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Helping you get the retirement you deserve!
Retirement is changing. The traditional type of retirement that our parents and grandparents enjoyed is no longer enough for the baby boomer generation. Today's retirees are younger, richer, fitter, healthier and better educated than previous generations. They also have much higher expectations.
Although we are gradually getting the message that, financially, we need to plan and make provision for the end of our working lives, most people don't tend to give the emotional, spiritual, domestic, relationship and leisure implications of retirement a moment's thought. In fact, most of us spend more time planning our annual vacation than we do planning the non-financial aspects of retirement.
My name is Ann Harrison. I am a certified Retirement Options coach, a Too Young To Retire facilitator and a registered distributor of the Retirement Success Profile - a unique, personalised, scientifically-designed, life-planning tool for people who are either planning their retirement within the next 10 years or who are already retired.
I'm passionate about helping people like you to get the happiest, healthiest, most vital, productive, energetic, prosperous and fulfilling retirement you could possibly have, whilst, at the same time, helping you to balance having the kind of retirement you want and deserve to have, with planning to meet your future needs.
My Websites
- Contemporary Retirement Coaching
- My website
- The Contemporary Retirement Blog
- Updated daily Monday to Friday
- Your Retirement Business Blog
- Unleash your inner entrepreneur
- Too Young To Retire UK
- Retirement planning for people who aren't calling it quits
- Ann Harrison Life Coaching
- Remember how Henry David Thoreau said that 'The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation'? It's my mission in life to help as many people as possible to liberate themselves from a life of quiet desperation... Are you ready to join the escape committee?
- The Retirement Detox Program
- 40 days to get your retirement back on track...
What's on your Bucket List?
Did you see the recent film, 'The Bucket List', starring Morgan Freeman and Jack Nicholson? It's about two men who meet in a hospital cancer ward after each has been given only six months to live. The "bucket list" of the title refers to a list that one of the men has been advised to compile of the things he wants to accomplish before he 'kicks the bucket'. Which leads me to a question...What do you still want to be, do and have in life?
Could you come up with a list of 100 things that you still want to be, do and have before you get too old to be, do and have them? Try it. (You may need to leave your pad and pen somewhere handy so that you can jot down ideas as they occur to you over the course of the next week or so.)
Once you have compiled your list, it can then be helpful to categorise the items on it. So, for example, you might have a category of things that need to be done fairly soon, whilst you're at your youngest and fittest.
Then you could have another category for things that can wait until you get older because they won't take as much energy. Another category would be things that are so important to you that you would really regret it if you didn't do them. You could have further categories such as 'things than can be done in a spare day' and 'things that can be done in a spare week' and 'longer projects' which need considerably more time and attention.
Have a go at categorising your own list and then decide how many items you want to tackle each year. It's not meant to be a stick to beat yourself with, though - even if the list only helps you to identify the things you'd regret not doing and the things that need to be done whilst you're still young and healthy, that's valuable enough in itself.
Then, the next time you have a spare 5 or 10 minutes, do some research that will help put you on the road towards achieving some of the items on your list. For example, if you've always wanted to take a trip in a helicopter, do an Internet search to find out where you can take a local flight, or, if you're about to head off on holiday, see if you can arrange to take a trip once you arrive at your destination. If you've always wanted to compile a record of your family history for your grandchildren, buy a suitable notebook or open a Word file on your computer and make a start.
Don't give yourself any excuses for procrastinating - you'll never be this young and fit again and none of us know what's waiting around the corner.
The Bucket List on Amazon
The Bucket List
Amazon Price: $14.99 (as of 10/12/2008)
![The Bucket List [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51Q-DmJ0lEL._SL75_.jpg)
The Bucket List [Blu-ray]
Amazon Price: $22.95 (as of 10/12/2008)
Too Young To Retire Telecourses
2 new dates added
Are you aged 50+ and wanting to explore the possibilities
available to you in the next phase of your life?
Are you coming up to retirement age but don't feel ready to retire yet?
