Genie Alisa

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Recap of Living Out Loud volume 14: Gone fishin'

Ok, I have to brag on your all a bit. 15 entries! And five new participants! I'm not sure what possessed me to pick this topic but it was harder than I thought it would be. So to have so many of you take on the challenge means a lot. You all rock. With no further ado, let's check them all out: Heather's Going Fishing - Eventually I must say I felt a pang of jealousy over earning full health benefits when you retire. Health insurance has been this Big Deal for me and my chronic illness so to have that would be a big relief. And I applaud you for saving so early!

Jimmy's Early Retirement You are making the most of your situation and getting to do all those retirement things while you're still young. Again life is that thing that happens when you're making other plans. :)

Christina's Living out loud ... Planning for retirement when single has its own challenges. But it can be full of opportunities too! It takes a village, and all that.

Deb's Gone Fishin' I suck at not working too. And I also hate pagers.

Dwayne's Gone fishin.. You're right, we all know that guy who has so much without working for it while we're fishing all day and haven't caught squat. And I also love the hill analogy.

Peg's Whine With Your Egg I cringed reading about your husband's company. And I do agree that you can go home again.

Rachel's (Crunchy Turtle) Blue Mountain Dreams I love the idea of reinventing ourselves at several points in our lives. I'm a beach person myself more than the mountains, but I can see the joy in being near nature.

SuziCate's Gettin' the Heck Outa Dodge! As someone who spends all day with her spouse at work, I still say it would be great to have a business with Rich when we retire. Just so long as we weren't counting on it to actually pay bills.

Megan's Once upon a time people retired I wonder too if anyone will ever actually retire anymore. It's much more encouraging to think about starting things than finishing things anyways.

Rachel's (Tales of my 30s) Look into the future Ugh, don't even get me started on worry about the future with a chronic illness. And being a full-time writer is one of those scary dreams for me. So kudos for tackling all those topics.

Ruth's This is My One Life Best. Bulleted List. Ever. I also spent a good 20 minutes googling Machu Picchu.

Amy's I wouldn't have to work at all/I'd fool around and have a ball Yep, retirement is wasted on old people. :) Why can't we travel now while we're young?

Karal's This Little Dream 43 jobs? I'm on job number two since leaving college. We are so very different and yet so very much the same. Your retirement plan sounds pretty great to me.

Rich's Iced Dream Rich always teases that he never wins these LOLs, but I almost made an exception for him this month. He was the only person who had a concrete plan for what he wants to do when he retires. Sure others had general ideas but all with caveats (myself included) but his was simple. Now just to make it happen.

And my own Living in a moment

I picked Ruth's entry as the winner this month. If nothing else because when she had a four month break between jobs, her list of things she did didn't include "freak the fuck out!" like mine would. Maybe she just edited that part out. Regardless, I loved the list of things she did and I like the idea of tasting parts of retirement throughout our lives. She will receive a $20 Amazon gift card as her prize and I thank her for taking the plunge as one of our new participants!

Talking about what to do when we're old can be depressing, but you all really rallied. And with these "tough economic times" a lot of people's nest eggs can seem pretty skimpy. But it's good to ponder all the chapters of our lives no matter how far off they may seem. I look forward to hearing from you all again with our next month's theme so we can revel in the chapters we're in right now a little.