Retirement: A Full-Time Job

A Prius as a Metaphor for Retirement

 

Posted in Travelling Tuesdays

Part of my strategy to make my money last for the rest of my life is to drive my cars until they have absolutely no life left in them.  Well, almost no life.   I prefer them to have at least enough life to get themselves to the dealership for whatever measly trade-in value they might garner.

And so it is that we have driven the last luxury sedan we will ever own while it still had enough get-up-and-go to get up and get us to the Toyota dealership.  Our old Audi had carried us for more than 12 years and 183,000 miles, never stranding us once.  But the last half of its life had us spending more and more money each year just to keep it alive.  The current list of things that needed fixing would have cost more than the value of the car, so we decided it’s time.

Now we drive a Prius wagon.  I’ve been waiting for them to come out with a wagon, it's slightly less goofy looking than the regular Prius.  Adjusting from a turbo-charged luxury sedan to a Prius is a lot like adjusting from a fast-paced career to retirement.   You have to find your new place on the road. 

In the Audi, when I got on the freeway, I stepped on the gas and easily merged into traffic.  The Prius is not in so much of a hurry.  When I step on the gas, I may have to let a car or two go by before I take my place in the lane.  I’m learning where I fit in now in the hierarchy of the road.  Just like with retirement, I don’t often find myself in the fast lane anymore. 

I still get where I want to go, and at more than double the gas mileage of our old car I get there a lot more cheaply.  Ok, so I don’t go so fast anymore, but I am certainly enjoying the ride.

Related Posts:

            Retired Life in the Fast Lane

            Road Tripping in Retirement

            Downsizing to Retirement

 

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Home Exchange for Beginners

 

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

As I mentioned last week we invited ourselves to Hawaii with a couple of friends this week.  This is not our first tag-along vacation.  I’ll be the first to admit, we are extremely lucky to have some very generous friends.  But for those of you that draw the line at imposing on your friends, there is another way to score some free lodging:  home exchange.

After all, your house is just going to sit empty while you are on vacation, why not go to another person’s empty house while they enjoy yours?  If you are exploring this option, here’s my short list of tips for the first-time home exchanger.

1.  There are many reputable sites on-line to find home exchanges.  The one I like the most is homeexchange.com because they have the largest number of listings and you have to pay to join.  Actually, you only have to pay if you want to create a page to market your own home.  You can email anyone with a listing you like when you browse for the site for free, but I’ll just tell you I never respond to those inquiries.   For one thing, I find some comfort in knowing that the site has your credit card and knows your identity.  If you just email me and don’t even have a listing for me to peruse, I not only don’t think you are serious, I don’t even know if you are real.

2.  When you do find a homeowner that you’d like to approach for a trade, write a personal note explaining why you found their home attractive, share your plans for your trip, and tell a little bit about yourself.  This is a chance to highlight a few great things about your house and things to enjoy in your area as well.  If you do wind up trading homes with this family, you are going to spend months building a relationship.  You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression.

3.  When you are browsing listings on the website, keep in mind that the actual home will never look better than the photos your exchanger has posted on their exchange page.   If you have any reservations after viewing the photos, you probably won’t be comfortable there.

4.   I recommend practicing with a local trade, just to get your feet wet.  Go away for the weekend somewhere that’s not too far away.  If it’s not exactly what you bargained for, at least it’s only two days and you will come away with a better idea of what you are looking for next time.

5.  During the course of building your home-exchange relationship, you should work out how you expect to leave each other’s homes.  Just strip the beds or remake them too?  Where does the trash go?  No matter what they say about how to leave their house, just remember, no one will ever fault you if you leave it tidier than they expected.

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Related Posts:

            Intro to the Home Exchange Vacation

            How to Stretch a Travel Dollar in Retirement

            On-Line Dating in Retirement

 

The Accidental Tourist

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

Well, it’s official.  We have no shame.  I blame the wine. 

Last weekend we went to a wedding.  It was a wonderful, intimate gathering of only about 30 guests.  My friends got married on their 11^th anniversary of being together on 11/11/11.  The whole event captured the couple’s personality, a short, heart-felt ceremony, handmade rings, and a gourmet dinner in a totally rustic setting, all while overlooking a stunning stretch of untouched Northern California coastline.  

We enjoyed the romance of the evening while enjoying the company of two other couples that we really love.  During the course of the evening, we invited ourselves to Hawaii with one of them, the week after next.  (Just to be clear--not the bride and groom.  Even I draw the line at crashing honeymoons.)