Or maybe you're recently retired, have been laid off or are considering the prospect of voluntary redundancy and you're unclear about what's next?
Well you've come to the right place!
I'm pleased to announce two new 2young2retire telecourses starting in May and September. The 7-week course will run on Wednesdays from 7 pm to 8 pm (UK time) as follows:
Course 1: Starts Wednesday 7 May 2008. Classes will be held on: 7 May, 14 May, 21 May, 28 May, 4 June, 11 June, 18 June
Course 2: Starts Wednesday 3 September 2008. Classes will be held on: 3 September, 10 September, 17 September, 24 September, 1 October, 8 October, 15 October
The beauty of a telecourse is that it is a series of classes that take place over the telephone, so you can join in no matter where you live in the world. All class members call into a bridge (or conference) line at the same time and they are able to speak to each other without ever having to leave their own home or workplace. (No petrol or parking fees! No need to get dressed up - join us in your pyjamas if you feel like it - we'll never know! No rushing around to get to the venue on time - just sit down with your phone at the designated time, relax and enjoy the class!)
Course Fees are £107 ($213) (Euro140)
For more information, visit the 2young2retireUK website.
What's your Walk Score?
Here's a resource that works for US, UK and Canadian readers and could prove increasingly useful as you get older (or if gas prices continue to rise)...
If you're thinking about a change of location when you retire or you're keeping an eye open for a suitable location that will serve your needs as you get older, check out Walk Score.
Walkable neighbourhoods offer many benefits to their residents with regard to better health, reduction in greenhouse gases, increased public transportation options, increased community activity and face-to-face interaction with neighbours, and stronger local businesses.
Walk Score helps people find walkable places to live by calculating the 'walkability' of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. The Walk Score of an address is shown as a number between 0 and 100 and the general guidelines for interpreting your score are as follows:
90 - 100 = Walkers' Paradise: Most errands can be accomplished on foot and many people get by without owning a car.
70 - 90 = Very Walkable: It's possible to get by without owning a car.
50 - 70 = Some Walkable Locations: Some stores and amenities are within walking distance, but many everyday trips still require a bike, public transportation, or car.
25 - 50 = Not Walkable: Only a few destinations are within easy walking range. For most errands, driving or public transportation is a must.
0 - 25 = Driving Only: Virtually no neighborhood destinations within walking range. You can walk from your house to your car!
It's a brilliant idea but, before you rush out and buy a new property based on its Walk Score, you do need to bear in mind that Walk Score is just an approximation of walkability and that the strength of an address's Walk Score is no substitute for spending time on the ground in your chosen location and really checking it out before you commit to the move. You can check out the known issues with the system here
Contemporary Retirement Articles
- Planning For Your Retirement - An Alternative Perspective
- Thought-provoking questions that you need to ask yourself with regard to your retirement
- What should you do NOW to prepare for retirement?
- One of the books I've been reading recently is 'Voices of Experience: 1500 Retired People Talk About Retirement' by Mario A Milletti. It's an old book - published in 1984 and now out of print, and our perception of and expectations for retirement have changed considerably in the intervening quarter of a century. However, if you're due to retire within the next 10 years, the book still contains some good advice from some established retirees about the steps they recommend you take NOW to prepare you for the next stage of your life.
- How do you know when it's time to retire?
- So how DO you know when it's time to retire? Try some of the following on for size...
- What Do You Want In Retirement?
- What do you still want to be, do and have in life?
- With a little help from my friends...
- What do you need to do to get a supportive group of friends who make you feel glad to be in their company?
- Approaching retirement? How to disengage from work...
- If you're about to retire, have you ever taken the time to think about some of the potential challenges associated with the process of disengagement from work?
- Where do you want to live in retirement?
- Make a move or stay put? The decision about where and how you live can be crucial to you getting the retirement you deserve.
- Don't let those extra pounds creep up on you!
- Weight gain can be a real problem for new retirees and, speaking from experience, the extra pounds really can creep up on you until, before you know it, you have a battle on your hands.
- Are your New Year's resolutions already history?
