Happy Thanksgiving!

This is the first Thanksgiving I had problems preparing for our invited guests. The only part of the meal that could not be made ahead of time was the 20 lb turkey! To have the meal on be 3pm I had to have the bird stuffed, and in the roaster by 9:30am. That meant getting hubby out of bed. I can no longer lift 20lbs safely. So here’s my question to you. How do you accommodate loosing strength and agility and still put on a meal for more than 4 people?

Go RVing!

One of the web sites that caught my interest quite a while ago is RV Dreams. In it you can find everything there is to know about living life on the road. It’s a choice many retired folks make, and some who haven’t yet. The tips, tricks and links in there give you an encyclopedia of knowledge. Almost every question is answered. It has a forum for anyone who has an interest on the subject. I found how I can make a living out on the road and I had a great time looking over the recipes.  The website was started by a couple who wrote everything they could about the preparation to begin their journey, quitting their full time careers to purchasing their fifth-wheel. Then they talk about how they occupy their time out on the road. I highly recommend it for anyone with even the thought of it being a possibility in their future.

Talk about a complete life style change! It’s always fascinated me how people can just leave everything behind. There is an immense about of planning involved. However, when you think about it our retirement years are a complete life style change! Planning for it can and will open a whole new way of life, one that you are the master of. Personally, I don’t want to come home to hubby sitting in a chair and me having to clean up after him!  

Rethinking Retirement

I bring the subject of retirement up a lot with my friends. Of course I am mainly asking them what they are doing. Whether they’re there or not they are measuring what they are doing and wondering about the ways they can change it up. Even in retirement they look out for change and how they can control it. People thinking about that day looming in the future are very often too busy to think about how they are going to manage that time.

With this in mind it’s beginning to surprise me when people rethink their attitude about retirement and actually ask me my opinion. “I’ve got a whole blog on it”. However, it is because of those very people I dreamed this blog up!

Recently a woman who was just one breath away from retirement told me her biggest concern about that day. Her husband was retired for 10 years before her. She was looking forward to having enough time to keep her house clean and make meals?! She is as independent an individual as I am! She was working a 40 hour week and going home to a house her husband was in all day. She had to cook and clean upon returning home. He did nothing.

A few months after retiring she could be found roaming the neighborhood, cleaning up open areas just to get out of the house and not spend any money while there. What she’s doing with her free time now I don’t know but, I’m sure her house is clean and dinner is in the oven.

Birth of a new baby!

Hi everyone!

I’ve been thinking a lot about making my life as productive as possible. I’ve been coming up with a list of possibilities, obviously. I’ve always been very independent yet I can somehow integrate it with sharing my life with my husband. So the question is, what can I do to feel successful as an individual with as little impact on my so far 30 year relationship with my husband? So came the birth of a second blog: Easy ways to make money online. I've spent a lot of time thinking about and researching this subject. I don’t spend all my time researching it. There are too many other opportunities related to retirement to discover. I spend a lot of time talking to people on line. I learn interesting facts every day. However there are so many money making opportunities that I thought it would only make sense to put it all on another blog. This one should only be about all opportunities. I can tell you the only money making opportunities I will post are those I’ve been active in. They will be easy. It would be like making online money kindergarten. That’s where I  had to start. So I hope you enjoy it and of course if you have a tip for us to try out please share that there! Thanks from all of us!

Taking a break

Wow! What can happen in a day, with a guy that has nothing to do but think! There isn’t much else you can do on an airplane waiting to land and you have no one to talk to. Problem is he was only in the air an hour. I know, I put up with him. So he realized he had vacation days to use up. And he realized he had just a few miles left to fly to make it to the next “miles level.  It’s Time to take a 3 to 4 day vacation before Christmas, (Notice date). So time is ticking. Looking for options is my job. Four hours later: Key Largo, Fl. Package deal for $550. I’m happy to help him spend money. I mean help him fly more comfortably! But, seriously it would be nice to get away from the Minnesota snow and blow we face. Might as well take the benefits as well.

I am going to live on a sail boat

I am going to live out my life on a sail boat!

Well, not quite. But just the concept alone is intriguing! The idea is the challenge of creating a self sustaining place to live for months at a time. Anyone who reads this knows I frequently talk about our spot in the sun in tourist land up north. I don’t see a much of a major difference between there and living on a sailboat. Well ok, we’re on dry land. We’re located within 30 minutes of a hospital and medical facilities. We don’t have to know ocean navigation, tides, weather, or sail boat care and maintenance! But everything else is pretty much the same.

