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By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Guest Blogger

It’s not unusual these days for baby boomers to be working for younger bosses.

It’s a difficult situation, says Rachel Zupek, writing on CareerBuilder.com.

Today, it’s not uncommon for four generations – each with its own attitudes, perceptions, and values – to work side-by-side in the workplace. This sometimes makes it challenging for older workers to adapt.

It’s hard on boomers’ self esteem when younger bosses appear on the scene. In addition, younger generations tend to believe they have all the answers, and younger workers have a sense of urgency about the handling the latest challenge rather than reflecting on the best solution, according to Zupek’s article “Are You the Oldest Worker On the Team?”

Zupek offers these 10 tips to help you deal with adjusting to a younger boss:

1. Recognize that an important factor in managing any relationship is understanding the other person’s point of view.
2. Don’t assume traditional boss behaviors.
3. Never let ‘em see you sweat.
4. Keep an open mind.
5. Learn new things and look at things differently.
6. Use your experience to temper any potential insecurity about having a younger boss.
7. Help your boss get established.
8. Listen.
9. Spend time with your boss one on one.
10. Be the employee your boss doesn’t have to manage.

For additional tips on dealing with a younger boss, see:

“Younger Boss, Older Worker” — EmploymentDigest.net

“Bridge the Generation Gap with a Younger Boss” — Yahoo!hotjobs

“Meet the Young(er) Boss” — Christian Science Monitor

“Tips on How to Bridge the Generation Gap with Your Younger Boss” — Human Resource Solutions

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Guest Blogger

Although we had a couple of sunny weeks in October, the winter rains are now descending on the Pacific Northwest. Today it’s raining, sometimes pouring, and 52 degrees.

All fall, I’ve been dreaming about living in California. One place I’ve thought about retiring to is San Luis Obispo. With a population of 44,174, it’s halfway between Sacramento, where my oldest daughter lives, and Los Angeles, where my youngest daughter may move.

When my California daughter went to visit San Luis Obispo recently, she bought me a copy of a new biannual magazine called San Luis Obispo County: An Insider’s Guide to California’s Natural Escape. The Insiders Guide reports:

• Cultural activities include plays, a symphony, festivals, art shows and galleries, and music.
• Educational and cultural opportunities at California Polytechnical State University.
• A farmers’ market with 120 vendors and an estimated 10,000 weekly shoppers.
• An elephant seal rookery north of San Simeon.
• The William Randolph Hearst Castle, rising from a hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon.
• Dozens of vineyards, many with wine bars and specialty tastings.

In North San Luis Obispo County, Paso Robles also is appealing to me. I’d like to live in co-housing, and the city, with a population of 28,639, has a co-housing complex. However, my daughter told me Paso Robles is further inland than the city of San Luis Obispo, and it can get very hot in the summer. That’s a drawback for me.

What’s boomer living like in this part of California?

My daughter also sent me an Oct. 19, 2008, newspaper article from The Tribune, San Luis Obispo’s newspaper, called “Four More Boomer Stories.” It describes these couples:

• Susan and Ed Cox moved to Morro Bay on the coast from Southern California for a mellower lifestyle. Both educators, they worked when they moved, but Susan, 61, has retired for a second time. Ed, 63, is an executive coach, and he plans to continue to work for at least five years.
• Boomer Carolyn Elliott, 45, has an aggressive approach in saving for retirement. Elliot works in a salon and owns a permanent makeup business. Elliott could retire at 55 or 60, but it’s likely she’ll work longer.
• Gayle Hulburt and William Kennedy moved from Colorado to Trilogy, a community that’s drawing boomers with amenities such as a golf course and swimming pool. They sold their basement finishing company when they moved, but Hurlburt, 56, works as a Web site developer.
• Dennis Delzeit, 62, worked for 13 years as director of public works/city engineer for Pismo Beach, a city on the coast in South San Luis Obispo County. Delzeit plans to work as a part-time consultant in retirement. His wife, Sherrie, is a retired social worker.

But, is living in California all sunshine and happiness?

