Retiree Rebels: Ditch the Rocking Chair!

Boomers are on the other end of the generation gap now, often scratching their collective heads about the behaviors of young people. Writer and speaker, Sarah Gibson travels the world helping employers and elders work with the Gen-Xers and Millennials.

In this Kitchen Table Talk, she sat down with Mary Helen and Carol to explain how Retiree Rebels can help bridge the widening gap between the generations, whether at work or across the dinner table.

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up? It's time to ask that question again. What are your goals for the next 10, 20 or 30 years? Without a goal, how will you know what steps to take in the future? In this edition of Kitchen Table Talks, Mary Helen and Carol talk about how dreaming new dreams now is both different and the same as when you were young, but still absolutely necessary.

What about your work did you enjoy the most?

Knowing exactly what gave you an adrenaline charge may help you manage those first rocky months of retirement.

In this edition of Ask Mary Helen, she introduces us to four personality types and what about those different working styles could help you decide what to do with yourself after the retirement party is over.

Bored to Death?

You spent all this time and effort getting to retirement, just to take it easy for a change. Suddenly you realize you're bored. How'd that happen?

Maybe the old model of retirement doesn't suit you because it's BORING.

Worse yet, that old model can make you sick, even kill you.

Know someone who just retired? It might be time to check in and find out how they're coping.

January may be a logical time to retire, but it can also be the worst time. For that reason, we combined 4 podcasts for newbies to inform them of the new realities of retirement, both the lows and the unexpected potential. So pass on this link if you know a new retiree, or if you could also use a lift during these dark winter days.

Go Rebels!

Mary Helen has hit the big age milestone of 65! Time to wish her the best.. or is it?

Birthdays can be fraught with emotional overtones and societal expectations. In this Ask Mary Helen essay, our Retiree Rebel co-founder ruminates on the meaning of 65 ("No, I'm not dead yet") and how to turn societal expectations of her imminent demise on their head.

Even people who research and plan out their retirements --like our guest Barbara Boustead-- can be surprised by the reality of their new life.

To deal with the unexpected demands made on her time and energy, Barbara devised The Power of Three, a rule for setting boundaries. She shares her new found philosophy with Mary Helen and Carol on this edition of Kitchen Table Talks.

Got Confidence? Maybe not. Any big life transition can undermine a person's confidence in themselves and in their path in life.

Dolores Kokinos of The Empowerment Cafe has studied confidence, and divided that essential trait into five building blocks: Belonging, Acceptance, Respect, Purpose and Security.

In this KTT, Dolores talks with Mary Helen and Carol about how retirees on a new unscripted path of life can regain their footing and move forward with confidence.

What the psychologist Carl Jung called "The Afternoon of Our Lives" (retirement) is finally being recognized by the American media as a new active stage of life. Wow!

In this Kitchen Table Talk, Mary Helen and Carol review news reports from 2016 to discuss hopeful trends for retirees in 2017, ranging from the many people learning music to finding new housing options to discovering new meaning in life.

It's that time of year, isn't it? A time to remember, and so I do.

But this year, my approach to the holidays is to remember not to act my age as a grown up, with all the rules of the holiday, but to act my shoe size and remember what the holiday is about.

What will you remember with your shoe size holiday? Try this 'game' with the folks you'll share your own holiday with and see what they would do if they remembered their shoe size.