Boomer Woman Blog: July 2008

31 July 2008

Good Medical Memories

Good memories escape us. As a general rule of thumb, we humans remember the bad times more vividly than the good times. Evolutionary psychologists explain it handily: the bad memory will keep you alive. The good one? It doesn't carry the same protective power. Might make you feel good. Probably isn't essential to survival.

And most medical memories fall into the bad category. Our conversations with physicians, nurses, and technicians are typically either mundane and forgettable or... upsetting. Even the occasional good news, "The results are negative," pales in comparison to the first warning, "We need to check out...." It's no wonder that so many people put off trips to doctors.

But I have a Good Medical Memory: It emerged during a season of tests and treatments and eventual surgery. Amid many visits, my family physician once said, "Are you taking vitamins?" I groaned and said, "No, I quit taking everything." And she replied, "I don't blame you."

That's all she said. No lecture, no prescription. She left me alone. It was certainly the response I needed at the time.

What event reminded me of this Good Medical Memory? That would be the insurance notification that the physician is no longer in-network.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold (www.marybold.com, www.boldproductions.com, College Intern Blog) is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

30 July 2008

Boomers Need Larger Text

Culture Day at the Kimball. We boomers need larger text on our museum placards. We learned that today at the Kimball, half-price day for The Impressionists (on display through November 2, 2008). Four of us made the trek to Fort Worth: The Sociologist, The Chef, Tom Bold, and me. (Chance of i-d-ing Tom Bold is greatest.)

And it wasn't just me. I heard a woman behind me complain softly, "I can't read it." I moved so that she could get closer, but it clearly wasn't close enough. In the best lit spaces, boomers were peering at the placards and then moving back for a better view of the impressionist paintings. There was a lot of shuffling.

The Sociologist agreed: I can always count on this woman to broaden the view. "We're making changes in other places...." She was referring to a frequent subject of ours: boomer-friendly changes in malls and airports. As America ages, there are plenty of lags but marketers and transportation executives are keeping up: they see the behaviors of customers and make the necessary adjustments. (Parking lot and terminal trams are just the obvious wheeled adjustments.) Baby boomers are not the "per unit" best customers but their sheer numbers make them a market segment worth accommodating.

But not yet in all public spaces: The Kimball Art Museum is always worth visiting, of course. The current exhibition of The Impressionists (subtitle: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago) is wonderful regardless of the size of text on the placards. After all, we didn't actually make the trip to read. ~ Lida

29 July 2008

Spousal Social Security: Bitter Boomer Women

My friend who retired from Social Security confirms: The most bitter comments he ever heard were from women understanding for the first time that their "spousal benefit" was higher than the one they earned on their own. Technically, it's the woman's own benefit that is paid first, but a combination formula based on 1/2 of the husband's Social Security benefit sometimes boosts pay to more as a spouse than as a worker.

"So, I worked for nothing." That's the common lament although, of course, the worker had income during the years of qualifying for benefits. My friend has suggested to me that there is little comfort to give a person who is realizing that low-income employment has limited reward in retirement. For the woman in this situation, 1/2 of her husband's benefit would be available to her even if she never worked outside the home.

Some Strategy of Interest: A Social Security "Electronic Booklets" web page called Retirement Benefits outlines a method for a woman in her 60s to improve the situation. At full retirement age, she can draw the 1/2 benefit based on spouse's benefits but continue working to improve her own record and (perhaps) increase her own benefit to exceed that spousal amount. (At full retirement age—that's 66 for most boomer women—there is no limit on earned income so she would not reduce her benefit being received.) It is an interesting strategy. And it only requires that a woman work forever....

Very Basic Text: What Every Woman Should Know (ssa.gov/pubs/10127.pdf). Unfortunately, this online file doesn't tell us Everything That Every Woman Should Know, so it is only a starter text. It does help explain the basics about benefits for divorced women, so it has value there.

X- and Y-Generation Women May Be Less Bitter: For baby boom women, the bitter pill is created by the gender wage gap. But we know that for post-boomer women, the wage gap is narrowed. Admittedly, we may be leaving them with other bitter pills surrounding Social Security benefits.

Benefit computation is complicated: The Social Security office provides guidance to retirees but as we are encouraged to file online for benefits, we lose the likelihood of "talking through" our options and understanding the many sub-parts of the regulations. We can read an increasing number of government publications available on the web and try to sort through the particulars. That helps.

The expected disclaimer: Please do not rely on my interpretation of Social Security literature. I'm struggling to understand it all myself. And, as stated already, benefit computation is complicated.

28 July 2008

4-Hour Workweek? Really?

Last in America to review this book. I had only a vague idea of what Timothy Ferriss meant by his book title, The 4-Hour Workweek, and I resisted his tag line about the "new rich." Until finally a friend put a copy in my hands (actually, sent it to me via amazon) and I settled into a fun read. But is my review today timely? Hardly. We'll call it a review for late adopters.

The Ferris message. You won't be surprised by much of the advice in this book. Figure out how you want to spend your time. Take as many mini-vacations and mini-retirements as you can afford. Lead a balanced life. What's new in the message is a down-to-earth encouragement to just go ahead and try it.

What's the worst that can happen? For most of us, the worst that can happen after we make a big change in employment or lifestyle is that we'll have to un-do some part of it. There's a bonus: even if you have to go back to a previous status, it won't be the same as before. Just stepping away for a while will change your perspective and, likely, your priorities.

