RBC Retirement Designers

RBC Retirement Designers

I happened to see an interview on Marilyn Dennis, with Hilary Farr, who used to be on Love It or List.  She now has a gig with the RBC as part of their website called Retirement Designers. At the end of the blog you can find it a link to the website. I checked out the website although I didn't find Hilary on it.

All of the big banks have information on websites about retirement planning that focuses on the financial planning aspects. This website is less about finances and more about how you want to live in retirement and what you want out of retirement.  

RBC wants you to use the website to help "design a retirement" that will work for you (and your spouse, if applicable) on various levels and at different stages.  If you think that you should pick up and follow your dreams after retiring or that retirement will be one long vacation, then the website could be a buzz kill for that. It is more about clarifying what is a doable dream and what might be a nice dream but not a great reality.  

It seems some retirees have made decisions to move from their home or invest in a long held dream and then discovered that the reality is not what they had envisioned. Unfortunately for them, their dream retirement turned into an expensive mistake. Also, some retiring couples appear to be at odds or at least on different pages regarding their dream retirement.  The website is set up to help them reach an agreeable compromise by finding common ground through determining their priorities.  

There are some good points to the website and it poses many excellent questions for people who are considering retiring or changing up their lives;  such as defining what you will do with the 2000 hours that you used to work in a year and now have free. What makes you get up in the morning and how best to make sure you want to get up in the morning. What you will do when you are not traveling or doing that one thing that you really want to do when you retire?   

The website is worth checking out if for no other reason than to realize whether you have answers for the questions they pose or perhaps you need to do more thinking or investigating.  There is a good priority setting activity to work through on an interactive tool, some videos and there are checklists and valuable information.  Here is the link.   

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/mfd-campaign/fall-b.html

I think I might try to see if other financial institutions have similar types of websites that focus less on the financial.

The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory

After finishing The Orenda, by Boyden, I wanted to read something a little less intense and chose to read about a wife of King Henry VIII.  What was I thinking?  Being Henry's wife is decidedly more elegant but only slightly safer than living in a 17th century Huron village.   

Philippa Gregory has a Ph.d in history from the University of Edinburgh. She is a prolific writer and her novel, The Other Boleyn Girl, has been made into a movie.

She writes about the women in history instead of the men. These women may have had influence and power in their time but their accomplishments are often dominated or claimed by the men of the era.  Enough has been said about Henry VIII, so it is interesting to learn about his wives. However, the most famous of his wives, Anne Boleyn, (perhaps because she was young and beautiful but quickly fell out of favour and met a sudden and horrific end) overshadows his other wives, even Katherine Parr, one of his most intelligent and accomplished wives.

It is strange that not more is known about Katherine Parr since she did out live him, and that wasn't just luck.  She had to outmaneuver the King and the royal characters plotting against her. As Henry's sixth wife she followed two who were beheaded, two who were exiled and one dead through childbirth. She had reason to live in fear. Much of her time had to center around not ticking him off which was quite a chore since he was already quick to anger, egotistical and easily insulted.  He was at this time in constant pain from a well described ulcerous leg and he also had great discomfort from his over indulgence in food and wine, making him even grumpier.

Katherine was well read, a great thinker and well written.   She was the first woman in England to publish a book that she had written and not just translated.  As part of the court she was very involved in religious and theological discussion. Part of Henry's legacy is how he shaped religion in England during his time, and Katherine seems to have influence on Henry's thinking on religion and his place as head of the Church of England, as well. That is, she had influence when he was favouring the reformists; when he switched to the papists; she was in danger of losing her head.

Katherine had a considerable life outside of her royal life. She was a twice widowed but without children before she married the King. She also had a secret that would have ended her life and the life of a few others had he discovered it.

The Taming of the Queen, like Gregory's other novels is rich in detail. However, the intricacies of the court can be confusing, especially with Henry who liked to keep factions fighting between themselves and would favour one side and then the other to keep everyone on their toes.

I would recommend it to read if you are interested in a story about a strong, intelligent woman who is able to keep a secret. The rich detail of the Tudor court creates an atmosphere of intrigue and danger.  There are points when the discussion of religion seems tedious but it always turns out to be necessary to the story.  It is a good biography about a clever and innovative woman.

Reading Challenge:  

I chose to use this novel for the READ HARDER challenge to fulfill the Read a Biography entry.  I could also use it as a book set in Europe for the 2016 Reading Challenge from Popsugar, but I am sure that I will read another book set in Europe before the year is over.  

