Rock Your Retirement Show

Today we are still talking about COVID-19, but we are going to talk about the Blessings.  The world has certainly changed.  It might have permanently changed.  Our world as we knew it might never be the same.  But that doesn’t mean that it’s all bad.

Instead of sitting around, gaining weight, feeling sorry for ourselves because we can't go to a restaurant, we can't see our friends, let's face it, there is a lot that we can't do.  I asked people to tell me what’s happened due to COVID-19, that is positive.  We'll go over some things that people are seeing, right here and now, that is positive coming out of this crisis.

What are the Positive Sides for this COVID-19 Pandemic?

I asked people what a positive thing has happened because of COVID-19 and I got a ton of answers!  I want to go over some of them now with you.

First of all, pollution is down in many parts of the world.  Malika H agreed with me and said that there is now clean air and water for animals.

But not just for animals!  When Les and I went to China, it had a yellow haze.  There are so many people who wore masks there, not necessarily because of illness, but because of pollution.  It was particularly bad when we went.  I remember we had gotten off the plane and we're riding a bus to get to our hotel.

There was a tour director telling us about parts of the city.  I pointed at the moon and said how big and pretty it was.  She looked at me and said, that's not the moon, that's the sun.  Of course I was shocked!  And I wore my mask the entire trip.  Les didn't wear his, and as a result he wound up getting sick on that cruise two years ago.  When you are breathing in super polluted air, you are more likely to get sick.

Nature is Healing Itself

The skies cleared in China as people were on lockdown and then started to haze over again as factories reopened and people got back to work.

We are all aware how polluted our environment has become that slowly depleted our nature. With the pollution from factories, cars, greenhouse emissions, carbon emissions that cause climate change, our planet has been seriously suffering for quite sometime now. As the global pandemic brought our way of life to an almost complete halt, it has given the Earth a chance to breathe just like us.

China isn't the only place where the lock down has made a huge difference in Air pollution.  People in India can see the Himalayas for the first time in decades.

COVID-19 Equals Less Traffic

Several people talked about how much better people seem to be driving, if they are driving at all.  Tim B said that “nobody seems to be driving like a (bleep) on the highway. Beverly D is enjoying less traffic on the road. Joe G said that fewer people are dying in auto accidents.

Mark D, Steve B, and Cheri C are enjoying less traffic! And Steve B also said he can always find parking now.

Ryan mentioned that there are fewer cars on the road so it's easier to ride a bicycle.

I've noticed how many more bicycles are out and about in my neighborhood.  I've seen the regular bikes, tricycles, and recumbent bikes out.  Bicycle use is exploding as people try to stay healthy.  We are lucky in the US in that we are not on total lockdown in most areas.  However, if you are in an area that doesn't allow you to ride your bike, I understand, it would be more difficult.

King JS said that he's happy that there are less people outside.  He must live in a place where you aren't allowed to go outside and exercise like we are.

More Animals are Coming Out

Blake M posted a video that shows 70,000 endangered turtles were able to lay eggs on empty beaches.

As most of us are sequestered in our homes during the COVID-19 crisis, we have the opportunity to get better organized in our lives and prepare for the future. Hopefully, for most of us, the future will be bright as we return to our more normal lives. However, for some of us, the crisis will bring other life challenges. With so many people out of legitimate work. This is likely to be a time when crooks come out of the woodwork and take advantage of the situation. The results are the miracle cures the scams to get that government check, outright fraud and of course, identity theft.

This podcast today has three parts. The first part is about the obvious scams that are being seen all the time, some with a COVID-19 twist. The second part is some things that you can do to organize so that you will be in the best shape should you fall prey to some of these schemes. The third part is to provide critical steps that you need to take should you become a victim of identity theft.

COVID-19 Scams

$1200 Check Bait

Many millions of people are supposed to get a check from the government to tide us over during this very trying period. This unfortunately is like chum to a shark who wants to get his or her hands on your cheque. We don't know how the government is going to disseminate these checks, which opens the door to fraud.

