retirement – Page 12 – Destination NOW

Mix These Four Essential Ingredients to Cook Up a Happy Retirement

Recently I attended a colleague’s retirement party. It was the first time I had seen many co-workers since I left the workforce four years ago. I was surprised that so many of them were surprised by how happy and relaxed I appeared. Several asked me what “my secret” is. I didn’t have an answer then, because I hadn’t given the matter much thought. But given my current abundance of free time, I’ve been able to ponder the subject deeply and have come to the conclusion that the “secret” isn’t so secret at all. It all boils down to four really simple ingredients. I hope you are enjoying the cooking analogy–after years of “on my radar, teeing things up, drilling down, hitting the ground running, and pushing the envelope”, I figured it’s time for a change.

You ready? The essential ingredients for a happy retirement are:

Strong personal relationships
Adequate financial resources
Good health
Oomph

I told you it was simple, but hey, Tom Jefferson got a lot of mileage out of stating ‘self evident’ truths, so let’s see how it will work for me. Besides, ‘knowing’ and ‘doing’ are two very different things. I think we all know that family and health are important, but how do we behave? I certainly was guilty of letting the work day spill over into family and friend time. I skipped exercising and ate far too many fast, easy (and less nutritious) meals. So, today’s post will start with the ingredient that has a tendency to crowd out the others:

Adequate Financial Resources
Isn’t that the reason we put in all those hours–to ensure that we have “adequate financial resources”? Over time, I learned that the most important word in that phrase is “adequate”.

Although I benefited greatly from working for insurance companies that regularly flooded me with information about financial planning, saving, & pensions, what was probably most helpful was a wonderful book by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin, “Your Money or Your Life”. This easy to read book helps you become aware of the trade offs that you unknowingly make by overspending. My favorite quote:

Rich only exists in comparison to others, but financial independence means that you have enough and then some.

Without trying hard, I’ll bet we can easily think of someone that has greater financial resources than 95% of the world’s population, but they always seem to want more. They haven’t quite grasped the concept of enough.

Two of my closest friends have traveled all over the world on very little money. For example, they managed to spend a month in Greece and two weeks in Ireland on what they had saved from two years of Peace Corp salary! They know what is important to them, and their spending reflects what they value.

When I was growing up, my dad used to tell me “Your wants are many, but your needs are few”. He was so right.

So, for all you young ‘uns out there, before you slap down your credit card, you might want to take a minute to think about to how you are allocating your dollars and your “life’s energy”, as Dominguez and Robin put it.

How did we get those resources?
I’ll admit it–we have been lucky. We haven’t had any major illnesses or financial catastrophes. And, although we both were impacted by mergers and acquisitions, we were able to find other employment relatively easily.

We also decided to give Lady Luck a helping hand. As our incomes rose, we didn’t increase our spending. Instead we opted to increase our contributions to our no-load mutual funds. We didn’t run up credit card debt, only charging what we could pay off by the time the bill arrived. We saved so that we could pay cash for our cars, maintained them and kept them well past their first decade. Instead of a monthly car payment, we made those “payments” to ourselves, so we weren’t paying interest, we were earning it. And guess what? We never felt deprived.

It all goes back to knowing what is important to you, and making sure that your behavior aligns with your objectives. Simple in concept, sometimes challenging to do. But SO very worth it!

Next post–Good Health!

Just what exactly does a Lifestyle Manager DO?

On December 1, 2015 I started my fifth year as the CEO of Destination Now, a Lifestyle Management company. In honor of this milestone, I thought I’d create what in the business world might be known as an annual report. Except in THIS case, there are qualifiers: I didn’t do one for the past four years –so much for annual–I and don’t expect to do another one ever again. Plus it is REALLY, really short. You ready?

