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    Archive for February, 2015
    What Are You Going to Do in Your Retirement?
    Thursday, February 12th, 2015

    ♫  Look at that sky, life’s begun
    Nights are warm and the days are young
    Come get up my baby

    Golden years, gold, whop whop whop
    Golden years, gold, whop whop whop…♫

    Lyrics, Music and recorded by David Bowie.

    retirement-to-sun

    So many  articles on retirement all deal with the issue of finances and how to plan so you are not caught off guard on the money side.  Since that aspect has been explored in detail, this article is going to take us in a totally different direction. As lawyers, we get so much of our personal identity from simply being lawyers that the idea of hanging up our robes and walking out the office wearing the title “Retired Lawyer” causes us panic and a sense of dread.  Just *what* would we do with all that….time?

    Furthermore there is the fact that as a lawyer, you are accustomed to spending large amounts of time at the office. After retirement, you are now faced with spending the rest of your life with someone that you may have only been seeing on a limited basis for the last while. You now need to start living life together and not in parallel.

    Not surprisingly, according to A Satisfying Retirement Blog “[F]or married people over 50, the divorce rate has more than doubled in the last 20 years. Some lawyers report up to 25% of their clients are men and women over 65.”

    Accordingly, I think that a good place to start is by asking ourselves “What is the vision that we (you and your spouse or loved one) have for our retirement?”  Do you see lots of travel ahead?  Spending time with family and grandchildren?  Playing sports and being active? Getting to know one another…again?

    Another aspect to think about (and sorry for the dark undertones): What would you want people to say at your funeral about you?  Have you spent time on the activities for which you wish to be remembered? Now is the best time to start working on the legacy that you wish to leave.

    Start a list of all the things that you (and your spouse or loved one) would like to do with the rest of your lives together.  Use that to start a conversation on how to plan to check off as many of these as you can together.  It is much better knowing that both of you are working in the right direction than to find yourselves at cross-purposes and disappointed about the turn of events in your ‘golden years’.

    Retirement can have a very stressful effect on a relationship and when you add in possible health-related issues related to aging and the diminishment of income, you can see that you have the potential for a perfect storm. Like most challenges, dialogue and preparation can help you deal with complications if, and when, they arise.  You want to craft a life together that meets each partner’s physical, emotional and other needs and that allows you to take each partner’s feelings, desires and dreams into account.

    The other factor to consider is the activities that you plan on enjoying in retirement.  You don’t just start doing them on day 1. You need to ease into them by taking the time ..now..to build a base and look forward to getting better at them in retirement. Whether it is golf, tennis, playing a musical instrument, pursuing photography, travel – you need to start enjoying them while you are working in order to really get the benefits of them in retirement.  After all you don’t want to look forward to playing the guitar only to find out that your hands are just not working the way you wished at this point in your life.

    You also need to establish boundaries – there are still activities that you will want to enjoy with a group of friends that may not include your spouse….and visa versa.  Respecting that each of you need and desire this ‘apart’ time makes the situations more bearable when one person goes off to have lunch with the girls or a golf game with the guys.

    One final issue for this column (but certainly not the final issue you will face in retirement) is the readjustment of tasks around the home.  If one spouse has been working full-time and the other perhaps has been taking a bigger share of the home chores to accommodate, this allotment of chores needs to be adjusted after retirement.  Set up ‘blue jobs’ and ‘pink jobs’ (our designation around our home) with expectations of how and when these will be done.  To keep the magic happening, if you are the one who does the ‘blue’ jobs, do a pink job occasionally in addition.  Believe me, it will be noticed..and appreciated in your golden years. Of further note, “blue” and “pink” jobs depend on your individual circumstance, background and understandings. The underlying understanding is that we support our spouse in whatever ways we can when we are looking up at the sky and saying life has begun.

    (jointly posted to tips.slaw.ca)

    Posted in 30 Questions for Busy Lawyers, Change Management, Firm Governance, Issues facing Law Firms, Leadership and Strategic Planning, personal focus and renewal, Tips, Trends | Permalink | 1 Comment »
    One Man, Two Guvnors
    Friday, February 6th, 2015

    ♫ Ah, she’s gonna love you
    She gonna leave you with a smile
    Ah, she’s gonna love you
    She gonna leave you with a smile..♫

    Lyrics and music by: Odie Blackmon and Jay Knowles, recorded by George Strait.

    one man

    The comedy “One Man, Two Guvnors” is playing at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage until Feb 22, 2015, hosted by the Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver, BC.

    This is a delightfully different play.  For one, there is wonderful live music throughout.  Two, it breaks the barrier of separation between audience and actors and evokes delightful memories of Woody Allen in Annie Hall, where Woody Allen, standing in line to get into a movie, gets into a discussion with an academically officious film professor who cites Marshall McLuhan. Woody, of course disagrees with the professor and his views regarding Marshall and to prove his point, famously reaches outside of the cinematic window to bring Marshall himself into the scene to confront the professor. Marshall of course states to the professor: “You know nothing of my work!”.  Woody Allen concludes with: “Boy, if life were only like this.”

    Well if only other theatre was like this we would do a whole lot more laughing.  This is a bit of British irreverent humour involving food and love mixed with improvise lines and served with a dash of nostalgia and a twist of saucy undertones. The acting is wonderful and the fast-paced entries and exits only heighten the long-anticipated collision of paths at the end.  The scene changes and intermission will leave you dancing in your seat.

    Andrew McNee as Francis and the rest of the talented troupe of actors and musicians will leave you smiling and wishing for more.

    Posted in humour, personal focus and renewal | Permalink | No Comments »