by Joe Hearn | May 24, 2013 | Lifestyle Design, Pursuits
“You don’t have to find out you’re dying to start living.”
~Zach Sobiech
It’s been a busy “News” week, and I wanted to point out a story to you just in case it got lost in the shuffle. Last May, Zach Sobiech’s doctors told him he only had a year to live. He was battling a type of bone cancer called Osteosarcoma and, despite everyone’s best efforts, the cancer was winning. Zach died on Monday. He had a brief life (he was only 18 when he died), but he made the most of the time he had.
One of the core tenets of our philosophy here at Intentional Retirement is to get off the deferred life plan. Zach embodied that so well. Rainn Wilson (a.k.a. Dwight from The Office) made a short documentary about Zach and I thought it offered a great reminder to the rest of us to live an intentional, full life. If you haven’t seen it already, I promise you it’s worth a few minutes of your time. You can watch it on YouTube by clicking the link below:
Before I go, two quick things:
- Have a great Memorial Day weekend!
- I just finished a new eBook that I will be releasing in the next week or two. It will be free at the site and will go out automatically to email subscribers (i.e. anyone who received this email). Keep an eye out for it. I think you’ll really enjoy it.
~ Joe
by Joe Hearn | May 17, 2013 | Lifestyle Design, Retirement
How retired are you? For most people, that question has one of two answers: They are either retired (100%) or not retired (0%). They associate retirement with a particular age (65+) or work status (not working) and if they can’t check those boxes, then they’re not retired. They see life as a timeline and retirement comes at the end, somewhere between Medicare and Forest Lawn.
If you’ve read much of my writing, you know that I think a bit differently than your average bear about retirement. I define retirement with one word: Control. I don’t view life as a timeline with retirement at the end. I view it as a pie chart, divided between time I control and time controlled by others. Retirement is a gradual transition from doing what I have to do to doing what I want to do.
The upside to my philosophy is that, for each and every one of us, retirement begins today. It is no longer some sort of “Promised Land” that we hope to survive long enough to see. Instead, it starts now, and evolves over the years as we gain more control over how we spend our days.
How much do you control?
Management guru Peter Drucker was fond of saying: “What gets measured gets managed.” In order to make something better, we need to be able to measure it. That way we can track progress and see what works and what doesn’t. This is why our world is so full of ratios like earnings per share, body mass index and miles per gallon.
With that in mind, I’d like to offer a new ratio for each of us to consider. I call it the HRAY Ratio (or ‘How Retired Are You’ Ratio). It is calculated by adding up the Time You Control and dividing it by Time Controlled by Others. The bigger the ratio, the more retired you are.
Your assignment for the weekend is to calculate your HRAY. Download the Time Budget Worksheet from the Retirement Planning Toolkit if you need some help figuring out how much of your time you control (Remember: Subscribers just enter your email address and hit submit and you’ll go straight to the Toolkit).
Once we all know our HRAY, then we can focus our time and energies on improving it (a.k.a. Becoming more retired). That will be the subject of a future post. Stay tuned.
Quick Favor: Can you (as Dennis Rodman might say) do me a solid? If you enjoyed this article can you forward it to a friend or two? More than just a blog, I’m trying to build a movement of people who are serious about living life intentionally. There are probably people in your circle of influence who would be a good fit for our little community and I’d love for you to send them a quick invite. Thanks!
Have a great weekend!
~ Joe
by Joe Hearn | May 9, 2013 | Retirement
When you signed up for updates at Intentional Retirement, you received a detailed Retirement Countdown Checklist. That sign-up bonus has been the same since I started the site, so I decided to change it up a bit.
Rather than giving just one resource, I decided to give a whole toolkit full of them. Plus, I plan on adding more all the time.
The good news? You automatically have access to the new retirement planning toolkit. Just visit www.intentionalretirement.com/toolkit and enter your email address at the bottom of the page. Since you’re already a subscriber, you won’t need to go through the initial confirmation process that new subscribers go through. Instead (assuming everything works correctly) you will be taken directly to the toolkit after entering your email and clicking submit. Whenever you want to return to the toolkit, just enter your email address and you’re there.
I want to make sure everything is working correctly, so feel free to test it out and let me know if you have any problems.
Thanks!
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Apr 30, 2013 | Hobbies, Learning Challenge, Lifestyle Design
Speed Reading Update
The most recent skill I’ve been working to add to my “Lifestyle Résumé” is speed reading. Last month I tested my reading and comprehension and then studied ways to improve both. Over the last several weeks, I took what I learned and put it into practice as I worked through my reading list.
In addition to things like newspapers and magazines, I read five books this past month. They are:
- The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Guillebeau
- Boomerang by Michael Lewis
- Wool by Hugh Howey
- Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
I timed myself using Toggl so I could see if my speed per page was gradually improving and then re-tested my speed and comprehension at Reading Soft. When I started the challenge, my speed was 213 words per minute with 82 percent comprehension. When I re-tested, my speed had improved to 378 words per minute and my comprehension held steady at 80 percent. I didn’t quite hit my goal of doubling my speed, but all in all I was pleased with the outcome. It was a fairly easy skill to acquire and it will make a big impact in my daily life going forward.
What’s next?
As most of you know, my wife and I are trying to get our daughter to all 50 states before she graduates from high school (only 33 to go!). States like Montana and Wyoming are known for their National Parks and beautiful outdoors and it seems that the best way to see them is by hiking, exploring and camping under the big night sky.
There’s only one problem. I have no camping skills. Rather than see our vacation turn into a scene straight out of Lord of the Flies, I signed up for a six week backpacking and camping basics class at the Outdoor Venture Center at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The course covers things like how to pack and dress, how to cook in the backcountry, using a map and compass, backcountry first aid, trip planning and leave no trace camping.
I’ll update you once I finish the class. In the meantime, is there anything that you’ve been wanting to learn how to do? Why wait? There are tons of benefits to being a lifelong learner and teaching yourself a new skill is easier than ever in our modern world of videos, apps, books and online courses. Feel free to follow along with one of my challenges or do something totally on your own. Either way, by being intentional about learning you’ll end up with more things to do and more people to do them with.
Have a great week!
Joe
by Joe Hearn | Apr 26, 2013 | Retirement
The markets have done great lately, but there will inevitably come a time when fear returns and indexes drop. After all, that is the nature of markets.
While we can’t control the ups and downs, we can control things like how much we’re saving, how our assets are allocated and how much debt we have. Focus on those things and you’ll be less likely to stress about swings in the market. You’ll be able to keep calm and retire on.
Just for fun I had my designer put together a little reminder for you (hat tip to the famous “Keep Calm” poster from World War II). You can download it here: Keep Calm Poster
Have a great weekend!
~ Joe
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