Rock Your Retirement Show

Des Easton loves Long Distance Motorcycle Riding! Traveling by motorcycle is fun, exhilarating but pretty energy zapping. Traveling hundreds of miles a day, day after day, sounds exhausting, But that is what retiree Des does .. for fun! Members of ‘Far Riders’ and the ‘Iron Butt’ groups set themselves challenges of long distance rides most bikers would not consider. But don’t get the idea that this is a dangerous undertaking. They plan and practice, sometimes for years, before attempting these feats, and travel strictly in accordance with the law and speed limits. Des explains the discipline and preparation which has allowed him to complete twenty thousand kilometers in twenty days. A challenge most of us wouldn’t even consider driving in a car. But he and his friends love it. He describes the routine required, from planning fuel stops to committing to a special diet. Your first thought may be .. “I bet they cheat,” but he nails that thought by explaining the protocols and confirmations riders have to complet

Lorraine Ladish is a 21st Century Communicator, helping empower women and others to achieve their goals. She is the founder and CEO of Viva Fifty! a bilingual community that celebrates being over 50. She’s worked as an editor and social media coordinator for a number of online publications. Her next book on embracing age will be published by HarperCollins in 2017.  By choice, Lorraine always worked, but never on a payroll.  She thought everyone did what they loved. Her Dad wanted her to be a Marine Biologist because he thought it was stable and she’d make a lot of money.  Now she makes more staying at home than Marine Biologists do. Lorraine tries to inspire women to live their best life every day and to celebrate being over 50! She wants to inspire women who speak both English and Spanish to live their best lives. When you do something you are passionate about, it makes you feel purposeful, happy and helps to avoid a downhill spiral in retirement. The sections of her website are: * Mind * Body * Grace (Beau

When Robin retired, she knew she wanted to explore new fields and expand her horizons. She came across an opportunity to volunteer with troubled youth. You've probably never heard of an “Independent Visitor For Youth Justice”.  Henry certainly hadn't before this show.  But Robin decided to take on that responsibility when she retired. When Henry went to interview Robin Turnbridge, they were initially going to discuss downsizing. Robin decided she would rather discuss her experience with Juvenile Justice and it became a wonderful topic of discussion. Robin intuitively knew that it was important to replace the routine of her working life with meaningful activity. Once a month, she goes to a Youth Justice Facility which are for teens who have committed serious crimes and are in custody. Robin goes into greater detail in the interview, but they talk with the teens, check in on them, and sometimes act as an advocate for the teens. Robin explains how she found this new role, what it entails, and why she

Caregiving is relentless. It is exhausting beyond belief and caregivers need a break. Adult Day Programs (AKA Adult Day Care) are a way for people to get a break.  They can drop their loved one off in a safe environment. I spoke with Lisa Tyburski from The Glenner Centers which offers Adult Day Programs AKA Adult Daycare Center from their 3 locations in San Diego. Lisa shared with me the powerful story about how The Glenner started. It was founded in 1982 by Dr. Glenner and his wife Joy. Dr. Glenner was a researcher at the UCSD school of medicine. He was working to advance research in the Alzheimer’s field. One night around midnight, he and his wife Joy received a phone call from the husband of one of Dr. Glenner’s Alzheimers patients. The husband, who had been a caregiver to his wife was frantic. He was absolutely at the end of his rope and he had a loaded gun in his hand. He was going to murder his wife and commit suicide. Dr. Glenner knew he needed to come up with a solution to help the caregivers. You can

Alison Smith started looking into her family heritage and found some surprises. By doing some genealogy research she found out that one of her relatives was a bit of a ruffian way back, and another surprise was the amazing amount of information which is now readily available online. In days gone by you would have to write to get access to birth certificates, or copies of newspaper articles.  Now a couple of mouse clicks may get that information needed to find one's family heritage. In this show Alison and Henry talk about her motivation for delving into the family background, how she went about it, and the resources she has found useful for locating information. This is called “Geneology” and seems to be all the rage, all around the world, not just in Australia. Alison talks about a couple of ways you can go about finding your family tree.  Some people want to find out about where their ancestors came from, and a little about their lives.  Others concentrate on just one or two family members, perh

