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What We Are UP To – Trying New Things in September 2019

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analyze change track graphics for September 2019

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

Every once in a while, I get on this kick to try new things. Keith isn’t as into this “need to change it up” exercise as I am, but he’s a good sport and occasionally admits that he enjoyed it. Here are the new things we’re trying in September.

Watching | Dead to Me

> I have a few Facebook friends watching this Netflix Original series, so I talked Keith into checking it out. It’s not something we would immediately choose for ourselves, but we’re trying new things this month, and we were immediately hooked! Just the right balance of emotions and lots of plot twists to keep it interesting. Can’t wait for Season 2!

Reading | Rare Breed

> Years ago, I met Sunny Bonnell and Ashleigh Hansberger at an event for women business owners. We’ve stayed in touch and I’m delighted to be one of the initial people to get my hands on their first book “Rare Breed” A Guide to Success for the Defiant, Dangerous, and Different”. The book includes a quiz so you can determine your “Rare Breed Virtue”. Mine is “I’m weird.” While I’ve always known that, it is a little different to be sharing that with others. LOL!

Remembering | Encore Careers

> We’ve been writing a lot on Unretirement Project about encore careers. It makes me think of my own professional journey. I’ve been a human resources professional for the majority of my career and that’s not changing but I also have this other aspect to my career in terms of HR Bartender and now, Unretirement Project. This September, it’s gratifying to think about the evolution of my career and how fortunate I’ve been. 

Working On | Crochet

> For years, my hobby has been beading. But I must admit that I can only wear so much jewelry. And I find it fun to break my jewelry apart and remake it into something new. So I’m on the search for a new hobby and I saw an article about a knitting/crocheting group that makes items for adults, kids, and animals in need. This seems like a win-win. I get a hobby and others get a needed item. Now I just need to learn how to crochet… 

Feeling | Relieved!

> When we moved from South to North Florida, one of the things we were hoping not to deal with anymore was hurricanes. That being said, Hurricane Dorian decided to test our hurricane prep skills early in September. The good news is that we are just fine. The bad news is we have a pile of non-perishable junk food around the house. ha.ha. Seriously, we hope everyone is safe and if you’re looking for a way to help, check out the Amazon wish list for the Bahamian Red Cross.

Planning | Road trips

> Keith and I usually plan a fall vacation, but this year, we’ve decided to do try something we haven’t done for a while. Instead of one long vacation, we’re doing a few shorter ones. Will probably stay in the state and do some road trips.  It’s nice to be a tourist in your own state. The Florida Turnpike is an easy to navigate highway. It will be fun figuring out where to go and what to see.

Loving | Allbirds

> I’ve been reading all of the hype about Allbirds, the shoe that claims to be the most comfortable things you’ll ever wear on your feet. Oh, and they’re eco-friendly too. They are also pricey for shoes. Comfy shoes are important to me, so I decided to try something different from my go-to sneakers and see if they’re worth the hype. And, yes they are. Allbirds are very comfortable. I did pick up their new socks and they’re kinda meh but the shoes are super comfy. 

Geeking | Apple AirPods

> I splurged the other day and purchased a pair of Apple AirPods. I’ve been worried about buying them because I didn’t want to lose them. But I finally moved past my fears in September and I’m so glad. They are wonderful. Easy to keep charged. Great reception. I’ve actually used them for a couple of podcasts and the tech producers said I sound good. I still haven’t left the house with them, but every day I get a bit more comfortable. 

What’s UP with you?

Bookmark This! Encore Careers Edition

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airport sign upgrade your resume land anywhere you want for encore careers

When it comes to retirement planning, one of the biggest questions we have to answer is “What am I going to do?” For many of us, we’ve spent the majority of our lives defining ourselves by the work we do both inside and outside the home.

As we think about retirement, we have to redefine our relationship with “work”.

Some people include in their retirement planning to enter a second career, also referred to as an encore career. We’ve written some articles about encore careers and wanted to put them all in one place as a reference guide.

What’s an Encore Career and Why You Might Want One – Encore careers may offer many solutions in retirement. But we have to plan carefully and choose wisely. To start, learn what encore careers really are.

