. Santos also talks about the concept of “miswanting”. This is the idea that individuals think they want something a lot more than they do or that they believe they will like something a lot more than they actually will. An example might be the person who thinks they’re ready to quit working and travel the world, then once they officially retire, there’s a bit of remorse. 

I’m bringing this up because, in our retirement life, we will often have to deal with trade-offs. For example, we can travel often but our accommodations might be economy. Versus traveling less but more luxuriously. Or we can retire earlier but it means downsizing and paying off a mortgage. Or we can work longer, but it means becoming a freelancer or contractor without healthcare insurance. For us to make good decisions, we need to truly understand what makes us happy. In addition, we need to have a greater understanding of how to make the decision, not just have the information but have enough self-awareness to know the conditions that are right for us. 

The last thing anyone wants is to make wrong decisions where their retirement is concerned. I remember years ago meeting someone who was approaching their retirement based on what they read in a book. The book said they needed to retire at XX age. So, they did. And they were unhappy. The book told them they should do XX. So, they did. And they were unhappy. Of course, their unhappiness spread to their spouse. It wasn’t until they said, “I’m just going to retire my way.” that they found their retirement happiness.

Santos suggested a catchy acronym that individuals could use in evaluating decisions and taking action. It’s called WOOP:

W = wish for what you want

O = outcomes are defined

O = obstacles are identified

P = plan your strategy

For me the real success in the WOOP method is in the W. Wishing for what you want means understanding what makes you happy. I don’t know about you, but no one ever talked about this in school or college or at work. I’ve learned what makes me happy over lots of years and many mistakes. “The Science of Well-Being” could be one of those courses that helps individuals focus on happiness. And hopefully not use trial and error as the way to reach it. 

There’s an increasing conversation about money not buying happiness and how happiness impacts personal well-being. But it only works if you know what your happiness is. Maybe it’s time to start finding out. That way you can create a successful retirement plan.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while happily exploring Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, HI

Filed Under: Careers, Retirement Life, Wellness Tagged With: career, unretirement, wellness

What We Are UP To in December 2018

December 19, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

December, Santa, Santa Claus, holiday, UP, Unretirement Project

Watching| The Good Place

> Keith and I took a cruise during the Thanksgiving holiday and accidently discovered this show. We were immediately hooked! There’s a nice juxtaposition between the education of ethics and morality with well-written humor. And the plot twists keep us on our toes…

Reading| The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning

> While “death cleaning” is a thing, I’m finding this book to be more about the art of minimalist living. There are plenty of references to “your kids don’t want your stuff” and “the need to “downsize” but my takeaway from this book is that getting rid of possessions is hard and everyone needs to find the right time and way to do it. 

Remembering|A Year of Images

> This year, I made a resolution to post an image every day on Instagram. And I actually accomplished it. It was a fun activity and it helped me to identify my photographic voice. You know, writers have “voices”, which is basically their writing style. I’ve been struggling to find my photography voice. Not completely there yet in December…but a big step in the right direction. 

Working On| Exercise

> Moving to Gainesville has majorly interrupted our fitness routine. We loved Pilates in South Florida and finding something like it has been a challenge. So, I think we’re resolved to finding something new. Not sure what that is…but we’re starting with Disney’s Star Wars Virtual Half Marathon. We can participate at our own pace and still get a finisher ribbon.

Feeling| Excited

> The builder has finally started construction on our home this December. This has been the absolute longest house building process ever. But we were so excited to drive by our “pile of dirt” and see activity. We still have months to go, but it’s so nice to ultimately see progress. 

Planning| Strategy Meeting

> We’re a small company. Over the years, we’ve found that having a regular strategy session helps us. Keith and I try to get away for a weekend to discuss our personal and professional lives. That includes a discussion about what we want our retirement to look like and are we doing the right things now to make our plans a reality. 

Loving| 7 Little Words

> I love word games. A few years ago, I met two ladies on a cruise who introduced me to the app “7 Little Words”. Since then, I play the game every single day. They offer a daily freebie. It’s challenging but not impossible. And it’s fun. If you’re looking for a way to keep your brain cells working, this might be something to consider. 

Geeking| Mophie Juice Pack 

> I love my iPhone X. And the battery life is good. But I must admit that there are times when I’m at a conference or during Pokemon community days, when the battery starts running dangerously low. Mophie finally introduced a juice pack for the iPhone X. It’s not big and clunky like some other battery cases. And it’s able to use a Qi charger. 

What’s UP with you this December? We hope your holidays are filled with friends, family, good food, and fun. Thank you so much for reading Unretirement Project. We look forward to seeing you in 2019!

