They Made It!

     The volunteers at Ride for World Health finished their cross-country bicycle trip. The riders, including my daughter, all either work or study in some aspect of the health field. They began their journey at Torrey Pines, in San Diego, with the rear wheels of their bicycles in the Pacific Ocean. Two months later they dipped their front wheels in the Atlantic, at Bethany Beach, Delaware.

     Their real mission was to "address global health disparities by focusing on education, advocacy and fundraising." This year they raised money for Louie's Kids, a group based in South Carolina that fights childhood obesity, Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods (SOIL), an organization designed to transform wastes to resources in Haiti, and Mana, dedicated to improving agricultural practices in rural Africa.     

     One of the riders, age 24 and a med student, said it was most difficult thing he had ever done in his life. Another rider, 29, said, "Actually, it wasn't that hard." Her secret? The group stopped for a breather about every two hours. She kept her focus on nothing but getting to the next rest stop. One after another, until the trip was over.

     One participant moaned that, after it was over he was never going to get on a bike again. I don't know if he was joking or not. But one of the women figured, more optimistically, that from now on she'll be commuting to work on her bike.

Bethany Beach, Delaware, June 3, 2012

 
     There were some people who joined the group for part of the ride. The youngest participant rode from San Diego all the way to to Washington, DC -- and skipped the last leg of the trip. She had to. She needed to get back to Ohio for her high-school graduation. An older fellow joined the group in St. Louis, and rode over the Appalachians to the sea. He didn't have to climb the Rockies, but as it turns out, there are some road grades in West Virginia that are just as steep as the ones out west.

     Twenty some people made the entire journey. Everyone agreed that Utah has the highest, most rugged, most difficult-to-climb mountains. And Kansas is the flattest state ... by far. And everyone agreed, however hard or easy it was for them, it was truly one of the most rewarding things they'd done in their lives.

     As I said to one young man, "You'll be telling your grandchildren about this."

     He looked at me and grimaced, and kind of pinched his rear end, and groaned, "Yeah . . . if I can have grandchildren."

A Short Vacation

     In my last post I wrote about working in retirement, and I don't know if it's karma or coincidence or what, but a day later I got a call about a relatively major assignment. The job will take me just about a month.

     I also have to go to a wedding (the daughter of a friend), and make a four-day trip to Washington, DC -- nothing to do with the job, the job will mostly keep me sitting behind my computer. I'm meeting my daughter in Washington, and the family is using the opportunity to get together for a little holiday celebration.

     If my daughter is not too exhausted. She has taken part in the Ride for World Health, a two-month bicycle trip starting in San Diego and arriving in Washington, DC, over this coming weekend of June 2-3. The annual event is designed to increase health awareness and also raise funds for various nonprofit health organizations.

     So anyway, I'll be taking a brief blog vacation. For the month of June.

Ride for World Health route, April - June 2012

     I've noticed that others have taken "blogcations" now and then. I wonder:  Has your time off re-energized your blogging batteries and given you lots of new ideas?

     I'll post one "Blogging Boomers Carnival" in the middle of the month, because I'm on the schedule. Then I'll be back for real in July. I figure the blogging conversation will go on just fine without my little scribblings while I'm away.

     In the meantime, if you're so inclined, you can peruse back through the 197 blog posts that I've made since starting this exercise at the end of 2010. Or if you haven't taken one of my quizzes, scroll down to the Pages tab on the right and find out:  "Are You a Baby Boomer?" or see if you know:  "Are These Baby Boomer Icons Dead or Alive?"

     See you on July 1!

Can You Be Retired, and Still Working?

     Some of the most fortunate people in the world never retire. For example, Elizabeth Windsor, at age 85, is still going strong as Queen of England. Warren Buffett, 81, remains chairman and ceo of Berkshire Hathaway.

     Not all of us have the option to keep our jobs for as long as we want. I think of myself as belonging to a different, but equally exclusive club --  people who were forced to retire at a fairly young age. For example, Jimmy Carter who retired at age 56 in January 1981. Bill Clinton, who retired at age 54 in January 2001. And George W. Bush, who retired in January 2009 at age 62.

Carter builds houses

     But even though these people officially retired, they did not stop working or contributing to society. Jimmy Carter went on to write books, found the Carter Center and win the Nobel Peace Prize. Bill Clinton wrote his autobiography and started the Clinton Foundation. George Bush has been building his presidential library and working with Clinton to raise money to rebuild Haiti after the 2010 earthquake.

