My Retirement "Career" and Purpose

After retiring, I tried several new jobs to determine if a second last hurrah career was a possibility.  I tried the following:  Tutoring, Teaching, Tax Preparation, Park Employee, Census Bureau Employee for part time work and Executive Director of a non-profit, which turned out to be full time work.

These jobs were a good transition from working to retirement.  They made the transition smoother since I still have some of the work routine and camaraderie with co-workers.  None of these jobs turned out to be work I wanted to do full time and long term. 

I quit doing part time jobs in 2015.  I decided I wasn't going to find that second hurrah job.  Instead, I started focusing more time on determining my retirement purpose and delivering on that.

In summary, here's what I have decided are my three focus retirement purposes:

• Managing our household personal finances.  
  
  I have mostly been and still am a DIYer for personal finances.   I am managing our investments, covering our spending, and consulting with a financial advisor occasionally on a couple areas such as when to take social security and how long our funds will last.
  
  Historically, I have typically invested in individual stocks and index ETFs since both have low or no management fees.  I am transitioning to have just 2-3 ETFs and Treasuries/CDs to simplify our investment holdings while maintaining returns.
  
  No one cares more about my finances and investments that I do.  I manage our investments.  I do our taxes.  I make sure we have sufficient funds for our living expenses.  I transfer funds when we need more.  I'm not ready to let go of doing this, yet.
  
  
• Raise our kids to be self sufficient adults.   
  
  Although retired, we still have one child in college and one in junior high school.  Our goal it to enable them to graduate from college debt free and, if needed, cover the cost of graduate school. In addition, we are also tutoring them in the basics of personal finance. I want them have stable finances and be good contributors to society in the future.
  
  An approach I'm taking is to focus on their strengths and interests to help them develop into great adults.  However, I'm also sometimes involving them in my strengths and interests areas in case that works for them also.
  
  
• Keep our current house by doing modernizing upgrades and planned maintenance.
  
  We've decided this will be our forever home, rather than buy a newer home and move or go to a senior residential community.  We also don't want to own a vacation home.
  
  Over the past few years, we've been renovating the inside of our home.  First, we upgraded the counter tops and appliances in our kitchen.  Next we refinished our wood floor on the first floor.  We considered replacing windows and doors, but decided to repair the windows and doors instead
  
  We are replacing some furniture, such as the outdated armoire TV cabinet with a more modern stand.  And we are working on decluttering by donating books, clothing and other items no longer used. Next is a project of replace carpeted stairs to the finished basement with wood stairs.  At some point, we will renovate our bathrooms, but that is for the future.  
  
  My spouse loves gardening and she is continuously upgrading the outdoor space.  Moving would mean starting from scratch again.
  
  Overall, we feel this is a better option than buying another house, modifying to our tastes and then moving.

These three part time focuses will easily combine to be full time "career" in retirement going forward. Definitely, we'll need periodic vacations from all this "work."

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial, home renovation, parenting nor retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2025 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Do What You Love and The Money Will Come...

IMHO, the worst advice ever. 

I prefer the Japanese Ikigai to blend:   What you love; What you are good at; What the world needs; and What you can be paid for.

For more on  Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday  for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2025 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Still Hate a Daily Commute

I've been retired for over a decade and haven't had a regular daily morning and evening commute during that time.  Until now.   This week, I've been driving my daughter to her volunteer internship all five days.  

Although the traffic is not as bad as as I remember, due to many still working from home, it still was "rush hour" traffic.   It's 15 miles to her location, mostly on highway.   Of course, I head back home after dropping her off, which makes it a 30 mile trip.   So 60 miles a day, about an hour and half on the road.

I don't miss it.  Not one bit.

If I ever go back to work, I think I will only do a work from home job.  

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back Fridays  for a new segment.

This is not financial nor career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2021 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

A Potential Last Hurrah Retirement Job

Recently, I was thinking that a great last hurrah, short term,  retirement job would be to work for the President of the United States.  Then I saw this article that the Trump Administration is having a job fair.  So I might apply for a position.

I'm not looking for anything long term, so this may be a perfect fit :-)

For more on  Reaping the Rewards , check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial or job  advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2018 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Becoming a Great Employee

"Commit to a challenging outcome and then deliver." ~ former boss on doing well at work.

I always remembered this advice for my own career.  I also learned that good employees will stay employed and get average to slightly above average salaries. However, great employees will have superior salaries and often be considered for promotion..

In my experience, good employees typically do excellent work, but don't necessarily take responsibility for the outcome.  Great employees also do excellent work, and also take full responsibility to deliver the business outcome that's needed.  Often, great employees will even set the direction for both the outcome and the work to be done.