I read a sobering article in AARP Bulletin, the Oct. 1, 2008, issue, called “Why Are More Older Americans Sleeping in Their Cars?”

In Santa Barbara, Calif., an ultra-affluent oceanfront city surrounded by mountains south of San Luis Obispo County and 95 miles north of Los Angeles, a grandmother sleeps in her Jeep Grand Cherokee. The woman, whose name wasn’t used in the article, recently owned two homes worth nearly $2 million. She was unable to sell her homes or pay the $10,000-a-month mortgage payments, so she declared bankruptcy in 2005. A year later, she lost both properties.

To help people who work and can afford cars, gas, and insurance, Santa Barbara provides recently homeless people the opportunity to sleep in their cars every evening in a dozen private and municipal parking lots throughout the city, according to the AARP Bulletin article. Two social workers check the lots each night as part of a safe parking project.

Most of these homeless people are over 50 and have been driven out of their homes and onto the street by the nation’s economic turmoil and the record foreclosure rate.

In Los Angeles, hundreds of people are living in their cars because shelters can accommodate only about a third of the city’s estimated 73,000 homeless population, the article reports.

While living in sunny California would be great and I’ll keep researching it, it’s important for anyone wanting to live there to realize the cost of living is expensive.

That’s an important factor to consider it you’re thinking about retiring where it’s warm.

For tips on how to research retiring to warmer climates, see my articles “The Dream of Retiring Where It’s Warm in the U.S.” and “The Dream of Retiring Where It’s Warm Abroad.”

I am pleased to introduce you to our new guest columnist, Joel Carnes. Joel Carnes is your friendly Encore Career Coach. He is CEO of IDEAL Career Services, and the Founder of ENCORE Career Institute.  His passion is helping people to develop careers that matter in the second half of life.  So without further ado, here is Joel’s first article for our readers…

The Fear Formula
Foreclosures and Layoffs and Global Economic Crises – Oh My!
 
This Halloween, ghouls and goblins are some of the least scary things around.  Vampires?  Puh-leese.  Chainsaw wielding lunatics?  Yawn… This year our fears are coming from a deeper, darker place than the Underworld.  This year, for many of us, our fears are centered around the economy.  We may hear that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, but that isn’t all that reassuring when our fears seem to echo in every major financial center around the world.  So what can we do to minimize our fears, without sticking our proverbial heads in the sand?

First off, lets recognize fear for what it is.  Fear is:
 
Fantasized
Experiences
Appearing
Real
 
Fear is another word for uncertainty.  When we don’t know what to expect, we often fantasize various scenarios that might play out in any given situation.  And, of course, our natural tendencies are to spend an inordinate amount of our time focusing on the potential negative outcomes.  It is as if we have our own internal editorial staffs making sure that our thoughts are dominated by negative headlines just like the nightly news.  If it bleeds, it leads…
 
So how can we reduce uncertainty, especially in uncertain times?  Let’s begin by looking at the following formula:

                            What I don’t know
 Uncertainty =                                   
                            What I do know
 
In this example, if “what we don’t know” on a subject gets a score of 10, and “what we do know” gets a score of 2, then our Uncertainty = 5.  We can lower our Uncertainty, and hence our Fear, by decreasing what we don’t know (the numerator), and increasing what we do know (the denominator).
Let’s look at uncertainty and fear around career change.  The “what I don’t know” number in this equation begins off the charts.  When we start contemplating a career change, the very scope of this number can seem too daunting to approach.  However, with a little work, we can quantify this number.  To see what we don’t know, we need to write out all of our questions surrounding a subject.  For example:
 
1.  How hard is it going to be to get a job in this economy?
2.  What special training is required for the position I am interested in?
3.  How do I get in touch with the right people?
4.  What skills do I have that employers want?
5.  What are the best job search methods available?
6.  What resources are available to help me in my transition?
 
