Seniors Summer Break

Hi Bloggers,
Just a short note to let you know that I'm taking the summer off. I'll be off-line until sometime in the last two weeks in August. Have a great summer!

Seniors - Keeping Your Brain Working

Our brains respond to new things ;- new ways of of doing old things. Without stimulation our brains start to reject things new, and our minds grow rusty! There are several things we can do to strengthen our minds. Here are five of them.

1. If you have the television habit and spend several hours per day glued to the boob tube (There's a good reason it's called a boob tube - don't be one!) turn it off and spend the time saved investigating something new.

2. Are you a reader? No? Become one. I am a life-long reader, but I tend to find a type of book I like (for example mystery) and stick to that type for a long time. I am trying to vary my reading by taking something new every time I to the library. This change in reading habits stimulates the brain by having it look at things in a new way.

3. How are your driving patterns? Do you always take the same route to get to the mall? Try a different way, even if it adds to your driving distance. The new pattern stimulates your mind to think in new ways - plus you might even see something new and interesting!

4. Try taking some new courses. Learning flower arranging, gardening skills,, or whatever without the pressure of getting a good mark can really start your brain thinking in new channels and developing new interests.

5. Make some changes. Break some patterns. Change your watch frome one wrist to the other. wear a different color of shoe lace. Put your gardening hat on backward. You will find that simple changes like these can be devilishly difficult to do because you are interupting a life-time habit, but they teach your brain to wake up and look at new possibilities!

Seniors Against Scammers and Other Frauds

Have You Got Somethingto Lose? Be careful - This world has many people more than ready to help you lose it!

Crimes against seniors continue to increase. These crimes come in may different forms: financial, psychological & physical abuse, telephone and computor scam, "construction" firms who go door to door offering cut-rate services. And the last one we'll look at today - sweepstakes & other contests.

Ways of Protecting Yourself

1. Financial abuse is often done by someone in your family or a close friend. Somone who you have given a power of Attorney to. A way of protecting yourself from this is to appoint two people when you set up your power of attorney - then the two of them must report any financial deals done on your behalf to each other!

2. Never allow someone who you are not expecting or do not know to come into your house - speak to them through the door. They may be at your door for legitimate reasons, but they may also be there to rob you!

3. If a salesperson tries to rush you into signing a contract for something, (resurfacing your driveway for instance) or he tells you that the price he is offering RIGHT NOW will never be repeated - just say NO! He's not legitimate!

4. Protect yourself against identity theft by not giving out any of your financial information (bank or credit card numbers for example) on the phone. No honest business will ask for this information unless you have called them to make a purchase.

When making a credit card purchase, do not let the card out of your sight. Crooks can run your card through a pocket-sized card reader before they put it through the store's scanner if you are not looking

5. If you are out working in your yard, keep your doors locked. If you are in the front yard cutting grass, you won't hear of see the crook sneaking into your house through the back door - keep it locked!~

6. Sweepstake scammers deserve a full blog and we will soon have one. Til then be very cautious if someone phones you about you having a prize - there are a lot of questions that you need answers for before you deal with him!

Seniors and Their Doctors

The last two months around here has been insane! As you have noticed, there has not been much done on the blog sight - mainly because yours truly has been stupid about going to the doctor!

I suppose there many reasons why seniors hesitate to go to the doctor regularly or tell the whole story to him/her when they get there:
. fear of finding out something you; just don't want to hear
. expense - if you don't have medical coverage
. disruption of your routine
. you don't have a family Doctor
. you never know how to explain what's wrong with you
. you think you know what the problem is and you can solve it yourself

Several of these points apply to me and are the reasons why I have been walking around the last several weeks looking and acting like I was at least twenty years older than I really am!

I take several different medications for three different conditions. I assumed that one or more of these meds. was finally causing some side effects and I would discuss it with my doctor at my next regular appointment. As I sometimes do, I prepared a note to the doctor spelling out what meds. I was on ( I know he has this info., but I'm a little compulsive! ) and what I thought was wrong.