One thing we do know, neither the government nor any financial institution is going to call you about that payment. If you get an email or a phone call from anyone with an official sounding organization, it is only someone trying to take that cheque away from you. It would be typical that the person contacting you would want to get bank account information, offer you in advance that gets the check or get enough information so that they would know where to find the check to steal it and cash it themselves. Please do not respond to any requests coming from the telephone or email regarding your 1200 dollar payment.

COVID Check Request

You receive an email message from a supposedly government entity telling you that you can get your COVID relief check if you submit a form. The form requests personal information which the scammer gets, but the underlying reason is to be able to infect your machine with malware. Bottom line, the government will not issue checks in this way, so please delete the message before doing anything.

Expedite Scam

We actually don't know when the checks will be coming. Some say it will be more than a month. This is an opening for someone to offer you an advance on the money you're expected to get. This can take several forms. It could be alone with high interest rates, or it could be more insidious, such as the promise of money sent to your bank account, as long as you give the scammer your account number. It could also be a check that when deposited gives the person your banking information. Don't fall for someone who tells you that you can get your money earlier.

Miracle Cures for COVID-19

All of us are desperate to find a cure for COVID-19. We're also desperate to take something that would make us immune. Unfortunately, there's no such remedies yet, so don't fall for the miracles that don't exist. That being said, there are a few supplements that might and I emphasize might have some benefit. Before You Buy or take anything, check with a trusted source.

COVID Charities

Whenever there's a crisis like this, the charities or fake charities come out like weeds. This goes from GoFundMe accounts to all kinds of charities professing to help those in need because of COVID-19. But before you plunk down any of your hard earned money, make sure that the charity is legitimate by accessi...

Today, I will be sharing with you some insights from my interview with David Jarmul, the author of “Not Exactly Retired”. His book discusses the trips he took within the United States and with the Peace Corps. But today we will focus on his Peace Corps tour. You will also get to know if you're too old for the Peace Corps and what to expect if you sign up.

It's Not Too Old to Start

David Jarmul started his Peace Corps trip at 63. He went to Nepal with his wife a few weeks after he left his job and spent two months even in areas where westerners rarely go. They went off a few months later to serve for over two years in Eastern Europe in a little country called Moldova.

While they were here, they were able to apply for Medicare at the American Embassy in Athens, Greece. The Peace Corps has an administrative director in the country where they were serving it. They guided him and his wife through applying for Medicare before they were about to turn 65. He mentioned that nobody joins the Peace Corps to get rich. It shouldn't be the reason to join it. But from a financial standpoint, this is a good way to make a transition from paycheck to the next phase of retirement since the Peace Corps covers all your expenses. They pay your way over as you get free medical and dental care.

Peace Corps is a Good Way to Make that Transition

Peace Corps has its own doctor and a medical team that is really excellent. They were able to receive good medical care. This covered them until shortly after they finished their service and was able to transition over to activating Medicare. He mentioned that this is a real nice benefit but not the reason to do it, but it turned out to be a good way to make that transition.

It's Been Always David Jarmul's Dream to Join the Peace Corps

Probably you are all wondering why David Jarmul and his wife joined the Peace Corps. David had a high-powered job at a university. According to him, it was pretty stressful, but he loved his job and colleagues. It has always been their dream to join Peace Corps and as they hit their 60s; They made this dream come true. Since traveling has always been their passion, they went on a trip within US and then Nepal. He said he wanted to move on to the next chapter of his life and so they had a series of adventures, which he feels the best thing they ever did.

They felt fortunate enough living in United States, but wanted to go some place where they could be useful. He became the librarian while his wife an English teacher. Here they felt really useful, and they made dear friends. They learned a lot and ended up feeling the way most Peace Corps volunteers do when they finish, which is getting much more than they give.

You'll Meet New Friends

David Jarmul and his wife Champa were able to make friends from all over United States through volunteering in the Peace Corps.  According to him, it was a joy, and it's one of the great things about it. Some of their friends even consider this experience as a way of making the most out of their lives. They never regret the 2 years they spent volunteering in the Peace Corps as their family are very supportive of them because they knew that this was in their hearts, something they have always wanted to do.