It started innocently enough, the casual proclamation, “You should come with us!” after describing the boondoggle that would be their accommodations for the week.  One of his clients gave them his two-bedroom penthouse overlooking a beach in Maui.  (Yes!  Pictured above--can you blame me?)

            “Don’t tempt me, ‘cause Doug and I will crash your vacation.  Believe me, we’ve done it before!”

            “No, it would be so much fun, we could play tennis, hike, and drink martinis on the Lanai!” 

We spent the whole evening talking about how great it would be, and whether the martinis would have gin or vodka.

But even with all the wine, at the end of the evening I offered, “When you wake up tomorrow, totally sober, if you think the better of this we will TOTALLY understand.  Don’t give it another thought.”

But alas, the next morning we got the sober confirmation.  We’ll join them for the first few days of their trip.  On a flight that arrives at the same time, for free with frequent flyer miles, on days that we are free—all the stars were in alignment. 

I hope they’ll have as much fun with us as we know we will have with them!

Related Posts:

            Vacation From What?

            Why Vacation in Retirement?

            Adjusting to Retirement

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Building a Relationship with Your Home Exchange Partners

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays.

A couple of weeks ago, we had a really great time at dinner with some old friends in their beautiful home in the Seacliff neighborhood in San Francisco.  Actually, it wasn’t dinner, it was drinks, and I guess they are more of new acquaintances than old friends, and really, it wasn’t even their house.  But we did have a great time.

The old friends to whom I refer are really more like Internet friends.  We met them through home-exchange last year.  I contacted them a few years ago to see if they wanted to swap their lovely Upper East Side home in New York City with us for a month.  They declined since they already had plans that year, but said they love month-long trades and maybe next year.

A few months later they contacted us.  Their son was getting married in the Napa Valley wine country, and they wanted to come out for three weeks for the festivities.  We talked on the phone about our plans.  A few weeks later, their son and his bride-to-be, who live in San Francisco, came over for a glass of wine.  Turns out they were budding home-exchangers too.  They live in the trendy Marina district—where we’ve now spent two weekends on home-exchanges.

A few months ago, I got another hankering for NYC so I lobbed an email to my new old friends in New York.  I said I knew it was a long way off, but to keep us in mind if they were up for an exchange in summer of 2012.  I got an immediate response, their son and daughter-in-law were expecting a baby in a couple months, so they would love to set plans for a visit next year.  In the meantime, they came out this year to admire the new addition to their family, whom we also met over not-really-dinner at not-really-their-house. 

Related Posts:

            Intro to the Home Exchange Vacation

            On-Line Dating in Retirement

            This is New York

 

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Postcard from Australia

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

Greetings from Down Under!  Technically, here in Sunshine Beach it’s Wednesday, but back home it’s Tuesday so I think I can still slide a “Traveling Tuesday” post in under the wire.  Aside from the several days it took for us to get over the jet lag and the shockingly high prices for restaurant meals, I absolutely love this place. 

Observations:

-People are more prone to smiling here,

-There's free wine tasting in the airport,

-(I don’t think that’s the reason.)

-Driving on the left-hand side of the road is really hard when you are lost and getting loster,

-Two iced teas at lunch the day before yesterday:  $14,

-Two beers at lunch yesterday:  $10,

-(We won’t be making that mistake again!)

-No need to remove shoes or jackets at airport screening for domestic flights,

-In fact, no need to even show photo ID.

-Waking up after the U.S. stock market is already closed is a much easier way to go through life.

-The speed limit is 80km/h on the beach at Fraser Island.   (Yes you read that right, on the beach.   Stay left, use your turn signal indicator, and by all means, mind the bikini-clad pedestrians!)

 

Translations:

US                                                  OZ

Make a reservation                          Make a booking

Begin boarding                                Commence boarding

Get your drinks                               Organise your drinks

Lollies                                            Sweets and candies

French Fries                                    Chips

Ketchup                                          Sauce

Trash                                              Rubbish 

Garbage can                                    Bin

Dispose your cigarettes                     Bin your butts

Liquor store                                     Bottle shop

Shortly                                             Before the tick of the clock

Shopping cart                                   Trolley

Actually                                           Realistically (maybe that was just our guide?)

 

Questions:

            -What is the proper etiquette when hiking through the nude beach fully clothed?  Do you say "G'day” to passers-by, or look the other way?

            -And does it strike anyone else as funny that while already exposing every single body part to the sun, nude sun-bathers still don a hat?