Example from a generation ago: As I challenge myself to change my lifestyle (maybe not all the way down to four hours of work), I recall a friend's growing up years. His father was a physician who retired every 8 to 10 years, establishing a practice and then retiring from it when able. Work 10 years at the most; take off 5 at a minimum. That man's medical license made him highly employable, of course, but most of us have some skill, talent, or resource to call upon for similar purpose.

4-hour web site. You can check out the book or just some aspects of it at www.fourhourworkweek.com. Ferriss is not a baby boomer, by the way, but his advice rings true for a lot of us who are.

27 July 2008

The Post-Retirement Wars: Too Much Togetherness

Time with your partner. Well, if you have a partner, retirement certainly helps you draw swift conclusions about him or her. Chances are, you won't have had this much togetherness with this person since you were dating. That's when you wanted to spend long days together, lazing around your apartment with no more than a single outing to a cafe to break up the day. Now, you are in retirement with this person and the apartment is probably replaced by a house and yard—and the cafe is more likely the patio outside Starbucks, and it's actually the place you use as an escape. From your partner in retirement.

There is no such thing as preparation for the adjustment to retirement with a partner. You can fret over finances, set up annuities, reverse-mortgage your house, fund your 401K, and a host of other strategies to "prepare" for retirement. None of them addresses the challenge of sharing a home with time on everyone's hands. (Of course, some couples fix that: one of them keeps working, and it's sometimes only to keep the peace.)

It also doesn't matter how much you know, except when that's too much: It doesn't matter if you have a doctorate in family studies and can quote research on human development, family dynamics, and couple communication. (Oh, that's me.) That knowledge doesn't really arm you for the skills you need, mainly the ability to bite your tongue. And the knowledge can even cause a new problem: if you've studied longevity then you know that retirement may go on for decades. Ideally the adjustment to togetherness will take months, not years, but the thought of 40 more years of togetherness may be disheartening when the adjustment is still underway.

On a personal note: Tom Bold is the star of this column. I could hide the facts of his maddening habits at home (he sits either at the kitchen bar or on a favorite couch—that's all, just those two spots), of his lack of outside contact (he goes to Walmart and..., no, just Walmart), and of his primary pastime (he plays a computer game that I stubbornly do not learn the name of), but the greater public service is to tell you. These facts can either assure you that your own partner is not so unusual, or make you feel smug that yours is superior in habits. ~ Lida

26 July 2008

Boomer Woman Employability

Ageism on the job search. Most of us have a vague sense that age works against us when we apply for work, and another vague sense that employers cannot ask us how old we are. (Actually, they can.) When is age a factor in discrimination? Basic guidance is on the EEOC website. Most of us aren't looking for a legal definition, of course. We simply want some assurance that age isn't all bad, that it's not going to deny us the opportunity of an interview.

Boomer-past. The boomer women of my cohort (birth years 1946 to 1956) can claim a history of vague sense of discrimination. As young women, we were sometimes literally told, "you might be taking this job from a man who needs it." And the threat of pregnancy (yep, threat) prompted comments like, "how do we know you won't get pregnant?" By the '70s, those comments were dying out, but that doesn't mean they weren't still in the thoughts of employers. With this history, it's no wonder we now carry the vague worry of ageism as we change careers or determine we need to go back to work.

Older-worker-friendly companies. If you don't mind calling yourself an older worker (generally considered to be 50+), you'll find some employers explicitly welcoming you. AARP publishes a list of such corporations, calling them the National Employer Team (enter that phrase on the AARP search bar at the website). Federal and state governments are also increasingly encouraging applications, hoping that entering-boomers will replace, yes, retiring boomers.

On a personal note: In making a change in employment in 2008, I was pleasantly surprised that my age was not a detriment in getting interviews or job offers. My experience (in online education) was the major advantage and, frankly, one that has increased with age as I have enjoyed some positions that are not typically afforded to younger employees. I even have found myself uttering, old broads in distance learning actually have value. But I still don't broadcast my age on my resume.

25 July 2008

Going Back to School, Online

Boomer women make good online students. Most of my online students have been women of the baby boom. If there is one word that describes them and their commitment to their studies, it is appreciation. They appreciate having access to education. It is the online format that permits them to return to school while maintaining family and work responsibilities. Almost always, the degree is for a career change or career enhancement.

The third shift: For most online students, school work is accomplished on their third shift. First shift: the day job. Second shift: house, kids, and family in the evening. Third shift: online course work in late night. Sacrifices are made in time and tuition dollars but students typically tough it out, happy in the knowledge that were it not for online access, they would not be able to take courses.

What's not so positive: Most non-traditional students (age 25 and older) are determined to succeed. But the realities of online education do not always match their expectations. Below are the common misconceptions. In spite of these challenges, I continue to recommend online courses; I consider the learning to be at least equal to on-campus learning. That means that sometimes the learning is superior.

Online will be easy. But it's not. It is reading- and writing-intensive, with deadlines and a technology learning curve. Every minute you would have spent in a physical classroom will be required for the online course, too. (That doesn't count studying time.)

I can take 4 classes at a time. But you probably cannot and will be better served by the number 1. First semester back in school? First time online? Take 1 course. Do it well and learn how to "do school." Even if you have been in higher ed before, it wasn't online. Online is different.

