Ready to Retire? What now/

The “grind”; the “treadmill”; your “career” – has STOPPED. You are RETIRED. What now?

For the first time since you were a kid, you get to choose what to do every day, who to do it with, how to do it, and when to do it. Ahhhh. BUT WAIT: Your new life is beginning to descend upon you – new demands on your time, new things to do, new places to go, new experiences to explore. Yes, it is of your own choosing, but a new lifestyle pattern so soon begins to emerge.

Stop the train before it leaves the station. Travel is no doubt in your plans, but now getting away to see everything on your ‘bucket list” is becoming just as mired in minutia as when you were working. Why not step back, do some planning, and run away from home for some really long time before you settle into retirement. Get healthy, be free-as-a-bird, and have the time of your life.

Boomers by the thousands are beginning to do exactly that, guided by the best-selling, award-winning book, “Live Your Road Trip Dream.” Whether your dream vision is a trip around the US, a year on a sailboat, backpacking through Asia, or a year in Tuscany, this handy guide, chock-full of tips for healthy living that are applicable to every income level, and every type of dreamer, will have you moving from the dreaming to the doing in no time at all.

Seattle Day Trips

I've been doing some writing for RoadTripAmerica.com about road trips. Here is my latest one on day trips from Seattle.



Enjoy.

Boomers Getting More and More Sites

Part of the fun of being involved in the boomer marketplace is learning about new sites that are offering good content and ideas to help this generation make decisions on all types of issues from lifestyle to finance to retirement.

In the last couple of weeks, I have been working with two newer sites by providing some articles to them. They are good sites and I know you will enjoy poking around for new information. Here are the links to what I wrote as a jumping off point for you.

Boom Voyage

Top Retirements

I hope you enjoy these sites and maybe even the articles.

Carol

Dreaming - January, 2009 Newsletter

Chuc Mung Nam Moi! Or, Happy New Year in Vietnamese. We have just returned from a wonderful trip to Vietnam and Thailand and were lucky enough to be there during their lunar New Year celebration welcoming the "Year of the Ox". It was a road trip of sorts in that we took almost every conveyance you can think of including rickshaws, bamboo boats, bamboo rafts, elephants, ferries, Junks, and good old buses. There were a small group of us and we had the time of our lives. We highly recommend Overseas Adventure Travel for their spirit of adventure in taking us places that large groups can't go and for planning activities so varied that we were always trying to guess what might come next. So now it is back to work. Phil and Carol

After nearly four years of publishing this newsletter, I've decided to take it to a blog format instead of this periodic epistle. I'm hoping that it will give you more timely information in shorter, more digestible bites and make it easier for all of you to leave comments and ask questions. I do need your help though to make this transition. You can subscribe by going here and telling me in the upper left hand side just how and where you would like it delivered or you can "follow me" and get notifications when I post something new. This is so much more flexible than just having me send it to your inbox. I hope this will make our communication even more effective by taking advantage of new technologies. Try it - I think you'll like it.

Here is a new website that tells all kinds of interesting stories of retirement, reinvention and travel - among other things. www.topretirements.com

Last month I promised a copy of "Essential USA" for your best tips. And the winners are: Steve Albrecht We struggled with the question, “What do we collect as souvenirs?” for a long time before we left on our 6 month trip. On the 2nd day of our adventure, at the Grand Canyon, my wife had an epiphany. “We should get a Christmas ornament everywhere we go,” she said. “They’re small, inexpensive, and every year when we decorate our tree, we can relive our adventure.” We’d keep a small box on hand, and add ornaments until the box was full, then send it to my parents for safe keeping. We plan to put up our “Adventure Tree” this evening (we now do 2 trees), and I am so looking forward to reliving our great adventure. Sharry Buckner Measure the height and width of your rig, in BOTH feet and meters, then write it down and tape it to the dashboard of your rig or tow vehicle.You don't have time to think when you're headed for an underpass in Canada. Here's a link to convert: http://www.metric-conversions.org/length/feet-to-meters.htm Congratulations! Your books will be on their way to you this week. Thanks to everyone who entered an idea.

We are eager to hear from you... share your feedback... Till next time.. Keep Dreaming...

It's a Fun Thing!

This has absolutely nothing to do with the book - but it is a fun thing I thought I would share with you. The largest circulation magazine in the country is AARP The Magazine and the AARP Bulletin. Many of you probably receive them each month.

Open the AARP Bulletin this month!
(it's the newspaper one)
Turn to page 19

There you will find a picture and article about my nice husband - Phil White, looking very dapper as he has returned to work in the face of the recession. I, of course, wish they had said he was the co-author of Live Your Road Trip Dream - but no such luck, although they did discuss it. Now THAT would have really been fun - 35 million boomers and seniors exposed to our book. But, nonetheless, it is fun to see him there.

If you don't get the paper and want to see the article, you can go here.