It was during one of their trips in the United States when they were able to meet their old friend Linda. It was she who opened up everything about Medicare and Social Security that are good to have. That they need not to wake up at 85 and say that they should have done this. It's like whatever you want to do, think constantly about it and try to make it happen. So everyone's have to find what it is they want. For David and his wife,

I know that we don't normally talk about money on the Rock Your Retirement Show, but in today's falling stock market due to the Covid-19 outbreak, you probably have questions.

Joe from The Stacking Benjamins Show was kind enough to come on the show to tell us what we should be doing right now.

What’s very frightening is that some people you see talking online and not the health stuff, but just in money forums. Those people said, Oh, this goes into a depression. Do you keep investing? Is everybody okay? I just want to sell everything. That's awful and nearly as awful we could maybe talk about this too is when do I quote back the truck up and start buying everything? All those for different reasons are scary places to be.

I can understand those feelings. Because I've lost a lot in the stock market since this pandemic has been going on.

We’re Still Not in a Depression

You saw the tremors around the start of March a little bit. The last few weeks have been nothing short of depressing. And It has been depressing, but we're not in a depression.

We won't know that for a while. Because just to get to recession territory, we have to have two quarters in a row of certain levels of negative GDP. And so we won't even know if we hit a recession till we get to the six-month mark. So I think people worried about depression are a little premature. Jumping the gun a bit.

The Economy Has to Continue

I know that if the economy is going to continue; The economy has to continue on the back of companies. And these companies are publicly traded. And so if the economy is going to continue, the stock market has to rebound. It's not Voodoo. It's not magic. The stock market has to rebound at some point for the economy to continue. This is going to pass.

Don't make decisions when you're emotional. Work from an investment policy statement that you created when you were not emotional and go back to that guide today and go No, no, this is what I said I was going to do and just keep following that.

What Joe Wouldn't Do Right Now

Somebody was talking to Joe on Twitter about buying Delta Airlines. Their point was obviously airline stocks are super low. And they said the government's not going to let them go under because it's an essential service. Even we had the president on recently talking about the fact that airlines and cruise lines are things that we want to make sure do well.

Going back to just not that long ago, history 2007-2008. Joe remembers them talking about Delphi won't go under, General Motors won't go under. All those companies declare bankruptcy. Also, the Lehman Brothers. Before the biggest analysts that follows them said, they're too big to fail. The government will not let Lehman Brothers go bankrupt. The person who ostensibly knew the most that weren’t in the company, and they still went. That is why you should not bet on Delta Airlines right now. And that's not negative to Delta Airlines.

Don't think that these companies that have no customers right now won't seek bankruptcy protection. That's what bankruptcy protections there for exactly.

They Are Worrying Too Much About the Economy

They're worried about the economy. So they want to let people go out, but what's going to happen is more people are going to get sick and then the economy will be shut down longer..

Take your medicine, get rid of it. It's like we tell people when they have credit card debt when they come to see people like you or I. Let's take care of this problem now, I know you want to do the sexy stuff, like, get into investing, talk and whatever. But you know we're going to do, we're going to cut up the credit cards.

Today's message is about how to stop the spread of COVID-19 and how we are changing the show a bit to deal with this crisis.

Transcript below:

Hi, I’m Kathe Kline, the founder of the Rock Your Retirement Show. I’m recording this special episode on Sunday, March 22nd 2020,  and it’s regarding COVID 19.

If this is the first time you’ve listened, understand that today’s show isn’t our normal type of show.  I wanted to talk with you and share some things about this crisis that we are in throughout the world.

Last week I sent everyone on our email list a note about my thoughts.  My husband, Les, and I went on a 9-day cruise that returned on March 15th.  We had already made plans to stop at Costco on the way home to pick up our normal items because we live 2 hours away from a Costco.

You already know that all Hell had broken loose and there was a shortage of toilet paper.

Before I continue, I want to say something about toilet paper.

