Rock Your Retirement Show

Are you living in a multigenerational household or are you considering having your parents move in? Do you take care of aging parents as well as your own children? Do you know someone who is having challenges with caring for their parents? If any of these situations are yours, then this series is for you. In other countries, the sandwich generation is a cultural thing, and it has been passed on from generation to generation. Therefore, it’s a given. But is it necessarily a bad thing? There is nothing wrong with caring for family members. In last week’s episode, we spoke about what the sandwich generation is and what issues you may face if you are taking care of both your parents and your own children. Today, we’re talking about six lessons for the Sandwich Generation. Now Tae and I didn't get through all six of the lessons in our conversation but they are all listed below Get to Know Everybody’s Finances Growing up as an immigrant family, Tae’s parents didn't know anything about retirement savings, and money

Adults in their 30s - 50s have parents' age 65 and older and are either raising a young child or financially supporting a grown child. With an aging population and a generation of young adults struggling to achieve financial independence, this stress takes a toll not only on personal relationships but also affects the relationship with their spouse, children, and family. But living in a sandwich generation can also provide you with benefits. If you're living in a multi-generational household, you must listen to this series. In today's episode, we'll talk about what exactly is the sandwich generation and what issues are you going to face if you're taking care of both your parents and your own children. My guest today, Tae Kim, is a blogger. He writes about navigating the intersection between personal finance and being part of the sandwich generation. Tae and his wife live with their aging parents while raising their own children and building their careers.

Some baby boomers are moving to and retiring in Mexico. They are doing this not just to save money, but to have a better retirement lifestyle. I talked with Travis Scott Luther who wrote a book called The Fun Side of the Wall: Baby Boomer Retirement in Mexico. Travis completed a thesis in 2010 about baby boomers retiring in Mexico. He received a lot of inquiries about the subject so he decided he would write a book. Unexpected Findings From 2007 through 2009 we were going through that global financial crisis. It was during that time Travis has found this small group of expats in Mexico. What he was most curious about is why anyone would want to leave the United States.  After all, the United States was the best country in the world with the best of everything. His gut told him that perhaps people who might be struggling financially in the US would consider retiring in Mexico to stretch their budget. Maybe they could live more comfortably in Mexico. What he found, was quite to the contrary. The person most lik

Love is a complex word, which we will be talking about today, specifically finding love during your senior years. Our guest speaker Dr. Joan Bragar has helped successful women use online dating to find a loving life partner. She wrote the book on it called, “Never too Late for Love: The Successful Women's Guide to Online Dating in the Second Half of Life.” She was certified as a relationship coach and she herself met her husband on Match.com and got married at age 62. So she knows what she's talking about! Meeting Someone Online Dr. Bragar got divorced at 58. She's the kind of person who actually likes to live in companionship and love. That is why she knew for a fact that she wanted to remarry. It was her son who was 32 and single at that time, who encouraged her to meet someone online. She'd never heard of it. Her son encouraged her to just try it and she at least thought she would test the waters and try it. Not knowing the person you are dating is one difficulty you encounter when dating onli

I wanted to let you know what the future is for the Rock Your Retirement Show. If you have listened to the episode where I discussed my traumatic event, you’ll remember that I’m re-evaluating my life. This event was life-changing for me. If you haven’t listened to the episode, and you are interested, just go to Episode 209. Since this traumatic event, I decided I wanted to scale back on some of my workload. I have already announced to my remaining financial planning clients that I’ll be retiring from financial planning on 12/31/2020. Although I partially retired from financial planning in 2015, I continued to work with my favorite clients. With Covid-19 affecting so many of our lives, I’ve had additional time to reflect. In my time of reflection, I have discovered that I need to make some further changes. And those changes affect the show. Since 2016 I have been paying to host the show. Although I’ve added some advertising it has never supported the show. In fact, my affiliate link provider has indicated to m