You can attend a class from your living room and ask the professor questions! As I was interviewing these two, I said to myself, “OMG The Best Adult Learning EVER!” First a little about these two amazing ladies: Ellen Ervin and Lynne Beachner  As the former Director of WeMet Distance Learning Consortium, Ellen has worked in all aspects of technology.  Her passion is distance learning because she sees the power in helping organizations and people make connections around the world. Lynne has worked in education throughout her career in grades K-16 as a teacher/professor, a coordinator of instruction, a principal and an executive director.  She loves the curriculum and instruction side to education because that is where you engage students and create lifelong learners.  She received her Ph.D. from Kansas State University. Together Ellen and Lynne believe that it is just a matter of time until the world opens up to individuals communicating on a daily basis with museums, archives, health centers, hist

Henry interviews Ted Goodacre about his Retirement Lifestyle, which has a lot to do with Lawn Bowling: Listen to the show to learn how this natural entrepreneur took a wrong turn going home and it changed his life.  Ted tells us about intricacies of lawn bowling and how anyone with a bit of drive can create a lasting legacy. Ted is the last active foundation member of the Lismore Bowls Club, and in recent years has taken on the job of green-keeper.   He takes the game very seriously and is highly competitive.  In this interview he describes the game, the rules and traditions, the type of people involved, and strongly asserts that there are no performance enhancing drugs involved in the sport! Like many activities, we suspect lawn bowling becomes more and more addictive the longer you are involved.  It is a game which: * Can be just for fun and socialization * Bowlers can aim for the pennant competition * Doesn't take a lot of money to get started * Women and men of all ages and abilities can play, even those

Michael’s mother had a stroke and could no longer care for herself, so Michael became her caregiver. He discovered the constant need to repeat care giving information to various caregivers so he ended up carrying a binder with him that contained his parent's medical documents. During this period Michael’s company hired an Elder Family Resource person to help manage the complexities of her care. James, a longtime friend of Micheal’s, had a similar experience. His father developed sudden onset Parkinson's after his mother passed away and so couldn’t care for himself. James lived far away, but his sisters lived near his dad. As his dad’s needs increased, it became increasingly difficult to manage the household and care giving information between siblings. Michael and James talked about their respective care giving challenges and the need for a way to store and share critical documents became obvious. This led to their forming ElderAdmin to fulfill this very important need. This service stores images of their doc

Today Henry interviewed Rosemary Savage, a retiree who tells us what its like to volunteer for Meals on Wheels in Retirement: Henry found out that Rosemary and her husband were a regular couple who raised a large family. They looked forward to traveling and also helping others.  Rosemary's husband Keith passed away, but they had discussed the fact that he wanted to volunteer.  He found that he wanted to volunteer for Meals on Wheels in Retirement. * Meals on Wheels is an international organization which involves delivering meals to elderly or incapacitated people in your own * Community.  Even though Keith is no longer with her, Rosemary continues “meals on wheels” with the help of her daughters, not because she feels obligated, but because she loves it. * You can volunteer around your travel plans. * Let your basic humanity shine through.  Henry was impressed by Rosemary's humble nature and her humanity certainly shined through. * By being a volunteer for Meals on Wheels you can help your neighb

So many people in my life in 2016 were grieving it's difficult to track them all. Some of them lost a family member.  Some lost a pet.  And some were grieving over their lost candidate after the election. One of the things that most of us have to deal with in retirement is grief – either our own or someone else's.  What do you say to someone who's grieving?  That's exactly what I asked Natalia Volz and the answer may surprise you. Natalia Volz is the founder of Passing Through Grief and the RELIEF Process. She helps individuals who feel lost and down after experiencing a significant loss or change in their life such as a death, divorce, or children leaving home to heal their pain so they can rebuild their life and find renewed purpose. She has first hand experience with loss and grief.  In 2010, after a two-year battle with cancer, her husband died at the age of 49. Lost, alone, and very frightened, she eventually found her way through the devastating pain of loss and grief. There is a lack of understan