If you were one of the people who stocked up on it, or if you were one of the people who were concerned that you didn’t have enough, I just want to point out to you that you’ll use much less toilet paper if you spend $100 on a Bidet.  You can spend more money if you want warm water or a blow dryer, but you might want to order a basic bidet converter online and have it delivered.  I’m serious.  If toilet paper is important to you, make your life easier by using less toilet paper.  It’s cleaner too.

OK, rant over.

I know that it’s scary.  We’ve lost a ton of money in the stock market.  Maybe you have too.  So I’m going to be bringing on at least one guest to talk about how to protect ourselves.

We're going to talk about the financial side of how to invest in a bear market, how to handle the fact that a recession is almost inevitable, how to prepare for a possible layoff, and tips for being more productive if you're working from home.

* If you haven’t retired yet, what should you do?

* Were you planning on moving overseas?  Joining the Peace Corps?  Which has brought everyone home?

* Were you planning on using Trusted House Sitters to become a nomad?

* What about living on a boat or RV?  How will COVID 19 affect those plans?

* Have you discussed the risk with your spouse, your children, and your parents if they are still living?  Your parents are at great risk.

* So is my husband, Les.  Not only is he 76 years old, but he is also surviving cancer.  He can’t afford the exposure to the disease, and neither can I due to my own health issues.

I have other family members who are cancer survivors as well.  You likely do too, or at least know some cancer survivors.  Do you worry about them?  I know I do.

What can we do to help?  We’ll be having those discussions as well.

On Friday I paid my cleaning lady to clean my house, but I didn’t have her clean.  On the ship, I gave extra cash tips to my room steward.  Yes, I’m feeling poor with the stock market decline, but I’m trying to be generous.  We all need to be generous right now.

You probably know or come across hourly workers and people who rely on tips for a living.  These service workers are in a serious economic bind right now.  I’ve already had one person tell me that her husband got laid off and they are losing their insurance.

Of course, I’m helping them get on Medicare because they are old enough to do so, but I want to be able to help in other ways too.

I’ve learned from one of my Facebook groups that there are people stranded all over the world that were doing house sits.  The sits got canceled, and now they have nowhere to stay.  People are stepping up with their spare rooms to assist.  This warms my heart.

If you have a spare room and would like to help, I can put you in touch with the group.  Let me know in the Facebook Group that you want to help and I’ll connect you.

Most often, pain is classified as being acute or chronic. Pain can persist for days, months, or even years after an initial injury and can be difficult to treat. People with pain may experience anxiety, sleeplessness, and depression, all of which can compound the problem. In the first episode, we discussed what happened to me and how I could have dealt with my pain a little bit better. The second episode, we discussed how well our health system treats pain and last week we talked about pain myths and misconceptions, and I have been dying for this last episode where Dr. Kevin Cuccaro will give us the secret of why firefighters are better pain specialist than actual pain specialist.

We Are Behind the Science of Pain

Dr. Kevin Cuccaro said that the way they practice, teach, and talk to their patients is literally 50 to 60 behind the science of pain. That was difficult to overcome when it was Dr. Cuccaro going through that process and recognizing why people don't seem to get better with these pain injections.

Why is it that when doctors do more injections, they seem to lead to more injections? How come people have an injection and say they're better and yet the medications all seem to change or it seems like the pain move somewhere else. So, they went to get back pain injections in their back and now they have neck pain and they get injections in their neck and they get shoulder pain then they get the injection in their shoulder. They weren’t getting better. That was what started Dr. Cuccaro's journey when it came to actually going back to the research and science of pain. It also influenced him to be a better pain specialist.

Why Firefighters Are Better Pain Specialist

There are at least 3 major contributors that create or construct pain. You have that sensory aspect that's the sensation coming from the body. And then you have that cognitive element which is the attention, the beliefs, and expectations you have. The final element is the emotion, the memory mood, and the meaning that is associated with that sensation. All 3 of those components come together to construct and experience pain. Which means for any pain in any moment and any time to truly understand it, you have to be thinking on those 3 dimensions.