Are you still working even though you are able to retire if you wanted? I started the Rock Your Retirement show in 2016.  Since then it has been downloaded over 220,000 times. Potential sponsors have reached out to me.  And I've been asked many times why I started the show. It started as a personal project but has grown to much more than that.  But since you asked, I'll try to explain it. I believe in the FIRE movement.  In case you haven't heard of it, FIRE stands for Financially Independent, Retire Early. I've had good examples of this. My dad was able to retire when he was fifty but kept working until he was fifty-five to provide more of a cushion. So I've seen people in my life retire early according to US standards. And he was so glad that he retired when he did.  He and his wife were able to travel the world for many years.  They were spending our inheritance and we didn't mind.  Literally cruises around the world that lasted for months.  They were Rocking Their Retirement for sure. He taught me to save

Aging takes place against a backdrop of grief. It’s the little losses and then the larger losses Today my guest is Stephanie Raffelock. Stephanie wrote a cute inspirational book called, A Delightful Little Book on Aging. I read the book and I absolutely loved it!  How Did the Book Come About? The book sort of came about on accident for Stephanie. She was writing for a website and she got feedback from women all around the world. They had told her that they too were experiencing this kind of shift in their lives as they were entering into their 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Stephanie began to see that there are two ways to navigate the waters of aging. One way is to embrace the years, the strength, courage, and nobility that comes with growing older. The other way was to simply say aging sucks, I don’t like it and I’m going to fight it for as long as possible.  She collected and compiled many of the essays and articles she had written to put into this book. It’s not a how-to book, it’s not a self-help book. It is a bo

  Are you looking for creative things to do at home? We have compiled a list of some interesting ideas! Whether you are hunkering down, sheltering in place, staycationing, or whatever you term our time as we are trying to be safe during COVID-19, there is something for everyone in this list. I covered some of the positives of COVID-19 that people who have subscribed to the Rock Your Retirement Facebook group offered in a previous podcast episode. That list is still growing, which is attributed to the creativity of our listeners Thank you for all your contributions! It is great to think positively during all of this. Zoos and Aquariums Live streaming from Monterey Bay Aquarium The Atlanta Zoo has a PandaCam. Like Meerkats?  Check out the Chattanooga Zoo's webcams which also include snow-leopards, tamarins, and spotted genets. Clearwater Marine Aquarium‘s Mission is to Rescue Rehab and Release.  Watch them live. Like Eagles? Check out National Eagle Center Eagle Watch Cam or Duke Farms Eagle Nest

How to save money during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond Today I am running an interview where I was the guest on the TalkOne Radio Show. The host of the show is Alan Flowers and there is also a co-host named Skip. This is a live local radio show but my husband and editor, Les, always works his magic to make me sound as good as possible so he did some light editing. I was invited to talk about how to save money in today's times of trouble. As we all know COVID-19 has disrupted our lives and caused turmoil in many ways including financially. I have mentioned many times that we try to steer clear of discussing money on this show. However, I thought during this time, it might be beneficial and informative for my audience. Even if we are financially set because of a pension, social security, or investments, these are troubling times. Almost everyone I know has been impacted financially at least to some extent. The stock market has plunged and many people who may not currently be feeling the effects of the weaken

Today we're talking once again with Fritz Gilbert. He came on our show last year after he retired. And we invited him back to tell us how it's been going two years into retirement. Fritz was on episode 198. So if you haven't heard it, go back and listen to it, it might be surprising to find out what's changed. Creating a Retirement Jar Fritz created a retirement jar before he retired so he and his wife could put whatever they want to do during retirement. That helped them think for a year before retirement about the softer side of what are they going to do in retirement. And just going through that mental exercise of thinking of activities, probably paid more benefits than anything else through the process. Also, it made them aware, because you're constantly on the hunt for something to do in the area, so you can add it to the jar. Inevitably, they've done a lot of things that probably each of them put in the jar without actually pulling the paper out of the jar. When looking for things to do, it has led th

