Accountant to Writer and Publisher

Jan Louthain


Sometimes your job can get in the way of what you really would like to do but we need to keep the bills paid and our lives moving forward. Jan Louthian had always loved writing and this hobby helped her keep her sanity while she was working for the Department of Defense and other federal agencies as a management analyst and systems accountant. She had started writing articles and was starting to get repeat assignments for various newspapers and magazines when the government passed a law banning all federal employees from writing magazine articles or giving speeches for remuneration. Oh well. That became a good time to resurrect the children's book she'd started years earlier.


After retirement the book, which was to become her first novel Tagger Alone Along the Mystic River, came out and was ultimately finished. Tagger is a wonderful novel about a young girl who is sold into servitude at a very young age. Through strong willed determination she frees herself and goes on to develop a free and exciting life.



Now came the struggles of any first author and Jan began to explore the challenging world of self publishing. Ultimately Tagger was selected for the Fall 2002 Children's Booksense 76 List and later recommended for the Nutmeg Award in Connecticut.
After 9/11 Jan wrote her second book, Ame the Elephant, Terrorized by Evil Mice which used animal characters to help children understand the horrible events of the day.

In 2002, Jan also started a monthly online newsletter for Baby Boomers called BOOMER-ING (www.alexiebooks.com/boomering.ivnu) which includes expert articles that help Boomers transition through the complexities of retiring, downsizing, coping with elderly parents, coping with their own health and finances, and staying motivated if they must continue to work. In addition, she's started two blogs:
boomeringb.blogspot.com and boomering.typepad.com which give Boomers the opportunity to share their views online on a number of critical issues.

Now enjoying life in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina with her husband Ron and two parrots, Jan continues to help other authors to get published and is working on her next book, The 18 Mysterious Secrets of Respectable Golf.

Firefighter to Artist

Chris Gulbin-Back in the Day

Anyone who is a firefighter has seen more than anyone should have seen so it is an interesting twist that seeing a picture of a fish helped give a new direction to a retirement. Chris Gulbin has always loved the outdoors and fishing and inspiration struck one day when he was looking at a magazine and saw a drawing of a trout. "I'd like to do that." and so he started on a path to give his life a new meaning.
He took a beginner class in art from The Art Lab and started to learn to draw and paint.
When asked how he improved, Chris said, "You just have to put in the time. It's like working out." So Chris kept painting and people started to notice.
Life, and Chris' art changed on Sept.11, 2001. Chris had just finished a 24 hour shift covering a vacation when he was sent to ground zero. After working there for 24 more hours he went back and finished his regular shift.
Opening on Sept.11,2008, Chris has an exhibition of his watercolours on display at the New York City Fire Museum. "Heroes of September" is the museum's commemorative display of the 7th anniversary.
Proceeds from the exhibit will help the burn unit at Staten Island University Hospital where many firemen are treated.



What's next for the retired FDNY Lieutenant? Painting and improving his painting. As Chris said, "The only way to run faster, is to run faster."

If you would like to see more of Chris' work please go to www.chrisgulbin.com

Enjoy!!

As another person who appears to have "failed retirement", I have enjoyed this blog. Let them know what you think.

http://hickoxhappenings.blogspot.com/

Monday, December 1, 2008
Failing Retirement
I recall very clearly in years past hearing retired people saying to me "I'm busier now than I was when I worked." I always wondered to myself, "How could that possibly be?" Now that I have entered this phase of my life, I too find myself busier than ever. Of course I am now doing the things I want to do with my days and not what I "have" to do. Most everyone knows that I manage to stay pretty busy with a variety of things, among them are serving as a CASA (court appointed special advocate) volunteer for kids in foster care, working one or two weekends a month doing clinical nursing testing for a center here close to home, traveling whenever I get the chance, and keeping up with the grandkids, etc. Last week when I told Kim I had decided to take on another activity, she was aghast. A fellow "retired" nursing faculty called me and asked if I would help her write a curriculum for a new nursing program that she has taken on. Apparently, everyone she had asked could not do it, and she was getting desperate I think. I like to write, and it sounded like fun. Initially I just went in to "talk about it." After thinking about it for a day or so, I decided that a temporary committment of 2-3 days a week for a few months might be a challenge for my now somewhat idle brain. Today I spent 8 hours brainstorming with my new "boss," and surprisingly we really got a lot done. When I got home, I proudly showed Joe the draft of a mission statement, program philosophy and conceptual model on which we had worked. Joe told me to return a call from Jeanette (formerly my department chairperson and now supposedly "retired" also). The first thing she said to me was, "I hear you flunked retirement and are back at work." I really didn't think about it like this, but guess it is so. Doesn't life take interesting turns??