On the flip side, the “what I know” part of the equation, as it relates to career change, is usually pretty low for most people to start with.  However, it is relatively easy to remedy this situation.  For one thing, we often don’t realize just how much we know until we stop to think about it objectively.  To see what we know, we need to write out all of our knowledge surrounding the same subject.  For example:

1.  Unemployment is currently at 6.5%, and may reach 8.5% by the time the next President is inaugurated
2.  Networking can lead to many job opportunities that otherwise would have never been found
3.  Monster.com is full of “junk ads” and can be a huge time-suck for job seekers
4.  Sending out a shotgun blast of resumes rarely gets anyone a job
5.  I have great skills in Microsoft Office applications
6.  I know this great career coach, and he would probably help me out

When we see all of our knowledge in a certain subject area lined up against everything we don’t know, we accomplish two things.  First off, we are able to immediately reduce our uncertainty and fear by acknowledging that we are not so clueless in this area as we had first supposed.  Second, the roadmap to mitigating our remaining fear (perhaps even eliminating it entirely) is staring us right in the face.  Simply take one question at a time from the “what I don’t know” list, and find the answer.  This reduces the numerator while simultaneously increasing the denominator.  The rate of fear reduction is directly related to how quickly you can answer your questions.
 
Here’s even better news – you don’t have to have all of the answers!  There is room for uncertainty and doubt (and fear) in life.  All we need to do is chip away at the unknown, one question at a time, until we transfer enough elements into the known pile that the remaining unknowns don’t bother us as much any more.
 
About the Author:
 
Joel Carnes, the Encore Career Coach, is CEO of IDEAL Career Services, and the Founder of ENCORE Career Institute.  His passion is helping people to develop careers that matter in the second half of life.  Joel is not currently accepting private clients, but you can work with him directly in various ENCORE Career Institute Workshops.
 
To learn more about which ENCORE Career Workshop might be right for you, call (800) 301-9985, e-mail  joel@encorecareerinstitute.org or visit www.encorecareerinstitute.org.

By Rita R. Robison, Consumer Specialist, Blogging at The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Guest Blogger

Economic times are tough for boomer consumers.

By planning ahead and using smart shopping techniques, you can avoid debt and unneeded stress during the holidays.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission offers these tips when you’re holiday shopping at the mall, online, or by phone or mail:

Getting started

• Make a shopping list, including the people you plan to buy gifts for and the type of gifts you plan to buy.
• Create and stick to a realistic budget to avoid post-holiday debt.
• Add to your budget the cost of cash gifts, holiday travel, extra food, wrappings, decorations, greeting cards, and postage.

Shopping the holiday sale ads

• Shop around, to make sure the “sale” price is really the best.
• Read sale ads carefully and look for terms such as “quantities limited,” “no rain checks,” or “not available at all stores.”
• Call before you go shopping to make sure the item you want is in stock.
• Consider your time and travel costs by adding these costs to the price is you have to go across town for buy the item.
• Look for price-matching policies that some stores offer to meet or beat a competitor’s prices.
• Check out Web sites that compare prices.
• Keep shipping costs and delivery time in mind when you shop online.
• Consider carefully bargain offers that are based on purchases of additional merchandise, for example, “Buy Three, Get One Free” or “Free Gift with Purchase.”
• Use coupons if they’ll save you money on what you’re already planning to buy and if you’ve checked any restrictions.
• Ask about sale adjustments, for example, if you buy an item at regular price and it goes on sale the next week, can you get a credit or refund for the discounted amount.

Staying on track

• Keep track of your spending.
• Save your receipts because you’ll need them for returns and exchanges.
• Ask for gift receipts.
• Ask about refund and return policies because stores are allowed set their own policies.
• Keep good records, whether you’re ordering by mail, phone, or online.
• Ship early to avoid heftyt last-minute fees, if you’re sending gifts to out-of-towners, factor in extra time for shipping.
• Keep an eye on your wallet and purse and get your credit or debit cards back as quickly as possible during transactions.

Using layaway programs

• Use layaways if you don’t want to charge it and if you don’t have the cash to pay for the item.
• Get the store’s layaway policy in writing, including the terms of the layaway plan and the refund policy.