That becomes very difficult to explain to people, and it's difficult to think because we don't perceive our world that way. We think in cause and effect. That's the way the brain wants us to think because it's a survival-based mechanism. But, there's a community out there that has to think in 3 dimensions all the time to do what they do which is a public service, and that's the firefighter community.

What Makes Them a Better Pain Specialist?

You don't just go out there and say well we could throw water on it let's throw some more water on it let's keep throwing water on it and hope it gets better. Instead you go what's the fire in front of you, what's the therapy or what are the major contributors that I need to target with my therapies and so because firefighters are already thinking in 3 dimensions, with a little bit of basic pain science because they're already thinking in 3 dimensions they would be better pain specialist than pain specialists in most clinics out there because they already have the thinking down because they understand that pain is just like fires and the fire is similar to pain and has those 3 elements.

Fire Triangle

Fire triangle is a tool that firefighters use in order to fight fires and because fire is a dynamic process and in fire, there are always no matter how complex or simple the fire is there's always ...

Pain is whatever the patient says it is. Pain is a very personal experience and varies greatly between people. Many people have misconceptions or misbeliefs about pain in children. These myths have lasted even though there is now evidenced to support that they are not true. There are a lot of misconceptions out there, about pain. And we touched on them a little bit last week, one of those is that our doctor can fix us.

What Are Those Misconceptions?

The idea that we can be fixed or the idea that pain can be chopped out, cut, poked, or drugged out of us, is a huge misconception. And that tends to come from this idea again that pain oozes out the body like pus. It’s easy to understand that, right?

We believe that if I poke you in the leg with a knife, that makes pain travel like little pus from that knife cut into your brain. Then, it would make sense that we would be like “Well, oh someone must interrupt the flow of the pain pus.”

Pain Generator

If there was something in your back, body, shoulder, or whatever, and that was where the pain generator was, it would send the pain signals up to your brain. That’s not simply true. Because any pain in any scenario, you have both nerve information coming from the body, they're not called pain signals but nerve signal. And there are a lot of nerve signals that go up to the brain but you still have to have those brain related aspects.

You need to have that cognitive element and that emotional component to construct and experience pain. Dr. Kevin Cuccaro would say that the biggest misconception about pain really is the idea that pain equals damage. Or that pain comes from the body unadulterated, flowing like pus, instead of recognizing that pain constructed in the brain. That’s all pain, acute and chronic.

It doesn't mean that when you're experiencing pain that is not real, it's a hundred percent real. But that hundred percent needs an awake and alert brain in order to make it.

Misconceptions on Military People

By watching all these TV shows about the military and spies, people that have learned they can be tortured and still won't give up the information. Maybe that's because they've trained their brain to maybe put the pain somewhere I mean they're still feeling pain.

These people are still feeling a sensation. We kind of touched on this in the first episode. There are three key contributors that you construct and experience a pain. You have the sensation that comes from the body. Then you have that cognition which is like the thoughts and anticipation and appraisal of that sensation. And then you have the meaning that we get to that sensation, and people who have been trained, the military is a great example. They have gone through something like survival training and know what to do under torture.

They still have sensations, and they still can have intense sensations. In fact, they're more likely experiencing pain but what they've been able to do is because they understand what is occurring and they've learned a skill set to survive in that scenario. They have more perceived control and less uncertainty with it. So it is likely that they're not experiencing as much pain in those scenarios.

7-Day Limit on Opioids

When it comes to acute prescribing, the reason a 7-day limit was usually picked had nothing to do with pain. In fact, Dr. Cuccaro’s personal experience is that most healthcare systems are pretty pain illiterate. But the reason that 7-day window was picked was because if you look at how acute the timeline for what we call an acute opioid prescriptions, somebody who's never been on opioid before. Taking an opioid, after 3 days,

Last week, my guest co-host, Dr. Kevin Cuccaro, and I had an interesting discussion about me and my pain. If you didn’t hear it, I was taken to the emergency room by ambulance because I could not get out of bed due to pain. Today’s episode will talk about how well healthcare systems treat pain.