Mission statement: To make the most of every day, occasionally to enjoy both walking down memory lane, and peering into the future, but to stay fully focused on and present in the PRESENT.
Number of Employees: ONE (that would be me)
Customers: One MAIN customer (my loving husband), plus a very select group comprised of family and friends (who are willing to let a control freak take charge)
Revenue: Cash: $0.00;
In Kind: Caboodles of wine, dinners, memories and friendship (all tax free!)

P1000549

Okay, so that’s a long winded way to say that I’ve been retired for 4 years, and am having a fantastic time planning and executing fun, food, and travel for my husband, my family and friends. It’s just that occasionally, when asked the inevitable question “what do you do”, I feel compelled to get creative. Be honest–which version did YOU prefer?

More free time has allowed me to become more self aware, and I have to acknowledge that I do better with goals and objectives. Before I retired, I took to cyberspace to see what I could learn from those that had trod that path ahead of me, and I benefitted greatly from their words of wisdom. So, over the coming weeks, as a way to ‘pay it forward’, I have set a goal to post more regularly, sharing what I have experienced/learned over the past 4 years, in the hope that doing so will help others more easily transition to this new life stage. As a bonus— we will ALL learn whether I can emulate the discipline shown by some of my favorite bloggers who post regularly.

“A Joy That’s Shared is a Joy Made Double”

Nothing would have made me happier than to have all my favorite people with me on this trip. Although I was unsuccessful in recruiting all of you (not from lack of trying), I DID manage to convince our good friends, Owen and Shirley to “double our joy”. For those of you that are making the journey with us via this blog (especially my sister, Sue, who refuses to fly), I’m so glad to have you riding along.
Now, back to our first full day in Tuscany. After Radicofani, we made our way to Giuseppi’s (Pepe’s) sheep farm. Unfortunately, according to Pepe the sheep had a “party” five months ago, which resulted in a lot of very pregnant sheep, so for a reason I have since forgotten (but was definitely connected to the party) the sheep were all in the barn. Too bad. It would no doubt have made for a lovely photo op. Instead, the photo at the top of this post just shows you the picturesque fields. Take a look at the lengths I go to so you don’t have cars or garbage cans cluttering up your view.

Back to the sheep that we didn’t see. They are Sardinian sheep, because that breed produces the milk that makes the VERY best pecorino cheese. In case you haven’t guessed, Pepe and his family are from Sardinia. Like Silvana, Pepe was highly amusing and quite informative.

Of course we had to sample some of that wonderful cheese. Eight different kinds. Washed down with wine, accompanied by prosciutto and salami and bread.

According to the official itinerary, we were done for the day, but Anna had a little surprise for us. We stopped at a cemetery for Americans killed during World War II, just in time for a brief lecture about the military campaign, the men buried there and the MIA. After taps, the flag was lowered. A very sobering experience, especially given the recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It made me think about the differences: WWII was the pain and sacrifice was shared by all. The recent wars are so very different. A small percentage of our population is giving so much, while the rest of us go about our normal lives.

Normally I like to end on an upbeat note, but for this post all I can say is “Thanks for your service”.

Chianciano Terme–“The place to cure your liver”

That’s right. That’s the slogan for Chianciano Terme, our home for the next six days. Although my liver doesn’t need to be cured–at least not yet, if it ever ails me, I’m definitely coming back to this sweet Tuscan hill town. Twenty years ago, before socialized medicine stopped covering spa treatments, people came here for a week or two to drink and soak in the mineral waters. One hopes they were not drinking the water they were sitting in, but who knows? For some reason, once the treatments were no longer free, business dropped off dramatically, so now it is a much quieter place, which suits us just fine.

Our family owned and operated hotel is cute and comfortable. If you are wondering why I am including the following photo, it is because the shutter visible on the top of the door to the balcony rolls up and down with the press of a button, just like a garage door opener.

I don’t know why, but I find that enchanting.

This time, we didn’t win the room assignment sweepstakes. Our balcony overlooks the parking lot, while those on the other side view the rolling hills. But no matter. Our bus rides offer us views aplenty.