Chad “Coach” Carson is my coach when it comes to real estate investing, but we invited him to come on the show because he believes in stoicism and doesn’t believe that we should be overly optimistic when it comes to dealing with COVID -19. It is okay to be an optimist, but in these times we also have to be realistic or risk extreme disappointment and, in the worst case, we could become depressed. Chad talks about his podcast episode entitled “The Danger of Wishful Thinking In These Trying Times: The Stockdale Paradox”. His podcast is “The Real Estate and Financial Independence Podcast”. Having lived in Equador, Chad also talks about how Equador is dealing with COVID-19 in comparison to what is happening here in the U.S. Hear the story of James Stockdale who was a prisoner of war in Viet Nam and how he successfully dealt with unimaginable hardship.  Chad relates James Stockdale’s experience to our current experiences with COVID-19. Essence of Stoicism Viruses are going to do what viruses want to do. I don't th

Today we are still talking about COVID-19, but we are going to talk about the Blessings.  The world has certainly changed.  It might have permanently changed.  Our world as we knew it might never be the same.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s all bad. Instead of sitting around, gaining weight, feeling sorry for ourselves because we can't go to a restaurant, we can't see our friends, let's face it, there is a lot that we can't do.  I asked people to tell me what’s happened due to COVID-19, that is positive.  We'll go over some things that people are seeing, right here and now, that is positive coming out of this crisis. What are the Positive Sides for this COVID-19 Pandemic? I asked people what a positive thing has happened because of COVID-19 and I got a ton of answers!  I want to go over some of them now with you. First of all, pollution is down in many parts of the world.  Malika H agreed with me and said that there is now clean air and water for animals. But not just for animals!  When Les and I went to Chi

As most of us are sequestered in our homes during the COVID-19 crisis, we have the opportunity to get better organized in our lives and prepare for the future. Hopefully, for most of us, the future will be bright as we return to our more normal lives. However, for some of us, the crisis will bring other life challenges. With so many people out of legitimate work. This is likely to be a time when crooks come out of the woodwork and take advantage of the situation. The results are the miracle cures the scams to get that government check, outright fraud and of course, identity theft. This podcast today has three parts. The first part is about the obvious scams that are being seen all the time, some with a COVID-19 twist. The second part is some things that you can do to organize so that you will be in the best shape should you fall prey to some of these schemes. The third part is to provide critical steps that you need to take should you become a victim of identity theft. COVID-19 Scams $1200 Check Bait Many mil

Today, I will be sharing with you some insights from my interview with David Jarmul, the author of “Not Exactly Retired”. His book discusses the trips he took within the United States and with the Peace Corps. But today we will focus on his Peace Corps tour. You will also get to know if you're too old for the Peace Corps and what to expect if you sign up. It's Not Too Old to Start David Jarmul started his Peace Corps trip at 63. He went to Nepal with his wife a few weeks after he left his job and spent two months even in areas where westerners rarely go. They went off a few months later to serve for over two years in Eastern Europe in a little country called Moldova. While they were here, they were able to apply for Medicare at the American Embassy in Athens, Greece. The Peace Corps has an administrative director in the country where they were serving it. They guided him and his wife through applying for Medicare before they were about to turn 65. He mentioned that nobody joins the Peace Corps to

I know that we don't normally talk about money on the Rock Your Retirement Show, but in today's falling stock market due to the Covid-19 outbreak, you probably have questions. Joe from The Stacking Benjamins Show was kind enough to come on the show to tell us what we should be doing right now. What’s very frightening is that some people you see talking online and not the health stuff, but just in money forums. Those people said, Oh, this goes into a depression. Do you keep investing? Is everybody okay? I just want to sell everything. That's awful and nearly as awful we could maybe talk about this too is when do I quote back the truck up and start buying everything? All those for different reasons are scary places to be. I can understand those feelings. Because I've lost a lot in the stock market since this pandemic has been going on. We’re Still Not in a Depression You saw the tremors around the start of March a little bit. The last few weeks have been nothing short of depressing. And It has been depressing,

