I’m so excited to bring this podcast interview to you. One of my favorite things about the work that we do is that we get to meet so many incredible people and we hear their stories. We get to see the how the decisions that they make impact their lives.
How do they live full out? What makes for a good life? And I can say that my life is better as a result of getting to walk life with. Amazing people. In today’s podcast, I’m gonna introduce you to Anne, who has been retired for seven years. Not only will you get to hear her story about her journey to retirement, but you’ll also get to hear about this exciting goal that she has for this year, and it’s a way to cut through the routines and the mundane and create new and exciting experiences to live fully.
I like the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt who says. The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out, eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.
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459 68 New Adventures at 68- Anne’s Bold Retirement
Welcome back America to Sound Retirement Radio, where we bring you concepts, ideas, and strategies designed to help you achieve clarity, confidence, and freedom as you prepare for and transition through retirement. And now here is your host, Jason Parker, America. Welcome back to another round of Sound Retirement Radio.
You’re listening to episode number 459. The title is. 68 New Adventures at 68 Anne’s Bold Retirement, and I’m so excited to bring this podcast interview to you. One of my favorite things about the work that we do is that we get to meet so many incredible people and we hear their stories. We get to see the how the decisions that they make impact their lives.
How do they live full out? What makes for a good life? And I can say that my life is better as a result of getting to walk life with. Amazing people. In today’s podcast, I’m gonna introduce you to Anne, who has been retired for seven years. Not only will you get to hear her story about her journey to retirement, but you’ll also get to hear about this exciting goal that she has for this year, and it’s a way to cut through the routines and the mundane and create new and exciting experiences to live fully.
I like the quote from Eleanor Roosevelt who says. The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out, eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience. But before we get started, I like to start the day by renewing our mind, and I have this verse to share, uh, with you from Mark chapter 10, verse 29 and 30.
Truly, I tell you, Jesus replied, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much. In this present age, Holmes brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields, along with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life, Mike from the East coast, who is one of our RBC customers, recently reached out to share this joke.
Why don’t lobsters give tips? ’cause they’re shellfish. My family rolls their eyes when I share these jokes, but this past week, my daughter texted me this one. She said, I made a playlist for hiking. It has music from peanuts, the cranberries, and Eminem. I call it my trail mix.
What can I say? She’s a chip off the old block. Without any further ado, here is my interview with Anne. It is my good fortune to have my friend Anne on the podcast today to talk about 68 new things and this goal that she, she has set for this point in her life. But before we get into this. This new adventure that she’s on, I want to just help her paint a picture for what, what life has looked like for her and, um, how she got to this point and how did she decide to retire.
So Ann, welcome to Sound Retirement Radio. Jason, thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here. You are one of my favorite people. We had the opportunity to play pickleball together, uh, recently, actually a couple of times now. Hey, I just love that we get to walk life together and I’m really excited that you’re willing to share your story, especially the 68 new things.
We’ll talk about that in just a minute. But before we do, um, help our listeners understand who you are, um, what was your career? What did you do? Sure. Paint the picture for us. Sure. So, uh, I, uh, joined the Army in 1979 and I did 25 years, and I came in just to kind of learn a new job skill. But 25 years later, I mean, after so many adventures, I was on the medevac and I became a PA in the army.
And, uh, just so many adventures, even including my trip to Iraq. But when I left the army, which was a huge decision. I went into civil service and I continued my work as a PA in occupational health at Mad Army Medical Medical Center for oh, another 15 years, and then it was time to retire again. I kind of retired right about the time of COVID.
Uh, I always had a plan of when I would retire a second time. Um, so I was always thinking about what I would do after I retired. Uh, and then when COVID hit and things really slowed down and we were sent to our rooms with our computers, um, that seemed like a good time to transition and I, I’m really glad I did.
Hmm. What did you enjoy the most about your work? Oh, so many things. My job was occupational health, which means I dealt with people in their workplaces and I knew, uh, JBLM, Fort Lewis and all my employees so well. I loved my job. I was so thankful to have a job that I truly felt where I made a difference, and I could spend time talking to people about their work and about their health.