      Of course, I'm in a much different league than any of these people -- they're in the Majors, I'm in Little League -- but nevertheless, I figure if none of these people felt too good to retire, then who am I to sit back and do nothing? If they kept active into their 60s and 70s and 80s, then so should I.

     Besides, I need the money.

Clinton fights global poverty

     Some might think . . . well, it's easy for them to keep working, they have interesting jobs that do not require physical labor, and they enjoy a nice income and plenty of perks.

     That's true, but if you're really sick and tired of your job -- as I was in my last years at work -- then there's nothing to say you can't do something entirely different. A roofer can climb down from the ladder and go teach a course at the local vocational center. A burned-out executive can get outdoors and work on a golf course. A retired teacher can take a summer job as a camp counselor. A bored office administrator can work in retail at the mall. The corporate sales manager can become a real-estate agent.
   
     If you don't need the money, you can volunteer to fold clothes at the church rummage sale or serve food for Meals on Wheels, or pick up litter during community clean-up day.

Bush bikes with wounded vets

     (These are all things that various friends of mine have done at one time or another.)

     I was forced to retire in my 50s. So, like the former presidents, I too have kept working.

     I don't get the notoriety or the perks. But I also don't have to keep regular hours; I don't have to commute;  I don't have to play office politics; and I don't have to deal with the eternal dissatisfaction of ambition. I just poke around with my old contacts and try to come up with a job now and then, and when I do get an assignment, it gives me something to do, offers structure for my week, and not incidentally helps me stretch my retirement funds.

     Some people counter, if you're still working, how can you say you're retired? I guess I look on it as kind of like a summer job when you're in school. You're still on vacation; you don't have any papers to write or exams to study for; and you're not getting graded. Boy, I can tell you, one great thing about working in retirement is that you don't have to suffer the absurdities, and the indignities, of the dreaded "performance appraisal."

     In the end, the reasons to work in retirement are the reasons why you work at any other time in your life. For the money, yes. But also to have some structure in your life. To make some friends. To feel like you're doing something useful. To belong to a group that's bigger than yourself. To actually make a difference in the world -- even if, as in my case, it's a pretty small difference.

     All that being said, I must admit I am "underemployed." So if anyone has suggestions for getting decent work in retirement, or simply wants to share any of their own experiences, I'd love to hear about them.

Sugar Makes You Stoopid

     Recently, Newsweek featured a cover story on obesity (in conjunction with an HBO special on overweight Americans) in which author Gary Taubes challenged the conventional wisdom that we get fat because we eat too much and don't get enough exercise. Taubes instead claims that certain foods, particularly refined sugars and grains, are the primary culprits in spreading the epidemic of obesity in America.

     I greeted this story with no joy. I, myself, am not a big meat eater. But I love cereal, bread, pasta. And at my local 7-Eleven there's a daily special. One donut costs 69 cents, but you get two for a dollar. So, you know ... just in the interest of fiscal responsibility, I usually buy two.

     Taubes acknowledges that fats and meats may cause other problems, such as higher cholesterol, but they don't make us gain weight. In fact, per capita red-meat consumption peaked in this country in the mid-1970s, before the obesity epidemic even got off the ground. Since then, consumption of red meat has steadily declined, while the consumption of carbohydrates has increased -- along with our weight.

     The problem is that carbohydrates carry the cheapest calories, and as Taubes says (and I have personally confirmed), "They can be plenty tasty without a lot of preparation and preservation." But the biology suggests that they make us fat, while other foods (fats, proteins, and green leafy vegetables) do not.

     Sugars, refined grains and starches affect the hormone insulin, which regulates fat accumulation. Both sucrose (the white, granulated stuff we sprinkle on cereal) and high-fructose corn syrup produce elevated levels of insulin, which in turn brings about a deleterious effect on metabolism and promotes the steady accumulation of fat in our tissue. (High and unstable levels of insulin are also a hallmark of type 2 diabetes.)

     Now comes along a new study from UCLA reporting that eating sugar not only makes us fat, but also makes us stupid. Researchers gave a fructose solution to rats and observed that they had more difficulty figuring out how to get through a maze than rats on a regular diet. When the brains of the sugar-fueled rats were examined, researchers found that their insulin was less effective in controlling blood sugar and regulating synapse function in the brain.