He read my note, then checked me over and said, " You know, I don't think it's your meds., I think you have a lung infection. Maybe pneumonia!"

Well being a 66 year old bonehead, I thought to myself "Ha! He's wrong and I'm right, but he's the doctor so maybe I should try his idea first!"

Well, off I trotted with my order for a chest x-ray and my two new prescriptions. I had the
x-ray that day and filled the prescriptions the next morning and immediately toook them. I was feeling better within hours! Three days later he phoned me in the morning to let me know that the x-ray showed pneumonia in the lower half of the left lung! ( I don't know what impressed me more; that he was right and I was wrong, or that he personally phoned me! What a Doctor!)

I'll be back with more on this topic, but lets get some comments on your experiences with medical care - see you soon!

Seniors - Airline travel

Just a short post today- it's become my pet peeve about airline security. Things like cigarette lighters are thrown in one barrel, while lotions and jels etc. are thrown in another barrel. Now if you stop and think about that, why do they confiscate these items? You're right! They think that some of these items might contain explosives or explosive devises!

Once more - where are the barrels? That's right - in a great place to blow up several security agents, lord knows how many passengers, and a large chunk of the airport! Good work airline security - maybe you should rethink y;our disposal practises!

Jobs for Seniors

I found a web site that lists jobs in Canada that you might want to see! This is an online job site, a place where mature workers, retired persons or active seniors can search for new job activities - part time or full time.The url is:
www.seniorsforhire.ca

Take a look, if only to familiarize yourself with what's out there!
PS: The information about this website came from an article written by Larry Johnstrude and printed in the Edmonton Journal!

Elder Abuse: McGuinty Government Continuing To Protect Ontario Seniors

Elder Abuse: McGuinty Government Continuing To Protect Ontario Seniors

State 29: Iowa Democrats Still Lying About And Hating Wal-Mart

State 29: Iowa Democrats Still Lying About And Hating Wal-Mart

Seniors - Gardening

Spring has finally come to Manitoba, and the yard is beckoning. What a mess it is! Leaves and broken branches all over the grass, ratty- looking plastic bags caught in the bushes, and tons of dead, brown grass, all calling for me to come and clean things up!

Well, believe it or not, I started yesterday. I walked around the yard to see if any of the bulbs had started pushing through the soil - garlic, onions, tulips, lilys and iris. Nothing was up, surprise surprise, so I walked some more and picked up some of the loose paper and plastic. Then I actually spent some calories and cleaned up the pile of bird seed that had accumulated around the bird feeder. That done, I went back in the house, My first fifteen minutes spent on yard work done!

Today, I increased my time to thirty minutes and spent it raking. Tomorrow, unless I've stiffened up, I'll increase my time to forty five minutes. And by this time next week I'll be working full out with no pulled muscles to hold me back!

The lesson here is obvious, but being a retired school teacher, I'll review it. We are no longer in our twenties, What I could do at twenty six is long gone at sixty six! But experience does pay: start low, build up slow, and yard work can be a real pleasure instead of a real pain!

Have a look at the article just below, it's a discussion of a possible tax rise in the US, and what it would do to retirees - It won't affect Canadians, but we all know how stuff like that tends to migrate north across the border! Just click on the title.

A Far Right Conservative Point Of View

A Far Right Conservative Point Of View

Seniors- Procrastination

More from April sixth - Did you start your list of completed jobs? Did you read it over this morning? I did-and it helps!

One of the things that blocks us procrastinators is a job that we really aren't sure we can do! For example, think of a leaky tap. The drip is driving you crazy! And what a waste of water! It has to be fixed. The alternative to you fixing it is to call a plumber at Xmillion dollars an hour and wait for him to show up. Sooo, it's got to be you! But don't reach for your wrench yet-there is something else to be considered.