 

Related Posts:

    New York Stories:  Inside the Public Restroom

    This is New York

    There's No Such Thing as a Free Lunch--Even in Vegas

 

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Lusting for Boredom

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

I am so looking forward to the 14 ½ hour flight to Australia.  Is it because of the cramped seating, the airline food, or the stale, re-circulated air?  Or perhaps it’s the four movies on a tiny screen and the free booze?   (Yes, we get free booze on the flight.)  Nope, it’s because of the boredom.

Boredom, how I miss you.

Even in retirement I have a hard time with a day that is devoted to simply eating, sleeping and reading.  Don’t get me wrong.  I love a day of just eating, sleeping and reading.  But I can’t do it.  Not even in retirement.  It’s a very hard thing to do, actually.  Life interrupts.  Guilt interrupts.  And darn it, that voice that shouts, “Go do something with your life!” interrupts.

But there’s nothing else to do on the plane.  Nothing.  It’s forced boredom, and how I relish the thought of fourteen and one half hours of forced boredom.  

I’m not sure why so many people fear boredom in retirement.  Frankly, it’s hard to find the time for it. 

Remember that summer vacation when you were a kid?  The one you so looked forward to for the last several weeks of school?  And then a few weeks into it you were following your mom around the house nagging, “Mom, what can I doooooo, there’s nothing to doooooooo?”  Oh I remember.  It was awful. 

Oh, how I miss it.

I’ve got three books I’ve been working my way through for the last six months.  I’m stalled in the middle of knitting a blanket for a friend’s baby.  I haven’t written in my journal since July 28^th.  All things I can do guilt free on a 14 ½ hour plane ride.  I can nap.  I can read travel books.  I can have idle conversation with my husband and he’ll actually listen because there’s nowhere else for him go!

As Katrina Onstad writes in her Globe and Mail piece Why We Should Rediscover the Joys of Boredom, “What is a holiday, really, but the opportunity to pay for boredom?”  

Yes, it seems like you should be able to do all these things in retirement, but trust me, it’s a whole lot easier when there’s absolutely nothing else you can possibly do because you are trapped on a plane.   

I can’t wait.

Related Posts:

            Is Boredom Really a Danger in Retirement?         

            Reflections on My First Year Of Retirement (Part 3:  Boredom)

            Boredom Begets Boredom

 

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Intro to the Home Exchange Vacation

 Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

This was the greeting we received from the 10-year old daughter of our hosts on our most recent home-exchange vacation to Montreal.  Doug and I have exchanged our house for an apartment in San Francisco with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge, for a custom-built two-bedroom home in Monterey only minutes from the Monterey Jazz Festival, and for several wonderful apartments in New York City, just to name just a few.  In all, we’ve enjoyed swapping with over a dozen people, some more than once.

I understand people’s fears about swapping homes, I was a little nervous before our first swap too.  I’m not going to try and sell home-swapping to the ­­­­skeptical, but I would like to share how I got over those fears, saved thousands and thousands of dollars on lodging over the years, and made a few nice acquaintances along the way. 

There was recently a high-profile story about a woman in San Francisco whose apartment was ransacked when she rented it out through Airbnb while she was on vacation.  Fortunately, this experience resulted in Airbnb’s new $50,000 guarantee against such a circumstance, but it was still the kind of story that feeds into many people’s fears.

The reality is that most folks are not going to fly clear across the country to vandalize your home or steal your big screen TV.  Sure, I suppose it is a possibility, but so is the possibility that someone will break into your home while it sits empty as you are vacationing at a resort in Hawaii.  But that possibility doesn’t prevent millions of folks from taking off on vacation every day. 

Unlike a vacation rental, on a home-exchange, you are actually in your guests' home while they are in yours.  That fact is very powerful for both parties in involved.  I am much more careful in my swap partner’s home than I am in a hotel or in a rental because I actually have a relationship with this person now.  And in my dozens of trades so far, I can see that my exchangers are behaving exactly the same way.

The more realistic possibility is that everything in your home is not left exactly as you had hoped, maybe a wine glass was broken, or ring is left on your coffee table, or more likely, you and your swapper's standards of cleanliness are different.  So far, I’ve found people to be extremely gracious with things like that, but even if they weren’t, the cost of replacing that wine glass is far less than the six nights' hotel stay in Manhattan that you would have had to absorb if you didn’t swap. 

Just a little perspective.

Related Home-Exchange Posts:

    On-Line Dating in Retirement    

    Luxury Vacation Envy

    Everything Old is New Again

 

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In Praise of the Staycation

Posted in Traveling Tuesdays

I get why some people don’t like to travel.  Actually it can be a royal pain in the ass.  Figuring out exactly what to pack for your trip while trying not to lug too much stuff.   Taking off your shoes, removing laptops and liquids from your carry-on for TSA screening, and then schlepping your luggage past miles of airline gates, only to battle for limited space in the overhead compartment and then fold yourself into your allotted space.