Uh, it was just a really wonderful job, but I always knew as much as I loved my job and I thought I was pretty good at it, I knew that that wasn’t what defined me. It’s what I did. Uh, and I took great pride in being great at it, but I, there was a me in there that I wanted to go and explore when I retired, and so I was very excited about it.
Hmm. How old were you when you retired? Oh gosh. You want me to do math this early? I think I was, uh, 61 and I’m 68. Now. Looking back, knowing what you know now, do you wish you would’ve retired sooner? Or, uh, wor do you wish you would’ve wor worked longer? What are your thoughts looking back at that decision to retire?
Uh, looking back, I did it at exactly the right time. Now it was a little odd because I had, uh, set plans for when I retired. I was actually going to go into another career. Uh, but the training wasn’t available because of COVID, but despite that, so I had to pivot. Uh, what I thought I was leaving and going into didn’t quite happen, but I, I really believe that, uh, it was just the right time for me.
And, uh, that was no small decision because, you know, you learn to work, we learn to save our money. We, that’s what we do. And then we have to shift and go from earning money and saving money to actually learning how to spend everything that we have saved up and what are we gonna do with our time. Yeah.
How did you. How did you think about that? I mean, that, that’s, I think, one of the biggest things that most people wrestle with. You’ve trained yourself in this, um, routine that people get used to, of going to work every day. The people you communicate, the things you do, the places you go to lunch, uh, you know, how did you change all of that?
Well, so I always told myself, you know, I love my job, but it’s, this doesn’t make me me. Mm. Uh, it’s, uh, so I kept in, I kept in touch with some of my coworkers that I really cherish, and we continue, uh, you know, we have lunches together, but as far as giving up the work. Place, um, that was only mildly difficult to do.
Mm uh, it was, it just felt like it was my time and I didn’t regret it. I, I made lists of what I was gonna do when I got out. Mm-hmm. I looked for, you know, going to retire is like a rollercoaster. You’re half excited and half terrified. But in the end, you know, the, the train leaves the station and it’s time to ride it so you can have your eyes open and, or you can open ’em up and enjoy the ride and, and make it your ride.
And that was what I always intended to do was I wasn’t leaving and stopping one thing. Just for the purpose of, oh, I’m not gonna do that. I was going to something else, which was my time, my time to do what I wanted to do. And I had to learn how to do that. You know, it was, it was, it was not, it was a little bit difficult, but I was, you know, thinking about it as the, this is the exciting part and forget the scary part and just work at it.
What do you enjoy the most? What’s been the best part of being retired? I think what the best part of being retired is just having the freedom to create and do whatever I want on my schedule. Now, uh, I was married for a very long time and that ended, um, at, at a point in time. So I also had to learn how to be a single person, a solo person, um, but.
Just having the freedom to keep a calendar and fill it up with all the things that I like to do. I’m a lifelong learner, so I really dedicate myself to trying to learn as much as I like my patterns of I do this, this, and this on this day. I also like to freedom of, of, Hey, you know what, I’m gonna pack up the trailer and I’m gonna head to wherever I do it often, and you have a lot of interests outside.
I mean, you, you had developed a lot of interest in your life outside of work. Do you mind sharing maybe some of those things that you, um, knew that you wanted to spend more time with? Sure. So I, I’m very blessed that I’m, I’m incredibly healthy. Um, so I don’t have any limitations, uh, for the most part. So, learning new sports, I’ve always been an active person as far as, you know, I’ve done triathlons in the past and I hike and I have horses, or now I have a horse, and we’re both retired and, uh.
You know, I picked up pickleball, you know, just like you picked up pickleball. Pickleball gets me out of the house. I meet bunches of new people. I’m generally an introvert by nature, so going out and meeting new people is not always easy, but I work at it. Then I get to work at it in the venue of, uh, doing a sport, which is, you know, it’s a little bit like golf.
It’s highly addicting and it’s a lot of fun. So it gets me outta the house. I love that I can just sit here and either focus on my home and what I do here, or I have the freedom to get up and leave and go do whatever it is I place to do. That’s awesome. I was so excited, um, to have you on this show, and I just got back from vacation on my vacation.
I was telling all my friends that about this interview and specifically, um, this is really inspired. I mean, I think this, this next piece of the conversation is just gonna inspire so many people. When you share this idea of 68 new things, will you take a minute and, and share with our listeners what you came up with, what you’re, what you’re working on, and what, what that looks like.
