It’s YourRETIREMENT

You’re in CHArge!

Don’t eat likeA TEENAGER!

THE ONLY WAYTO TRAVEL

a boomer’s guide

to living well

& enjoying Life4560/M A G A Z I N E

COntributors

GARY KOENIG is a published author, an accomplished marketing and advertising consultant, public relations strategist, award-winning creative copywriter/ producer living and working in Omaha.

HUGH REILLY Hugh Reilly is an Associate Professor at University of Nebraska/Omaha where he teaches courses in advertising, public relations, speech and creative writing. He has led annual tours to Ireland and the British Isles since 1992. Reilly has had dozens of articles published in news-papers and regional and national magazines and is the author or coauthor of six books.

JErry Smithers recently retired … make that, slowed down. Jerry and his wife have just come backto Lincoln, NE to be closer to family.

Dear Reader,

We first had the idea for this magazine over a few coffeesand a real need for a read that informed an active, nowhere near feeling 50-something audience. After afew more coffees and too many meetings, we came upwith the idea for 45/60. With articles that are practical, conversational, and hopefully entertaining, we look forward to spending our days (and in Jerry’s case,retirement) contributing in a positive way to our own generation.

So enjoy!

Best Regards,

Gary KoenigEditor, 45/60 Magazine

11

Serving Creighton University faculty, staff, students, and alumni for over 50 years.

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The Alliance Marketing Group:GARY KOENIGHUGH REILLYJERRY SMITHERS

cover and contents photography: ISTOCKPHOTOart & design: ESKAE WORKSHOP

Don’t Eat Like a Teenager.....................Page 4

Retirement. All I Hoped It Would Be. And Less..........................................Page 6

The Only Way to Travel?.......................Page 8

SPRING 2011 . VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1

4560/A BOOMER’S GUIDE TO LIVING WELL & ENJOYING LIFE

M A G A Z I N E

3

DON’T Eat Like a teenager

By Gary Koenig4

A double cheeseburger, a side of fries and a large coke…that was our mantra.Sometimes I feel like I grew up at McDonald’s. All your friends were there on a Saturday night. You needed to be seen. You HAD to be seen. Great memories. Standing around the parking lot admiring each other’s shiny fenders, while chomping down French fries with ketchup and slurping down that icy cold coke on a hot summer evening. Maybe it’s those food groups that conjure up feelings, great feelings of our youth. Is it the food or what it represents?

Just yesterday I had a bad day finishing a job that a remodeling contractor didn’t. What do I know about putting in a transom? I didn’t even know how to spell it until I went to the do-it-yourself store and asked. It took two hours to do two bathroom doorways and it’s still not right. My wife told me I shouldn’t have paid him until the job was totally done. I know that NOW.

Then I went to mow the lawn, first time for the season and after 56 yanks on the pull cord it didn’t start. Go to the hardware store and get a new spark plug. The other one looked fouled. I haven’t used the word “fouled” since I changed my sparkplugs on my ‘66 Chevelle back in college. Mower still didn’t start. I called my 80 year old Dad who knows everything mechanical and has a lot of common sense.

“Prime it nine or 10 times,” he said. “If it doesn’t start, clean the filter.” Where’s the filter? And, of course the manual is nowhere. We’ve got one for a salad mixer but no mower.

So, I took Dad’s advice and it started the first time. I mowed the yard in record time. All this said, I showered and told myself that I am going to reward myself. I am going to go look at cars on a Sunday when none of the salesmen are around. I am going to eat something good. Don’t care about diet. Don’t care about cholesterol. Do something nice for myself like I used to…when I was 17.I bought a medium Cherry Coke, still chickened out of the large size, a Payday candy bar (salt and peanuts and sugar) and threw in a Nature Valley sweet and salty peanut bar for good measure. I worked hard. My wife went shopping. It was Sunday an hour before dinner. So, I blasted the radio in my BMW roadster, sucked on cherry coke and gobbled down a couple of candy bars. Life was good again.

Before I returned home, I stuffed the candy bar wrappers in my jacket pockets to hide the evidence just before I offered the rest of my coke to my wife. Guilt pangs setting in. Food guilt. It’s lousy. If it tastes good, it must be bad for you.

But, you can’t, I can’t, eat like teenager anymore. Teens are thin, young and their metabolism is about five times that ofours! Heard that you should avoid foods that are cheesy, chewy or crunchy. Heh, what about vegetables? Actually,

on any diet you can eat as many vegetables as you’d like. Imagine gorging on cauliflower!

