retirement Archives – Unretirement Project

The Disney Highway in the Sky Dine Around Is a Must Try

August 2, 2017 by Keith Lauby Leave a Comment

My love for Disney spans decades. As a child, I sat mesmerized in front of our console television set, watching Walt Disney explain the development of Walt Disney World. Later, as an adult, I revel in Disney events like the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival.

That’s why I was more than intrigued when Sharlyn told me about the Disney Highway in the Sky Dine Around. What’s that, I asked. Think progressive dinner hopping from resort to resort along the world-famous Walt Disney World monorail. They call it a “dinner unlike any other” and it more than lives up to that!

Check-in took place at The Wave. . . of American Flavors restaurant at Disney’s Contemporary Resort. They had a small reception area where we received our dine around passes and enjoyed some informal networking time with our intimate group of approximately 30 fellow diners. That was aided by an adult beverage (less than adult is also available) and a delightful amuse bouche of smoked pea and bacon soup. Yum! While we noshed, we were introduced to our hosts who would patiently guide us along our evening’s dining adventure.

After just the right amount of time to get things started, our hosts escorted us to the monorail landing where we were whisked off to Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort. The Poly (as those in-the-know call it) had a decorated area where we enjoyed our appetizer course. Reminiscent of a Hawaiian luau, servers presented three small plates of island inspired fare accompanied by ukulele music. My favorite was the sushi, though I’m not much of a seafood fan. It was just that good!

Back onboard the monorail, we passed through the Disney World Transportation and Ticket Center on our way to Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. The first stop was the Garden View Tea Room where afternoon tea is typically served. For our group, however, they delighted us with champagne and charcuterie before escorting everyone up to their Mediterranean styled restaurant Cítricos.

For our main course, we were treated to surf and turf with fall-off-the-bone tender short ribs paired with halibut. Not a fish eater like me? No problem, we’re happy to give you extra short ribs! The entrée is served with your choice of red or white wine. Our final trip on the monorail brought us back to Disney’s Contemporary Resort for dessert and an exclusive view of the Happily Ever After fireworks show. And, when I say exclusive view, you could almost reach up and touch the monorail whenever it passed directly overhead.

Part of the enjoyment was the many informal conversations with the other guests. We had the pleasure of meeting several people who shared our admiration for all things Disney. We even learned about other events to check out in the months ahead.

Our dining adventure was complete and there was never a disappointment. My love for Disney continues, though it costs a little more. Okay, a lot more at $150 per person plus tax and gratuity. Make no mistake, this specialty dining experience is limited in size and availability. Even if you plan ahead, you may have to be flexible with your dates to get a reservation. But, as chef Alton Brown likes to say, your patience will be rewarded.

What We’re UP to – July 2017

July 26, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

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

Watching | Jaws

> It’s Shark Week and our annual tradition is watching “Jaws”. It’s hard to believe the movie has been around since 1975. Wow, I feel old. But it’s a classic and we have so many of the lines memorized. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”

Reading | Strip Tease

> I’ve become a big fan of Carl Hiaasen novels. I started with “Bad Monkey” and was immediately chastised for not reading them in order. So, I’m going back to the beginning and am currently reading “Strip Tease”. I like the South Florida setting and the juxtaposition of comedy and crime.

Working On | Fantasy Football

> Our seasonal distraction is Fantasy Football. We almost gave it up after last year. Hopefully this season will be better. Every year we seem to develop a series of rituals that we think are going to help us win. Like eating chicken and waffles on draft day. Oh, and wearing our favorite team’s jersey on Sundays. Wish us luck!

Feeling | Relieved

> The draft for my book, “The Recruiter’s Handbook” has been turned in. woohoo! Even though I still have plenty of other work projects, it’s a nice feeling to have the draft completed. Now, I just wait for the edits. And to celebrate, we’re hoping to take a little staycation.

Planning | Meals

> My travel schedule is light for a next few weeks, so I’m looking forward to spending some time in the kitchen. My plan is to make and freeze a few items – muffins, egg rolls, and maybe some mini frittatas. It’s better for our budget and waistline.

Loving | phd athletica

> Our friend and Pilates instructor just launched a new lifestyle site called phd athletica. I’m in love with graphic tees right now so, I bought one and it is fabulous! The material is so soft! I can’t begin to tell you how nice this tee is. It will be traveling with me everywhere.

Geeking | Neko Atsume

> If you’re looking for an electronic distraction, this is it. Neko Atsume means “cat collection” and that’s what the game is about, collecting cats. You feed them, give them toys, etc. I like that I can be as active or inactive as I want to be with this app. And the cats are adorable – great for a quick moment of zen.

What’s UP with you?