Today's message is about how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how we are changing the show a bit to deal with this crisis. Transcript below: Hi, I’m Kathe Kline, the founder of the Rock Your Retirement Show. I’m recording this special episode on Sunday, March 22nd 2020,  and it’s regarding COVID 19. If this is the first time you’ve listened, understand that today’s show isn’t our normal type of show.  I wanted to talk with you and share some things about this crisis that we are in throughout the world. Last week I sent everyone on our email list a note about my thoughts.  My husband, Les, and I went on a 9-day cruise that returned on March 15th.  We had already made plans to stop at Costco on the way home to pick up our normal items because we live 2 hours away from a Costco. You already know that all Hell had broken loose and there was a shortage of toilet paper. Before I continue, I want to say something about toilet paper. If you were one of the people who stocked up on it, or if you were one of the peop

Most often, pain is classified as being acute or chronic. Pain can persist for days, months, or even years after an initial injury and can be difficult to treat. People with pain may experience anxiety, sleeplessness, and depression, all of which can compound the problem. In the first episode, we discussed what happened to me and how I could have dealt with my pain a little bit better. The second episode, we discussed how well our health system treats pain and last week we talked about pain myths and misconceptions, and I have been dying for this last episode where Dr. Kevin Cuccaro will give us the secret of why firefighters are better pain specialist than actual pain specialist. We Are Behind the Science of Pain Dr. Kevin Cuccaro said that the way they practice, teach, and talk to their patients is literally 50 to 60 behind the science of pain. That was difficult to overcome when it was Dr. Cuccaro going through that process and recognizing why people don't seem to get better with these pain injections. Why

Pain is whatever the patient says it is. Pain is a very personal experience and varies greatly between people. Many people have misconceptions or misbeliefs about pain in children. These myths have lasted even though there is now evidenced to support that they are not true. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, about pain. And we touched on them a little bit last week, one of those is that our doctor can fix us. What Are Those Misconceptions? The idea that we can be fixed or the idea that pain can be chopped out, cut, poked, or drugged out of us, is a huge misconception. And that tends to come from this idea again that pain oozes out the body like pus. It’s easy to understand that, right? We believe that if I poke you in the leg with a knife, that makes pain travel like little pus from that knife cut into your brain. Then, it would make sense that we would be like “Well, oh someone must interrupt the flow of the pain pus.” Pain Generator If there was something in your back, body, shoulder, or whatever,

Last week, my guest co-host, Dr. Kevin Cuccaro, and I had an interesting discussion about me and my pain. If you didn’t hear it, I was taken to the emergency room by ambulance because I could not get out of bed due to pain. Today’s episode will talk about how well healthcare systems treat pain. How Our Healthcare System Is Treating It Dr. Kevin Cuccaro said that our healthcare system is good for acute episodes. If you are in an accident, having an acute heart attack, or go cut open, our healthcare is good on treating that. The whole system is designed to round it. But what we are not good at is anything that has been around for a while, the chronic conditions. We’re not good at doing preventive care so that you won’t have a heart attack in the first place. If you have pain for a long period, we’re pretty atrocious in taking care of that. Is It Always the Doctor’s Responsibility to Fix Us? For a long time, people have been taught that if there’s anything wrong with you, go see your doctor and then they’re goin

An Expert on Pain Today’s guest host Dr. Kevin Cuccaro is an expert on pain and will help us how we can prevent pain episodes. We had so many e-mail responses to our 4-part series on pain that I thought it would be great to bring on an actual expert. My husband, Les, and I discussed pain in episodes 180 through 183 but as you know we’re not experts. We discussed the June 2019 article on pain. Since our discussion, I had something that happened to me you probably aren’t aware of unless you’re a member of the Facebook group. During this 4-part series, we’ll be discussing the podcast episodes that Les and I created and what we left out. In this episode, we’ll discuss what happened to me and how I might be able to prevent pain episodes. I'm Having Pain Episodes I had a pain on my neck that has gone on for a couple of days and I’m no stranger of having a pain in my neck. So, I thought I would do some traction and traction is something I have done in the past. Instead of doing it for 2 minutes, I did it for 3 minut