Upon arrival, you wait at baggage carousal number three, hoping your checked luggage actually made the whole trip with you.  You trek to the rental car lot, all while crossing your fingers that the hotel actually lives up to the promise of the website’s photos.

Despite the inconveniences of travel, there can be plenty of benefits too, and this last trip gave me a new one:  an appreciation for what's right in my own backyard.

Doug and I are not big sightseeing people.  When we travel, we mostly like to explore the neighborhoods, take in the restaurant, bar, and music scene, and people-watch while we sip a cappuccino or a glass of wine.  We’ll head to the major sights, but mostly to enjoy the surroundings, not always to join the throngs inside.

So how is it that in my very own town, I’ve failed to notice the little side street that hosts free live jazz every Monday night during the summer?  I have lived here for almost seven years, and while I was well aware of all the shops, restaurants, and live music venues on the main drag, I was totally unaware of this little side street dotted with restaurants and a bar that features live music every single night of the week. 

Once a week, the street is blocked off, a stage is set up, and the restaurant tables flow out into the street for the festivities.  Restaurants, did I already mention, that I had never even seen before?   Without the hassles of traveling to a distant land, we enjoyed music and people watching while sipping a martini a mere 10 minutes from home.  We marveled at how much we felt like we were on vacation.  And all in the city deemed “climate best by government test.”  You can’t beat that!

Related Posts:

            This is New York

            Is it Worth it?

            How to Stretch a Travel Dollar in Retirement

 

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Is It Worth It?

Ok, so I haven’t decided whether this is worth it yet.  By this, I mean getting to go on a fancy vacation in Hawaii made possible by the fact that I have a little part-time job to pay for it.  On the one hand, this is an absolutely lovely place to unwind.  On the other hand, I wouldn’t need the unwinding if I didn’t pick up the little part-time job by which the lovely little vacation is being paid.

Although we did enjoy one tropical vacation at an all-inclusive resort during the last three years, and a couple of others tagging along with friends, most of our trips have involved swapping homes.  We’ve got couple of these vacations on the books for later this year, first to Montreal and then to Australia.  These trips take a little extra work:  you’ve got to spend the time to find a suitable exchange partner, make your own home presentable for your guests, and then leave their home in good shape before you check-out.  But it’s nice because you don’t have to wash blueberries for your cereal in the bathroom sink--you have an actual house with an actual kitchen, including an actual kitchen sink. 

On the other hand, you have to clean up after yourself on the home-exchange vacation.  At the fancy resort that the part-time job pays for, someone comes in and spruces up the room each day and gives you nice new fluffy towels.  On the other hand, you have to bring lots of clothes with you because you don’t have a washer and dryer in your room like when you get a whole house that you swapped for. 

But most importantly, when you don’t have a part-time job to pay for the fancy vacation that you wouldn’t have needed if you didn’t have the part-time job, you wouldn’t be getting emails about work while you are on the fancy vacation because you wouldn’t be unwinding from the part-time job at the fancy resort in the first place.  You see why I’m confused?

Related Posts:

            How Much Time is Too Much Time to Waste?

            How to Stretch a Travel Dollar in Retirement

            How Do You Know You’re Retired if You’re Still Working?

 

This is a post from Retirement:  A Full-Time Job

 

The Perfect Time in Hawaii

California really is the perfect time zone.  When you travel, your internal clock is already set to enjoy your destination to the fullest.  When you go to New York, you’re still awake when it’s really late there.  If you go to a jazz club after dinner and stay out until midnight, it only feels like 9pm.  Since New York City is such a late city, you’ve got plenty of company when you’re out late.  In the morning, who cares that you’re not up until 10.  Anything you could have done at 8am you can do later in the day.  But the late-night vibe, you don’t want to miss that.

We are in Hawaii right now, and coming from California works just like going to New York only in reverse.  While you go to Manhattan for the excitement and night life, you go to Hawaii for the sunshine and relaxation.  The restaurants don’t even serve dinner after 9pm.  Who cares though, you’d rather sleep when the sun sleeps and get up at 6 when it gets up.  After all, that’s what you’re here for.

So I’m off to go hit tennis balls instead of blogging.  Here’s a link to my latest post at U.S. News, 7 Signs You’re Not Ready for Retirement.

Related Posts:

            Failure at Vacation?

            Vacation from What?

            Why Vacation in Retirement?

 

This is a post from Retirement:  A Full-Time Job