Bird watching in Retirement? Henry interviews Philip Jackson about Bird Watching in Retirement.  Phillip is an avid bird watcher (also known as “twitcher” in Australia).  He planned to pursue that interest when he retired from teaching. Phillip has actually retired twice.  Henry said he liked it so much he had to do it again.  Listen to the episode to find out how. Henry talked with him about how he managed his two retirements, how he supplements his income, and why he supplements his income now he has left full time work. But what Phillip really likes to do is bird watching in retirement.  Henry and Phillip talked about it and they discussed his retirement lifestyle: * Anyone can enjoy bird watching.  Novices can enjoy it as much as experienced people. * It is truly an activity for all ages, sexes and variety of people.  It doesn't matter if you are athletic, male or female.  The birds are there for everyone to enjoy. * Philip introduced us to the resources he uses to locate specific species, an

Today's episode with Chris Cooper was value packed! If you are currently a family caregiver, or about to become a family caregiver, you need to know about Fiduciaries, and what they do. A Fiduciary is responsible for the following: * Medical * Psychological * Social * Environmental * Legal * Financial What you might not realize is that Family Members are also responsible for those same areas.  Many family members don't realize that they are responsible for all six areas, and tend to only focus on legal and medical issues. Chris explains that the problems are not necessarily in areas #1 and #5, but are often in the other four areas.  For example, people with Alzheimers often have depth perception issues, something which we don't normally think about.  Their living space can be an environmental hazard.  (See Episode 34 for tips). Many of the issues that baby boomers need to think about are alien to us, because we don't think about these things.  Some of the problems arise when a family member is assigned the

Henry interviewed George Young. George needed to fix up his own house, and so he developed a lifelong interest in woodworking. This interest didn't stop and now he's woodworking in retirement. Henry talked to George about his life in Scotland and England.  George had a carefully planned emigration to Australia that fit in with his retirement plans. After he moved to Australia, he quickly established his love of woodworking in retirement by joining a local woodworkers club.  He became enmeshed in its culture and community. The Berwick Woodworkers Club is open to all men and women who agree to abide by the rules.  You don't need to have skills at first, but you must wish to learn skills.  Members help newcomers, and George is very proud that a young man they taught and supported went on to become ‘apprentice of the year' in Victoria. George speaks deliberately and quite slowly, but always from the heart. If you have an interest in woodworking in retirement, you will probably find a club reasonably close b

One of the things that we need to consider in our retirement lifestyle planning is how we are going to deal with illness and dying.  And, when the time comes, hospice care can be an excellent way of preparing ourselves for the inevitable. I knew that Jennifer was a hospice expert, but I didn't know that in 2006 she got her Master's Degree.  She worked with children at the time and went to school to get her Master's Degree.  She credits her professor with saving her life when he suggested that she work with hospice.  There are only two schools that offer courses on death and dying in San Diego. Jennifer Marsh is a community education and outreach specialist for Hospice of the North Coast. She has over ten years of creating, marketing and sustaining thriving educational programs to the general community about serious illness, care-giving and grief and loss issues. Jennifer has been published in the Touching Lives magazine (2009), and featured on KOCT-TV and Eldercare Talk Radio providing insight and resources t

Henry interviewed the Honorable Caroline Hogg, MLC. She talked about her life and responsibilities as a Victorian Government Minister. She also shared her current retirement lifestyle. What is her Life after Politics like and what is she doing now? There are good times and bad times in government no matter what country you live in.  She had personal triumphs.  But there were disappointments too. Whether you are in the USA, Australia, or another part of the world you will be able to relate. Caroline tells us a couple of stories which graphically demonstrate the pressure and responsibility which politicians take on our behalf. Caroline explained the discipline that was necessary to deal with the workload of parliament and how that translated into her private life after she resigned. She was looking forward to enjoying a relaxed country life after politics, but that's not what happened because her friends and colleagues heaped more responsibilities on her. You will be fascinated to learn about politics from the