2000 Hours

All that free time???

It is estimated that when you retire you suddenly have about 2000 hours a year free.  Those are the hours that you used to spend working full time.  This of course is a rough estimate for many people may have spent fewer or more hours depending on where they were working.  No wonder, people worry about getting bored--that's a lot of time to fill.

I have to admit, I still don't seem to have enough hours in the day. Yet in the next breath I would  say that my time is much less rushed and pressured than when I was working.  I feel short of time only because I am busy and I like it that way.

This morning at yoga class, the instructor was posing questions during our cool down or reflective time, asking us to consider what makes us get up in the morning.  What made us get up that morning?  For me it is because I have things I want to do or someplace to go. It's also because I need to be ready to do whatever comes up.

This morning, I wanted to get a few things accomplished before I left for yoga.  I needed to make a marinade for the chicken I was cooking for supper, I wanted the house neat and chores finished.  I wanted coffee while I did my French lesson on Duolingo and caught up on email before I left the house. After my yoga class, I wanted to be able to spend the afternoon on something I like to do.  I was thinking of finishing a knitting pattern and spray painting a couple of items for a DYI project or maybe blogging for the afternoon.

As it turned out, the wind, or rather the first day of winter melting, took me for a long snow shoe trek through fields and forest and then a long walk down the road in my heavy winter boots. It was glorious to be outside in the sunshine, my coat unzipped and carrying my mitts in my hand soaking up vitamin D.  Snow shoeing is a great way to get really warm! This trek was totally unplanned. It was a spontaneous response to the warmth of the day and the realization that there may be a limited number of days remaining to snow shoe.  Ahh, the promise of spring.

The best days are when I have one or two things that are calling to me to get done and then a plan for one or two that will be just for fun.  And the very best days are like today when I have plans for things to do but the chance to drop it all to do something spontaneous.

Since I've retired, I have been very diligent about getting out of bed whenever I wake up. I am waking up naturally because my body has had enough sleep not because of an alarm clock, so there is no point in lying around. Sometimes I might make coffee and then read for a bit in bed because that is something I love to do but I always make sure I am up and doing something else within the hour.  I have found that staying in bed with nothing to do just puts me in a bad mood or dampens my day. Likewise, I have been careful about the time sucks; social media, watching t.v. during the day, and email.

After all I only have 2000 hours to fill, I better get busy enjoying them. 

Banana Cupcakes

Sunday Baking

I love to bake and I find baking on a Sunday, especially relaxing.  Maybe it's because usually there are fewer chores and errands to delay and interrupt your sifting and stirring.

If you are like me, you also often have over ripe bananas that you want to use instead of throwing out.  I have a great family recipe for banana bread but I've made that so often that I really needed to branch out and try something new.
I discovered these cupcakes in Best Recipes Ever while I was searching for recipes to use up a quart of buttermilk.

If you don't have buttermilk, that's okay.  I have made this recipe without buttermilk by substituting sour cream thinned with a little water and once with Greek yogurt.  Both times the recipe turned out as well as if I had used the buttermilk.

They are moist, light and fluffy and the family loved them but now they want we to make my regular banana bread again.  

Banana Buttermilk Cupcakes

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup mashed ripe banana
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk

In large bowl, beat butter with sugar until fluffy; beat in egg.
Beat in banana and vanilla.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; stir into butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, making 3 additions of dry ingredients and 2 of buttermilk.  Spoon into paper-lined or greased muffin cups.

Bake in 350 degree oven until cake tester inserted in centre comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes.  Let cool.

Are good either plain or with icing.

The Orenda by Joseph Boyden

Not for the faint hearted

The Orenda is intense from its opening pages to the very end making it a page turner.  However, it is not for the faint of heart. It is the type of story to give you bad dreams if not nightmares.

It is a story told in alternating chapters from the viewpoint of three main characters, a Huron warrior, an Iroquois girl captured and adopted by the warrior and a Jesuit priest.  It is historical fiction set in the early 17^th century just before the destruction of the Huron nation and at the beginning of Jesuits coming to Canada to convert the First Nations to Catholicism. 

Boyden is a good writer, perhaps one of Canada's best.  He is definitely very descriptive and creates excellent characters while maintaining historical accuracy.  This book has intensity from its first page to its last. 