- If you want to make some changes in your life, you don't need to wait until New Year to begin, because any time of the year is a good time for a fresh start - a birthday, the start of Spring, the new academic year, tomorrow%u2026
- The Gift of a Year
- Imagine the first year of your retirement being the 'most meaningful, satisfying and pleasurable year of your life' to date! Wouldn't that just set the scene for an amazing retirement?
Contemporary Retirement Blog
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byRecommended Lenses and Websites
- Real Age.com
- I found a fantastic resource at RealAge.com. First of all, you take the free RealAge test which aims to calculate whether you are biologically younger, older or the same as your birthday age. This is calculated by assessing over 100 different health factors from lifestyle to genetics to medical history.
About an hour after you have taken the test, a personal plan is delivered to your email box which contains complete information about how to make yourself feel younger, together with a list of the factors that are actually making you feel younger or older. - Senior Match.com
- The largest on-line dating site for seniors
- The Money Gym
- A proven 10 step coaching programme designed to set you financially free. That's The Money Gym (and it comes with a 100% money back guarantee!)
- The Future of Retirement Project
- Information about attitudes to retirement in various parts of the world - funded by HSBC Bank.
- Life Expectancy Calculator
- Take the Living to 100 Life Expectancy Calculator by Thomas Perls MD, to calculate your life expectancy based upon your habits and medical and family history. The quiz takes about 7 minutes and you will learn a lot about what you are doing right and what you can still do to improve your life expectancy and how long you will be healthy. Costs just $5 or £2.50.
- Too Young To Retire
- Retirement Planning for people who aren't calling it quits!
- SAGA
- The Saga Group focuses exclusively on the provision of high quality, value-for-money services for people 50 and over. These include holidays to worldwide destinations including cruises on our own ships, an award-winning magazine, insurance and financial products, and radio stations. The Group is based at Folkestone, UK.
- UK Pension Service Website
- Guidance on preparing for retirement from the Pension Service Website (part of the UK Department for Work and Pensions).
- Year to Slim
- YeartoSlim is a powerful, year-long, nutrition, diet and natural weight loss e-mail program - created and supported by a Registered Nutritionist and a Life Coach. Try their free mini course.
- Retire in Arizona
- An excellent site if you are considering retirement locations in the U.S.
- The Light Beyond
- If you have suffered a recent bereavement and are in need of comfort, you may like to visit a wonderful new resource for the recently bereaved which has been created by Lucie Storrs. The Light Beyond is a website, blog, movie, book, eBook and soon-to-be-completed bereavement forum. Visit the website and receive a free copy of Bereavement for Beginners - a practical comforting guide which you can download instantly.
- The RealAge Personalized Calorie Counter
- A really useful tool that I've recently discovered is the Personalised Calorie Counter. Just click on the link to the website, type in your height, weight, gender, age and activity level and it will calculate the maximum number of calories you can consume each day if you want your weight to remain stable. If you want to lose weight, just type in all the above information but use your desired weight and it will calculate how many calories you should be eating... Perfect!
Do you need a retirement detox?
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Are you struggling with retirement? It's not uncommon. Once the 'honeymoon' period is over and reality starts to set in, up to 1 in 5 people can feel that their life is in the doldrums, they're not getting the retirement they deserve and that, if this is all they have to look forward to, they wish they'd never retired in the first place!If all this sounds horribly familiar to you, don't panic... Use these 10 thought-provoking questions to help give yourself a Retirement Detox:
1. What do you want more of in your life? (What makes you happy?)
2. What do you want less of? (What bugs you, makes you unhappy or even downright miserable?)
3. What would your ideal retirement look like and how close to that ideal retirement could you get?
4. If this was your last day on earth, how would you spend your time? What implications does this hold for the way that you spend your time on a daily basis (and who you spend it with)?
5. Which activities do you do that bring you meaning and fulfillment?
6. Which activities do you do that just fill your time without adding anything of value to your life?
7. What do you do that adds structure and a sense of purpose to your days?
8. How do you continue to obtain a sense of achievement and a 'job well done' now that you are retired?
9. Could you come up with a 'bucket list' - a list of 100 things that you still want to be, do and have before you 'kick the bucket'?