The first half of our trip focuses on hilltop towns of Tuscany. First up is the lovely hilltop town of Radicofani, a stopping place for pilgrims enroute to Rome.

Here’s Anna, our wonderful guide, pointing out the Pilgrim icon on the side of one of the buildings.

Ghino di Tacco, Radicofani’s most famous resident made his living robbing those pilgrims, but he did it with class. He made sure he left the poor ones enough to eat. But still, he was a robber. So how come he is immortalized with a statue on the outskirts of town?

All was forgiven after he kidnapped an Abbott, who had digestive problems (perhaps on his way to Chianciano Terme to get a liver tune up?). Instead, after living on bread, water and dried beans, the Abbott was miraculously cured of whatever ailed him, was released, made his way to Rome, and convinced the pope to make Ghino a knight of the Order of St. John. Who says crime doesn’t pay?

Here are a few more images of this hidden gem of a town.

One of the many reasons I’m loving this tour with Grand Circle is because of the experiences I never would have had if we were on our own. Silvana is one of those experiences. We stopped for a snack at her shop. Silvana not only fed us, she kept us entertained with a monologue (translated by Anna) that Jerry Seinfeld would have envied.

Anna, our fantastic tour guide, and Radicofani's delightful shopkeeper. — Anna with Silvana, Radicofani’s stand up comic. Check out those pastries!

Silvana is the youngest resident of Radicofani. Her 78 year old mama is still working, taking care of 5 of her “elderly” neighbors.

Mama, saying hello from the window over the shop.

Our trip to the sheep farm will have to wait till tomorrow, or I’ll never get this post finished!

The Eternal City

Our first trip with Grand Circle is off to an amazing start! After an uneventful flight (and these days, uneventful is about as good as it gets), we were met at baggage claim by a Grand Circle representative who escorted us through the airport to meet our driver. What a pleasure not to have to hang around the airport waiting for other travelers to arrive.

Although we hit big city morning traffic, our driver took some “sneaky roads” that not only got us to the hotel quickly, but also gave us a little extra tour of the eternal city.

Anna, our tour director, was waiting in the lobby to greet us. When I expressed surprise at her American accent, she explained that she learned English in the USA. She IS Italian (and Greek), but it turns out her dad was a “rocket scientist” who worked on the lunar rover in Huntsville, Alabama. No, she did not have an Alabama accent. And despite graduating from Harvard, she doesn’t have a Boston accent.

Before the trip began, Anna had communicated with us via email, asking what we particularly wanted to see and do during our time in Italy. Although the group is big, (42 travelers), we are already experiencing the kind of attention you get with a much smaller group.

Much to my amazement, we weren’t tired after our overnight flight, so Anna gave us a map, marked the places we wanted to visit, gave us great directions and off we went.

The Hotel Albani is close to the Borghese garden, so we strolled through it on our way to the Museo Dell’Ara Pacis, one of the “not to be missed” places on Mike’s list.

The birthday boy, doing his Borghese prince imitation.

Anna directed us to an overlook that provided a fantastic panoramic view of the city.

And now a close up of the statue in the square

But today wasn’t just museums and statues. We also people watched. I continue to be fascinated by the ability of women to navigate cobblestone streets in unbelievable footwear.

After a late lunch at a sidewalk cafe, and a detour to the Spanish Steps, we hiked back to the hotel for a quick nap and a peek at CNN for an update on the pope’s visit in Washington DC. Time to meet the rest of our group for an introductory drink.

Happy Birth Month to You!

Mike has a milestone birthday this year, and what better way to celebrate than with Italian food, wine and scenery? I couldn’t quite get the trip scheduled so that we would be in Italy on the actual date, but then we have never been good at following calendars.

In the past, I just used to declare that according to the Mayan calendar, the date was really—-and fill in the blank with whatever date we were celebrating.

But then I thought why not start for a new tradition? Instead of Birth Day, why not celebrate Birth Month? Think about it–you would have a full month to schedule that special event. The odds that you could find a day that would allow everyone to attend just increased 30 fold, except, of course, for those born in February. Sorry.