For me, once I learned to differentiate between the performance of a good and great employee, I was able to focus on the elements of being a great employee.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

What I've Learned from my Retirement Jobs

It's been a little over 5-1/2 years since I took early retirement.  During that time, I've worked at eight different jobs in hopes of finding the perfect retirement job.   Here's what I've learned from the experience.

No perfect retirement job.  Perhaps, the perfect retirement job is the equivalent of a modern day Holy Grail, which an never be attained.  Some were close, but none met all my criteria.  My proposal to create the perfect retirement job was turned down by my organization.

No longer a corporate mindset.  I am no longer interested in conforming to corporate direction if I do not personally agree.  Also, I only give respect to those managers worthy of receiving it, which only happened a couple times in my retirement jobs.

Need meaningful personal learning. An must have element of my retirement jobs is that I get significant personal development from the experience.  Once the personal learning stops, I am no longer interested in the job.

Finallly, a "job that I love" is only possible for the short term, maybe 2-3 years.  So I'm glad I chose  a  27 year career in a job that utilized my strengths and paid well during my working years.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial,career, or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Job Interview Mistakes

When I attended job interviews during my senior year, I understood that companies were going to judge and evaluate me.  Therefore, I wore a suit to all my interviews and was very professional during the session.  My biggest mistake was not researching each company before the interview and not revising my resume to be customized for different types of jobs.   However, I did well enough since I received offers from six out of nine interviews.

Some current college graduates don't make the same assumption that I did on being evaluated during an interview.  This CNBC article report that 20% of new college graduates exhibit strange behavior during an interview, e.g. texting, dressing inappropriately, and overly casual language.  Some extreme examples include having a parent attend the interview (or negotiate salary) and bringing a pet to the interview.

As a former hiring manager, my main concern would be the candidate not knowing how to act professional after being hired.   That seems to be the case, as the article reports that about half of HR executives report that most new hires are unprofessional during their first year, up from 40% of HR executives the previous year.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Long Term Umemployment Is a Major Resume Negative

The Terrifying Reality of Long-Term Unemployment shows the data from an experiment in which researchers sent out virtually the same resume, with the only exception the time of being unemployed.  The results show that being unemployed over six months essentially eliminates any interest by the employer, even if the candidate had relevant experience. In fact, a candidate with no relevant experience but with less that six months unemployment was much more likely to receive employer interest than a candidate with relevant experience and over six months unemployment.

Here are my conclusions. First, any job is better than no job, in the view of potential employer.  Second, long term unemployment compensation programs may have caused issues for workers that chose to stay on unemployment rather than taking lower paid.

My lesson learned:  To be employable, stay employed, even if the job is in a different or lower paying field.

For more on Strategies and Plans Ideas, check back every Monday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

The Value of a College Degree

In the 1970s, a bachelor's degree provided graduates access to excellent jobs, higher pay, and advancement opportunities.  It was definitely worth going to college, especially since the costs were reasonable.   On the other hand, getting a job at McDonald's could be done while still in high school.

Fast forward to 2013.   Recently, a McDonald's franchisee posted an ad for a cashier position in which the requirements included 1-2 years experience and a bachelor's degree

To me, there are two possible explanations.  Either McDonald's technology to cook fast food has tremendously advanced, or the education available up through college isn't as useful as it was in the 1970s.

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday for a new segment.

This is not financial, education or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2013 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Choosing the Harder Right for a College Major

Back when we were in our teens, my spouse and I chose college majors that would lead to a good paying job.  My spouse would have enjoyed majoring in Journalism, but chose Food Science instead, even though it was a much tougher curriculum.   I chose Engineering because I knew the degree would lead to a well paying job.   Despite graduating in poor job markets in the 80s, both of us were able to get jobs right away.  Also, we both were able to pay off our student loans in the 10 year payback period.

We are trying to instill these same perspectives in our eight year old daughter. A college education should be part of her wealth building plan. Given the current high expense, college is the opportunity to get an education that leads to a higher paying job, not to just get a general education. 

