Outrageous Retirement Lifestyle:An Interview with Banjo Steve Ruzansky

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Introducing Banjo Steve: Retirement Lifestyle Master 

 

 

 

Steve Ruzansky is living an outrageous retirement lifestyle which is a followup to his outrageous lifestyle leading up to retiring. Banjo Steve is his moniker for comments but the name doesn’t begin to cover all the dimensions. I could tell that Steve had a lot to share with people looking to create an outrageous retirement lifestyle from his comments. As you can see from the interview, Steve could teach a master class if he hadn’t decided to give up the classroom to live a lifestyle which in his words is:

“Kind of like being an extremely wealthy person- only without the enormous bank account.”

Steve says that to him, wealth is:

“the many interests that I have cultivated and the many friends/family that are linked to those interests.”

Part of that experience is as a performer, musician and puppeteer in his Pennsylvania community. Pennsylvanians may want to learn more about how they can engage Steve’s services. I am awed by Steve’s mastery of life and happy to share his experience with you. So here is Steve.

 

RCB: Who is Steve Ruzansky?

Banjo Steve: Just someone who, like everyone else, is trying to do the best he can with the hand he’s been dealt, and I must admit that I’ve been dealt a good hand. And I like to think that I have played – and am still playing – my cards thoughtfully and wisely. I am known to be a quietly creative and inventive type, and ambitious in a non-competitive way. I love to laugh with others, love whimsy and the ironies of life. Love being a husband, father, grandfather (call me “Pops”), love learning to play the gloriously infernal bluegrass banjo, which is not nearly as frustrating as playing that devilishly wonderful game called golf. All in all, I’m a pretty typical boomer – in my own unique style.

A fairly introspective and empathic person, I worked for almost forty years to make my grade five classroom a welcoming and creatively challenging place for my students.

RCB: You were a teacher for almost four decades, now you are an entertainer. How did that happen?

Banjo Steve: Actually, I was an entertainer before being a teacher. At Penn State, I was a coffeehouse-folky guitarist/vocalist (with some wonderful exposure to bluegrass) and did a lot of stage acting. When I became a teacher, I just expanded my role as a performer in ways that kept the content fresh for me and intriguing to my students.

While teaching, I got involved with puppeteering mainly because my teaching salary was insufficient to pay all the bills (my wife was home with our three very young kids at the time), so I looked around for possibilities that wouldn’t involve leaving teaching. With background skills in theater, crafts, music, and children, I saw that professional puppeteering just might be the answer (the longer story is that I saw a puppet show that was brought to my school, saw that the kids LOVED it despite the limited skills of the puppeteer, and thought, “I can do that. And I can do that better!” ……. which I proceeded to do quite successfully).

The puppeteering sideline earnings got us through the lean years until the kids were old enough for my wife to go back to work. Then I abandoned professional puppetry but still brought it into my classroom for use in connection with various curriculum projects. Each year my students (with my support – especially with the glue gun) made their own puppets and used it in a presentation. To this day I continue to meet past students who tell me that they still have that puppet they made so many years ago.

Upon retirement, I dusted off my puppet gear and have resumed puppeteering in a part-time mode for fun, extra money and continued fun with kids. My website is www.PuppetBySteve.com. I also do occasional busking (street performing w/ my banjo).

RCB: Is retirement different from what you expected?

Banjo Steve: Way, way better! Each day is a complete gift. While I keep a To Do list for every day, it is almost totally stress-free, even with the Gotta Do calls or chores (though I admit that I have put off repainting the master bathroom for over a year….). I still hugely savor the evenings (especially Sundays) as I remind myself that I don’t have any papers to mark, lesson plans to make, or parents to call.

RCB: Do you think that your retirement is outrageous?

Banjo Steve: To me, just being retired is an outrageous opportunity. Kind of like being an extremely wealthy person – only without the enormous bank account. And a big part of that wealth is the many interests that I have cultivated and the many friends/family that are linked to those interests.

A brief overview to my week: Monday I spend taking care of my 17 month old granddaughter (SUCH a cutie!), Tuesday is a golfing day (with a delightfully enthusiastic buddy who is uncanny in finding coupons for good, inexpensive golf courses), Wednesday is often a day for chores, with a night full of jamming with my bluegrass jam bunch, Thursday is another golf day, and Friday is a day that ends with our fairly regular Take-Out dinner gathering with some good friends.

And interspersed throughout the week are also various other activities: banjo practice (I’m also working on some classical pieces), reading (I am obsessed with historical fiction), crossword puzzles, sailing (which definitely is outside my comfort zone), home chores & food shopping, two or three fitness outings with my wife, blog-reading/responding, puppet gigs, and occasional busking (street performing with banjo and voice).

RCB: Who do you know that is living an outrageous retirement lifestyle?

Banjo Steve: As I said, I think that just being able to be actively retired is outrageous. And it’s not a competition of “whose retirement is more outrageous,” by any means. These days, anyone who finds a way to “live their dreams” is pretty unique and outrageously liberated from the “gotta make a living” treadmill. Perhaps one key is to have specific (retirement/redirection) dreams to pursue with the strategies (financial, social,spiritual, etc.) that get you on the right track. And, of course, to make sure you enjoy the journey.

RCB: Is there something that you want to do in your retirement lifestyle that hasn’t happened yet? If so, what is it?

Banjo Steve: Several years before retiring at age 61, in addition to the requisite “crunching of numbers”, I spent time seriously visualizing how I wanted to spend my retirement/redirection years. I even had a loose-leaf notebook where I wrote down my thoughts (I titled the notebook, “The Next 30 Years”). Some things I tried (puppet craft sales, e.g.) that I decided to bag. The others I have been already pursuing, as already mentioned elsewhere in this interview. One thing that my wife and I have yet to do is travel to the west coast for a while (Frisco and north to Portland, Seattle, maybe Vancouver).

But my “bucket list bucket is pretty empty because I’m doing what I’ve always wanted to do. I don’t feel like I need to fall into the fabled retirement dream of traveling the world or relocating to Costa Rica. I am carefully avoiding buying into how other people define what a retirement lifestyle should be. We all have our own dreams and passions.

RCB: What advice do you have for people who aren’t happy with their retirement lifestyle?

Banjo Steve: Tough question, plus I don’t really like to give advice. I’d rather just be available for observation and sharing.

At any rate, here are some thoughts:

*I’d suggest working on one’s attitude and explorations: Are you grateful for what you do have (a la “glass half full”)? Stay positive and look for opportunities. Read the many retirement blogs (like Ralph’s) – they are full of great ideas and wonderful perspective on life in general.

*Seek good friendships and maintain them. Avoid toxic people and, by all means, don’t be one!. Find and cultivate people who like to laugh in healthy and nourishing ways.

*If money is an issue, think whether it really IS the issue, or whether your vision of what retirement “should be” needs some serious values adjustment.

* If, for whatever reason, it’s not really feasible to retire (soon or at all), then still investigate the aforementioned suggestions in order to find ways to create a life that you can still love and appreciate.

This interview just scratches the surface of Steve’s retirement thinking. And when you think for a moment you realize that Steve never got suckered into any confusion about life. He is living his retired life with all the energy and wisdom that he applied at the other stages. If you are a master like Steve, then you just apply your principles whatever stage you are in. But if you are trying to put your life in order, then study Steve and take him for a model. Don’t think that you have to learn the banjo, puppetry and performing to be successful. But play your strengths and follow your passion wherever it takes you. If you have questions for Steve, I’m sure he will be happy to respond.