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

Bookmark This! #myRA Retirement Edition

April 26, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby Leave a Comment

There’s a well-worn statistic from Pew Research that says roughly 10,000 Boomers will turn of retirement age every day for the next decade. That translates into a lot of people planning for their retirement (and unretirement).

One specific component of retirement that comes up frequently is finances. Many articles have been published about Boomers not having enough savings for when they retire. In fact, I recently ran across the term “Threshold Generation” to describe individuals nearing retirement who saw their savings disappear during the Great Recession, hence being on the threshold of retirement. According to a study from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI), only 18 percent of people are confident they have enough in savings for a comfortable retirement.

Back in 2015, the U.S. Treasury launched myRA, a retirement savings account for employees who don’t have access to a savings plan at work or have not found an easy way to start saving, such as part-time and seasonal employees. They found that among workers who do not participate in a 401(k) or other defined contribution plan, 42 percent say it’s because their employer does not offer one. Furthermore, a 2015 BLS Economic Release found that 62 percent of part-time workers don’t have access to a savings plan at work for when they retire.

When the program was introduced, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew made this statement, “myRA is designed to remove common barriers to saving, and give people an easy way to get started. myRA has no fees, no risk of losing money and no minimum balance or contribution requirements. To make saving easier than ever, you can now put savings into myRA directly from your bank account.”

I’m not a certified financial planner. So, I can’t tell anyone how to save and invest their money. But I do know that if individuals are unable to care for themselves financially, it will have an impact on their lives and their work. Becoming financially literate is essential.

If you’re looking for retirement resources, a friend recommended to me Retirement Security SmartBrief. It’s a curated collection of articles about preparing to retire. I’ve found it to be interesting and very diverse in thought. Just in case you want to check it out.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby off the coast of Miami, FL

Enough is Possible – #WordlessWednesday

March 8, 2017 by Keith Lauby 2 Comments

The best part of unretirement is freedom. We each get to decide what is enough – enough time spent working, enough revenue, enough free time doing the things we love.

Image captured in the Wynwood District of Miami, FL

9 Lessons Learned While Recuperating from Surgery

March 1, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 6 Comments

I ran across a blog post recently about lessons learned from wearing a leg cast. Since I recently had surgery on my ankle, and wore a cast for several weeks, I thought I would come up with a list of my own.

So, here are my 9 lessons learned while recovering from surgery:

Learn how to talk about your health. Keith and I were forced to deal with this early in our relationship. You can read about it on this post about health care. But even for us, as we are getting older, we’re reminded that we have to let go of some of the mystery and start openly talking about all aspects of our health.

Listen to your doctor. What you do during your recovery impacts the rest of your life. I broke my back when I was 23 years old. And now, thirty years later, I’m happy to say that I do not have any back pain. I attribute that to listening to my doctor. When he told me not to lift anything heavier than a glass of water, I did it. It’s tough, especially when you mentally feel fine.

Plan ways to make your recovery easier. We don’t always get the benefit of planning surgeries in advance. But when you can, make sure you do. We made meals in advance so Keith didn’t have to initially worry about doing those things. As I progressed in my recovery, I was able to help more.

Think about how to you will do the necessities of life such as bathing, driving, etc. With my knee scooter, there were rooms in our house I couldn’t get into – like the water closet in our master bath. It’s too small. Or the laundry room. Luckily, I was able to get my knee scooter a couple of days prior to surgery, so I could figure out how I was going to bathe and get around the house.

Get comfortable asking for help. I consider myself a pretty independent person. So, it’s hard for me to ask for assistance to do things around the house. But I have to. I will say that spending $20 on a basket for my knee scooter was money well spent. I was able to carry my iPad around the house. I also used the water bottles from conferences for drinking so I didn’t have to worry about it spilling as I scoot around.

Be grateful for little things. And let little things slide. You will be amazed at the little things you can and cannot do when you’re recovering. I was non-weight bearing for several weeks so I couldn’t put my foot on the floor. Trust me when I say, doing everything on one foot isn’t easy. It also means that I needed to let Keith do things that I would normally do, his own way. I will admit (and I’m sure Keith would agree), that’s not as easy as it might seem.

When you look different, people treat you different. And unfortunately, I don’t always mean that in a good way. I found this to be the case when I was 23 and it’s sad to say that it still holds true today. Don’t’ get me wrong, some people are wonderful and helpful when you interact with them. Others assume that, because you have a physical disability, whether it’s temporary or permanent, that you also have an intellectual disability.

Thank your caregiver. AND, plan a thank you for your caregiver. Keith jokingly told me that he was “paying it forward” for the time that I will be his caregiver. And I’m sure that’s true. But he still deserves to hear the words “thank you.” AND, I’ve promised that I will take him out for dinner or a little staycation once I’m able to do so.