For more on Crossing Generations, check back every Thursday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or education advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Letting Go of Work In Retirement

Since taking early retirement in October 2007, I've experienced three stages of letting go of work.   Here are the three stages:

1. Career.  This was the easiest for me.   To people that inquire whether I consult in my field, I answer, "If I wanted to continue doing the same work, I wouldn't have retired."   I left my career behind on the day that I retired, and I don't miss it.  There's a very small chance that I may do some work in my career field again, but it's a very, very small chance.
2. Second career.  It was a little harder to let go of a second career.  When I retired, I had visions of starting a second career in a new field, specifically in an area I would love.  I tried a number of new jobs:  seasonal tax preparation, tutoring for college entrance exams, after school science program, and county park service representative. Although the work was goo,  I soon learned that doing what I though I loved didn't pay much.  So it wasn't worth the effort to start a second career.
3. Working to live.  My toughest letting go was having no income from work, which I tested  in mid 2012.  Due to the Great Recession, I've never been comfortable with not working to pay for some living expenses, even though our financial advisor was confident about our retirement situation.  Some readers have accused my of not really retiring based on my part time work schedule which sometimes exceeded 40 hours in a week.  However during summer 2012, I had stopped working all my part time jobs and I now feel confident enough to depend entirely on our retirement savings.  By mid 2013, I expect to transition to working only one part time job for 2-4 hours a month, since I still find the work to be fun.

For reference, I still haven't completely let go of a second career, but instead of actively searching for it, I'm going to wait for it to find me :-)

For more on  Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday  for a new segment.

This is not financial or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Part Time is the New Job Reality

While I view part time work as a optional benefit of being retired, it appears that employers are using part time employment as a strategy to reduce operating costs and health care costs.

A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift reports that many companies are shifting to more part time employees and working them less hours, sometimes as little as 12-15 hours in a week.  This allows companies more flexibility to reduce staff during low demand periods, especially in retail.  Unfortunately, companies are also using the opportunity to demand workers conform to company work time needs versus personal work time preferences.

Darden tests limiting worker hours as health-care changes loom reports the operator of Olive Garden, Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouses is no longer offering full time schedules to many of its hourly workers. Specifically, Darden is determining how many employees can be kept under 30 hours a week and therefore, be excluded from health care coverage that will be required by Obamacare.

My seasonal part time job is likely to be affected by some of these trends, specifically requiring that I work more hours when demand is high. While I agree this is good for the company, it's not what I signed up for in a part time retirement job.   I will gracefully decline and if my hours are reduced, I will gladly accept the consequences.

For more on New Realities, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

For More Opportunity, Go East

My parents immigrated to the United States because the opportunities were much better here than in their home country.  Today, I'm not so sure my parents would choose to come to the United States.  Instead, I think they would be looking to immigrate to China or another Asian country, where there is much more opportunity and where success is considered to be a positive.   I fully expect that our seven year old daughter will spend most of working life outside of the United States, because that's where the future business growth will be. 

Here's some anecdotal information on why job seekers should look outside the U.S.   At a White House meeting, President Obama asked Steve Jobs about what it would take to bring back manufacturing of Apple products, which is nearly all done in Asia, back to United States.  Mr. Jobs replied, "Those jobs aren't coming back."   Recently, the Associated Press reported that 1 in 2 new graduates are jobless or underemployed.  Unfortunately, many of those jobs that college graduates used to get aren't coming back either, even when the Great Recession.

If our daughter does work overseas, I would seriously consider selling our house and living with her on the expatiate assignment, if possible.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.


This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

How I Got the Most from my Performance Appraisals

Almost everyone I know dreads a performance appraisal, whether giving or getting one.  Managers dread the administrative process of  As a retired manager, I've given a 20 to 30 performance appraisals.  I've also received over 30 performance appraisals during my working years. 

As an astute supervisor once told me, there are only two or three performance appraisals that I found useful.  Here they are:

For promotion recommendation.  In my company, an up to date performance appraisal (PA) is needed to make a promotion recommendation.   Doing a PA for a promotion recommendation is very straightforward to do.   The PA will focus on the positive business results, great contributions and strengths.  It's basically a testimonial.

To document career goals.  A PA is a excellent opportunity to tell my supervisor and the company about my personal career goals and get management's reaction.  To me, a lot of improvement plan recommendations means I'm not on track.   A plan of preparatory next assignments means I'm on track.

To request approval of my personal training plan.   I always found PAs a great time to tell my supervisor the training courses and associated costs for the upcoming year.  In my experience, my training plan of one to two courses involving no more that 10 working days were always approved.

PA elements that I didn't find useful:  strengths, weaknesses and improvement plans.   In general, I didn't get much benefit for reviewing these areas on a annual basis.

For more on Strategies and Plans, check back every Monday for a new segment.



This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Three Signs of Being on the Fast Track

Career advancement is one of the best ways to increase income. Being on the fast track is a way to increase income even faster. For reference, I wasn't on the fast track for most of my career. My brief shining moment was when I advanced two management levels in three years, which is one the quickest that had been done. Based on my own short experience, and the experience of others, here are some signs I've noticed that people are on the fast track.

