Retiree Rebels: Ditch the Rocking Chair!

It's time to do our own thing! After years of working for someone else, retirement allows folks to choose what they might want to "do".

According to the Small Business Administration, more than five million Americans age 55 and older run their own businesses.

Carol Larson discusses businesses that were started by retirees. No sitting in the rocking chair for these amazing folks. Whether it's selling electric bikes, life coaching, or helping the elderly keep their financial house in order, these entrepreneurs are living their passions.

How do you feel about having 168 hours of free time?

For this Kitchen Table Talk, Mary Helen Conroy and Carol Larson discuss having more time on your hands than you're used to, which can be both a blessing and a curse.

So you're retired and you've had your first cup of coffee after you left the office. Now the 168 hours of the week are yours.

What happens to us as retirees is that we're off the drug of adrenaline, the drug that had kept us going each day at work.

Investigate how you might think about "I have nothing to do today!"

Retirement requires new tools in our life tool box. Having talked about the tools of review and retreat, Mary Helen Conroy now adds the tool of reinvention. Some folks term this time, reintegration as we piece together our likes, our desires and blend something new. Listen to how you can reinvent yourself as this new transition in your life begins.

Part-time jobs are not just for kids anymore. More and more retirees need to continue working after their "retirement" to supplement their income. Some just need to get out of the house. But regardless of the reason, it's hard to find a job. Ageism is rampant. Carol Larson discusses the realities of part-time employment.Do you want fries with that?

Generating JOY is a prescription Dr. Cheryl Woodson of Chicago, Illinois applies to herself as well as her patients. She is a physician, wife and mother, author of several books on caring for the aged and now mystery book author under her nom de plume, Teria Robens! Listen to Cheryl chat with us "grown folks" about her frank and candid advice as a Retiree Rebel.

Ah, Retirement, the waking up each day and happily sighing that life is good and all is well.

Maybe for some.

Carol Larson and Mary Helen Conroy discuss the important topic of what the first year of retirement is really like. The bliss might be dampened by depression, loneliness and even the 'shakes'. Forewarned is forearmed when it comes to the first year.

The second tool of reinvention is Retreat. Corporations spend millions of dollars on retreats. Times and places that encourage employees to strategize and create. Our second tool of retreat does the same for us as we begin to reinvent ourselves during retirement. It urges us to spend some time alone to allow the possibilities of our future to unfold.

Just because you're retired, doesn't mean you're dead. Carol Larson talks about how retirees need to move away from the ageist stereotypes of being old, doddering or near death....because you're not done yet!

Carol Larson interviews Sonny Knight, the 66 year old ex-trucker who's living his dream as lead singer in Sonny Knight and the Lakers. Listen to his story and his music, amazing!

Carol Larson, Emmy award winning journalist and writer discusses the newly and nearly retired's need for sleep. Exhausted, we need sleep. Sleep, sleep, perhaps to dream!