Don’t expect to be back to “normal” as soon as the problem area heals. At some point, the doctor will give me the go-ahead to start resuming normal activities. When that moment comes, I need to remember that I will not be ready for Pilates or walking on the treadmill or probably a whole bunch of stuff. Pacing myself will be important. Remember #1 – listen to your doctor and your body.

There’s nothing more important than your health. When you have an illness, surgery or injury, take time to properly rest and heal. In the big picture, a few days/weeks/months of recovery, can make a big difference in the way you feel.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby at the Liberty Hotel in Boston, MA

There Is No Such Thing As a Traditional Retirement

February 8, 2017 by Sharlyn Lauby 6 Comments

That’s why Keith and I started the Unretirement Project.

Years ago, I was the director of human resources, working for a major hotel chain. Our outside legal counsel would call and ask for a favor once a year. It was for lunch reservations on New Year’s Day at our restaurant. One time, I asked him about it and he told me that he and his wife sat down (on New Year’s Day) for a very long lunch to talk about life – their personal and professional lives. They talked about the things they wanted to do and stop doing.

Fast forward several years. When Keith and I started our HR consulting firm, ITM Group, we decided that talking about our business and personal lives was something we should do. Think of it as our own strategic planning session. In addition, we needed to talk about retirement. Specifically, what we wanted our retirement to look like.

Over the years, we’ve realized that the kind of retirement our parents had wasn’t in the cards for us. You know, work for the same company for 20+ years, announce your retirement, then hang out with friends, play cards, etc. There are a few reasons for this: 1) I’ll admit that I’m a workaholic and I cannot imagine not working. 2) We fell in love with this thing called blogging.

In 2008, we started a blog called HR Bartender. Keith wanted me to start writing an electronic newsletter for our consulting business. I was a bit reluctant to do so. No, the truth is I was a lot reluctant to do so. So, I mentioned blogging. I didn’t know anything about how to start a blog. Over the years, HR Bartender has done pretty well. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has named it one of the Top 5 HR and Business Blogs read by human resources professionals.

So, we decided that we wanted our “retirement” or in this case, unretirement, to include blogging. Hence, the Unretirement Project was born.

A lot of people post pictures of the sunrise on their first day of retirement representing a new beginning in their lives. I decided to post a pen because I think unretirement is about rewriting the rules of retirement. I used this old pen in my corporate life and my consulting life. I have no intention of getting rid of it. I’ll just use it for new things. Unretirement is about finding more time to do the things you love and less time on the things that are a PITA.

I’m not exactly sure where our unretirement journey will take us. But I’m looking forward to finding out. One thing I do know is that unretirement doesn’t start at a specific age or time. You control your unretirement. The question is “Do you know what you want your unretirement to look like?”

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby

Why Unretirement and Why It’s Important

February 1, 2017 by Keith Lauby 6 Comments

We remember what retirement used to look like. One day, you just stop working and start retiring – living off your company pension with a little help from Social Security. That’s what our parents did. Today, for the most part, all of that has changed.

To help us understand, we might want to look at what retirement really is. The Cambridge Dictionary defines retirement as “the point at which someone stops working”. If we accept that as the true definition of retirement, we can then understand the need for something new. The need for unretirement.

Unretirement is the move from working full-time to working . . . less. But it’s more than that. It’s working, but doing something we want to do. And getting paid for it. Most of all, unretirement is earning the opportunity to live on our own terms.

Best of all? It’s exactly what the labor market wants from us.

Right now, ten thousand people reach retirement age every day according to a recent Pew Research study. The National Institute on Aging reports that, on average, only 33 percent of retirees continue working full-time. The result is a growing labor shortage that is creating a real need for our skills.

In most cases, businesses don’t want to hire more and more full-time employees. But they are looking for skilled workers who want to help out and take on some of the work. This is called the gig economy, and finance company Intuit predicts that, by 2020, 40 percent of U.S. workers will fall into this category. In fact, entire enterprises such as Lyft and Airbnb have risen out of gig employment.

That’s where unretirement comes in. It’s identifying that encore career and understanding the best way for it to fit into our retirement life. Wikipedia defines encore career as “work in the second half of life that combines continued income, greater personal meaning, and social impact.”

Unretirement is also focusing on our health and wellness so we can get the most out of the fun things we want to do in retirement. We may have to upgrade a skill or two along the way. But no successful unretirement comes without a cost.

It’s time for a fresh perspective about life after work. It’s time for unretirement.

Image captured by Sharlyn Lauby while traveling in Maui, HI