10. What single, daily action could you take to ensure that you achieve all the items on your bucket list? For example, you could make an agreement with yourself that you won't watch TV until after 9pm and spend the time between dinner and 9pm working on your list. Or you could commit to exercising for an hour a day to maximize your chances of being around long enough to achieve all the items on your list.
These are just ten of the hundreds of thought-provoking questions I ask in my eBook, The Retirement Detox Programme: 40 days to get your retirement back on track. The eBook is available for just £10 (approximately $20) from my website by clicking the above link.
This is a brilliantly inspiring book that will pep you up and lead you to find the confident, balanced, ordered, joyous and peaceful life that you've always wanted. Margaret Sheridan-Wallis
'I am blown away by this amazing Ebook, so much value for just £10!'
Dr Alison Grimston, GP, UK
www.holisticdoctor.typepad.com
Recommended Retirement Work and Encore Career Resources
- StartUpNation Home-based 100
- Have you always secretly harboured the desire to own your own business once you retire from full time work but feel decidedly uninspired when trying to make a decision about what kind of a business to start up?
The StartupNation Home-Based 100 is a list of 'the most successful, the most innovative, the most adventurous and downright wacky' home based businesses around.
Head over there now and fire up your imagination... - 10 questions to ask yourself before you start your retirement business
- Do you have a business idea that you're just dying to try out once you retire? Do you think you've found a product or service that people are crying out for? If so, read this article from SAGA and find out what you need to know before you dive in.
- 7 reasons NOT to retire
- If, like many baby boomers, you're feeling a little ambivalent about whether to retire or not, have a look at this article entitled '7 Reasons Not To Retire' from the US News website.
Recommended Retirement Work and Encore Career Books on Amazon
Earn Money in Retirement: How to Draw on a Lifetime of Experience to Supplement Your Pension
Amazon Price: $22.00 (as of 10/12/2008)
The 4-Hour work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Amazon Price: $16.47 (as of 10/12/2008)
The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 10/12/2008)
Working After Retirement For Dummies (For Dummies (Business & Personal Finance))
Amazon Price: $14.95 (as of 10/12/2008)
Too Young to Retire: 101 Ways To Start The Rest of Your Life
Amazon Price: $10.40 (as of 10/12/2008)
Your Retirement Business blog
Unleash your inner entrepreneur
Fetching RSS feed... please stand byAged 50+? Heard about the Retirement Success Profile?
Unfortunately, most people spend more time planning their annual two-week holiday or vacation than they do planning the non-financial aspects of their retirement. Consequently, many retired people report that they 'wasted' the first 18 months to 2 years of their retirement - ironically, the time when they were at their 'youngest'.If you're planning an early retirement, it is even more vital that you give consideration to planning the non-financial aspects of retirement. How successful you are at recreating the feelings of satisfaction, importance, usefulness, companionship and productivity that you previously obtained from your work will be crucial to your wellbeing and happiness in the next phase of your life. Failure to consider the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual implications of early retirement has sent many an early retiree in the direction of employment services (or their Doctor's office).
The Retirement Success Profile (or RSP) is a unique, personalised, scientifically-designed retirement life-planning tool for people who are looking ahead towards their retirement.
It is administered online (so you will need access to a computer which is connected to the Internet) and takes about 20-25 minutes to complete.
It is available wherever you live in the world
The RSP:
· Work Reorientation
· Attitude Towards Retirement
· Directedness
· Health Perception
· Financial Security
· Current Life Satisfaction
· Projected Life Satisfaction
· Life Meaning
· Leisure Interests
· Adaptability
· Life Stage Satisfaction
· Dependents/Care giving responsibilities
· Family/Relationship Issues
· Perception of Age
· Replacement of Work Functions
'With 10 years to go until I retire, I took the Retirement Success Profile - it was a real wake-up call! But I now know exactly what I need to do
and I still have time to do it...' (Chris Dobson, Electronics Engineer, Selby UK.)