Online degrees are faster. Only in theory. The "fast track" schedule doesn't mention what happens if you have to drop a class or withdraw for a semester. The most common reasons: falling behind in assignments and a life event of your own or a family member. For the student who doesn't act quickly to drop a class, the degree is derailed by an F and academic probation.

What a slower pace looks like: Assume 39 credits needed (to finish a Bachelor's or to earn a Master's). In most schemes of credit hours, that translates to 13 courses. If the institution offers 3 semesters per year (Fall, Spring, Summer), a "fast track" would work out to 4 semesters (3 courses+3+3+4). A more realistic schedule would be 7 semesters (1 course+2+2+2+2+2+2).

In future, I'll discuss the money and technology costs of online education. ~ Lida

24 July 2008

Tin Foil: Probably Not Just Generational

Small savings, not big finance. Setting aside for now the big topic of how boomers will survive in retirement without outstanding savings, I will disclose my own small savings. I mean, the really small savings.

Another version of tin foil. At least those of us on the upper end of the baby boom (the whole range is birth years 1946 to 1964) have a clear or vague memory of older relatives who developed Depression-era habits like saving every scrap of aluminum foil for re-use and every penny that came their way. I grew up associating their habits with the severe economic times that influenced their youth. If they did not feel the influence of the Depression, they surely experienced rationing during World War II. These events created savers. And then I hit my 50s and realized that I had a few non-logical savings schemes of my own. And I'm concluding that we humans are prone to tucking away small savings. History just highlights the tendency.

Small Savings #1: Stray coins go into a plastic gallon jug. Most recent cashing in was after 7 years: $438.

Small Savings #2: After years of happy banking I decided to trust the monthly tally in the household checking account. So, I quit balancing my register and started saving. I rounded all draws and all deposits to the nearest dollar. Check for $3.88? I entered it into my register as $4, creating a 12¢ savings and making register arithmetic very easy. Deposit of $84.50? I entered a deposit of $84, for a 50¢ savings. So, then I moved to $5 rounding. Check for $3.88 was thus an entry for $5, and deposit of $84.50 was recorded as $80. Now, without apology, I round to the 10. Check for $3.88 is recorded as minus $10. Deposit of $84.50 is $80. And so is a deposit of $89.99, which only occasionally irks me.

The savings instinct: This is not the financial behavior that will make baby boomers rich. It only makes us a lot like previous generations. ~ Lida

23 July 2008

SSA Offering: Retirement Estimator

Retirement calculators litter the web. The newest (quite possibly!) is published by Social Security Online. Called the Retirement Estimator, this tool estimates Social Security (SS) benefits only for people who are not yet collecting SS. The calculation is based on your data already in the system plus your entry of your last year's income or what you think your "last year" will be at the time you stop working. If you are a very young boomer (in your 40s), you may have difficulty projecting your salary 20 years out. If you are closer to the typical retirement ages (62 and 66), you can probably make a good guess and thereby produce a realistic estimate of future benefits.

Multiple scenarios. What I like best about the calculator is the ability to produce several different estimates. So, I entered stats for age 55, age 62, and age 66. Scenario building requires that you name a salary for each "stop" year, so precision is not the goal here. Making comparisons is.

Extra boomer woman issue: Playing around with the Retirement Estimator invites consideration of an issue for women who may end up drawing on a spouse's or ex-spouse's figure. (Complex enough for its own blog entry. On another day.) That information is not incorporated, so the Estimator provides just part of the picture for women.

One more issue: Using the Estimator requires that you enter your Social Security number in addition to name, birth year, and last year's salary. If you have a concern about entering such data, this benefit calculator is not for you. (You can find more generic versions around the web.)

Imagining the research potential: On the topic of data, I found myself imagining what the Retirement Estimator produces for the Social Security Administration. I doubt that SSA is tracking my personal "what if" scenarios, but I do wonder if a more general data set is being generated. Wouldn't it be neat to know if Americans are seeking estimates for 5 years from now? Or maybe 10 years? Or even more?

22 July 2008

Retirement: When Minimum Wage is Maximum Wage

U.S. minimum wage going up: As of this week the minimum wage in the U.S. will be $6.55/hour. And for retirees between 62 and 66 who are already drawing Social Security, that will be (just about) their maximum earnings limit without offsetting some of their retirement check. Rounding the figures for convenience:

Minimum wage of $6.55 = $13K per year income
Maximum "extra" wages for boomer on Social Security = $13K

Early retirees draw a percentage of "full retirement." Leaving the workforce early (for the current crop of leading boomers, that's before age 66) is allowed but the Social Security benefit is reduced by up to 30%, with the reduction running 5-7% per year of age. I'm referring to retirees at the start of the baby boom, meaning birth year 1946 and later. For a full breakdown on percents and year of birth, see Full Retirement Age at Social Security Online (www.socialsecurity.gov, a site that is sure to need no SEO* in the coming years).

What's wage got to do with it? Age 62 retiring boomers have an earnings limit of about $13,000 after which Social Security benefits are effectively "reduced" by about a third. So, if your Social Security benefit is $12,000, you can earn $13,000 from a job with no penalty. But if your total income goes above $25,000 for the year, your "extra income" will be offset by a reduction in SS benefit. Fancy math and a consult with the folks at Social Security may assure you that upon "full retirement" age, an "early" penalty may work in your favor eventually. The point is, you'll need to do some figuring. (After full retirement age, no figuring is needed as there is no limit on earnings from that point onward.)