Posted by Joe and Carolyn at 5:24 PM

Retired and Inspired Why are we here?

More and more people are reaching the age of retirement in better shape and with more resources than at any other time in history.
What does retirement mean to you? Financial Security? Good Health?
Ultimately, as we enter our ‘Golden Years’, many of us are also looking for some type of Fulfillment. We’ve worked hard, raised our families, but are not ready to sit in the ‘rocking chair’.
Although financial matters are important to us all, this will not be the focus of ‘Retired and Inspired’. There are many sites and resources to help you figure out if your ‘hedge funds’ have adjusted adequately to unforeseen expenditures, or whatever. But hey -what are you doing with your LIFE?

‘Retired and Inspired’ will look at people who are putting a new face on retirement. It is born from the idea that the stories of retired individuals who are living unique and fulfilling lives can be an inspiration to the rest of us.
Let’s explore, learn, and journey together through these wonderful years of retirement!

So, Whaddya think??

Don't simply retire from something; have something to retire to.

Harry Emerson Fosdick

For many of us life is about running away from something. Most people fell into their job because they had a friend who worked there or it became available when they were looking. Many people had a summer job which extended into a part time job and then became full time. Marriage, followed by kids and a mortgage conspired into making that job a necessity because those bills needed paying. Years followed years and now it is too late. Trapped. The only escape... retirement. Get away from it all.
I have just finished reading the autobiography of Ted Rogers, cable and media mogul. Talk about running to something. He was driven throughout his life to return to his family the business that was "taken" from him. Maybe too driven but he was running towards something as almost all successful people are.
So, are you running from something or are you running to something?

Let us know about you. Which reminds me of the quote:

The only reason I would take up jogging is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.
Erma Bombeck

We are always looking for great blogs about retirement. Syd has a wonderful perspective on adjusting to a retired life. Find the link to her blog after this post.

December 04, 2008
No More Performance Reviews
One of the really great things about being retired is not having to subject myself to the annual torture known as the performance review. Each year, right about now, I would be writing a page of babble about what I accomplished during the year. I'm so happy to instead be writing a page of babble about why I hated writing that page of babble.

Tonight, I'm taking a moment to savor the fact that I am no longer required to suffer this indignity. Besides avoiding tax season, this is about the best part of not working anymore.


When you've worked in the same job for nearly two decades, it becomes more and more demoralizing each year to participate in this exercise. What did I do this year? How was it different than the gazillions of years that came before? And how on earth do I make it sound important?


And all the time you're really asking yourself, why do we even go through this charade each year? I know it's irrelevant to my raise and bonus, irrelevant to my professional development, and most importantly, unrelated in any way whatsoever to my actual job performance. I'm not entirely convinced anyone actually even read my little essay.


For me, all it ever did was make me crankier than I already was at the holidays. It always felt futile, and for the last few years, it just reminded me how much I lusted after the emancipation of retirement.


I'm coming up on a year of retirement soon, and am more excited about accomplishments of this year than I ever was about my occupational accomplishments. I've read stacks of books, written pages of blog posts, and painted wall after wall of my house. The hours I spent tending my garden, even cleaning my house, produced real, tangible results. I've had the time to take some wonderful writing classes, and to read up on history I never really learned, and economics topics I did learn, but since forgot. Now that's some personal development I feel good about.


I guess the only downside is I'm not getting a raise this year. In fact, the enterprise that is mainly responsible for my income now, namely the stock market, has had a very bad year. It won't be paying any bonuses either.



http://retiredsyd.typepad.com/retirement_a_fulltime_job/