     Researchers found one partial antidote. Rats who had their sugar-coated diet supplemented with flaxseed oil and fish oils, both of which are sources of omega-3 fatty acids, were able to work their way through the maze faster than the rats who'd been given just the sugar solution.

Dr. Fernando Gomez-Pinilla of UCLA

     Says Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, professor in physiological science at UCLA, "Eating a high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain's ability to learn and remember information. But adding omega-3 fatty acids to your meals can help minimize the damage."

     So what should we eat? The latest clinical trials suggest that all of us would benefit from fewer sugars and fewer refined grains (bread, pasta) and starchy vegetables (potatoes). Meanwhile, evidence suggests that diets that are severely restricted in fattening carbohydrates and rich in animal products—meat, eggs, cheese—and green leafy vegetables are arguably the best approach to controlling your weight, if not the healthiest diet to eat overall. Not only does weight go down when people eat like this, but heart disease and diabetes risk factors are reduced.

     So, on my next trip to 7-Eleven, I guess I'd better double-check my arithmetic. Or, I could pick up some broccoli on the way home.
     
   

Who Gives Money to Their Grownup Kids?

     B's son came home from school the other day; he had been to a birthday party at the apartment of one of his friends. The friend is going to college and working as a salesperson in an Apple store. She has an apartment in a luxury building in the city, which she shares with a classmate. It's a new building, with a view and a doorman and a rooftop garden (where they had the party). And guess who's paying for this luxury apartment? The two girls' parents.

     The report made me shake my head. At what point do parents stop spoiling their kids?

     Then I thought, well, I have two 20-something children. They are both now out of college, they're both still single, and they both have fulltime jobs -- not a small feat for young adults in this economy. But neither one makes much money -- about enough to pay their rent with a little left over for incidentals, so it doesn't bother me to help them out a little bit.

     I do not pay their monthly rent in a luxury building. But I do pay my son's cellphone bill (it's cheaper to have him on my account than for him to pay separately) and I pay for his fitness club (because I want him to be healthy); and I pay to fix up my daughter's car (because I want her to be safe) and a few other sundry items.

     Can I afford to help them out? Yes, I can. Does it mean that I have to cut back on a few expenses of my own? Yes, it does.

     (And does it sound like I'm making excuses?) But I don't really mind.

     I was taken by the words of George Clooney in his recent movie The Descendants. He said he feels that it's good if you can give your kids enough money so they can afford to do what they want, but not give them so much that they can afford to do nothing.

     Of course, in the movie George Clooney plays the descendant of Hawaiian royalty and the trustee of an extended family that holds millions of dollars worth of prime Hawaiian property, while I'm the descendant of some European castoffs and hold a tract house in the far reaches of a Northeastern suburb. Nevertheless, I get what he means.

     According to a recent survey by Ameriprise Financial, an investment firm headquartered in Minneapolis, I am not alone in offering some financial support to my kids. "Nearly all Boomers surveyed (93%) say they have provided some form of financial support to their adult children. A majority have helped them pay for college tuition or loans (71%), allowed them to move home and live rent-free (55%) or helped them buy a car (53%). Many are also helping their kids pay for car and health insurance, as well as cover basic expenses like rent, utility and car payments."

     The survey showed that a lot of Baby Boomers are also helping out their parents, which puts them in double financial jeopardy. The result? Many Boomers have stopped saving for their own retirement. Ameriprise reports that now in 2012 only one-third of Boomers say they are trying to grow their savings, a significant decline from an earlier 2007 study showing that 44% were adding to their savings.

     One key difference, however, is that only 10% of Boomers say helping their parents has slowed down their retirement savings. But 34% feel the same about the support they’ve provided their adult children.

     I'd be interested to know how some others have handled this situation or feel about the issue. But for me, I'm thinking you shouldn't let pressure from your kids, or your impulse for generosity, hurt your own retirement plans. So we need to open up a discussion with our adult children about how they can manage their own finances more effectively. And we need to talk to them about the limits of our financial support. Sometimes, as parents, we think we can do everything. But we must recognize that there's also a time to let go.

     So, as for those parents paying for their daughter's luxury apartment, I'd advise them to listen to George Clooney's character in The Descendants. As for the rest of us, by all means help out your kids, if you can afford it, but not at the expense of robbing your own retirement nest egg.