It is especially helpful for those of us that left the Homeland (Massachusetts) for the Hinterlands (New Jersey). My family has sorta gotten used to my inability to be calendar bound, although I DO usually get the month right. Anybody ready to join the Birth/Anniversary Month movement?

To celebrate Mike’s birth-month, we will be wandering through Tuscany, ending up in Sorrento. This will be our first trip with Grand Circle, a sister company of Overseas Adventure Travel. Although the group is a bit larger than we normally choose, we liked the itinerary, which has us plopped in two towns, each for one week. Another selling point was the number of optional trips, so we can stay with the group, or choose to strike out on our own, should we feel the need.

The best part? Our good friends, Shirley and Owen, will be on the tour.

We arrive in Rome, then head for a town I never knew existed, and whose name I am probably mispronouncing: Chianciano. It will be our base for a week, as we explore the other Tuscany towns shown on the map above.

Our second week will be in Sorrento, a great base for all of the incredible area attractions.

We already received a lovely welcome note from our guide, Anna (pronounced like Donna, without the D) Costes, full of helpful information. She very kindly responded to my questions about our day trip to Florence. We are off to a great start!

You Call This Work?

So, what EXACTLY do Global Volunteers do in Querétaro, Mexico? As with all other GV projects, the volunteers do whatever our host asks us to do. And boy oh boy, are we well utilized here!

Five out of our group of eleven volunteers

At the Universidad Tecnológica de Querétaro (UTEQ), we spend four to five hours a day talking with highly motivated, enthusiastic students. Our schedule varies from day to day, to ensure that the early morning and late afternoon students also get an opportunity to interact with us. For example, on Tuesdays, we catch our cab for UTEQ at 7:20 AM for an 8 AM class and are finished teaching at noon. On Wednesday, we start teaching at 5:00 PM and are done at 9:00 PM. On the remaining days, our start times range from 9 AM to 12 PM. I’m here to tell Ya–I have even more respect for teachers. It is NOT easy being 100% focused for several hours straight.

Because the demand is so great, we never work with a student more than once. Initially, I wasn’t sure I’d like getting a new group every hour, but the students are wonderful, and the time absolutely flies by. You don’t even notice how tired you are until the cab ride home.

One of my groups. I LOVED working with these wonderful young women!

Group size varies. Sometimes we might each have 2 to 4 students. Other times we might have 10 to 12.

It is difficult to do much preparation, because you don’t know what you will be getting until you arrive in the classroom and start talking with the students. Some have prepared questions to ask us; others are shy, needing encouragement and gentle coaxing to get them to talk.

Pam, our leader explained that the goal was not necessarily to teach specific words or grammatical points, but to build students’ confidence. What a relief–I can do that! Once again, I discovered that patience, a sense of humor and enthusiasm were my most important tools. Oh yeah, that, plus a small white board, index cards and my iPad have been getting me through the day.

Before I left home, I raced around my house, camera in hand, taking photos of various objects that I could show on my iPad, as my back up plan. Good thing. For beginning students, it came in handy. For example, I used visuals like this, to have them practice asking each other, “what is this?”, then take turns answering.

In the midst of my pointing out objects on my iPad, I heard a chorus of “awwwwwww”. Mystified that cutlery could inspire such a reaction, I flipped my iPad around to find I had inadvertently switched the photo from my kitchen table to my sister’s granddaughter.
The students wanted to know all about “the baby”, so we talked about Bonnie–what was her name, where was she when the photo was taken, what was she wearing, what was she holding? Little Bonnie is now quite famous here in Querétaro. One student (bless his heart) wanted to know if she was MY baby. That led to a discussion about grandchildren, my sister, her daughter, all the other members of my family tree and my age!