This is a job you've been avoiding, but, for a very good reason, money, you've accepted that you'll have to do it. The way to get it done is to break it up into smaller steps! With this particular job, my obvious first step was to learn how to do a tap repair. There are many sources for finding out how to do something. I used three: the library, the net, a talk with a friend. When I finished this step, I entered it into my completed job list. "How come?" You might ask. Well, I broke the original job into two jobs, and I had now finished the first one. The next day I did the actual repair (Which went easily because I knew what I was doing!) and entered this second job into my completed job list!

You'll notice that I did two things to get myself going: First, I gave myself a real reason _ save money on a plumber. Then. second, I divided the job up into smaller jobs that I could handle.
This plan will work for most jobs you've been avoiding. Once more - Find a real reason to do the job then divide the task up into smaller units - It Works!

Lake Minnetonka Liberty: Democrats to hike taxes 156% on seniors

Lake Minnetonka Liberty: Democrats to hike taxes 156% on seniors

"Who's and What's" Concerning Resume and Cover Letter Writing, Interviewing, Job Search: The Workplace Is Going Grey

"Who's and What's" Concerning Resume and Cover Letter Writing, Interviewing, Job Search: The Workplace Is Going Grey

Seniors -Procrastination

"Procrastination is the thief of time." by Edward Young and "anyone can do any amount of work provided it isn't the work he's supposed to be doing at the moment." by Robert Benchley are both great quotes to sum up the topic of this blog. Dictionaries define procrastination as "to put off till another day or time; defer:delay".

Everyone procrastinates to some degree, but some of us, including me, are at the far end of the scale! The first step in solving the problem is admitting it to yourself. If you are just sitting around, perhaps watching a TV show you don't even like, you are procrastinating! If you seem to be doing lots of things, but somehow, the important tasks don't get done, you are procrastinating!

One way to handle procrastination is to start each day with a short job list. Do it as soon as you get up. Don't wait until lunch time! At the beginning keep the list down to about three items that you are fairly sure you can get through in a couple of hours. Even a saint isn't going to spend sixteen hours doing umpteen jobs he really didn't want to do!

One more thing. Keep a separate list of the jobs you completed. Read this list over daily just to prove to yourself that you can do it!

MORE ON THIS NEXT TIME

Senior - About Insurance Claims on Your House Contents

The worst disaster possible happens, a fire has leveled your house and destroyed all your possessions. A day or two later an insurance investigator comes out from your insurance company to adjust your claim. Are you ready for him? Can you tell him exactly what things you lost? Most people can't. They say things like "We lost all our clothing!" This doesn't really help. Did you own five shirts or ten? If you can't tell him this, and most people can't, then he goes by the averages and gives you a lump sum. This sum might or might not replace what you personally lost!

There's a way to help you negotiate a better deal for yourself. You should take photos of every last thing you have in the house and garage! You can use a digital camera or a movie camera to make a record of all your possessions. It goes without saying that you safely store this record somewhere else!

When you take your pictures it is important that you record the number of things. ie a picture where you can actually see that you have ten shirts and not just five!

It is also important to be able to see the names or logos on items like your appliances and electronics. It takes a while to record everything in detail, but this detail could save you thousands! It's worth the effort.

Seniors - Getting Your Affairs in Order

Recently, a death in the family awoke us all to the necessity of leaving instructions and directions for the settling of an estate. Of course, leaving a will is of prime importance, but a will only covers who gets what, We found that there also needed to be information about the funeral and a breakdown of your assets and liabilities. Following is a list of what should have been recorded and made accessible to the family.

The Funeral
-instructions about your funeral
-cremation or burial
-what grave yard
-music you would like played or sung
-preference of minister
-phone numbers of friends or relatives that you would like personally notified
-adresses of people mentioned in your will

Your Assets
-banks or credit unions
-accounts
-safe deposit boxes (and keys)
brokerage firms
-a list of any stocks or bonds held there
rental properties you own
-the adresses and who is managing them
-a list of the pensions you receive
-a list of insurance policies
-a list of what's valuable in the house - ie jewelry, paintings, ornaments etc.
-a list of assets that you don't keep at home ie a boat in a marina
-a storage locker

Your Liabilities
-mortgages or personal loans owed out by you
-credit cards and lines of credit, reverse mortgages

Keeping this record will not only make things easier for your survivers, it will give you a clearer picture of your own financial position! Make sure your list is kept where it can be easily found.