How Our Healthcare System Is Treating It

Dr. Kevin Cuccaro said that our healthcare system is good for acute episodes. If you are in an accident, having an acute heart attack, or go cut open, our healthcare is good on treating that. The whole system is designed to round it. But what we are not good at is anything that has been around for a while, the chronic conditions. We’re not good at doing preventive care so that you won’t have a heart attack in the first place. If you have pain for a long period, we’re pretty atrocious in taking care of that.

Is It Always the Doctor’s Responsibility to Fix Us?

For a long time, people have been taught that if there’s anything wrong with you, go see your doctor and then they’re going to do something to make it go away. And that comes from health systems, comes from public warnings, and the pharmaceutical industry.

There are only 2 countries in the world that have direct to consumer advertising and that’s the United States and New Zealand.

What do those ads tell you? They “diseasify” symptoms, meaning we as humans are not meant to be in one state all the time. We have good days, bad days, sad days, and so on. That is normal for us, having a normal emotional spectrum. But the pharmaceutical industry likes to start taking these things to another level rather than normal behavior, and then they will say you need a drug for it.

Hypnosis in Pain

Hypnosis involves learning how to use your mind to manage anxiety, unpleasant physical symptoms, and certain habits or behaviors. It is another tool that can be used to help patients cope with pain.

Hypnosis as Dr. Kevin Cuccaro would say can be extremely powerful. What it does is it allows your body to relax and learn things quickly. Also, to be open to suggestions and to focus your attention on things specific to you. There’s a lot of potential for hypnotherapy.

For this kind of therapy, you need to know what you’re doing with them because you need to understand what it is you’re treating.

Pain Mastery

If you understand pain, we know it is about protection as we talk about in the first episode, not punishment and it has information coming up from the body and the brain. There are these 2 other divisions that are as important as well, the attention, the cognitive aspect, the thoughts, the beliefs behind it, and then emotions, which is the meaning, the mood, and the memory associated with it. Now we can start honing on these contributors that are involved in how this pain comes together in a more effective manner.

Pain is the body's warning system when you are sick or injured. It leads people to take action, a good thing, and has been important in humans' ability to evolve and survive.

When it comes to pain, the more that you feel that there are things that you can do to help yourself when it comes to pain, the less pain that you tend to experience. If you understand that pain is a protector, and as we increase threat, we increase pain. The more control or sense that you perceive, the less threat that you tend to see.

About Our Co-Host

Dr. Kevin Cuccaro is a fellowship trained specialist and expert on the science of pain, trained in anesthesiology at The University of Chicago. After that, he completed his fellowship in Pain Medicine at the University of Michigan. Later road he served as associate program director of ...

An Expert on Pain

Today’s guest host Dr. Kevin Cuccaro is an expert on pain and will help us how we can prevent pain episodes. We had so many e-mail responses to our 4-part series on pain that I thought it would be great to bring on an actual expert. My husband, Les, and I discussed pain in episodes 180 through 183 but as you know we’re not experts. We discussed the June 2019 article on pain. Since our discussion, I had something that happened to me you probably aren’t aware of unless you’re a member of the Facebook group.

During this 4-part series, we’ll be discussing the podcast episodes that Les and I created and what we left out. In this episode, we’ll discuss what happened to me and how I might be able to prevent pain episodes.

I'm Having Pain Episodes

I had a pain on my neck that has gone on for a couple of days and I’m no stranger of having a pain in my neck. So, I thought I would do some traction and traction is something I have done in the past. Instead of doing it for 2 minutes, I did it for 3 minutes and then when I was finished. I could not get out of bed. Although the normal time is 3 minutes, you usually work your way up to it and it may have been 8 years since I’ve used it. Instead of doing it for 2 or 1 minute, I thought that I had done this a million times so let me do this for 3 minutes.

Dr. Cuccaro said the key thing here for him is the fact that there is something inside of me that my brain is saying that I should not be doing this, calling it a threat. The second part is what I mentioned that generally, I would build-up to traction. That’s another part in my brain saying that we should build-up to this.

What Kind of Pain This?