You feel the tension, the fear, the unrelenting struggle to survive.   This intensity had me fearing an arrow piercing into my back as I read accompanied characters on canoe treks through Iroquois land and fearing starvation through long, cold winters and summers of drought.  

I have read a great deal of historical fiction--medieval, Vikings, Romans--I love stories about Genghis Khan, so I have read a lot of battles, and violence, but Boyden's descriptions of torture in this story are very graphic and relentless.  You can't just breeze over a paragraph or two and then perhaps get onto something else, he goes on for pages. The Iroquois are recognized as fearsome warriors and history has recorded them as brutal and Boyden does not shy away from that.  The only balance to his graphic descriptions is to remind readers at one point that such torture has been used throughout the world throughout history.   Father Christopher reminds two other priests of how the people they refer to as “sauvages” are not alone in torturing their captives and draws their attention to the atrocities of the Spanish Inquisition

It reads like a movie, you can imagine the panning camera shots and recognize some standard movie devices. There is one part where a secondary character stands up in the midst of a battle, stating something self-congratulatory in and then just like in any war movie when something like this happens you find yourself thinking "sit down stupid, before you get shot"...whoops too late, the arrow passes right through his neck and he dies while being comforted by the older, wiser primary character.  Other than that one part that is so cliché, the remainder of the book is worth reading and the movie would be worth watching—even though I would be watching the battle scenes from under a blanket. 

I enjoy a book that intrigues me enough to do check its historical accuracy and do some additional research.  I also checked out various reviews of The Orenda to see how it was received by First Nations readers. 

I recommend the book and hope someone makes a movie that does it justice.

Reading Challenge:  I used The Orenda to complete the challenge of a book recommended by someone I had just met.  Although I met the person a while ago, it was only one meeting.
Moe, out younger son and I were on a tour on the French River offered by the Lodge at Pine Cove, near Noelville.  Our tour guide, Alex, is the owner of the Lodge and is well read on the region and Canadian history.  On a beautiful, sunny day in June, we were on a pontoon boat in the middle of the French River listening to Alex talk about Canadian politics, geography, history and First Nation topics when he recommended the reading of The Orenda and two other books as good reading for understanding the early history of the area.  

I highly recommend visiting The Lodge at Pine Cove. Check it out on Facebook or at their website.

Designing Your Retirement

Retirement is going to change your life.  And it is going to change your life in more ways than just not going to work every day. It gives you freedom; it gives you choice and it gives you time. It also gives you the responsibility of keeping yourself happy, healthy, wealthy and wise.

 For some people retirement will be just an increase of what they already do when they are not at work. They will spend time on the hobbies they have always done, visit with the people they already socialize with, and perhaps take a vacation or two. No real change, just more time and more freedom.  In many ways they are very lucky people since the transition to retirement should be an easy slide into more of what they already have.  However, if they don’t have enough hobbies or variety of activities they may become bored of the routine.

I had a great fear of being bored in my retirement so I did some serious searching on the internet for advice on planning for this big change. Like many people I list travel as one of the things I will do for my retirement but my choice to retire before my husband means that travel isn’t the biggest part of my plan right now.  Also, I knew that hobbies alone would not be enough.

One of the most useful articles I read about planning for retirement is at the link below this page. 

I actually completed the “wheel of life” and found that it really did help me build a vision of how I would create a full and balanced life with all my new freedom, choice and time.  I really love activities like that and creating a pie with slices of life, all neat and pretty was fun. It is quicker and neater than a vision board.  It has also given me something to consider if I need to.  I updated it and made some tweaks after a rather unsettling conversation with someone who is finding he has too many hours to fill with his retirement--he's been retired for more than a year.  I found it useful to consider how I build up a "slice" and to consider how these slices would shift in importance over the next few months.  

 Here are the instructions and below that is a link to the full article.  

 Envision your new world. One tool I find helpful in transitions is “the wheel of life.” This wheel looks like a pie with eight slices representing different elements of life: Fun, Health, Money, Friends, Career, Spouse, Physical Environment (home), and Personal Growth. A useful exercise is to go through each category and write out your vision for each. Where are you now in this area, and where might you like to take these in your transition? If you have a spouse or partner, involve them in the process. Reinventions are a team sport, after all.

How To Design A Retirement That Excites You
https://hbr.org/2015/11/design-a-retirement-that-excites-you