Filed Under: Retirement Life, Travel Tagged With: retirement life, unretirement

Inspiration: The Best Thing To Do With Success Lists

December 12, 2018 by Keith Lauby Leave a Comment

success list, inspiration, rules for success, business, business success

We’ve all seen inspiration lists that feature a wildly prosperous person (like Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, or Steve Jobs) under a catchy headline telling us how to be successful – either in business or life in general. It’s followed by a number of things we should all do to achieve that success. The idea, of course, is that it worked for this person, so it should work for us too.

It’s easy to dismiss these offhand – – I’m never going to be a billionaire entrepreneur so just forget it. Early in my business life I did that all the time. At some point, though, I started to pay attention to some of the inspiration lists. And this is what I decided to do with them:

Look for things you are doing already. Okay, we all work hard. We all read and try to learn things that will make us more effective and productive. We try our hardest to achieve without giving up. These are affirmations of the great job we are doing every day. Look for them in inspiration lists and celebrate them! Then think of ways to do even more of them.

Cross off things that are beyond your control. This one will take some soul searching because it’s easy to dismiss a lot. You don’t make the company’s products, or you don’t have any input on who gets hired or who you get to work with. But you can offer great service, whether it’s to the general public or coworkers. And you can always help others improve. Make better the things you can and don’t worry about the rest.

Look for things you can start doing. Whether it’s focusing on your well-being or taking more risks, there is almost always something in an inspiration list that you could do better. And avoid the temptation to feel you have to do it on a grand scale. If organization is a problem, schedule a little time to organize something small. Too many distractions? Develop a morning routine and stick with it! That will help you focus for the rest of every day.

The best way to be successful is to know yourself. Know what you do well and find ways to do more of it. Regardless of where you are in your career, we all have areas we can improve so make that a priority. Learning resources are abundant so take advantage of them.

In the end, we all make our own success. Our stories can be an inspiration to others. But everyone has to find ways to make it on their own. In the year ahead, be your own inspiration and create your success story.

Filed Under: Careers, Retirement Life Tagged With: career, retirement life, unretirement

Should You Keep To Do Lists After You Retire

November 20, 2018 by Sharlyn Lauby 2 Comments

wrong way, sign, lists, to do, to do lists, retire, retirement

I recently saw an article on Sixty and Me titled “Should you throw out your ‘to-do’ list after 60?” I certainly hope the answer is no.

I will totally admit that I’m a planner. As a person who likes to plan, I make lists. Granted, all of my lists aren’t created equal. For example, I plan our meals using lists. It helps us save money on groceries and we don’t waste food. I also have a list of small tasks that I need to complete during the day like “buy tickets to see Bohemian Rhapsody on Friday”. I can’t imagine when I retire that I would stop making those types of lists.

Then, I have lists I keep on my Outlook calendar. Someone could argue they’re more of a project plan or regular work activities, but to me they’re very similar to a list. It’s a list on my calendar of the things that I need to accomplish during the day. In fact, I have a regular occurrence on my calendar to write for this blog. It helps me remember all the things I want and need to do. The joke around our house is when it’s put on my calendar, it gets done.

But honestly, I could see that list changing. At some point, I’ll have fewer client obligations so those “to-do’s” on my calendar will go away. The question is will they get replaced with something else like volunteer meetings or just “me” time. At this point, I don’t know. But I do know that I will have to deal with having fewer lists someday. And that I need to be okay with that. The presence or absence of a list is not an indicator of my value or worth.

The other thing that I need to start thinking about is the way I keep lists. Right now, I have a system that includes a paper planner and Microsoft Outlook. I’m not sure that I will always need them. Oh, don’t get me wrong…I still have a few years to make this decision. But it has occurred to me that at some point I will have to part with my planner. LOL! And the question becomes will I be ready when that moment comes. For people who plan like I do, is the answer to downsize planners as an interim step?

Also, will there be a time when I don’t need Microsoft Office 365 and the iWork suite that comes with iMac will be totally adequate? Purely from a financial standpoint, I don’t want to pay for software I’m not going to use. But when do I make that decision? I’m sure I want to do it in time to learn the new software before getting rid of the old.

I know it might sound like I’m overreacting to a simple little article about keeping “to-do” lists but that’s not my point. It’s that at some time, many of the things I do today, I won’t do anymore. Either because I don’t need to, or I don’t want to. How I make those decisions is up to me. I can control them if I want to. And I can make the change experience fun or depressing. The choice is mine.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the Gaylord Palms Resort in Orlando, FL

Filed Under: Careers, Fun, Retirement Life Tagged With: career, fun, retirement life

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