The comparison between minimum and maximum wages: Just by coincidence, the 2008 increased minimum wage is approximately the same amount as the early retirees' maximum extra wage. $6.55/hour for 40 hrs/week for 52 weeks/year = $13,624. The earnings limit under Social Security was $12,960 for 2007; it will be $13,560 for 2008.

A handy formula that's realistic for converting hourly wage to annual income is to multiple $6.50 times 2000, because that's very close to a full year's work with a couple of weeks off. This formula permits you to quickly inform your threatening-to-drop-out adolescent relative that the outstanding job paying $7 an hour is actually only $14K a year. And the even more outstanding wage of $8 comes to only $16K a year. It's amazing how many adolescents marvel at the arithmetic. Eventually, they realize it was simple multiplication. (Or maybe if they drop out, they won't.)

*SEO: Search engine optimization, or processes whereby Internet publishers increase the volume of "traffic" to web sites. ~ Lida

21 July 2008

iPhone Saga, continued.

The lawn chair was a bad sign. Sailing into the local Apple store at noon on Friday was not reasonable, of course. And when we saw the woman carrying the lawn chair leaving the store, albeit with an Apple bag in her hand, we knew we were doomed.

Lines awaiting. We didn't have to walk too far into the store for confirmation. People were obviously still standing in line and a very good-looking man in Apple apparel was explaining to a would-be customer, "Well, there are still 14 but we have more people than that ahead of you."

Nationwide availability checker: Tom Bold had already checked for availability. Of course, that was 5 hours previous. The company is wisely sharing its inventory numbers online. (I like the mash-ups that have been published utilizing the data: nifty googlemaps with stores highlighted and even their distance in miles from my home. I laughed on the day that the mash-up advised me of a unit just 832 miles away, in Chicago. With pressing concern (see below) a drive is not necessarily out of the question.)

And why would Tom Bold be participating, anyway.... He wants my hand-me-down iPhone. It's harder and harder to find a non-flip phone and that's his requirement. I understand his frustration with that style: I, too, used to hang up on a lot of people as I tried to open the flip to answer calls. What makes most of us laugh at present is that Tom has always gone for the 1¢ phone when "upgrading." That's why he currently has what we call his little-girl phone (small, tapered, and white—the princess phone of cell phones). And the only reason he's now ready to upgrade? The little phone went through the wash. It's working. For now. ~ Lida

20 July 2008

Long Term Care Insurance & ADLs

ADLs: Activities of Daily Living, from buttoning your own clothes to feeding yourself. Simple concept but revolutionary when you get around to assessing a person's ability to live unassisted. Either you can do them or you can't. When you can't, you need long term care, which may or may not involve medical care.

Costs of long term care:
Highest = nursing home
Next = assisted living facility
Lowest = own home

What's not so easy to predict is the actual dollar figures, and that's what drives sales of long term care insurance. Increasingly, baby boomers are buying that insurance, expecting to have to cover these costs that Medicare excludes. I haven't seen any statistics about who is purchasing, but I would predict two primary markets: those people whose employers have put the option before them in convenient fashion, and those boomers who are currently paying for their elderly parents' care in assisted living or nursing homes. (Too late to purchase insurance for their parents, the boomers are predicting their own future, perhaps based largely on the obvious evidence of longevity in the family.)

ADLs and IADLs: Just a shirt button doesn't hint at the daily activities that separate independence from dependence, of course. We'll adopt velcro and sashes and other work-arounds! But the full list of ADLs is meaningful: hygiene, nutrition, safety. Another list is called Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and details managing money, shopping, and so forth. The ADLs are explained in a web resource on Health Assessment published by the American Geriatrics Society.

Insurance options: Boomers are now examining long term care insurance plans as intently as they once researched life insurance. The choice between whole and term seems like child's play, now. The array of options for long term care involves levels of care, length of care, location of care. Add to that the pragmatic choices of when to purchase and when to delay, and when to stop paying premiums. Some of the questions about risk are addressed by the National Clearinghouse for Long-Term Care Information.

On a personal note: I do purchase long term care insurance. Every September, I write an annual premium check and I accept most of the upgrades as they are offered. This has meant an increase in premium from a little under $400/year to a little more than $400/year, over the past 7 years. I purchase the insurance because I fear I will live forever. Tom Bold, on the other hand, eschews the concept. I know this means that I am his long term care insurance. ~ Lida

19 July 2008

Boomerang Kids: The Boom's Extra Boom

Boomers' extra booms. The baby boomlet is the famous large bulge of population of young people produced by boomers (peaking on college campuses in 2015), but there's another boom, albeit from another word. Boomerang, referring to the toy that returns to its thrower after being launched, describes another set of boomer offspring: adult offspring who return to the family home.

Noticed in the 1990s. Some boomerang kids were college grads in search of work, others were non-students who thought they wanted to move out of the home, only to find costs too high. The result was that many young people were moving back in with mom and dad, or mom and step-dad, or dad and step-mom, etc. While families and boomerangers themselves feared a stigma of failure and immaturity, early research found a different reality: most parents enjoyed having their adult children back in the home.