4 Ways to Find a Thriving Encore Career – Encore careers should be rewarding, interesting and fun! But AARP says don’t cling to a dying profession. Here are 4 ways to find thriving encore careers.

Figuring Out What to Pursue as an Encore Career – Your encore career path should be carefully planned because you don’t just want to just take any job. You still want to enjoy your work and be fulfilling.

A Career Coach Can Help You Find Your Encore Career – In the gig economy, an encore career can be a big part of unretirement. Career Sherpa Hannah Morgan shows the value of a career coach in finding your gig.

Journal Your Encore Career Experience – Encore careers can offer freedom and success in retirement. Document your encore career path in a journal to identify what works well and future plans.

Using Volunteerism to Find Your Dream Job – Encore careers can be an important part of retirement planning. But how do you start? Volunteerism could be a good way to get started in your encore career.

Encore Careers Can Offer Independence – Encore careers may offer the independence you need for a successful and fulfilling retirement. With proper planning, we can benefit from an encore career.

5 Steps for Finding Your Encore Career – An encore career is something to consider as part of your retirement strategy. Start the conversation early to plan for your future unretirement.

We hope you find these resources helpful as you’re thinking about whether to pursue an encore career and how to go about doing it. If you have any questions about finding an encore career, drop us a note via our contact page. We’d love to hear from you and answer your questions here on Unretirement Project.

Encore Careers – Part Four: Journal Your Experience

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Garden path as a metaphor for encore careers path

One of the takeaways I’ve tried to stress in this series about encore careers is that it is a path or process that takes time.

Whenever I’m working on a long-term process, I like to think about journaling as a way to keep track of my thoughts. Consider creating an encore career journal to help you document your decisions, skills, and future plans. Here are five things about journals to keep in mind:

  1. Pick a format that suits you. The great thing about journals today is that they can be paper or electronic. Use whatever works best for you. Personally, I love paper and like the idea of rereading my comments. It can help me make decisions. A Bullet Journal might be perfect for the task.
  2. Dedicate it to a single idea. If you already journal, then you might want to create a separate journal focused on unretirement or encore careers. That way all of your thoughts and ideas are in a single place. For a few years, I kept a secret board on Pinterest focused on “unretirement”.
  3. Stuff articles and reminders in them. This is kinda related to the last point. Whether you read an article online or via a paper magazine, you can cut/paste them into your journal. If you’re a visual person, you could create a vision board focused on your unretirement journey or encore career.
  4. Be flexible with your schedule. Because I suspect developing your encore career plan is going to take some time, a journal allows you to set it to the side when life gets busy and pick it up later. The important part is not to forget about it. That might be one advantage to a paper journal, it could stare back at you.
  5. Allow it to help you. What I mean by that is give yourself permission to not know everything. Your unretirement and encore career is a journey. Write down your thoughts and let them sit there. You don’t have to take action right away. At some point, you might want to share your journal with a family member or a retirement coach. 

Journals are an effective way to document your ideas, thoughts, and feelings about a subject. They give you time to think things through and organize information. Your retirement is one of the most important things you will do. It deserves a little planning. You’re never too young to start. 

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while exploring the Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm in Maui, HI

Encore Careers Can Offer Independence

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NASA Vehicle Assembly Building United States Flag symbol of Independence Day

Today is Independence Day in the United States. And what better day to think about our own personal independence. More importantly for our retirement, does an encore career factor into it?

You may recognize the building in the picture above. It’s the NASA Vehicle Assembly Building (also known as the VAB) located in Cape Canaveral. This week, Sharlyn and I had the honor of visiting as a guest of the NASA social media team to watch their latest launch of the Orion capsule.

I’m happy to say that the launch was a huge success! But, on the drive to the Cape, I thought about everything that went into this launch. The years of planning and thousands of man-hours from NASA and their private partners. Personally, Sharlyn and I needed the independence to make the trip – in terms of both time and money.

In retirement, we get the time to spend doing the things we really love. But for many of us, the lack of money in retirement could limit our independence. Balancing our retirement stop-working date with our future financial requirements is something we all need to do.