Dave Hughes is the founder of Retire Fabulously!  He originally thought it would be just for LGBT retirement lifestyle, but found that retirement lifestyle issues are largely the same for everyone. Retire Fabulously is a website that provides the knowledge, tools and inspiration you need to plan your ideal retirement lifestyle. He is the author of “Design Your Dream Retirement,” which will enable you to envision, plan for, and enjoy the best retirement possible. Dave writes regularly for his blog, Retire Fabulously!, and U.S. News. His articles have appeared on Yahoo Finance, AOL Money, lgbtSr.org, Top Retirements, and Tiny Buddha. About four years ago Dave was looking for information to prepare him for his own retirement, but all he could find was financial information. He soaked up that information like a sponge, but it just wasn’t enough, so he started a blog, RetireFabulously.com Dave is part of the LGBT community, and started his blog with the intention that he would discuss LGBT retirement lifestyle. It

Stan tells how his wife Jenny wanted to volunteer overseas to help others. He didn't care about volunteering in Mongolia so he didn't go….at first. He missed his wife so finally after a few months he followed her to the orphanage where she was the health officer.  That's when his adventures began. Now Stan has some very sound advice for people considering volunteering in Mongolia. * Go with a reputable and recognized agency. * Obtain as much information as you can about the agency and it's programs before you go.  Talk to people who have volunteered through that agency.  Get the fact of how it really plays out, not what the brochure promises. * Be sure you understand the details.  This includes your accommodation, pay, food, insurance and so on. * Also be sure to understand the procedure of what happens in case of an emergency. * Be sure to understand your obligations to the agency and your host country, as well as their relationship to you.  Stan mentioned that some volunteers could not hack the simpl

How do I find a home for Mom when she needs more help than I can give? Today’s guest of the Rock Your Retirement show was Sydney Kennedy.  She specializes in answering the question, “How do I find a home for Mom?”.  Sydney immigrated to the USA in 1987 and worked with animal causes in fundraising and development.  She has experience developing conferences and workshops for UCSD CONNECT (and Sydney and I have a connection here that you can learn about by listening to the show).  In 2006 started devoting her time, knowledge, and experience to Elder Care and senior housing. As a Certified Senior Adviser (CSA) she is well equipped to assist families: * Find a home for Mom * Understand the difference between referral and placement * Assess the needs of the family * Take into consideration including health status * Assumed future health status based on current condition * Assess the financial parameters of the family including Long Term Care Insurance, Veterans Benefits and other programs * Understa

Henry Shapiro interviews Leda Sant who wanted to learn to ride a Motorcycle later in life. Leda had worked in the freight department for Qantas, and told us about some interesting things about working there.  She needed to understand what could fit in the freight area of the airplane.  Henry shared that he used to be a deer farmer and that they moved them via planes.  Leda said that every day at Qantas was a different day, and she even moved a small aircraft inside another airplane! Retired twice, because of boredom, she knew she had to have something to keep her busy. Her second retirement was planned so that her husband would retire, but that's not happened as of the recording of the episode! She indicated that retirement lifestyle includes activities to keep your mind alert and to keep physical.  Start ticking things off your bucket list.  One of those for Leda was to learn to ride a motorcycle later in life. She started riding at 45 with menopause (about 14 years now). She said it keep her mind active bec

Warning:  This episode on senior sex obviously contains adult material. Today my guest was Joan Price, who is a senior sex guru.  And as you know, sex is an important part of the retirement lifestyle. Joan, who is an “advocate for ageless sexuality”, has written numerous books, and in fact, she has been called the “senior sexpert”.   When I met her online I knew that I just had to have her on the show! We discussed the fact that NO, we don’t have to sit in a separate bathtub holding hands with our partner (think Cialis commercials) and in fact, we don’t even need to have partner at all!  Think about it, if you are a woman, chances are your partner (if you have one) is going to predecease you if you are around the same age since women live longer than men. Senior Sex?  I have so many questions! * What do you think about drugs like Cialis and Viagra? * Should these senior sex drugs be covered by Medicare? * What made you start writing about senior sex in the first place? * How can we spice up our sex lives? *