When mama is happy... Another finding was that the boomerang was well tolerated if the mother in the household was OK with it. This shored up an old axiom that I don't care to defend but nevertheless acknowledge: if mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Keeping the family satisfied and even happy is possible when the stay is measured in months (as opposed to years). That's where national economic conditions come into play.

Are kids still boomeranging? They are, with expectation that the current economy will impact the most recent college graduates who are currently job seeking. It's always good to look for the broader perspective and this Euromonitor International clip assures us that the concern is global. Keep in mind that many cultures do not expect young people to leave the family home as early as American society does. Still, when the age of interest is "over 25," we do see the markings of an international issue.

On a personal note: The clip places me at UNT, which is two schools back. Witness the permanency of some things on the web.

18 July 2008

Air Travel: Great Seats

Seat selection research. Best seats? I am newly educated by the website www.seatguru.com, where nearly every style of plane and jet is detailed. Mouseover seating diagrams disclose the pro and con of every seat on the plane, for every airline I am ever likely to fly.

Baby boom and the sonic boom. Baby boomers didn't invent flying but we literally grew up with it. We dressed up for the plane. We smoked on the plane. Even in coach, we ate from china on the plane. As the airlines got smarter about how to maximize their profits, we got smarter about how to maximize our comfort. We developed preferences (aisle only) and strategies (upgrades) and we even joined loyalty clubs to increase the odds of a decent flight. But I'll admit that I never charted my favorite seats; I operated on vague memory of good row numbers. Do I need seatguru.com's research to book my seats? Actually, I do: it outperforms my vague memory.

Seat pitch, seat width, and video type : If you are very detail oriented, consult the website's menu tab for Comparison Charts. This may mean logging into multiple windows on the day you select seats for a flight but the reward will be in seat pitch, seat width, and video type.

On a personal note: No entry on personal technology today. iAmWithout. (See yesterday.) ~ Lida

17 July 2008

iPhone G3 Not Available Today

Never occurred to me. That the local Apple store would not have a phone waiting for me never crossed my mind. I saw those news photos last week, people camping out with Cheetos and Red Bull. Amusing, but not threatening. They would be welcome to claim the first hundred thousand units. And then there would be other hundreds of thousands of units for the rest of us.

A million or more. And apparently there were a million or more units available last weekend. It just never occurred to me that I would need to check the daily stock.

What does this really mean? Surely I don't have to take up severe caffeine drinks, do I? I am a boomer woman accustomed to getting everything I want, within my budget and general sensibility. Well, at least within my budget. But I'm seeing that the young, willing to make sacrifices and stand/sleep in line, are going to get what they want. Ahead of me.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, financial, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

16 July 2008

Personal Finance and Prius MPG

Prius miles per gallon. When you fill up your Prius (or anytime, really) you have opportunity to start anew in measuring your miles per gallon. Tom Bold does his own calculation and tells me that I'm not really getting 48 to 50 mpg—more like 44 or 45. I prefer the car's report, of course, and aim for that magical 50.

Blissful beginning. Anyway, in those first few miles of re-setting, you can report extremely high values. It's not unusual for a Prius owner to claim 80 mpg before sheepishly admitting that the figure was achieved on the drive home from the gas station. My own recent record (OK, today) is 61.7, and that's almost 100 miles into the drive.

Hypermiling, Ecodriving, and Nempimania: Real words with the meaning being to maximize gas mileage through driving technique. The last term (from Japanese for craze for fuel economy) takes maximizing to the level of obsession. On American streets we're pretty much protected from the extremes: do too much to protect your MPG and you'll find yourself honked at or, worse, rear-ended. So, aside from the occasional stubborn coasting to a stoplight that is clearly not going to turn green in the next 10 seconds, the smart hybrid owner aims for low-traffic times of day and, of course, chooses the least hilly route to anywhere.

Competitive urges: Hybrid drivers fall in love with bettering their gas mileage. If everyone drove a hybrid, traffic would slow in a new kind of competition. That competitive urge would still be mixed with ecological and personal finance concerns. But it would also be about capturing your latest MPG on your cell phone camera. YMMV.

On a personal note: I rarely make political jokes (classroom etiquette) but I do find humor in a tactic I used Monday night when driving across North Dallas. I was determined to protect that MPG, so I exited the President George Bush Turnpike and drove at a slower speed on a city boulevard. It took me about 20 hours to realize the irony. ~ Lida

15 July 2008

Retirement Living: The Home

The Home. Twice, residents at the Erickson property that I visited last evening referred to the "campus" as "the home." They spoke with humor and one warned, "not everyone likes that word." I was at the Highland Springs campus in North Dallas with a college Practicum (internship) class. A co-teacher was the organizer and I was the tag-along.

Senior, retirement, community. In a society that still prefers "aging in place," a move to a campus like Highland Springs isn't made lightly. Aside from the financial considerations, anyone making the decision is sure to be questioned by family and friends. This is pretty interesting because in my field we define the preference to age in place (meaning at one's home, typically the home of the past 10+ years) as being the aging person's preference. But it is one that is shored up by family opinion and community patterns.

NORC: One of those patterns is the NORC, or naturally occurring retirement community. It's what we commonly describe as an aging neighborhood. Children are grown and gone; the homeowners are retired or nearly so; activity shifts from families' needs to retirees' priorities.