Occasionally some of us have a break between classes. That’s the perfect time to head for the cafeteria for informal discussions. Today, I met an older student who is employed by the Swedish company Ericcson and attending school. He confessed to being a bit reluctant to approach me until he saw me smile at him and nod my head. His English was excellent–he just needed a little confidence. I felt like the Wizard of Oz!

Ericsson isn’t the only major employer in the areas. Other companies include Samsung and Daewoo from South Korea, Bombardier(Canada), Nestle(Switzerland) Siemens(Germany), Santander (Spain) and Kellogs, P&G, Bose from the good Ol USA. Querétaro is definitely an international city.

Ericsson has invested heavily in UTEC. Volunteers that had been here before mentioned that the campus had been spiffed up, buildings had been repainted, thanks to the generosity of Ericsson. They also donated the language lab, which is the building behind this sign.

What I really like, however, is the banner BEHIND the building, and not only because it is in English.

“An Everyone Everywhere World”, in which everyone gets the chance to fulfill their potential. What a beautiful sentiment. What a wonderful world that would be!

And what an amazing way to spend two weeks! Who knew work could be so much fun?

Queretaro, Mexico

Okay, for those of you that have visions of me basking in the sun, with a cerveza in one hand and sangria in the other, while you shiver amid the snow flakes, let me disabuse you of that notion. This morning started on the nippy side—39 degrees, according to Weatherbug.

I hit the street early, looking for an ATM. The good news–people on the street understood my Spanish. The bad news? They thought I could actually speak the language, so they went into “rapid” mode for giving directions, but quite fortunately accompanied it with LOTS of pointing.

Those green spots on the map in the last post? They are indeed lovely squares.

Check out what the locals are wearing. See, I wasn’t kidding about the temperature.

On the taxi ride from the airport, I got the night view of the bustling city of Queretaro, as we roared along the six lane highway. From what little I could see, it appears to be quite large and modern.

Our hotel is in el centro, the historic district. No cars are allowed on the street in front of the hotel, so the taxi driver very kindly walked me the half block to my destination.

That yellow building is where I’ll be hanging my hat for the next 17 days.

My room is on the second floor, 31 steps up. There is no elevator, so I was grateful that I had taken Pam’s advice and packed light. And I’m happy to have this built in opportunity for exercise.

My room is small, but very clean, and the bed is extra firm, which is my preference. The best part–the wi-fi seems to be working really well from my room.

Okay, so after looking at those photos, wouldn’t you think that my room is windowless? Well, that’s what I thought too, till I stepped into the shower this morning, and found one hiding in there. Not only do I have a window, but it was open all last night!
However, between the blankie on my bed, and el Diablo, I managed to stay quite warm.

Off to explore the old town!

Getting Ready for Global Volunteers

Tomorrow, if the snow gods allow, I will be winging my way toward my fourth Global Volunteers experience, in Queretaro, Mexico. Although I’ll be sticking to North America, and will have no jet lag to contend with, I’m still giving myself a couple of days to acclimate to my new surroundings. And what wonderful surroundings they will be!

I will freely admit to having extremely limited knowledge of our southern neighbor’s geography. I signed on without having any idea where Queretaro is, or anything else about the area, for that matter. But that is all changing. In the past two days, I’ve been cruising the internet, like a college student at exam time, trying to learn everything I can about the place I’ll call home for the next 17 days. And I’m more than happy to share this new-found knowledge with you–oh, my loved ones.

In the past, my experiences with Mexico were confined to the coasts: Cabo San Lucas and Playa del Carmen. This time, I’ll be in the interior of the country, so no need for bathing suit or flip-flops. Here’s a visual, for those of you, like me, who need to see where you are going, with Texas providing a point of reference.

Queretaro is right smack dab under that red dot. The city and the state share the same name–although the city is officially called Santiago de Queretaro. I didn’t even know that Mexico was broken into states–I just thought of that land mass as “Mexico”. But there are 31 of them, and Queretaro is one of the smallest, as you have probably figured out by its obliteration under the dot. It’s about two and a half hours from Mexico City, to give you an idea of distances and scale.