I had this wonderful opportunity to talk to a young lady (I say young lady because she’s younger than I am) who, along with her husband live on a sailboat. She said she was looking for a library  so he could  get online to make sure their finances were in order. We were on the street in a town near a marina on our vacation. We didn’t know but we knew how she could find out. It was amazing that that couple was at the same place we were for dinner, a seafood shack on the beach (cheap). First, brace yourself, they’re trust baby’s. Yup, every month they get free money and don’t have to work for it. Trust baby’s usually just spend. Sometimes they figure out how to make more money from their trust money. Sometimes they still work. Some even own their own big business, they don’t know how not to work. But those trust baby’s are rarely found. This couple admitted they do not work or learn any other income from anywhere. I restrained myself from saying all the things that came to mind about trust baby’s that I knew. I wanted to learn, not shut them down. So at the risk of turning my tongue into hamburger, and fighting the internal laughter track, I asked questions.

Between the two of them they get about $3000 a month. $3000 A MONTH?!!!!! He inherited daddy’s sail boat 5 years before. He learned as a child everything there is to know about survival on a sail boat. Thanks dad! They said they looked at it like this. It’s costs next to nothing to live on a sail boat. Once a month they have to port. Over time they have found three of the best that work for them. So I had to ask. What works for you?

First and foremost it has a reputable sales and service place for sail boats that doesn’t overcharge, has experienced service personnel and has excellent customer service. Every three months they have to leave their sail boat for service so they go where there is a massive grocery store, a library (gee, I wonder why?) an American doctor and dentist that takes their medical ins., etc, etc. And it all has to be within walking distance of a good motel.

While on shore they live by rules. There rules the average person doesn’t know about. They try to not eat more on shore than they would on board the boat. They said it’s a lot like eating a huge Thanksgiving meal. The day after your starving, on the boat your menus are planned. There are no leftovers. You can’t eat a second helping, there are no second helpings. If you want a lot of food you have to fish and actually catch fish. The time you spend cooking is also the use of the LP gas or fuel for the generator for electricity. On board everything is measured. They have spreadsheets. Hand written spreadsheets. There are no laptops on the ocean. The salt air is not good for electronics. The salt air is why the sailboat has to be maintained every day, sometimes two or three times a day. You have to know your sailboat, stem to stern. You have to know everything about the maintenance of it.

I wanted to share this with you because with a little creativity you can turn your retirement world into a world of creating your own “living on a sail boat” world. We all know our retirement days will be nothing like the days we worked. But it wouldn’t take a lot of money to live with all the comforts of home without paying through the nose. At you know I refer to our inexpencive get away often. You have to have some knowledge and be willing to do a few things. But it's a great way to begin our future.  Have a great day!

My cheap travel plans after retirement

Hi anyone and everyone! It’s so unusual to be sitting here doing this on a Saturday. Normally I’m not here. I am nowhere near anything that doesn’t include total relaxation. It’s part of our retirement plan. We stumbled into this opportunity to get a small piece of summer property. It has running water. It has electricity. It had LP gas. So alright. It’s no palace, but in very comfortable and gets us away 55 days a year. We do not plan on a lot of international travel in retirement! For that matter not much domestic travel either. It costs us, after the initial $10,000 purchase, $1000 a year. No lie. It’s an RV. So what it’s beautiful and comfortable. My favorite thing to do is sit in that living room and watch the fire through the sliding glass doors, (SEE PHOTO ABOVE). Did I mention we have central air?

But before I retire I plan on building more income. Everyone talks about all the PTC sites they go into every day! I have three sites. First one is always right there, tool bar and all. It goes like this; click, use the bathroom, click, get some coffee, click make a phone call, 3 cents. It's Clixsence. Easy money every day. I’ve earned about $12 in five months. I’ve been paid just over $8 for doing nothing.

Then there’s Neobux. I look at it as practice. I click an add, then pop breakfast into the microwave. Click, more coffee. It’s great stuff for breaks. So I rented some referrals. No more money than before but again, practice. I’m spending too much of the money I’ve earned there on these to know how much I’ve earned.

My third and final place is MyLot. People all over the world talk in there. It’s too much fun to care how much I earn. But it’s all practice. From the looks of things I anticipate my first real check in the mail in the beginning of February. That’s when big things happen. I am reinvesting it. I’m investing in classes for me. On line marketing classes, on line! See you Monday.