Sure. So 68 new things came about, uh, kind of for two reasons. Um, I turned 68 this year. Uh, that’s why I call it 68 new things. And, um, in years past, I had been happily going along and doing things and I thought, you know. I like to stay in a pattern, but it is time to break outta that pattern. I am going to do.
I’m gonna challenge myself to do 68 things I have never done before. Mm-hmm. Now I’ve done a lot in my life, but now the 68 things, they can vary. I made my list and then I asked a lot of friends, and as I go, I meet new people all the time and they will give me new ideas all the time. So in 68 new things, it can be very small.
For example, I, uh, baked my mother’s, uh, strawberry rhubarb pie recipe, and that was kind of a, a homage to her. But then at the other scale is I jumped out of a plane in a tandem jump. Mm-hmm. Um, so this, that was a little bit of a larger thing to do. Um, so far I am on number 46 of my 68 new things, but I’m just saying the spectrum can be anything from small to quite big.
Now my parameters are, uh, I’m generally not gonna go and travel very far because of my animals. Um. So I went to Hawaii. That’s about as far as, I’m not yet going to places like Nepal or anywhere exotic Africa or so on, uh, has to be legal, of course. And it has to be affordable because my finance guy likes me to stay within my budget.
Those darn finance guys, they, they take the fun out of everything. I love mine. He’s awesome. What, so you’ve put together this list, what’s been the most fun so far? I mean, jumping out of an airplane is, you know, kind of crazy, but. Well, yeah, and I have a, I have a real healthy fear of heights and so I first, you know, my fear of heights, I first went to Trappe class and learned how to, you know, jump up, you know, go do the, the bar thing and do the flip and the catch.
Um, what has been the most fun? It’s, it’s, it is such a range of. Of last weekend, I went to the Cranberry Museum in Long Beach. It is somewhere I have passed a thousand times and I thought, you know, this time I’m going to do it differently. I’m gonna stop and I’m going to go in 68 new things. This is one new thing.
Uh, I’ve never caught a fish. I caught salmon. I went on a charter, uh, clamming. Um. What else? There’s just so many things. You went clamming and then, and then I think you told me you made clam chowder. Your made your own home. I did, yeah. My first clam chowder, and it was pretty damn decent, and I gave it to a bunch of friends.
Yeah. Now I have sa, now I have salmon in my freezer. You know, I just, I, next time you’re up this way, there’s a place in, on Bainbridge Island has the, the absolute best clam chowder I’ve ever had in my life. So remind me to tell you about that place next time you’re up this way. Okay. Yeah. Um, one of my other things I did is I, I, you know, I like to photograph.
It’s one of my passions, and I went to Utah and I photographed the wild horses there. Something I had wanted to do for years, and I finally pulled the trigger and I did it. Wow. What’s another thing, um, that’s not so grandiose, maybe just a simpler thing that was on that list where you, you, something you always wanted to learn and you said, you know, I’m gonna go take a class on this.
Uh, well, yeah. So I took a class on sign language, uh, six weeks on sign on signing. And, uh, I can proficiently say Hi, my name is Anne. Uh, but just to be introduced to the world of signing, um, making my mom’s pie recipe kind of small. Um, I have a friend who is a basket weaver and she helped me make my very first basket.
Hmm. Um, so not everything is grandiose. Some of these things are. Very easy to do locally and small, but they’re new to me. What, um, other than the skydiving, what has pushed you the most out of your comfort zone? Other than the skydiving? Well, let’s see, the hot air balloon ride. Oh. Um, that, that was fun, but it didn’t push me outta my comfort zone.
I was, again, my fear of heights. Uh, so if I have a fear of something, I’m going to go do it. Wow. Because I’m not gonna sit on the sideline because. You know, that’s the point of 68 new things. And this, I wanna say, you know, it’s not a bucket list. I’m not dying, as far as I know, these things won’t make my life better if I don’t, you know, if I didn’t do them.
It’s just, I’m trying to stretch myself out of my pattern. Uh, I love my pattern just like everybody else, but that’s not where, you know, living in the shallow end, isn’t it? Uh, I have this saying in my kitchen, it says, if you don’t climb the mountain, you can’t see the view. Mm-hmm. So why do you think that that became important to you, this breaking free from these patterns?