So we need to plan for that! And an encore career could offer a solution. None of us can predict the future but we can plan based on what we know. There are many free resources from the Social Security Administration that can help. Spend a little time between the barbecue and fireworks and see how independent you can be in retirement.

We have often said that successful retirement needs a lot of planning. Knowing your financial needs and the limits of Social Security are important. Just as important is understanding your personal contribution to retirement finances. And that could go a long way toward your own independence.

Retirement Planning: 5 Reasons to Have a Stop Working Date

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There’s an excellent read over on the Considerable blog titled, “How long will you be able to work?” Regardless of your current age, one of the questions that individuals should ask themselves is, “When would I like to stop working?” Picking a possible retirement date – and I do mean possible – allows individuals to have a starting point in their retirement planning. And that planning date is important for several reasons:

  1. Think about a Plan B just in case you need to retire before the date you’ve chosen. Let’s say you’ve decided to stop working at age 70. But something happens when you’re 65 and you might need to retire sooner. I hear stories of individuals retiring early to care for their health or the health of a family member. What does a Plan B look like? And can you kick it into gear should you need it?
  2. Consider having two dates: a part-time date and a full-time one. Instead of going from fully employed to fully retired, does it make sense to think about a phased strategy? You could transition to part-time at 65 and then fully retire at 70. Of course, I’m just throwing out ages here. You have to decide what makes sense for you. This could also make a lot of sense when trying to coordinate your retirement and your spouse or partner.
  3. Use a retirement date to map out the transition to an encore career. I know several people in their 40s who work insane hours and travel a lot. They love their lifestyle right now but at some point, want to find a different pace of work. Selecting a retirement date (or dates as in #2) could help with planning an encore or second career. Especially if that next career involves getting some additional education or a certification.  
  4. Reflect on how your retirement date impacts savings and spending. It goes without saying – but I’ll say it anyway, our decision to slow down or stop working impacts our finances. When retirement planning, we do have to think about how the bills will get paid and we can maintain our lifestyle. In fact, we might want to consider making some lifestyle decisions well in advance, so we can get used to them.
  5. Get yourself mentally ready for a change. I’ve always been a person who needs a full-plate of activity. I am getting myself ready for retirement to be a major change. It’s one of the reasons we started this blog. As you think about an approaching retirement date, ask yourself if you’re ready. Do you need to think about starting a hobby? I’m not joking. I do believe many people retire without a plan and get bored.

It’s very easy to simply pick the government’s age for collecting Social Security as your retirement date. But if I had a dollar for every person who turned 62 or 65 and said, “I’m not ready yet.” I would be retired right now. LOL! No one is holding you to that date. It’s simply a placeholder for planning.

And retirement planning is important.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby somewhere in North Carolina

Encore Careers – Part Three: Using Volunteerism to Find Your Dream Job

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In this series about encore careers, we’ve talked about why we should consider an encore career as part of our unretirement and how to figure out the right encore career. So, we have a game plan. Today, we’ll start talking about the task of finding it.

I was going to say finding your encore career is the hard part, but I’m not sure it is. I can’t help but wonder if figuring out what we want to do later in life is the hardest part. My guess is for the majority of us, we identify with our career. Changing to a different career or even going from full-time to part-time in the same job could be hard. 

It could be said that finding our dream encore career is challenging because job hunting in general is hard. And that’s true. But there are a few things we can do to keep our job search skills fresh.

Don’t stop thinking about networking and job search. Until you are 100 percent, completely and absolutely convinced you will never need to look for a job again, you should always have job search in the back of your mind. You should continuously build a network. As a human resources professional, I am amazed at the people (of all ages) who  find themselves looking for a new job, struggle finding something because they don’t have a network, swear that they’re never going fall into bad networking habits again, and as soon as they land a new position…they stop networking. 

Take some classes. Especially around the use of technology. AARP is regularly offering job-search webinars for older workers. And they’re recorded so you don’t have to listen to them live if you have a scheduling conflict. If you’ve never tuned into one of these sessions, it will only take you a few moments to realize that being a lifelong learner and keeping your skills current is going to be key in getting an encore opportunity. 