Happily Ever After?

As I waited for my eyes to fully open this morning, sipping my coffee, for some reason I recalled a conversation I had years ago with a young man 20 years younger than myself. He had not yet found “the one”. He asked me what I think about the difference between young love and love years later. What does this have to do with retirement? If you’re married, EVERYTHING!

I do not think of my own relationship as the age old saying goes “Like a fine wine, it only gets better with age”. Ours more like an aged steak. We’ve got gristle in there. We have fat. With that we march toward retirement. This is the real world, no one is perfect and relationship challenges will always be there. Remember all those cute little quirks that person had before you got married? It didn’t take long for them to start to become irritating did it? Imagine what is going to happen when you both have to look at each other full time. That’s going to be your new full time job!

What makes me nervous about this is the people who have stayed together “for the sake of the children”, just to name one scenario. Make sure you are pointed in the right direction for YOU! We need to be happy in the home we’ve lived in through our working years and I don’t even want to think how one would go about getting a divorce after selling everything for the RV they now live in! It’s never too late to anchor your relationship. I highly recommend Marriage Encounters. Even just taking a good look at this site will help you with a tool of sorts for the future, if not now.

I’d like to think that my own retirement will not just be comfortable but happy as well! Until next time, have a great day!

Utilities and banking savings

I’m a numbers person from way back. I keep track of our utility usage. OK, I have spread sheets. Yes, I’m guilty of a lot of number crunching. I keep track of when we’ve done something to maybe conserve energy. I keep track of when we’ve done something that may cost more energy. But, as anyone who knows spread sheet anything there are plenty of variables to affect them. They do work as they point to trends. So anyhow today I am highly recommending looking in every nook and cranny for money saving ideas and keep track of them. I don’t care how much money you have or how comfortable you are you will feel great when you see the amount of extra money you’ll have to spend on yourself. If you have trouble seeing this concept think of it like this; So you save $5.75 one month, that’s a good steak at the butcher!

I’ve also looked at my banking habits. I rarely write checks. I check my balance on line every day. When the new law came for account owners to make the choice of either paying any transaction causing my balance to be negative and charge me for it or, don’t pay it and it’s a done deal. I got sucked into that and much more before! Once is enough! A couple of banks out there who would love to front you some money as long as you have a paycheck that is electronically deposited, but it will cost you.

Hey, I’m not telling you I do it best, I’ve made and am making mistakes. These are just ideas for possible lifestyle changes to get used to BEFORE retirement. Personally, I don’t want to go through sudden change. I’d like to be most of the way there before that maybe inevitable day! Please share what you think!

Meanwhile enjoy this place to make a few extra bucks to possibly help pay those utility bills. It's a site I've been on for quite a while now. I've averaged about a buck a month so far.

Retire the way YOU want to retire

What you want to do in your retirement years should be totally up to you. After all you and only you will have to live with it, for the rest of your life. Please excuse the redundancy. I am making decisions along with my husband right now. We still have 10 years to go! The financial recommendations are not mine to make. Shortly I will have links I find the best to help guide you on the money objectives. I want to focus on plans for living our golden years happily and within our total control. So with that in mind what are you going to take with you into retirement? Your home? Your hobbies? Some will not completely quit working. Some will have some kind of glorious work as a greeter at the local department store. I for one will remain online forever! You will find my laptop with me even when the inevitable happens, just in case! lol. What will you have to keep you entertained with the sudden influx of empty hours on your hands? I hope this will be where you will find that out. I think serious discussion of the prospects and realities of retirement. Currently I am perusing that goal. Beginning with not being convinced that my happiness and success depends on the happiness and success of the corporate giant! Over the last two years I've been slowly building my own future. The best way I can explain that is after researching the web on my own for far too long I started listening to this one single web site. . It became practically my one stop shop for new ideas. Yes the site is legitimate. Go ahead and read the ongoing blog for a while. Surf through the tools to avoid scams and plenty of other tools for success.  He definitely pointed this doubting Thomas in the right direction after a year of struggling on my own.

Next time I want to share some great ideas from people just like us! Tips for downsizing, what to throw out and what to give away. Even ideas for living better for less after retirement. Its all in attitude, not in cash flow. Add your own ideas. What worked for you? My husband and I have been designing our retirement for the last three years and the best place to do that is talking to and living amongst retired people. With all this information I'm learning I didn't want to keep it a secret! It is possible to live well without spending a lot. Personally, I don't like clipping coupons so please keep that to another website!