Category Archives: Life Style

Balanced Life Style

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Balanced Life StyleEveryone should think about maintaining a balanced life style. What does this really mean and why is it so important? It all comes down to maintaining your health over the long-term. This was explained to me by a senior manager who was providing some mentoring to me one day. I think that he thought that I was working too hard. He wanted to make sure that I maintained a balanced life style for myself and my family.

His guidance to me was based on the following. If you assume a basic work day is eight hours and you have 8 hours for sleep, then that leaves 8 hours for family and social activities. This is a pretty good balance if you can maintain this, since we all need on average at least 8 hours of sleep every day.

Balanced Life Style – Work vs. Personal Life

Now if work gets busy, maybe you are trying to get promoted and want to put in more effort. Chances are you are going to be at the office for more than 8 hours. Let’s assume 10 hours for the sake of illustration. We still want to maintain our time with the family and with our social activities. After all this is part of the reward and is fun as well for most people. If we work 10 hours and play 10 hours, then that only leaves 6 hours for sleeping!

Now once and awhile is really not a problem for most people. You are tired the next day due to lack of sleep. But then you work a regular day and get a good nights sleep that next night. The problem creeps in when working 10 hours at the office becomes a habit, a regular occurrence. The amount of sleep you get on average gets a lot closer to 6 hours instead of eight.

Balanced Life Style – Considerations

Now with lack of sleep creeping in, people are making more mistakes. They do not operate machinery or cars nearly as well. They have accidents! In addition their bodies do not have as much time to recuperate. There is a greater chance of becoming sick which means time off the job.

This is some of the best advice that I ever received. Hopefully other people will read this material and they will change their life for the better. Stay healthy, spend time with your family and work smart at work to succeed in life. The company will not remember you. They will not care about you if you get sick and have to retire early or quit work altogether.

Give Up the Office Desk

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Give Up the Office DeskMore and more people are transitioning from the office to move from their cubicle at work to working out of their home or even at a coffee shop. Some people leave the office just so they can concentrate on a project or task. They need to get away from the constant interruptions that may occur at the office from colleague’s etc stopping by their office. Being able to focus 100% on writing a report means you have can get so much more done in less time. Some business people have made that transition out of the office all together. They no longer maintain an office. How do they give up the office desk and where do they work? We will examine this in some more detail.

Give Up the Office Desk – Working at Home

Working at home has many advantages for the employee as well as the company you work for. No more commutes to the office, no office space to maintain and a more relaxed atmosphere at home can reduce overall stress for everyone. Working at home takes dedication and commitment to doing one’s job without slacking off out of sight of the boss. It also means being available all of the time with set hours and having the tools to do your job.

This usually means a separate phone line, a high speed data connection, printers, copiers, fax machine and a smartphone to be able to monitor messages all of the time and to respond to calls while out of the home office. The advantage is that you save that commute time which for many people can be two hours a day or more assuming a one hour one way trip to the company office. This is a huge improvement to quality of life for many people.

Working at the Coffee Shop

We often see people working on their computers at coffee shops and even in some restaurants. The key appears to be having access to the internet, although some will be working offline on reports or assignments if they are a student. If you are the type that can concentrate with all of the distractions around you in a coffee shop, you have it made. Otherwise coffee shops may be a bit difficult to work in. Especially if they are noisy and you are also taking calls from people at work or customers. Personally I have worked at my computer in a coffee shop, but it is not my favorite place.

Give Up the Office Desk -Cheaper for Business

The jury is out regarding whether it is cheaper for business or not. Sure there are savings in terms of corporate office space that is not needed in a office building. You still have the communication costs that go along with having an employee, the benefits etc. The question is whether these savings are countered by people goofing off at home or elsewhere whey they are supposed to be working.

Most people will actually work more than they would at the office and get more done as well. Some will not and this is the group that manages need to pay attention to. In reality, every job should have a set of expectations and deliverables that can be measured in some way. If these are well defined, then an employee and the employer both know what the expectations are and can be measured accordingly.

More Flexibility

There certainly is more flexibility for employees when they work at home. Taking the kids to school, looking after sick kids and dealing with other personal issues is much easier. Flexible working hours make this all possible and employees typically will make up these hours and much more. They actually put in more hours that they might otherwise if they were at the office. How many times have you been to meetings in the office, when someone gets up, apologizes that they have to leave the meeting. They have to catch the train home or their ride home. When they work at home, there is no train or ride to worry about. They can stay on the conference call until the meeting is concluded.

