Retirement Advice: Know what’s important.

Hats off to Joan

I rail about the benefits of blogging for ‘mature’ people “Why do I rail?” you ask. If you have followed me for a while you know that it is just what I do but there is reasoning behind it. Blogging or reading blogs is a good way to get your thinking right or to understand the thinking of other people. If you don’t have anything to say yourself then you should be reading the blogs of people who do. I can’t tell you how much I have learned about life from connecting with other people through their blogs. Through their thoughtful posts I can learn how they approach life and make real decisions. I like to think that each of us should make our lives extraordinary (sometimes I say outrageous) but it is hard to do because society wants us to be responsible and cautious. I think that you need to do things that you will remember all your days with great pleasure instead of not doing them and regretting what you could have done. One of the bloggers I read regularly did just that and she shared her decision process with her readers. Joan looked at her choices and rejected conventional wisdom. Joan decided to be outrageous.

Joan popped into my life with a comment on one of my blogs. On her blog she focuses on second incomes for retirees and making the best life out of retirement. I check in with her regularly because I learn from her experience and perspective. This week was no exception.

I like to talk about living an outrageous retirement which means doing unexpected an unusual things and not going with the flow. Outrageous doesn’t always mean buying a trip to outer space on Virgin Atlantic or living in a Yurt although it can mean those things and more. It doesn’t mean spending huge amounts of money either. What it really means is not doing the expected ,ordinary thing or continuing down the wrong path when the right one appears and, most important, not caring what other people might think about your decision.

Sometimes you just have to go for it!

Joan knows how to be outrageous. I will give you the short version but get the full story at her blog. She grew up loving baseball and wanting to see a World Series game with Sandy Koufax of the Dodgers. Now living in Texas and never dreaming that the Rangers would make the series this year she scheduled a visit to her parents in Oregon. This week she has a choice. She can get tickets for a World Series game and lose the price of her non-refundable airline ticket– or visit her parents and miss the game. What would your do?

You have to pity anybody who would pass on the World Series rather than lose $200. $200 is not a trivial amount but it isn’t a fortune either. Sadly this country is full of people who live boring lives, worry about what other people think and never seize the moment. Joan fought the little voice in her head telling her to be responsible and grownup and told it to shove off. Joan is going to the series. She may be eating beans and franks for a while but she will never be telling herself and others that she could have gone to the Ranger’s first world series. She will tell them how great it was.

I’m looking for your outrageous story!

I am looking for your outrageous story. Joan can’t be the only one living life fully. I would love to hear you story in a comment or if you are a blogger and have a post with a link to it. The world needs more outrageous retirement stories.