For more information, visit www.ftc.gov and www.MyMoney.gov.

by Judith Auslander, MA, CLC

Wise Heart Coaching

Back in the January/February AARP Magazine, I read an article titled Woulda, Coulda, Shoulda. The article was about midlife crisis and coming to terms with the roads we have or haven’t taken in life. The article started with the focus on “What If?” No matter which of the numberless multitude of options available to each of us, whichever one we end up taking, there will always be, What If? And along with What If?, there is Regret. Regret can be painful, but it is mostly the raw feeling of missed future possibilities that we find the most agonizing. Regret can also be seen as the motivator for change. Without regret we might never move or change jobs or end a bad marriage. My father would often laminate his regrets over not going into business for himself. But the thing is, he did consider it many, many times and each time realized that the decision could very well have a negative financial impact on his family and their welfare. His decision was to take the “safer” road.

Like my Dad, we make decisions based on looking at as many options as possible, weighing the pros and the cons along with imagined events. No matter which path we choose, there will more than likely be some kind of regret. Did we miss a financial opportunity when it was available? Did we miss a chance at love, family, home? While normal regret teaches us where we might do better next time, high regret can be devastating and crippling and can lead to numerous maladies. Dwelling on the past mistakes and missed opportunities can consume our enjoyment of living in the present.

The other question we need to ask ourselves is am I making choices based on fear. Fear can be a tremendous limiter. Fear of rejection, fear of failure, fear of success, fear of change – the list is endless. My father’s fear of financial failure was what stopped him from moving from being an employee to an employer.

Henry David Thoreau counseled “To regret deeply is to live afresh.” To me this means that with each regret I grow, change, and learn new skills of coping. I have a choice to become a victim or take back my power. The first step in taking back my power is to accept that the decision was mine and mine alone. I choose to “live afresh.” Then move on. Once the decision has been made – move on. To agonize over it is to limit growth possibilities because we remain in the past.

We also live in a time of too many choices. Look down the cereal aisle at your local grocery store. Since I was a child back in the 50’s cereal choices have exploded. When I returned from spending 5 years in El Salvador I was lost in the toothpaste aisle. Too many choices can be a blessing and a curse. When you have a choice between A, B or C – it is much easier to narrow down which one will work best for you. But when your choices are A – Z, it creates making a decision – a clear decision you can be happy with – much more difficult.

It is mostly between the ages of 40 and 65 they we go through a period of reflection and reevaluation. When we were younger a missed opportunity was not the end of everything – there was still time to climb a mountain, go to school, fly a plane, be a brain surgeon. But by your 50’s, you come to realize that there are things that you will never be able to do – it is just too late. This loss of opportunity, of time, can be devastating. Or it can be a time of letting go. If we hang onto the regrets of missed times – we miss the times that are sitting there right in front of us to be enjoyed and lived.

What did the article point out as the “hit parade” of regrets? In order they were:

• Education – not attending college or grad school
• Career – lack of success in their chosen field or wish they had picked a completely different career
• Romance – long lost loves, unrequited affections, ill-advised affairs, marriage gone bad, or never finding that special someone
• Family – doubts about parenting, not having children, family friction and estrangement
• The Self – disappointment in abilities, attitudes and behaviors

So, what can I do to help achieve what I want out of life? My immediate response is goal setting. A goal is the first step toward eliminating the possibility of a lost future. Next it is important to know who I am and what I really want from life. It is important to make sure that the goals you chose are yours – not someone else’s. In the end the only one you will have to look in the eye and answer to will be yourself – so make sure the goals you choose are in alignment with your values. Authenticity is of key importance when setting goals.

The next important question to ask when creating your goal or goals is, “Will it bring me joy?” Life is too short to not live it with joy. A goal is best when it brings a feeling of accomplishment as well as inner peace.

There are many tools to creating, writing and fulfilling your goals. Be sure you know the steps so that you experience success.

Judith Auslander is the author of, “The Power of Goal Setting-Transforming Thoughts Into Action!” available as an ebook from www.WiseHeartCoaching.com

A goal can be the key that starts the engine of your future.

Judith Auslander