The newer pattern: The planned retirement community (like Erickson and others) hasn't replaced the NORC but it does present retirees with a choice for maintenance-free housing and, usually, facilities that resemble a resort. Boomers may provide the tipping point for retirement housing, though that's likely some time off. The communities that require a "buy in" will interest boomers who can liquidate, most likely by selling a family home. For the boomers who make the move, the retirement community will then become the place for "age in place," which may mean for decades.

One a personal note: I see the retirement community model as a gift I can give my children in that I can age in a resort-like place and they can be spared several stages of decision-making about my ability to live on my own. I don't know the timing yet and Tom Bold does pose a problem because he only imagines living on his own. There is hope: last night I spotted poker tables in the pool hall near the dining room. Perhaps by the time I drag him into such a facility there will also be a salon for old guys and their computer games. Then, we'll be ready to negotiate.

14 July 2008

Encore Career

Encore. Once more. Repeat performance. Except the encore career is not a repeat at all. It's the newly crafted career that replaces the one that came before. Bankers become adventure guides. And probably fewer adventure guides become bankers.

Boomers invented it. Boomers are responsible for the new concept of encore career. First, because they are the first generation living long enough to want/need a second career. Second, because they want the second career to be more fulfilling or more rewarding or just more fun.

Website guide: Googling "encore career" will produce about a zillion links. Here's the one I recommend as the first one: Encore Career. This link will take you to the home page, but I recommend you visit the "find" page, too. It is a great place to dive in. (If you see a pop-up box about google and APIs and maps, just persist. Or, check out the URL in that message and learn about embedded maps, which is pretty interesting, too.)

On a personal note: I'm composing. That's to say that I have my date in sight and I have preliminary plans accomplished. Just a couple of months more. ~ Lida

13 July 2008

Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D

Don't ask Lida. Everyone knows not to rely on me for a movie review. I am not discriminating; I like them all. (Now, my daughter-in-law? She's actually done it for a living. She actually knows how to review. I like listening to her talk about movies.)

What I can review: 3D glasses. Aside from an entertaining story, Journey to the Center of the Earth provided me with the best 3D plastic glasses I have ever worn. Lightweight, but large enough to fit over my other glasses. An IMAX theatre offered similarly large glasses for Beowulf, but the weight was bothersome. Plus, the theatre wanted their big glasses back after the movie. (Theatre went out of business since then, too.)

Length of viewing: Only with examples of Beowulf and Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix in recent memory, I was skeptical that Journey could be 3D for the entire length of the feature and somehow not take a toll on my eyes or concentration or something. Perhaps it was an unspoken "Don't stare at a 3D movie for too long" warning that I should have received in childhood? Well, no harm came of it. I was also able to keep track of the glasses better.

On a personal note: I go to the movies for solitude. Nearly every Sunday morning, when crowds are light. When I stumble upon a popular release with lots of people sitting around me, I remind myself that "it will be good to experience the film as a member of a group." I don't actually believe that but I don't want to throw away my ticket. Oh. Incredible Hulk starts in 18 minutes and it takes me 12 to get there. Goodbye. ~ Lida

12 July 2008

Online Banking

Growing accustomed to not seeing the teller. ATMs prepared boomers well for the shift to online banking. We learned our account numbers. We memorized a few keystrokes. And we found our own heuristics for getting cash: use the ATM in the grocery story in the morning, use a drive-through ATM only in mid-afternoon, avoid the costly withdrawals of non-member machines. We saw that ATMs didn't make errors and rarely ran out of cash. And we definitely noticed the convenience of hours (27/4, after all) and the lack of lines (assuming you developed the right heuristics for your town).

The next step: Online banking was the natural next step, with automatic payroll deposit leading us. And it developed with a high level of standardization among employers and banking institutions. That standardization permitted fast adoption, not just because it was efficient but because large segments of the work force began at the same time. If the other 600 people in your workplace were getting their paychecks the same way, you didn't have to make much of a decision. And, in fact, employers quickly shifted from offering choice in how you received your pay to mandatory automatic payment. In my last employment (2001 to 2008), that was the case as a state university cut checks upon request and then eliminated that choice. Among the folks I knew, the greatest impact was on graduate assistants who never got around to providing the bank routing number—until there was no option and they had to in order to get paid.

E-bills: Online bill paying has not taken hold as successfully. That may be because of the differences among banks. Frankly, some banks set up more user-friendly systems. My first experience was clunky and writing/mailing checks was definitely a better use of my time. But my current bank is better and is gradually introducing improvements (and "gradual" helps me to adapt to the improvements without too many differences month to month). In this happier experience, it still has taken more than 4 years for me to transfer everything to either automatic withdrawal or online e-bill.

On a personal note: I still walk into the brick-and-mortar investment company. (And it really is made of brick and mortar, perhaps to communicate strength and stability.) But that's only once every few years. Otherwise, I log onto fidelity.com for the very occasional check on changes. I also log onto Vanguard a couple of times a year to look at a smallish lifestyle fund; its monthly contribution is accomplished through automatic transfer from the household account. That household account is with a local bank that I can drive-through to deposit the occasional rebate check but otherwise manage completely online, covering automatic and directed transfers for utilities, a car payment, and mortgage. A second account with the same bank serves as my business account: linked but with my bookkeeping very separate. I have another banking location—but I have no idea where. Where in the world is ING? For me, it's strictly that very orange webpage to which I can move money from the household account in order to earn a little more interest. I segregate cash into two accounts there: Cash Reserve and Saving for Taxes. This particular bank lets me name the accounts myself. If I count PayPal, too, because it performs a banking function for me, I'm up to 7 accounts where I track money. And that reminds of George Miller's research into the magical properties of 7. Of greatest pertinence: we humans can handle 7 anythings pretty well. When the number climbs to 8 and beyond, we can't.