Why do you feel like that was something that you needed to do at this point in your life? Well, I’m gonna be honest. Uh, I was in a relationship with someone and when I was in a relationship, you give up a lot of yourself. Um, and when that ended, I said, okay, well, I’m still here. And, um, it’s time to go out, uh, pick yourself up, go out and keep on living.
Um, you know, it’s such a gift. I’m, we’re in the, I’m in the age. You’re not yet where, you know, I have memoriams on my fridge of my friends who have passed away, and I’m in that window where I’m healthy enough. I’m financially stable enough. I have the freedom because of my relationship status of being a solo that I can do this.
So if I don’t do it when I have this opportunity, I don’t wanna regret that I didn’t do it later. If by chance my circumstances change. How has it impacting you physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, to just have. You know, four or five things every month that you’re aiming for that’s getting you out of your comfort zone.
It is. I mean, spiritually, it’s just so much fun. In that point of the spirit part comes, I meet other people who share their stories with me. We each have a story, just like your trip recently, and you were telling me what it was about. I can feel through your words. So that’s where the spirit part is. I people amaze me the stories and the things that they do when I start to talk to them.
I have a friend who has a podcast on the Camino, uh, hike, you know, very famous. Uh, she’s done it a million zillion times. Uh, someone else who’s a professional salsa dancer. Uh, you know, learning other people’s stories, uh, I think is what makes our lives so rich. I’m not living in, in a, although I’m a solo, I’m not living alone.
If I just reach and touch a person and say, Hey, I’m doing this, what do you do? And then they tell me what they do and I’m always blown away. I’m always blown away. Yeah. People, they do. I agree with you. I, I think it’s one of the things I love about the work I do is I get to meet so many incredible people and hear amazing stories.
What, um, what are you looking forward to the most as you’ve got this list of things that you’re working towards? What, uh, what’s on the horizon? Uh, well I’m, I’m working through, I’m reading 68 new books this year. I’m almost finished. I’m a voracious reader slash I listen a lot as well. Um, uh, you know, while I’m doing other mundane things, I’ll listen to an audio book.
What I’m looking forward to the most about this project is that I always have something on the list, and if I don’t, it’s not hard to find something, I just ask people, Hey, what would you do? Uh, so my niece, she wants me to do sheep shearing, and so it’s fair time and I’m gonna, I’m going to learn how to sheep shear.
Um, but what I’m looking forward to the most about this is it doesn’t end on my birthday when I turn 69. Mm-hmm. I’m gonna keep, I’m gonna keep doing it. Um, maybe not to the pace I’m doing it this year. Mm-hmm. Um, but I will do it with intention. One of the things I’ve learned is that there’s a sense when you’re, when you set a goal.
And then you are accomplishing that goal. There’s a real sense, a real zest in life. For me personally, it’s like, um, I’m, I’m the kind of person, I like checklists, and so when I’m making, when I’m making progress, and I, it’s visible. Boy, that just kinda lights me up and gets me excited. You know what doesn’t get me excited is you, you talk about, um, just experiencing new things and I, I think it’s so easy to get into these routines.
I, I think about it just in terms of driving to work. Like I drive to work the exact same Yeah. Way every single day. Right. And I don’t have to, I could easily take a different path and make it a little bit more adventurous and a little bit more exciting. But I found the most efficient way, and so I stick to the most efficient way.
And, uh, something about just, you know, changing things, trying something new. The other hard part is you go out to a restaurant and you, you know what kind of food you like, and so you tend to order the what you know you like, because if you order something that. You may end up with a dish that you don’t like as much, you know?
And so, um, yeah, I, I love this idea of trying new things and everybody I’ve been telling about your story, Anne, everybody’s inspired by it. So you may, you may be on the cusp of like a 68 new things movement, um, especially amongst our community members. I want to, um, ask you about retirement. Going back to this idea of retirement, what advice would you give someone nearing retirement, who’s feeling hesitant?