Get a retirement career coach. When we first started this blog, I interviewed Hannah Morgan (aka Career Sherpa) about getting a retirement career coach. This is a great opportunity to work with someone on developing an encore career that you will find rewarding. If you don’t have the budget for a coach right now, start reading some career related blogs that might offer some preliminary insights. 

Which leads me to my last point and the subject of today’s post – volunteerism. One of the best ways to learn about different careers, gain new skills, and show off the skills you currently have is volunteering. Lots of organizations want volunteers and they rely on them to help their operation. But, even with volunteerism, you have to be patient. You can’t just show up and expect the entire organization to give you whatever you ask for. If your strategy is to get involved with a non-profit in the hopes that you can get a job there, you have to think short- and long- term. 

Start getting to know non-profits in your area. Find out what they do, how they get their funding, who’s on their board, etc. etc. You want to work with a non-profit that aligns with your values, has solid funding, and a respectable, ethical board of directors. 

Apply for a volunteer role. Consider this to be the best job interview you could ever have. See how the non-profit treats volunteers. The volunteer experience will give you some sense of what working there will be like. See how they manage the organization. 

Talk with management about goals. Once you know that you’re happy with the organization and the people associated with it, then consider setting up a time to talk about transitioning into an employee role. You don’t have to rush this conversation. 

Becoming a volunteer is great for organizations and good for you. It can also be a source for your encore career. But it takes time to find the right non-profit and build the relationships. The good news is that you know what to do. You’ve been networking, interviewing, and doing job research your entire career. Use those skills to create the encore career of your dreams. 

Encore Careers: 4 Ways to Find a Thriving One

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In a recent AARP Bulletin, they published a list of the “99 Ways to Add Healthy Years to Your Life”. Number 83 caught my attention. It was “Don’t cling to a dying profession.” 

We’ve been talking about encore careers here at Unretirement Project. One of the things to consider as you’re thinking about an encore career is what the jobs of the future might look like. Here are a few recent articles that you might find interesting.

The fastest-growing job in the US is expected to grow 105% by 2026—here are the other 19.

The 20 Fastest Growing Jobs in America—And How Much They Pay.

Bureau of Labor Statistics: Fastest Growing Occupations

These types of lists can be used to identify a potential encore career. It’s possible that you have many of the transferrable skills that would make a shift logical and easy. Or you might see something completely different that looks interesting and exciting, so you can go to school and get the necessary skills. Either way, these lists serve a purpose. That being said, there are bigger messages here. 

  1. We should be regularly evaluating our career possibilities. Whether you’re 30, 40, 50, or older.The last thing you want to hear is that your long-term career potential is dwindling. These lists might offer some insight about your current career that would be helpful. And of course, your current career could have an impact on the decisions you make about an encore career.
  2. Career choices involve decisions about knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs).It’s important to keep the KSAs for your current job relevant. It’s also important to think about the KSAs you’ll need in the future. I cannot emphasize enough the need to embrace lifelong learning. Not only is it good for your mental health, but it’s good for your career and encore career. 
  3. Figure out how you like to learn and what you need to learn.The conversation about KSAs and being a lifelong learner is really about self-learning. As we start to think about our unretirement and retirement, we need to think about how we will continue to learn. There won’t be any more corporate training programs. Or vendor sponsored webinars. Our learning will come in different forms. But it will start with us personally. 
  4. Today’s hot jobs might be lukewarm tomorrow. While lists of growing occupations can be helpful, we must be careful when it comes to taking these lists as the only truth. If today’s fast-paced, technology-driven business world has taught me anything, it’s that today’s bright shiny concept could be a dud tomorrow. As you’re looking at your future career, make sure you’re not trading one dying career for another.

There are many factors that go into the encore career decision including what we like, what we’re capable of doing, how much money the job pays, etc. One important factor is the future for that role. Will it be around in a decade? Researching industries and occupations can help us find an encore career that’s growing and thriving. 

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