The RSP can be taken alone or alongside a number of coaching packages which are designed to help you get the retirement you deserve.
The stand-alone RSP Option includes:
Your Investment is just £54 or $109
Don't leave it too late to get the retirement you deserve!
Discover your retirement-related strengths and challenges today by visiting the Contemporary Retirement Website to book your RSP
Randy Pausch Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Randy Pausch Last Lecture: Achieving Your Childhood Dreams
Carnegie Mellon Professor Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) gave his last lecture at the university Sept. 18, 2007, before a packed McConomy Auditorium. In his moving presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals. For more, visit www.cmu.edu/randyslecture.
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Health and Wellness Resources
- Cancer-proof your life
- Piles of steamed broccoli, 15 minutes of sunshine per day and keeping your house clean (well, strictly speaking, it's the exercise involved in keeping your house clean). These are just three of the thirty tricks, tips and strategies to help you cancer-proof yourself in Cancer Proof Your Life, an MSN Health article.
- How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?
- According to skin care product manufacturer, Dove, 67% of all women aged 15 to 64 withdraw from life-engaging activities due to feeling badly about their looks (among them things like giving an opinion, going to school, going to the doctor).
Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty asks the question: 'How did our idea of beauty become so distorted?' and then goes on to answer it with this short film which shows what's really involved in producing the images of perfection we see around us on a daily basis. If you have young daughters, grand-daughters or nieces you may want to spend some time with them looking around the Dove site. - Could the perfect diet include chocolate and wine?
- Have you heard of the polymeal theory? It's a theoretical proposal by researchers in the Netherlands and Melbourne that the following foods - wine, chocolate, garlic, almonds, fish and fruit and veggies - eaten in specific amounts on a daily basis could reduce the risk of cardio-vascular disease by up to 76% and increase life expectancy by, on average, 6.6 years for men and 4.8 years for women.
Want to know more? Then head over to this article at Superliving.com.au. But before you rush off to the supermarket to stock up on the chocolate and red wine, let me stress that the polymeal paper was 'intended to provoke debate' and, as such, has caused a furore in the medical profession. - The Personalised Calorie Counter
- If you're wanting to lose weight, check out the Personalised Calorie Counter from RealAge.com. Just click on the above link, type in your height, weight, gender, age and activity level and it will calculate how many calories you need to consume each day for your weight to remain stable. If you want to lose weight, just type in all the above information but use your desired weight and it will calculate how many calories you should be eating... Perfect!)
- The 12 'germiest' places in your life
- What do airplane toilets, a load of wet laundry and the bottom of women's handbags have in common? They're among the twelve 'germiest' places that you're likely to encounter! Discover the other nine and find out how to wage war against the microbes in this article from TODAY... but a warning - the methods advocated for combating the bugs aren't always the most environmentally friendly things you could do.
- Why BLCK is the new green
- Food companies are constantly releasing new products, but have you ever heard of a 'new' vegetable being launched? The food team at MSN hadn't either, until they were sent a 'bucket load' of baby leaf curly kale - a new, fresh and tender variant of this member of the cabbage family and one that is being heralded as a new superfood.
In Why BLCK is the new green, the team take a look at the health benefits of BLCK and put it to the taste test. (And BLCK even has a website of its own at
http://www.blckisthenewgreen.co.uk/.)
Update: We've tried BLCK on a couple of occasions since I wrote this posting. It's tasty (much nicer than the original curly kale) and it cooks in the steamer in just 2 minutes. Definitely worth a try... - Warning signs for older drivers
- Have you started to worry about an aging relative's safety as a driver? Although the majority of older drivers are safe drivers, the combination of medical conditions, use of medication and reduced physical function can increase the risk of accidents and injury among older adults, and the rate of driving fatalities increases significantly after age 75.
If you feel that you may soon need to have 'the conversation' about driving with an aging relative, have a look at the Hartford/MIT AgeLab partnership website first. The site offers a range of resources from information about preparing for and having 'the conversation' to a list of 29 behaviours to look out for that act as warning signs that an older relative may be becoming unsafe whilst driving. - Could you look and feel younger?