As with other things in life, don’t be fooled by size. Queretaro may be small in territory, but it has a lot going for it. It is chock full of beautiful 17th and 18th century buildings, enough to be named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1996. Many were former churches, convents and missions, (not surprising given the Franciscans founded the city in 1531, looonnnng before those Pilgrims and Puritans set foot up north). There’s scads of history in them thar hills, but I’m saving all that for future posts and possibly a quiz or two.

Here’s a sneak peek at my new world. I’ll be staying at the Hotel Hidalgo, which unlike the Casa de la Marquesa, probably didn’t give Google any advertising dollars. Still, what did we do before Google maps?!

my world

The green patch in the bottom right corner is the street market, which I will undoubtedly visit. I also checked out Jardin Zenea, and that looks to be quite lovely. I’m thinking I’ll have plenty of photo ops on my days off.

In the upper left hand corner is where I’ll be working: the Technological University of Queretaro (UTEQ), giving the students opportunities to practice English. (I am reluctant to describe what I do as “teaching” English, given my lack of teaching experience…but hey, I sure know how to talk and to listen!)

This will be quite a change of pace for me. For my other three projects, I worked with either preschool or elementary school children. This time, I’ll working with adolescents and will be following a varied schedule. To accommodate early and late classes, some days we’ll go from 7AM to 2 PM and others from 3 PM to 9 PM. Because the volunteers are in such demand, and the need is so great, we will not see the same class twice, something else that will be quite different for me.

I’m lucky enough to have an Ecuadorian sister-in-law, who humors me by letting me practice my Spanish on her. Any time yo hablo espanol, it is guaranteed to get a laugh out of mi hermana preferida. I’m sure it is because of her amazement and admiration of my fluency. We’ll see how it goes with the students. I’m betting I’ll be able to pick up a phrase or two from them to completely dazzle and amaze the folks back home.

I’m not sure about the internet capabilities in the hotel, or MY capabilities given the work schedule, but I plan on posting whenever I am able.

Hasta luego!

Why Blog?

Three and a half years ago, I discovered blogging can be a really great alternative to sending postcards. No need to have the correct currency for purchasing stamps, no searching for mail boxes in unfamiliar places, plus the images you share are what you have actually seen while traveling.

Blogging is far easier than emailing, especially if you are sending photographs. I learned the hard way that if you send a photo in ONE email to multiple recipients, your usage is calculated by multiplying the size of that attachment times the number of recipients. When you blog, you only burn through the MBs it takes to upload and post the attachments. BIG difference, especially if you are blogging from someplace without free internet or with a very SLOW connection.

My blog has become a way to stay in touch with my family and friends while traveling–to share the excitement I feel when discovering new places, people and cultures with those who, for whatever reason, don’t wander as much as I do.

I will confess to being concerned that my blog might appear to be too “look at me, look at ME and what I’m doing”. I also recognize that my life might not be so fascinating to others. Sometimes it isn’t all that fascinating to ME, if the truth be told.

Then I discovered other bloggers. It took a little effort to slog through all those financial blogs to find the retirement ones focused on making the most of this wonderful and exciting stage of life! And I realized that I thoroughly enjoyed how my new virtual buddies shared their thoughts, experiences, travels, photos. I’m following a diverse group of essayists, humorists, travelers and photographers. That made me think that maybe, just maybe, others would enjoy my contributions as much as I enjoy theirs, and helped me get over my New England reticence.

An unexpected blogging bonus was meeting one of my favorite bloggers face to face when we both happened to be in San Francisco at the same time. (If you ever wondered why any one would want to visit Antarctica, just spend a little time perusing her posts on Travelpod. ) One of these days, with a little luck and a lot of planning, Nancy and I will share an adventure that won’t be virtual.

Next week I’m off to Mexico for another Global Volunteers adventure. I hope you’ll come along!

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