Management Conversation.People on the fast track are often identified early in their career, within the first five years.  Senior management will often have career conversations with potential future leaders and share the company's perspective.

Management Influence. Being on the fast track means being consulted as important decisions are being made.  Even though not directly involved, people on the fast track are sought after by senior management for relevant information.

Tough Assignments.  Being on the fast track means getting opportunities to work on tough work projects. Future company leaders need to take a company to good and bad times. It important to know how some will perform during the bad times.

Looking back, I was clearly not on the fast track in the first third of my career. I know it sounds like an oxymoron, but the middle third of my career could be considered being on the fast track.  During that time, management let me know I had promotion potential, I was interacting with the GM even though there were two levels between the GM and me, and I was offered tough assignments. I was promoted two levels during this period to the top 5% of management in my organization.  The last third of my career was also not on the fast track as I had achieved what would be my final promotion level in the company.

For more on The Practice of Personal Finance, check back every Wednesday for a new segment.

This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

No Longer My Job Responsibility

In my retirement jobs, I've decided that I will do a great job for my clients, but I will no longer commit to any extraordinary effort for the company.   I have no desire to develop a career, get promoted or help the company improve.  Here are some of my recent experiences:

Above my pay grade.  Our new office manager has been a "company man."  In my first discussion with her, she explained that it was my job to help the company get better by providing constructive feedback for her to pass along.  I told her that it wasn't going to happen since feedback in the past did not get results.  After a lengthy talk, where she didn't listen to my point of view, I told her simply that it was above my pay grade.  The company didn't pay me enough to do more than what I hired to do.

Beyond commitment level.  One company wanted me to take on an important and challenging assignment. My assessment was the role would be another full time 40+ hour a week assignment.  While I agreed to work a temporary full time position in 2011, I wasn't interested in making the same level of commitment in 2012.   I definitely wanted to work less than 10 hours a week and have the entire summer off.   So I turned down the new role. 

Not what I signed up for.  In 2010, I worked for the government in roles which confirmed my beliefs about government waste.  Although I am biased, I thought the organization for which I worked did a poor job of managing the work and me.  Rather than cut back on hours and let fewer people do productive work, the organizations would keep normal hours and have employees to nonessential "busy work."   The organization clearly had the right to do this according to my offer letter.  However, it was not what I signed up for and I didn't reapply in 2011.

What's the worse an employer can do to me:  not hire me again.  In all three cases, I am able to take a harder line position with my employers since I don't need the job.  If I were worried about keeping a job, I might have been convince to be more in line with the company.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial, career or retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Working on my Terms in 2012

When I retired early a little over four years ago, I was a very good corporate employee.  I understood and supported the corporate priorities.   I put in a lot time on my career, working 60+ hours a week and investing time in professional and personal development.  I was a very good corporate employee, doing what was needed and working on the company's terms.

I took that attitude with me to the part time jobs that I did after I retired.   However, after four years, I've decided to change.  I will continue to do great work for the companies.  However, I will be doing on my terms, instead of the companies' terms.

Here is are my terms for working in 2012:

Scheduling hours that are convenient for me.   Initially, I gave my availability as any hours I didn't have scheduled activities, which often included weekends and evenings.  Before I retired, I was used to working 24/7.  However,  I found that I sometimes was scheduled to work during times when I rather would have been at a family activities.  Now I provide only limited time commitments (e.g. no weekends) that I know won't conflict with potential family activities or vacations and that includes taking the entire summer off.  So far, all my employers have been comfortable with my new scheduling approach.

Working at my pay grade.  In the past, I used to expand my work past that for which I was responsible.   In my career job, this approach was clearly the norm, especially if one wanted advance.  However, I've learned that working above my pay grade is typically not appreciated nor rewarded in my retitrement part time jobs.  In a couple cases, my supervisor objected to me doing parts of his job.  (I attributed it to job insecurity :-)  In other cases, the company would seem to ignore the improvements I was doing.  Recently, I told my supevisor that the company's request to "help make it better" was way above my pay grade, which is slightly above minimum wage.

Focusing on what I love to do.  When I was working full time, I may have loved the work about 10% of the time.  As I tell college students, there's a reason it's call work :-)  and people are paid to do it.   However, in my retirement part time jobs, I'm finding that I mostly love doing the work , about 80 to 90% of the time, because I focus on leveraging my strengths  .  Also, I don't worry about doing performance appraisals, not getting a pay raise or being terminate for under performance. :-)

In 2012, I plan to fit work in when it's convenient for my schedule and I definitely will avoid being over committed as I was in 2010.