Seniors

I was born in 1940, and when I look back through the years at all the discoveries that have been made since then, I am amazed! I wonder what the next twenty years will bring?

Here's a list of the ones I remember:
jet airplanes, radar
penicillin, television
polio vaccine, FM radio
atom bomb, nuclear medicine
sputnik, moon landings
space stations, computers
internet, e-mail
cell phones, hybrid cars
heart transplants, fuel cells
satellite communication, GPS
hip replacements, knee replacements
kidney transplants,
I'm sure I've forgotten a few - add yours in the comment section!

TIP FOR THE DAY:
Try a piece of dark chocolate for a treat today. It has antioxidants, lowers blood pressure, and tickles the taste buds!

Keeping Yourself Employable

This is a time when many seniors are worried that they will not be able to keep up their incomes enough to balance out the erosion of buying power caused by inflation. Every year your spendable income must increase or you must reduce your spending! With inflation at present day levels (fairly low) your income must double every 20 Years just to keep up!


Well, what's to do about it? Obviously now or in the near future you are going to have to look at a part-time job or a part-time business! If this is the case for you, then you need to get up to speed with modern technology. It's amazing how quickly you become out of date if you're not making an effort to keep up!

Take a look at these headings and try to assess where your skill level is for each of them.
-computers
-digital equipment-cameras etc.
-cell phones-text messaging, voice mail etc.
-on line- buying, selling, banking, etc.
-palm pilots
-Communication devices in general
How did you do?

Achievement After Sixty Five

Many reirees see age 65 as some kind of road block where everything must stop and life must ru;n down. Here are five people who did not look at it that way!

Kirk Douglas, the great movie actor, wrote two novels and an autobiography after the age of 65! He was born on December 9, 1916 with the name of Issur Danielovitch.

William Shatner, born on March 22, 1931, is the Canadian actor who played Captain Kirk in the Star Trek series. He is also a serious writer. He has written over a dozen books between 1990 and 2006!

Tony Bennett, born Aug. 3, 1926, was (some say still is) one of the best interpretive singers in the world. His second career was Painting. In 1996 when he was70 years old, a book of his painting was published!

Benjamin Franklin, born in 1706, signed the Decloration of Independence in 1776, at the age of 70!

Lester b. Pearson born April 23, 1897 was a Prime Minister of Canada. He established the Canadian Pension Plan (CPP) in 1966, when he was 69 years old!

Now it's your turn!

Seniors Who Tried Something New

Fred, a retired salesman. decided that he needed extra money to support his geneology hobby. He applied for a job as a security guard and got it. He's saving his added income for a trip to England to study first hand the family roots for his geneology!

Bill, a retired office manager, wanted an interesting job to keep himself active. He landed one at a small one-man firm that sells dynamite! Now he handles the business end of the company. He told me recently, with a big grin on his face, that he also got to drive a pick-up truck loaded with dynamite - definitely a highlight of his whole career!

Another friend, also a former salesman, decided that he would buy a small farm. He doesn't make a lot of money, but he'd wanted a farm his whole life and now he has one!

A fourth friend, a retired radio - TV announcer decided to go out on casting calls as an extra in crowd scenes. He doesn't make much, but he enjoys the company of the people he meets!

Time for you to try something unique!

Learning New Things in Retirement

Have you stopped trying to learn new things? When did you Stop? Why?

Many of us, especially after retirement, start learning new things only passively rather than actively seeking for new knowledge. Passive learning means that your brain hasn't totally burned out, but its getting close to it! You are no longer interested in seeking new things to learn. Your brain is a fine instrument and needs to be used to remain sharp. Start using it again!