Let’s put it this way. They say that anything that tastes slick or oily in your mouth can mean it contains lots of fat ---pizza, hamburgers etc. Anything crunchy is like deep-fried chicken. You notice they don’t call KFC --- Kentucky Fried Chicken anymore! So, forget fries and deep fried mush-rooms with hot cheese sauce. Sorry, I can’t write any more about these as I am starting to salivate like a black lab.

Some do’s. You know what they are. You don’t need me telling you.

I was crowned Carb King years ago. I can do without that stuff but don’t take away my bread. I get grouchy. I get mean. I tell my wife to just take away my life if I can’t have cookies and bread. Poor me, she taunts.

Heck, I even owned a cookie company for a while. I started it with good intentions to make an all-natural cookie. I wanted to eat all I wanted but virtually no fat or calories. I did it too. As an advertising exec I have a food account and we were testing cookie products one day. Best part of that job! I said ‘I could bake a better cookie than this’ to my client. “You bake cookies?” he said surprised since I was their ad guy. They dared me. They liked my product. They indulged me and I made my favorite foodstuff and made money. Eureka!

I write this article sitting in a Panera bakery, with a cup of coffee and a French toast bagel with light cream cheese for breakfast. Better than sitting in a bar, I suppose. Heh, eat like a king at breakfast, a prince at lunch and a pauper at supper. A doctor told me that.

Attitude readjustment. I’m on a new approach to eating. Don’t use it as comfort food. In America it’s too readily accessible. Use it as fuel. Our bodies are machines, not dumpsters for sugary, cholesterol-filled, high calorie fat foods. If I want something sweet, I eat half and freeze the rest for tomorrow. One bread stuff a day. Losing two pounds a month is my goal for the year.

So, if you’re NOT out doing the stuff teenagers do: gym class everyday, working a part-time job, running to the mall, playing soccer, then don’t eat like a teenager. Text messaging doesn’t count. But, imagine how strong their fingers will be someday.

Remember, we have a few more miles on us. Like maybe 30+ years. Imagine treating your vintage 1957 Chevy, wish I had one, that same way you treat your 2008 Jeep Wrangler!

Treat your body like the classic it is, like that ’57 Chevy with kid gloves. And whatever you do, don’t eat fries in the front seat.

5

Retirement. Everything I Hoped

it Would Be. And Less.

By Jerry Smithers.

You are here?

6

Before I retired...I remember thinking on countless occasions, “What am I going to do the first time I wake up with nothing to do?” The very thought of a day on the calendar with nothing penciled in scared me. It was an irrational fear based on what was then a self-image highly colored by what I did for a living. I know that sounds shallow. In my case it was a little less so than it might have been. My career as a business writer had evolved into marketing and comm-unications consulting. I’d worked out of a home office for many years. My wife worked in a related business. We had many acquaintances in common, both business and social. My professional and personal lives overlapped considerably. It was impossible to know where one ended and the other began.

I had no intention of “freezing in my tracks” when I retired. I’d keep writing and creating and doing what I had always done though, having decided to move out of state after retiring, I had no idea for whom. I’d just do less of it. That thought was my “security blanket” response to my irrational fear of a blank day on the calendar. Little did I realize how little I had to fear.

Since I retired …I love mornings I wake up with nothing to do. Yes, I still work but, as I had correctly anticipated, not as much. For whom? The same people I worked with and for before retiring and moving to Colorado. I worked hard to maintain my contacts back in Nebraska. They and their clients still need creative services and who better to provide them than the guy who’s been doing so. Me! That’s the first bit of learned experience I’d like to pass along. Call it Retirement Realization #1: work at maintaining your current contacts, friends and meaningful relationships. Rather than tie you to the past, they provide both the security of what you’ve grown comfortable with (reassurance) and a bridge into your evolving, new life (transition). That’s a nice combination.

As for those mornings with nothing to do? That’s Retirement Realization #2: embrace them. They allow you to fill them any way you’d like. Read the entire day? Sure. Household projects? If you’d like … or not. Travel and explore on a moment’s notice? Why not? Try doing any of that while you’re still working. A day with nothing to do is a day filled with possibilities.

For me, there’s a nice balance of what I have chosen to do – continue to work – and freedom to do whatever I please, within reason. And that’s Retirement Realization #3, the most important bit of retirement wisdom: understand that your retirement is YOUR retirement, not anybody else’s. You get to decide what it is, what it means and what it consists of. What a wonderful thing!