11 July 2008

Do You Text?

It's Friday, so I get to write about personal technology. Yep. Same starting comment as last Friday (4 July 2008: iWant).

Texting, also known as messaging, is the current generational divide. Older people use email. Younger people use text (very short messages) on their cell phones. What's interesting is the divide is not at 50 years old, or even 30 years old. It appears to be at about... 20 years old. Adolescents do have email accounts; they just don't use them very much. Boomers mastered email and now are slowly adopting text. We are aware that we're the late majority on this technology. We actually ask each other, "Do you text?"

SMS most common: The text protocol for most of us is SMS, or Short Message Service. That's the generic form that allows us to type a text message, send it through the cell phone, and store it on the unit, besides. For many of us, our introduction to texting was on the computer keyboard, tied to our email programs. A pop-up window or sound would alert us to a friend or relative who was online and available for chat. That version of texting didn't have an archive, so we treated it as a fleeting memo. Computer users sometimes kept chats going all day long—it was our first glimpse at serious online multi-tasking.

When text replaced email: Short messaging became cheap or free on cell phones, and that's when the portable writing system shifted from email to phone service. Today's web-enabled cell phone allows email, of course, but that still involves log-in and formatting. In short, the multiple keystrokes (and cognitive shifts) of email take too much time. SMS is nearly instantaneous although it takes some adjustment to tiny keyboards or coding schemes. The only thing faster and shorter than texting? Twitter. That's the very short message that still managers to capture a lot of information and also permits distribution to a group.

My favorite aspects of text messaging:
Numbers for clear communication—Flight 1514 at Gate C10.
Extremely short advisory—Late by 15 minutes.
Alert for a needed conversation—Emailing you later.
Interrupting a very busy person—Are you available?
(Use this strategy sparingly.)
Shifting from coded phone pad to a QWERTY keyboard.
(Even tiny QWERTY of the iPhone is appreciated.)
The iPhone's color-coded bubbles for alternating messages.

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

10 July 2008

Duplicating Shower Gifts

Conscious intention: A fellow boomer woman, whom I shall call The Sociologist (because she is one), appreciates my conscious intention to match our needs for gifts with the young women in our lives. We have a lot of young women in our lives. You cannot be attached to a campus without collecting a lot of young friends. (Most of them are students, of course, and that does not mean they cannot be friends).

Lots of showers: Those young women have a lot of showers. I mean, a lot of showers. The Sociologist and I therefore receive a lot of invitations to showers and we even go to some. (I try to avoid the ones that are likely to have games.) Well, my conscious intention is to use the showers as opportunity to improve our boomer lives. Maybe it's because I didn't get a lot of shower gifts personally (in fact, I never had a shower of any kind but that pretty much matches the personality of someone who tries to avoid parties with games, even today) or maybe it's just because modern showers permit practically painless shopping. In any case, The Sociologist and I use these showers as opportunity to buy something for ourselves as we select gifts for the young women.

Good taste. They always have good taste. I think all young women today do. So, ordering up duplicate gifts (with different shipping addresses, of course) is great fun. I wonder how many extra sales Crate and Barrel enjoys as boomer women use registry shopping. (I have found wonderful things there. Target, too.)

A heart-stopping moment. The only worry that has ever arisen came the day that The Sociologist received a gushing young woman in her office. "Oh, you and Dr. Bold are so kind. Thank you, thank you." And as she leaned in for the hug, she concluded, "I love the electric breast pump."

Within minutes, The Sociologist was tracking me down by cell... "I didn't know we had given a gift this week. Tell me you didn't get duplicates."

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

09 July 2008

Calling for COBRA

As mentioned previously on this blog (2 July 2008: Working for Benefits), COBRA can serve to extend health insurance when a job ends or bridge to private insurance (at, we hope, group rates). A common misconception—well, make that my misconception—is that there's a COBRA desk somewhere that the newly unemployed must deal with. Actually, it's much simpler than that.

COBRA coverage is literally extended to us from the folks who already have our records. In Tom Bold's case, that's the insurance desk that's been handling his corporate benefits for the past 19 years. For me, it will be the State office that is coordinating all of my paperwork tied to end of employment. This is not to say that we don't have to do anything. We must read the papers, and we must respond with payment when prompted. The point is, the prompts do surface.

COBRA has not enjoyed a good reputation. My image was one of HIGH EXPENSE. And COMPLICATED PAPERWORK. And SCARY TEMPORARY. There is expense, of course. COBRA translates the cost of the group insurance previously enjoyed through employment to a payment the individual must make. Chances are, it will be noticeable increase. Perhaps the corporate package was "free" to the employee, so any change at all seems dramatic. For many, the premium is shared between employee and employer, so shifting to COBRA means the individual must absorb both parts of the payment. And while not unexpected, the shift to payment as opposed to automatic payroll deduction is nevertheless a change. And in a time of many changes, even this logical adjustment adds stress.

As to paperwork, our experience so far has been easy. Admittedly, we have not yet reached the end of COBRA, so we don't know the full story.