Where should you look to find these new areas of knowledge? Try some of the ideas listed below.

1- Search the web - type in e-zines on your search engine and you'll find hundreds of articles
on every imaginable subject.
2- Join the library-again!
3- Sign up for a course - academic or something hands on like wood working.
4- Anything that keeps your mind stimulated!

Friends after Retirement

Retirement itself causes the loss of friends. The people you worked with, talked with on coffee breaks and over lunch are now on a different path than you and the closeness you felt with them at work is no longer possible.

You are also at the the age when more and more of your friends will succumb to disease, even death.

Your circle of friends is your support group in life. People who maintain this circle tend to live longer and happier lives than those who allow the circle to deteriorate. The solution of course is to keep adding to the circle, but how?
WAYS and MEANS
-Join some organizations, Lions Club for instance.
-Start participating in group recreation like seniors sports or bridge club.
-Renew old friendships - give someone a call and meet him for coffee or a drink!
-Become a volunteer.
-Join a dance club, square dancing for example.
-Take a greater interest in church affairs.
-Start using your e-mail!

Happiness in Retirement

What are the things that make a person happy? There are many, but you have to nurture them, cultivate them. We've looked at three of them already, worthwhile goals, financial security and fitness.

Still to dicuss are things like social relationships, achievements, helping others, spirituality, learning new things.Each of these will contribute to your well-being.

SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
This topic deals with family and friends. The family is important, but if you've had a good relationship with them over the years it will most likely continue. Friends are a different matter!

Friends range from casual aquaintances to best pals, and time and circumstances move them up and down the scale between the two extemes. It is difficult to maintain a strong relationship with a buddy who moves a thousand miles away.
MORE TOMORROW

Getting Fit for Summer Part 2

I hope you've been thinking about the last blog, and you"ve decided that YES, you do need to start an exercise program. As always, check first with your doctor before trying a new type of exercise. Remember, exercise of any kind should start slowly and build up gradually over a period of weeks - At our age, pain is NOT gain!

1. For Balance and Flexibility
-YOGA - You can start with a beginner's book then, when you're comfortable, sign up for a beginners class.
-TAI CHI - A little more complicated, so start with an instructor!
-PILATES - Definitely start with an instuctor!
2. Strength Training
-Training with weights or resistance bands. Again an instructor is best.
3. Aerobics
-Walking, Dancing, Swimming - Do it from memory!

Getting FIT for Summer

Well spring is here and soon summer activities will start. Are you physically ready for a long (I hope it's long) hot summer of gardening, house painting, holidaying, etc.?

Many seniors are not. We forget that work, even at a sedentary job, burns some calories, strengthens some muscles, and limbers up some joints! Now please don't tell me you spent your career as a mattress tester!

Many of us, if we looked back over the past month, would remember days when we did nothing more strenuous then lift a beer or two. The body soon adjusts to this slow pace, muscle shrinks, joints stiffen up, and aerobic ability reduces!

Okay, before all your clothes shrink (or you pack on enough pounds to grow right out of them)1t's time to start on an exercise program!

MORE TOMORROW

SPRING!

Spring is here! It's a little hard to believe in my part of the country (Manitoba) but it is above freezing and some snow is melting. I can hardly wait to see bare ground again!
Let's finish off the part-time business list from yesterday, then next time go on to something new.
3. Retail-oriented Businesses
_ craft shop
_beauty parlor (old fashioned for hair salon!)
_day care
_Table at a flea market or farmer's market
4.Personal services
_Dog walking & grooming
_Massage therapy

Drop me a note in the comment section if you have or have had a part-time business. Tell us your experiences with it.

More Part-Time Businesses for Seniors

If you're a little hesitant to start up a part- time business, consider Harland Saunders. At the age of 66 he started up the the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. If the Colonel can start a fried chicken empire,, you can handle a part-time business! Here's more business ideas to add to yesterday's list:
1. Service oriented
_ Write resumes for people
_ Do bookkeeping or accounting for other small bussinesses
2.Contracting Businesses
_ Electricians, Plumbers,Carpenters
_Computer Services: Repairing, setting up, programming
_Renovators: House repairs & decorating
_Lawn and Garden services

More Tomorrow_Drop me a note in the comment section & tell us your experiences!

