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This book compels us to think about our legacy and consider how we would feel if we knew our life would soon be over.
“This book could just as well be called ‘A Travel Guide to the Journey that Matters Most — Your Life.’ Lyndsay Green has done a fabulous job of answering all the essential life questions that loom for all of us, and she does it with grace, humour and fastidious research. Her message is clear and most welcome: there’s still plenty of time to get it right…” Roy MacGregor, author of Canoe Country
Here’s a short video of Lyndsay talking about one of her earlier books: https://youtu.be/I0lf5JyaDeg
For information on all of Lyndsay’s books: http://www.lyndsaygreen.com/the-books/
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Finishing the last km’s
At the beginning of this week I signed up for the Jack Frost Challenge, accepting the goal of travelling 140 km under my own power in seven days. A great idea.
The winter weather makes it hard to get outside regularly for exercise. This week, the pressure to do 20 km a day, or fall behind on the challenge, got me out for a good skate, ski, or bike ride every day, taking extra detours to maximize the distance covered.
It was great motivation; maybe we need a Jack Frost Challenge more often in winter!
Lots of people on the skating trail
When Lyndsay Greene, author of You Could Live a Long Time, found that many experienced retirees had “worked” well past the end of their traditional careers. They said work — not necessarily paid work — provides purpose and social networks in retirement.
They emphasized that, in the post-career phase of work, you shouldn’t expect the same level of responsibility and authority as in your career.
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In a number of experiments with older adults, Danielle has found that walking is the most popular exercise, but only 7% walk fast enough to boost their heart rates and get the full benefit of vigorous exercise.
The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines call for 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week for boomers. She recommends that people use a heart rate monitor to walk at 55%-70% of their maximum heart rate, or use a simple pedometer to learn to walk over 100 paces a minute. “If you are taking the time to walk, might as well optimize that outing by hitting the target heart rate.”
The banks and investment firms are all saying “save more or else your retirement will be grim”. Their surveys are telling us that Canadians can’t afford to retire. Little wonder #retirement gets such a bad reputation.
And yet, the #boomers are the richest generation in history, so why can’t they afford to retire early?
Reading between the lines, the problem is too much spending.
We boomers are also big spenders — and borrowers.
The high spending lifestyle is unsustainable, except for the wealthiest among us.
Time to bring back the concept of “frugal retiree”.
I met Ralph on a 2 month bike ride in India. He is an excellent example of a frugal retiree living a very full life:
Also worth watching: The Globe and Mail’s Rob Carrick’s video interview on the “Whatever happened to the frugal senior”, focusing on “breaking the consumption habit”.
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