For more on  New Beginnings, check back every Sunday for a new segment.

Photo Credit: morgueFile.com, Author Name

This is not financial, retirement or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Focusing on Leveraging Strengths

When I was working full time, part of every performance review had a section on improvement areas, the weaknesses that needed to be addressed to advance.   Working on weaknesses was always one of the toughest things for me to do.  It was challenging to improve in areas I wasn't naturally good at doing.  However, improving weakness was very important since I wanted to advance in my career.
One of the benefits of retirement is the ability to choose part time jobs that leverage my strengths.   For example, I am very good at math, science, finances and test taking.  Skills in these areas are very easy for me to learn and doing work in these areas sometimes feels effortless.    Although I've tried a variety of different jobs, the one's like like best are teaching science in after school programs, tutoring for college entrance exams, and doing seasonal tax preparation.  When I'm working, I often feel like I'm in "the zone."  In the two jobs with performance appraisals, I scored well with no weaknesses identified. 

For reference, none of these jobs are in the field of the career from which I retired.   While I'm glad I majored in engineering and worked in R&D, I'm even more glad that I can fully leverage my strengths in the retirement part time jobs that I've found.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday.


This is not financial, retirement or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

My Career Turning Point

The first twelve years of my career were mediocre at best. I was doing good work and I had advanced the required one level to maintain employment.  I was definitely a journeyman.  I liked what I did and could do the work my entire career at the company.   Or so I thought.

I did a mental test of my hypothesis.  I imagined being 55 and doing the exact same work I was doing in my thirties.   Although, I liked my work at the time, I couldn't imagine doing it for another 20 years.   In addition, if I continued to do the same job, I would likely be reporting to someone in their thirties when I was in my fifties.  I definitely didn't want to be training new managers to whom I reported when I was in my fifties. 

So I decided to change my approach to working.   Here's what I did:

• Communicated my goal.    Previously, my approach had been to work hard and hope to be recognized and rewarded.  It wasn't working.  I had a conversation with my department manager and shared my goal of promotion. Management now knew my career goals.
• Focused on results.  I realized my job was more than showing up and doing the work.  My job was to commit to and deliver outstanding business results.  My supervisors needed workers that developed and executed solutions to the issues that were identified.  With the attitude change, I delivered more projects successfully.
• Accepted tough assignments.   Management's confidence in me grew and  they gave me more responsibility. I received several tough (and undesirable) assignments.  Although these assignments were always presented to me as a choice, I knew that the right answer was an unqualified "yes."
• Expanded influence.  As my credibility grew, I began to expand my influence beyond the are of my direct control.  I effectively began to do the work of the level to which I wanted to be promoted.

That mental experiment I did at year twelve made a big difference.  Four years later, I was promoted to a first line manager.  Three years after that I was promoted to the next level, which was part of the top 5% of our organization, and. I was able to take early retirement from this position seven years later. I am definitely glad the changes made to how I did my job had such a significant impact.
 
For more on Reflections and Musings, check back every Saturday for a new segment.
This is not financial or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC

Retiree Workers Clash with Corporate Culture

A year ago, I noted how the company for which I did seasonal part time work was changing and how it wasn't what I signed up for.  However, last year the office still had the same office manager we always had.   So the office did the minimum needed to comply, which kept the long time staff happy. However, this year the office manager was demoted to staff and replaced by a hand picked employee.  The new office manager is seriously talking and walking the company line and it isn't going over well with the staff, most of which are retired from much larger companies, are near retirement or are part time working parents. None of the staff is interested in the corporate bureaucracy the change will bring.

Although I am an experienced staff person, I am not usually part of the controversial discussions in our office.  However, I overheard the new office manager discussing a mild confrontational interaction she had when directing a staff to do a task (I think).  I've been told one of the mid seniority staff may leave at the end of this month.  Another of the more senior staff complained to me that a requested task being done was "ridiculous."

I expect the new office manager to continue to implement the company plan, which will be good for the company.  I also expect that many experienced staff people will decide this isn't what they signed up for.  I hope the company figures out one of its valuable assets is its part time season retiree work force that likes the work but wants to avoid the bureaucracy, which should be left to the career full time workers to handle.

For more on Reaping the Rewards, check back every Friday for a new segment.

This is not financial, retirement or career advice. Please consult a professional advisor.

Copyright © 2012 Achievement Catalyst, LLC