SCARY TEMPORARY is the most emotional of the imagery of COBRA. By definition, the coverage is temporary. And with concerns about pre-existing conditions and "insurability," the SCARY part is inevitable.

My strategy has been simple: get on the phone and start calling. And when I didn't like doing that, I asked my daughter to research it. Out of love, or concern, or fear that she might someday be called upon to pay my insurance premiums, she stepped up to the request. We did have to coordinate: I had to speak on the phone first and give the rep permission to discuss my options with my daughter. Clearly, he had done this before.

And that's worth repeating. Researching COBRA was new and daunting for us. We did not have the vocabulary. We hardly knew what questions to ask. But on the other end of the phone, benefits representatives do have the vocabulary. They know exactly what questions we will ask, and they can even tell us what questions we should be asking.

Where to begin? Select the venue that you are most comfortable calling. All of the folks listed here will know where to send you next (and you won't be first person to ever ask about COBRA):

HR - Human Resources
EAP - Employee Assistance Programs
PAYROLL - Payroll office
YOUR BENEFITS PROVIDER -Insurance company (1-800 number on your card)
YOUR RETIREMENT OFFICE - Either on-site or a regional/state office
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Employee Benefits Security Administration

© 2008 Mary Bold, PhD, CFLE. The content of this blog or related web sites created by Mary Bold is not under any circumstances to be regarded as professional, legal, or medical advice. Or education advice. Or marital advice. Or even a tip.

08 July 2008

Retirement to the Apple Store

This column is not about retirement from Apple. It is about retirement to Apple.

San Francisco store: One Stockton Street. The Apple store in San Francisco resembles the store in Southlake, Texas, for about 10 feet. Then you reach the glass staircase. It leads to a top floor with just as much activity as below, plus a theatre. That’s theatre seating (really comfortable plush chairs) around a wall display. Experts on iPhones and iPods and even Adobe Photoshop present one-hour workshops nearly all day long, 7 days a week. (On one trip to the store, the projector wasn’t working so the expert led us to a work station for a hands-on tour of iWeb. We sat on stools and were slightly less comfortable, but learned a lot in that setting, too.)

Who’s retiring. It’s not that young workforce staffing the Genius Bar that I’m writing about today. It’s the gray-haired customers in the San Francisco store. The retired contingent is arriving for training. Whether weekend or weekday, gray haired customers are a noticeable part of the environment. They come for all topics. Some come with note pads. Most come with questions, happy about finding a venue for introductory lessons.

Retirement computing. I am reluctant to make assumptions about age and computing. I know old people who excel at WoW (World of Warcraft) and young people who fumble at a google search. Still, there are some givens that apply: those people in the stage of fluid intelligence can learn new computing strategies in one way… and those people in the stage of crystallized intelligence will learn in another way, probably building on previous knowledge (not necessarily knowledge about computers). People who are retired today were already in the crystallized stage when affordable (home) computing emerged. They were probably very purposeful in selecting hardware and application software, with a desktop CPU and email their primary concerns. Those early choices do not confine them today.

Crystallized and fluid intelligence. The neat thing about crystallized intelligence is that we keep learning after the shift from fluid intelligence in our 20s or 30s. The term crystallized is off-putting to some of my students, especially those residing in fluid intelligence. Fluid: learning is characterized by intuitive leaps, often without much structure. It’s what allows the young (primarily) to produce new theory. Einstein is the classic example, but only just an example. We all experience fluid intelligence and it is what allows us to explore as we learn. Crystallized: learning is characterized by scaffolding of ideas, building on foundational knowledge that we gained earlier. It is no less creative than fluid intelligence. In some fields, it is the preferred state: historians develop slowly and typically peak (academically) in middle and late age. Considering the types of intelligence can help us figure out how best to assist learning about computers. Apple’s theatre seating is a great fit for crystallized thinkers: they like to follow along, they like to see a display first, and maybe they just relate well to being taught in a lecture setting.

Venues for accessing beginner information. Why are the retired (with more boomers on the way, of course) flocking to Apple? For starters, the company’s stores are earning the reputation as the most helpful service sources for computing today. More important, Apple stores provide drop-in learning opportunities. Even the most accommodating community education source demands a commitment to schedule. Learn to surf the web, master Flash, and build your own website—all are available at low cost or free from community centers and colleges. But they are not drop-in. Only Apple keeps the appropriate teaching force—their sales force—on the job every day, ready to receive learners.

Meeting the training expectation. In smart fashion, Apple advertises to the young and then sells to all generations. For training on Apple products, does the San Francisco experience translate to other stores? Comparison to my store back home in Southlake is not encouraging. I’ve visited the Texas venue specifically for free workshops and never found them operating. Does it take a dedicated teaching space like the one in the San Francisco store? Yes, it probably does. At least for the crystallized thinkers, having that organized seating matters. If my Southlake store pulled out a dozen chairs and grouped them around a projector, would that suffice? Yes. It would also be the ideal place to point out to the small masses the concomitant lessons, like demonstrating the use of the DVI connector to the typical data projector. (Yep. That stumps a lot of boomers at professional conferences when they arrive expecting to make presentations from their MacBooks.)

No complaints. Hats off to Apple for recognizing the need for drop-in training venues. Special congratulations to Apple for making the San Francisco store the ultimate in that experience. And as more boomers have more time to partake of the offerings, my guess is that we’ll see growth in this style of customer support.