- I found this fantastic resource at RealAge.com. First of all, you take the free RealAge test which aims to calculate whether you are biologically younger, older or the same as your birthday age. This is calculated by assessing over 100 different health factors from lifestyle to genetics to medical history.
About an hour after you have taken the test, a personal plan is delivered to your email box which contains complete information about how to make yourself feel younger, together with a list of the factors that are actually making you feel younger or older.
Recommended Health and Wellness books on Amazon
Healthy Aging: A Lifelong Guide to Your Physical and Spiritual Well-Being
Amazon Price: (as of 10/12/2008)
Aging Well: Surprising Guideposts to a Happier Life from the Landmark Harvard Study of Adult Development
Amazon Price: $10.19 (as of 10/12/2008)
Age Defying Fitness: Making the Most of Your Body for the Rest of Your Life
Amazon Price: $13.57 (as of 10/12/2008)
50 Secrets of the World's Longest Living People
Amazon Price: $10.17 (as of 10/12/2008)
A Survival Guide to Later Life (Daily Telegraph)
Amazon Price: (as of 10/12/2008)
Retirement Articles
- Elderly prefer work to retirement (BBC)
- Most people want to work longer in old age, rather than retire completely, suggests new research by the HSBC Bank. (Not sure that I would have used the word 'elderly' though!)
- Job hunting for the over 50's
- Today's over-50s are now the biggest age group in the work pool, a trend that is set to continue. But what's it really like out there for middle-aged job seekers? Patsy Westcott tests the waters
- We're beautiful
- Many women of 50 or more say they feel more attractive now than when they were young - and it's not all down to cosmetic surgery. Sally Brampton reports
- Growing Stronger
- When Gerontologists at Tufts University in the US selected a group of the frailest residents of a nursing home and put them on a weight-training regimen, the experiment - which was considered quite daring - became a great success. Within a period of 8 weeks, the co-ordination and balance of the residents had improved and wasted muscles had come back by 300 per cent. Some of the residents, who had previously been unable to walk unaided, even regained their ability to get up and go to the bathroom by themselves, with, presumably, an immeasurable impact in terms of reclaimed dignity, independence and self-esteem. And, what makes this story even more remarkable is the fact that the youngest of the residents was 87 and the oldest 96 years of age!
If you are interested in learning about the potential benefits of weight training for yourself as you get older, you could do worse than to download yourself a free copy of the 126-page book, Growing Stronger: Strength Training for Older Adults, which has been compiled by Tufts University in conjunction with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Click the title of this article to get your copy.
Retirement Detox
AVAILABLE FOR IMMEDIATE DOWNLOAD -The Retirement Detox Programme E-Book! - 40 days to get your retirement back on track!
Did you retire recently?
Did you take some much-needed time off to relax but find that you're getting bored now?
Does it feel like your purpose in life retired when you did and that you're floundering around in your retirement? That golf and time with the family isn't enough for you and you want and need to do more?
When you envisage the remainder of your retirement years, do you see only more of the same or do you want something different? Something better?
Do you still have things that you'd like to accomplish? Do you still want to travel? Explore? Experience?
Are you ready for a retirement detox?
My Retirement Detox Programme E-book could be the answer to your problems - check it out by using the following link:
The Retirement Detox Progamme: 40 days to get your retirement back on track
Coming Soon - Retirement Detox Retreats
Would you like some time and space, away from your everyday life, where you can gain a sense of perspective about your retirement and plan how you want your post-work life to look and feel, before you return home and start to create it?
Would you like to contemplate your retirement in beautiful surroundings?
Our retreats begin with coaching before your departure. They include a full programme of individual and small group coaching whilst we are in our retreat location and, after you return home, you will receive follow-up coaching.
Our retreats will be held in beautiful, inspiring locations in England, Ireland, the European mainland and Florida.
The new Retirement Detox website will be launched shortly, but, in the meantime, if you can't wait for more information, email me at ann@annharrisonlifecoaching.com with 'Retirement Detox Info' as the title.