Look at your retirement as your next grand adventure. Uh, you don’t think of it as an ending. Uh, and as to, you know, as a, as an ending with, that’s it. What do I do now? Plan it so that you. Are not just leaving something, but you’re going to something. Mm-hmm. That, that you’re going to, this is your time. You know, we talk about chapters of life, of, you know, you get through school, you get married, you have kids, you raise families.
This is your chapter, this is your time. Think of it as your time. Get off the couch, get out of the house. The weeds will still be there. Hmm. Uh, just like you said, even if it’s just drive a different way. Order a different meal. Make an effort to put an effort into this time of your life. Live it because we are not guaranteed, we are not guaranteed health.
We are not guaranteed, you know, a future. So don’t get off the couch. Look at it as this is your time and, and go and paint a beautiful picture with it. Yeah. Awesome. If you could go back to the start of your career. Is there any, is there anything that you would’ve done differently or anything you would do differently?
Well, I, you know, the old Beatles tune that says, you know, uh, life is, you know, what happens when you’re busy making plans? Hmm. What I do differently, uh, my life has been a series of, I, I didn’t see that coming. Um, you know, I joined the Army, not because I was patriotic, but because I failed as a, as a horse trainer, which was my original passion.
Um, there was a lot of. And I just thought, well, my career choice, uh, it wasn’t that I was into healthcare and all benevolent about taking care of other people. It was, uh, uh, calculated that what can I do in the future and what would I possibly be good at? So I can’t say that life went exactly according to plan.
It didn’t. It’s just, can I pivot and shift when things aren’t the way I thought it was going to be? How do you define at this point for you? What, how, how will you define a successful retirement?
Are you living your best life possible? Is a success retirement? I, you know, are you just living your best life? First of all? Are you living? Uh, there’s existing. I, I could exist. You know, get up, eat breakfast, do those things. I wanna live life. I want to be, uh, like you. I wanna be in awe. You said on your trip that, you know, you were so surprised about the reverence of it all.
That’s that feeling of awe, that feeling When the plane door opens and my feet are dangling out at 13,000 feet just before I jump, that’s awe. Mm-hmm. I want to put the awe in this. Time of my life. I want to say I lived good life and it doesn’t have to be dramatic. You don’t have to jump out of a plane if you don’t want to wear different color socks, put on the put on the purple glasses.
Just try something. Do something. Live life. Mm-hmm. Yeah. That’s a good call. Good call to action. Any final thoughts? Anything else you want to be, make sure you’re sharing with our listeners as they’re preparing for retirement, as they’re preparing for this next grand adventure as they’re, um, designing and defining and planning for just an awesome life.
I would say make a plan. Trust your plan. Get professional help with your, I made a plan. I trust my plan. I also trust that if the plan doesn’t go as I thought, I can adapt, I will adapt and again, you know, deal with whatever came up that I didn’t expect. And that I will be okay. Just keep moving forward.
Awesome. Great. Great word to finish our time together. Thank and thank you for being willing to share your story. Thank you for the inspiration. I know this is gonna inspire a lot of people. I just know that people are gonna come to life and they’re gonna be like, that’s what I want. And so I think it’s really cool.
Like you said, when we can share our stories with one another, we spi one another. Think of all the amazing things that we get to do in this life, um, while we can. Yeah. That’s really good. Thank you. Thank you. We, we are truly blessed. You know, one person who’s listening today says, you know what? I’m gonna do it.
I’m going to do, fill in the blank with whatever it is. Just do it. Awesome. Awesome. Thanks Anne. All right. Thank you. Thank you for tuning in to Sound Retirement Radio. For articles, links, and resources from today’s show, visit sound retirement planning.com. If you enjoy the podcast, share it with a friend and give us a five star review.
Ready to kickstart your retirement planning head over to retirement budget calculator.com. Need assistance within. Investment management explore our services@parkerfinancial.net. Information and opinions expressed here are believed to be accurate and complete for general information only and should not be construed as specific tax, legal, or financial advice for any individual and does not constitute a solicitation for any securities or insurance products.
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Investing involves risk. Jason Parker is the president of Parker Financial LLC, an independent fee-based wealth management firm. Located at 9 2 3 0 Bayshore Drive Northwest Suite 2 0 1, Silverdale, Washington. For additional information, call 3 6 0 3 3 7 2 7 0 1 or visit us online@soundretirementplanning.com.