Extra Income for Seniors

Need extra income to offset a rising cost of living? The obvious choices are: 1. a part-time job
2. a part time business.

A part-time job is probably the easier of the two choices, but has the disadvantages of locking you into a schedule and being low paid!

The part-time busines option requires a great deal of thought, research and planning, but tends to be more interesting and can be more financially rewarding than a job.

Here is a very short list of part-time business options:
1. Develop a hobby into a business 2. Start buying & selling on e-Bay
3. Start a consulting business 4. Try something like AVON
5. On-line business (investigate first!) 6. Become a writer (ie. blogs!)
Anyone with thoughts on this, drop me a note & I'll put it in my next posting.

The Business Side of Retirement

The first concern of any new retiree must be the protection of his or her buying power! If your retirement income is a fixed amount, then you need to plan for the loss of buying power caused by inflation. Some forunate souls have pensions that have a cost of living clause built right into them. If you're not one of these fortunates who have inflation protection, then early on you need to come up with a way to handle inflation!

Inflation, even a low inflation rate of 2% per year can have can have a drastic effect on your spending five years from now. For example, if your net income after taxes, is $25000 a year, inflation will reduce your buying power by $500 a year. Five years from now this will be costing you about $2500 a year in lost buying power - more if you take into account the compounding effect! You will still have your $25000 per year, it just won't buy you as much as it would now!

Tomorrow, we'll look at some ways of handling inflation for the retiree!

New Goals for Retirement

Life is not an endless vacation based on playing in the sun; life is living, striving toward some goal that is still as valuable at sixty five as it was at twenty five!

Save a rain forest, topple a corrupt politician, rescue a child. build something better than anyone else. You are free now to follow goals goals that were not possible when your main goals were to raise a family and keep your job! Reach back into your past and dig those old goals out, the things you would have liked to accomplish. They're still there, still bright and shining, still a worth-while way to spend a life. And you know what? You can still take a vacation or indulge yourself with days off to goof around!
MORE TOMORROW

Goals for Retirement

What goals are realistic for the newly retired? Drive to Texas or Florida every winter? They're great places to see, and great places to play in, but they are not the kind of goals we were taught at a young age, they're simply time fillers for the aimless.

Even retirement is taught to us as a goal, the final goal. Nothing comes after it. Did anyone at your retirement party ask you what your new goal in life is? Or did they ask you how you were going to fill in your time? Travel? Golf? Bird watching? Ballroom dancing? A little workshop in your garage?

Harmless pursuits. Things to keep you busy until.... Let me ask you, did anyone say to you when you were sixteen. "Why don't you quit school? After all, you might be dead in five years!" No, of course not. It was statistically improbable. Never-the-less some sixteens die by the age of twenty one - Should all sixteen year olds have set there goals based on the uncertainty of death? No. And we shouldn't either! MORE TOMORROW

Retirement

Retirement - What a negative word! Each part of this word is designed to put us down. Retire - go to bed and sleep; tire - wear out or wear down; ment - a suffix which changes a verb to a noun, an action to a thing! It's all wrong! What this stage in our lives should be called is emancipation - a release from slavery or restraint, a setting free!
We spent years in school learning to work, then more years at work learning to work more efficiently. Why couldn't some of this learning have been extended to our emancipation?
If you've been lucky, your employer provided you with a day or two off to attend a retirement seminar; if you've been lucky, you've also run across one of the magazines for the "mature" that try to point the newly emancipated in the right direction, but basically, you're on your own!
Where are the goals? From the time we learn how to talk we are taught about our role in society: get an education, get a job, get a spouse, get a house, get children, get a bigger house. But what about now? Is it "get out of the way" or are we able to make it "get a Life"
MORE TOMORROW