Recommended Leisure and Travel Resources
- How to prevent lost luggage
- If you're flying off somewhere exotic sometime soon and want to avoid the nightmare of lost luggage, then Victoria Neely's Lost Luggage lens is the place to visit first.
Victoria used to work as an airline baggage agent, so, if you've ever wondered exactly what happens to your bag after you check it in, then she's the 'go-to' woman. Check in to her site for a trolley-load of bag-saving tips (sorry, couldn't resist it). - Gap years for grown-ups
- Do you think that a 'gap year' is just for a youngster filling in time between school and university? Think again because, apparently, there are an estimated 200,000 pre-retirement 'gappers' in the UK alone who spend around £5,000 per trip and make this a billion-pound industry. In fact, 'gap year' is rather a misnomer because a trip can last for as long as you want it to - some gappers spend as little as two weeks working on a conservation project, teaching English or just taking an adventure trip.
To get some idea of the possibilities, try visiting Gap Year for Grown Ups, the website of a company which describe itself as the 'leading specialists in career breaks and volunteer work, dedicated to providing support and peace of mind for the grown up gapper'. And you will send me a postcard, won't you? - The Universal Packing List
- Well, it's not the prettiest site in the world, but it certainly is useful. The Universal Packing List will generate a customised packing list for any holiday or vacation trip you choose to undertake. Simply fill in a short form and voila! My imaginary trip to Sanibel and Captiva on 31 September for 2 weeks (I wish!) generated a list of 181 items and a shedload of things to remember before I set off.
- Get the best seat on the plane!
- Before you book your next seat on a plane, you may want to check out SeatGuru, which shows you the seating layout for all planes used by the major airlines and indicates which are good seats, which are poor, which seats have extra legroom and which have power ports, etc.
SeatGuru is an excellent resource if you prefer checking-in on-line and has all sorts of other information such as check-in times, boarding times and latest flight news for each airline. - Take off with just one carry-on bag!
- The Travelite FAQ is an educational site that teaches ordinary people how to travel lightly. This Web site is written and maintained by Lani Teshima.
- Smart packing for today's traveller
- The complete guide for what to take and how to pack it!
- Thinking of booking a cruise?
- Are you thinking of booking a cruise? Before you head off to the travel agency, you might want to check out this link to an article by Amy B Crane and Leslie Hunt, which is chockful of advice you need to read before making your booking.
Great retirement-related books on Amazon
The Number : A Completely Different Way to Think About the Rest of Your Life
Amazon Price: $17.16 (as of 10/12/2008)
Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably!
Amazon Price: $16.29 (as of 10/12/2008)
The Savage Number: How Much Money Do You Need to Retire?
Amazon Price: $19.96 (as of 10/12/2008)
The Joy of Not Working: A Book for the Retired, Unemployed and Overworked- 21st Century Edition
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 10/12/2008)
What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the Life You Want (What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning Now for the)
Amazon Price: $11.53 (as of 10/12/2008)
Great Retirement Gifts on CafePress
Reader Feedback
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Zackfaire
well, retirement really is a big endeavor because you'll end up doing nothing if you don;t have anything planned. some even go into early retirement and end up being bored at home. thanks for sharing this awesome lens. you deserve some stars. 5 actually. Posted September 18, 2008 |
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lwyl
This is a wonderful lens! So much great information and resources for the new breed of retirees. Living what you love is an important part of retirement, and your detox questions will certainly help with that. Posted May 30, 2008 |
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beeobrien
Great lens. I'm adding it to my list of featured lenses at Cool Gadgets for Baby Boomers. Posted April 29, 2008 |
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Dean Caporella
It's amazing how retirement sneaks up on you. It didn't mean anything when you were in your 20s and 30s. Now, there is a sense of urgency. It means everything! Posted December 02, 2007 |
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here-to-help
Hi Ann, lots of interesting and helpful information here to make the transition to (semi-)retirement easier. Good job! Posted August 14, 2007 |