Retirement Realization #3 …A few years ago, during a period of my work life when I was facilitating personal and work group improvement programs, I developed a strong, personal paradigm to guide me as I made decisions. It rang so true when I thought of it I’ve continued to believe in and use it. “I’m in charge.” That’s it. The beauty of this three-word chunk of personalized wisdom is its simplicity. The words never get in the way of the message. Instantly, it gives me every-thing I need to clear my mind of the mental clutter of destructive, negative thoughts, get down to the outcome I want to have, make a choice and trust it will be a good one.

Go ahead; borrow and use it if it helps you. Better yet, come up with your own personal paradigm. And if the word “paradigm” doesn’t feel right, call it something else. Or come up with your own method or tool for clearing your mind and boosting your confidence.

Here’s the point. Like so many things in life, retirement is filled with the uncertainty of the future. My crystal ball never worked very well. I’ve long since quit relying on it. Instead, I rely on 65 years of making more good decisions than bad and, in recent years, the confidence builder of “I’m in charge.” Chances are you, too, have made more good decisions than bad. You, therefore, have lots of reasons to believe you’ll continue to do so. So … believe.

You’re in charge …More than any previous phase of your life, retirement will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. It will be largely what you think it will be.

If you think it will be empty and leaving you wanting for “the good ol’ days,” it probably will be. If you …

… look forward to filling each day as you choose… bask in the moment… are genuinely thankful for what you have… don’t fret too much over what you don’t have and – (this last one is important)… contribute in some meaningful way to the happiness and well being of others, retirement will be everything you hoped it would be. And something less – free of the fear of waking up with nothing to do.

I devELOPED...a paradigm to guide me

as I made decisions.

I’m in charge. That’s it.

7

By Hugh Reilly

The Only Way to Travel?We were on our way to the lovely fishing village of Dingle

when they flagged down our bus. Their rental car was

hugging the side of the narrow road and we could barely

squeeze by. They were frustrated and looking for help with

directions. “We flew into Shannon a couple of days ago,”

the man said. “We can’t figure out this map. I can’t get used

to driving on the other side of the road. My wife is frightened

because we’ve had several near accidents. We’re lost and tired

and this trip has been a disaster so far. Can we just get on the

bus and join your tour?”

If they had been given better advice when they decided to tour

Ireland, they may have chosen to go on a bus tour rather than

renting a car and driving around themselves. There are three

basic ways you can tour a country and each one has its own

advantages and disadvantages.

My family has been leading tour groups to Ireland and the

United Kingdom since 1968. We’ve also helped several hundred

people plan their own “fly-drive” tours through the last 40 years.

I’ve been leading the tours for 15 years. In addition, I traveled

Europe extensively when I was an Education Manager for the

student group “Up With People.”

Fly/Drive is what the travel industry calls it when you

make your own flight arrangements and arrange for a

rental car so you can travel around the country at your

own pace. These types of tours are becoming increasingly

popular. Many people want the freedom that a fly/drive

tour can provide. If you stumble on a quaint village and

decide you want to stay another day, that’s usually not a

problem. The travel agency or touring company can make

the arrangements for your car rental and can also help you

to book hotels or bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodations.

If you want specific dates on your itinerary, that can be

arranged. This works best when you are staying at hotels.

If you are planning to stay at B&B’s, they may provide you

with travel vouchers which give you the flexibility of

staying an extra day if you like.

In my opinion, the greatest benefit of the fly/drive is the

built in flexibility. The only schedule you have is your own,

so you can leave when you want and return when you want.

You visit only the places you really want to visit.

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Fly/Drives

“Fly/Drive” is what the travel industry calls it when you make your own flight arrangements and arrange for a rental car so you can travel around the country at your own pace. These types of tours are becoming increasingly popular. Many people want the freedom that a fly/drive tour can provide. If you stumble on a quaint village and decide you want to stay another day, that’s usually not a problem. The travel agency or touring company can make the arrangements for your car rental and can also help you to book hotels or bed and breakfast (B&B) accommodations. If you want specific dates on your itinerary, that can be arranged. This works best when you are staying at hotels. If you are planning to stay at B&B’s, they may provide you with travel vouchers which give you the flexibility of staying an extra day if you like.

In my opinion, the greatest benefit of the fly/drive is the built in flexibility. The only schedule you have is your own, so you can leave when you want and return when you want. You visit only the places you really want to visit.