People assume that there are these different types of pain, physical, emotional, or psychosomatic. What Dr. Cuccaro wants to get across to people is that there is just pain. All pain is pain. But all pain has multiple different inputs that go into constructing it. All of these are nerve information that’s going up into the brain. That nerve information then takes 2 other components in order for us to construct this experience of pain. We had to have attention; you have to notice and direct your attention to it and the second part is the affective dimension which is the emotional component, the meaning that we give to it.

We tend to view pain as a punisher, but pain actually does is it try to protect you from body damage. It’s an alarm system. This is the reason where if you have a new episode of pain, sometimes those will hurt much worse than if you have a similar pain in the future. But if we are fearful that every time we experience pain episodes, that there is body damage. We tend to experience more severe pain when a pain reoccurs.

What to Do with those Pain Episodes?

None of us wants to experience pain, but it serves a vital role to us. The more that we understand some basics of pain and the science of pain, the more we appreciate what pain is trying to do. It is never about the complete elimination of pain. Pain is associated with leaning; If we understand that pain is a protector, it will protect us. For example, we touched a hot stove; We had a sharp sensation going up to our brain, withdraw, and then we say, I must have burned my finger and there’s a pain at that moment. Pain is protecting us because it’s withdrawing and protecting us from that finger we’ve burned.

The other way that pain protects us is for the future. Because if you ever saw a hot burning stove in the future, how likely are you to touch it again? The answer is, not very likely because the first time you did it, you experienced a lot of pain.

Emotional Part of Pain

Background of the Show

I'm so glad that you've stopped by.  Below is a “transcript” of this week's show, Listener Question: A Couple's Retirement Endeavor. It's not word-for-word because we wanted to make sure it is in a readable format.  I recommend that you listen to the episode if possible, and you'll see the links to do that on this page.

We've been producing this podcast for you since 2016.  This show addresses topics that most shows don't.  We talk about retirement lifestyle and retirement endeavors.  When we started this show, there literally weren't any other shows in this genre.  I know because I searched for them.  These are the topics I wanted to listen to but I couldn't find any.

Then other shows I found started with similar topics.  I was happy to see that and reached out too many to see if I could help. You know a rising tide lifts all ships.  I was hoping that eventually, retirement lifestyle would be its own topic. Sadly, many of the shows I tried to help have gone off the air.  There are new shows now, ones I listen to that have huge audiences.  But they aren't as targeted as us.  You know, the Baby Boomers with a few Gen Xers mixed in. A lot of these shows are targeted at the FIRE community. FIRE stands for Financially Independent Retire Early, Mostly 20s, 30s, and 40-year-olds.

The Rock Your Retirement Show has covered a lot of topics.  We've talked about what to do when your mom needs assisted living.  Whether you should retire overseas.  And yes, we've even talked about dating and sex.

Retirement Endeavor (as a couple)

A lot of us may struggle to find common ground with our spouse or partners in retirement. Sometimes they may have different needs and wants than we have.  Although we may have been together for years and years, retiring can put a lot of stress on a relationship and having the same retirement endeavor can be difficult. That's because we've been together, but also alone, and we've worked that out.  It can be tough when we retire, because now we have all the time in the world, but our loved one doesn't necessarily want to do the same thing we want to do with all that time.

That's what is facing our listener today. She wanted to work a seasonal job, that's what she wants for her retirement endeavor. Our caller is having a problem finding things to that they are both passionate about. Also, she wanted to know how other retirement couples have managed to both find a very meaningful seasonal work effort together.

Responses from our Rock Your Retirement Experts:

I reached out to two of our past guests for expert advice on the subject.

Janelle Anderson, who's been a frequent guest on the show, weighed in on Shirley's question:

I would suggest that possibly look at your strengths one person might have a strength that they can bring to the business or the idea and the other person could bring a different perspective or strength to it.

It's actually hard to say if I don't know since I don't know the particulars of what you want to do. So I'm just kind of guessing but let's say one person has the idea to make jewelry and create this business and the other person doesn't really want to make jewelry, but maybe they have an expertise in marketing or you know, getting the word out about it, or maybe they're really good at doing the bookkeeping.

So,