Always Available – Mobile Phones. PDA’s etc

With the tools available today, such as smartphones and PDA’s, everyone can stay in touch with the office. They can keep up with email and other productivity requirements almost anywhere. Get equipped with the latest gadgets and you will have the freedom to work almost anywhere.

You Need Friends in Retirement

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You Need Friends in RetirementOne of the few things that are never talked about when you are considering retirement is the adjustments you need to make. From work to having an extended time away from work after retirement. Most writers discuss the financial side of retirement and whether you will have enough money to live comfortably. Will you be able to do some of the things you want to do? There is much more to retirement. Whether you enjoy your retirement or not depends a lot on other things such as friends, hobbies, and interesting things to do. You Need Friends in Retirement. Money is important, but so is having interesting things to do and enjoy with friends.

My wife always tells me I need to focus more on keeping up with friends and less on working. “You’ll be sorry when you retire and don’t have anyone to do things with besides me,” she warns. I think she is also worried that I will be underfoot and our relationship will suffer. She could be right. It’s easy to assume retirement planning is all about the bucks. The dollars are important, but nonfinancial issues matter too.

A Pew Research Center report shows friendships rank with sound health and finances as the factors most likely to boost happiness. The study found that retirees who are very satisfied with their number of friends were nearly three times more likely to be happy than those who are worried about relationships. A comparable gap exists between those who are very confident in their finances and those who aren’t.

You Need Friends in Retirement

Retirees with friends not only feel better about themselves, but they also have more to discuss. Most people with friends find that they are doing more extracurricular activities. Whether golf, which is often popular, cards, hiking, swimming, or whatever you and your friends find interesting, there is something to look forward to and enjoy.

The fact is, as we age, our focus tends to shift from finances to finding meaning in our lives, according to research by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. “You begin to think about how much time you have left,” says gerontologist Sandra Timmerman, “and you ask yourself, ‘What’s really important in life?'”

So what do we really find important? Social connections, for one. The Pew study found that another factor driving happiness is attendance at religious services. Retirees who attend some form of worship, even if only occasionally, are more content than those who seldom or never do. I bet this has as much to do with being part of a group with which you share time and values.

Investing in relationships

You should not necessarily address lifestyle issues with the same precision you do your finances by allocating 40% of your time to health matters, 35% to friends, and 25% to spirituality. But it can help to approach financial matters in a somewhat similar manner.

For example, just as you should diversify your nest egg, you need to have a balanced approach to retirement readiness.

And just as it’s important to visualize your retirement before you invest, you need to plan ahead for the role your friends will play in your post-career life. Start by taking stock of your social network. One way to expand your connections is by joining groups dedicated to causes you believe in or volunteering. According to Urban Institute research, retirees who volunteer are about 15% more likely to be very satisfied than those who don’t.

Increasing your priority level to maintain your friendships and enjoy their company is important to your overall enjoyment during retirement.  There is more to retirement than money and friends.

Invest time in Interesting Activities

Let’s face it, once we retire, there is a lot more time to consider life and consider what we will do next. This transition from work (getting up in the morning regularly, meeting with colleagues, etc.) to a life with lots of time on your hands can be traumatic for many people. Even with lots of friends, there will still be lots of time on your hands, so it is important to spend some time on what you would like to do during retirement.

Having lots of friends will automatically add activities. But what do you do in those down times? Prior to retirement, it is important to explore some of the hobbies that you may have given up when work was too intense. You may want to start new hobbies. You may want to work part-time. Also, you can spend more time with the grandkids, travel, or start a new business.   We already mentioned volunteering in the traditional sense. What about volunteering for a small business in return for free services? We know one friend of ours who volunteers at the YMCA in return for a free annual membership! Not only does he meet new people, he gets some exercise, and he is also contributing to the community.

Look for New Things to Do

There are lots of ideas and activities which individuals can consider. Start by writing down a list of possibilities. Set it aside for a few days, review it, add some more, cross off those that just will not work for you, and try a few. Some will work while others will not. Eventually, you will find something that catches your interest. Talk to your friends to generate ideas as well. What might not work for them might be perfect for you.

Whatever you do, think about more than your nest egg. It would be a shame to get that part right but not enjoy your retirement. Remember that it is important to strike a good balance between time spent on maintaining your nest egg, maintaining and building friendships, and finding interesting activities to challenge you and maintain your interest.