The disadvantage of a fly drive is you are responsible for everything. You decide what route you want to take. If you are touring a country where English is not the native language, it can be difficult to understand the road signs. Even in countries where English is the native tongue, there are regions, like parts of the west of Ireland, where the road signs are only in Gaelic. The narrow roads can be challenging, especially if you’re driving on a side of the road that seems strange to you. You will probably spend an inordinate amount of time trying to decide what you want to see next and then figuring out how to get there. Car rental in Europe is usually much more expensive than renting a car in America. Ireland, for example, has the most expensive car rental prices in Europe. You’ll have to pay extra for CDW (collision damage waiver) insurance and if you’re over 70, you’ll probably be charged a premium fee as a “high risk” driver. Some car rental companies in Ireland won’t even rent to drivers over 70.

In the end, you are trading the advantages of flexibility and the chance for a spontaneous adventure, for the disadvantages of not always knowing where you are or where you are going and the frustrations of having to do everything yourself.

Bus Tours

Despite what many people think, not all bus tours are the same. So much of it depends on your tour guide and on the culture of the touring company. You can certainly get on one of those tours that are very regimented. You know the type where you are at Blarney Castle at 11:15 and in Killarney at 4:23. While you may see a lot, you

don’t really remember much because everything starts to get smashed together in your mind. It can be the “If it’s Tuesday, this must be Belgium” type of experience.

Even in these types of tours there are several advantages. You will probably see more than you would on your own. The tour guides are usually very knowledgeable and often great story tellers. You will get an insight into the country that you would not get on your own. Best of all, most things are taken care of for you. You don’t have to unload and load your own luggage. Many of your meals are prearranged and most breakfasts are included in the price. You leave the driving to the experts while you are free to gaze at the countryside, listen to the tour guide, play cards or maybe just doze a little. It is also usually a very cost-efficient way to travel since you are getting a group discount when you travel.

Of course, there are also disadvantages. You may want to linger a little longer at one of your stops, but you need to get on the bus so that you can make your next visit. You may want to sleep in, but the bus is leaving at 8:00 and you must be on it. You may also have some irritating travel companions. You may have to sacrifice some personal preferences for the benefit of the group. All of these factors can detract from your overall experience.

However, not all tours are created equal. I have been leading tours for 15 years and I’m well aware of some of their drawbacks. I try to minimize them by having several group meetings before we leave so that people already know each other a little. While my tours see the places that most people have heard of, like Dublin and Killarney, I also make it a point to visit a lot of places that most tour groups never get to see. We are also willing to be very flexible and include lots of extras that weren’t on itinerary. There are limerick contests on my bus and I tell jokes and sing Irish songs. I try to limit my tours to between 25 – 35 people so we aren’t too crowded on the 53 seat buses. I have had the same driver for 15 years and we have become very good friends and work well together. We have tour reunions and many people have traveled with me several times. The tour guide and the willingness of the tour company to be flexible can make all the difference in the world.

Chauffeur Drives

Chauffeur Drive can combine the best elements of a fly/drive and a tour bus. You have hired the driver for the duration of the trip, so you set the schedule. If you want to stay an extra day, you can. If you want to take a side trip to do some genealogical research, you’re the boss. The driver is usually well versed in local customs and history, so he or she can tell you stories as they drive along. They know where everything is, so they never get lost. They may make suggestions of places to visit or a special place to dine.

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The Only Way to Travel to continue...

A good driver will do everything he or she can to make sure you have a memorable experience.

Of course, you could also get a driver who is not imaginative and will simply drive you where you want to go and provide the minimum amount of service. The biggest disadvantage is the cost. Most driver guides will cost you several hundred dollars per day. You are paying to rent the car, including insurance and gas, for the driver’s time and for all his meals and all of his accommodations. You wind up paying almost twice what you would on a bus tour, but you do have the luxury of flexibility and also personalized attention.

Summary

In the end, it all depends on what you are looking for in a tour. If you want flexibility and adventure, with all of its uncertainties and frustrations, than a fly/drive tour is for you. If you want to sit back and relax, be educated and entertained, and you’re willing to put up with a certain amount of regimentation, than perhaps a bus tour would be your ticket. If you want flexibility, freedom and personal attention, and you don’t care about cost, a chauffeur drive is probably the way to go.

No matter which mode of touring you choose, by all means get out there and explore! Go see the world!

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