1. Section 10: The Honeymoon Stage of Retirement 38:50
Starting in August of 2020, we started following the life of a pre-retiree. The goal was to follow her from pre-Retirement through the Retirement process so you and I can live vicariously through her experience. We want to know what’s happening as she goes through the process so we can better prepare ourselves.

As you listen in, think of any questions you might have for our subject, Barbara Mock, who is teaching us what she is learning by doing. You can email those questions to us at Podcast@RockYourRetirement.com and we’ll try to answer them in the show.

The Honeymoon Stage of Retirement
Barbara has been retired for a month now, so I asked her what stage of Retirement she is in. Barbara says it has been such a fun adventure and it feels a lot like a honeymoon stage. We talk about why it feels like a honeymoon stage and things that have helped Barbara transition so quickly.

Graduation Trip
Barbara’s husband also planned a Retirement graduation trip. They flew to Phoenix, rented a car, and drove to Tubac Golf Resort. Barbara talks about her trip and her struggles with being a beginner golfer. She also wrote a blog post about it which you can read at Barbara’s Graduation Trip.

The one thing Barbara wasn’t expecting was the connections she made with total strangers during her trip. There were a lot of people who were the same age, newly retired, and had similar life experiences.

Barbara also talks about the time she has got to spend with her 86-year-old father. They rented bikes and rode through the trail system in Tempe. You can go for miles, and he took them everywhere. He kept having to slow down and give Barbara and her husband water breaks! She also went to the pool with her father and got to spend some time just talking with him.

I cannot remember a time in my life, where I got to sit with my daddy, and just talk for like two and a half hours. How come we never do this?

Time is precious to me now, post-pandemic, I’m realizing that you never know how long you’re going to have a parent in your life. It’s easy to just assume they’ll always be there. And now that I’m retired, I really want to be more intentional about spending time with my dad. I heard stories I’d never heard before I got to ask questions. And it was just the two of us. That was probably a highlight of the whole trip to spending time with him.

Adding structure to life in Retirement
One of the things that are adding structure to Barbara’s life is she joined two women’s golf leagues. She does this twice a week and had no idea golfing with other women would be one of the most edifying, positive experiences she has had.

She and her husband also I decided that they needed to do a day together each week. So they do Adventure Wednesdays. I absolutely love this idea! The adventure Wednesday has been really fun for them. Barbara’s husband picks an activity like a hike or a place to go that neither of them has ever been before. At some point, they will take turns and Barbara will also plan Adventure Wednesday’s but she says her husband nailed planning their first one and it was awesome!

We also touched on compromising and talking with your spouse or significant other. A lot of times for someone who is newly retired, there becomes a lot of conflict in relationships because you are not used to spending so much time together. Communication and making adjustments are key.

The honeymoon stage idea is not just the honeymoon of it’s new, and it’s different. But for us, it’s been just a renewal of our marriage.

So for now, Barbara is really enjoying this honeymoon stage of Retirement. She said every day feels like Saturday and she really didn’t expect Retirement to be so amazing, and such a blessing. She thinks at this point her biggest challenge will be to not get over-scheduled.

I just highly encourage any retirees during that space between being retired and transitioning, do something different to kind of shake you out of that habit or that schedule, so that you’re not just sitting at home going. Now what?

Health Break Segment
One of the six pillars of retirement is Health and if you don’t have your health, nothing else matters. For our health segment, we have Jon Pearlman, co-founder of Mission Lean the leading fitness app for anti-aging.

Jon talks about telomeres which are the protective caps at the ends of DNA molecules that make up our chromosomes. The length of these telomeres determines how long the DNA inside will be protected, and ultimately how long that cell will live. Or, as I like to refer to it the anti-aging part of the cell.

According to Jon, there’s been a lot of scientific literature that has come out recently linking exercise to the health and length of telomeres. Particularly aerobic exercise. Whenever you head into a workout if you want to target it from an anti-aging perspective, you need to make sure that you not only do strength training but include exercise to raise your heart rate. To learn more download the Mission Lean app on your cell phone or you can visit https://missionlean.com
To get a copy of The Baby Boomer’s 30 Day Journal go to: www.RockYourRetirement.com/Journal
Read all of Barbara’s blog posts by visiting https://www.rockyourretirement.com/blog/
This show is sponsored by https://CertifiedMedicareAgents.com.
Katherine Kline Podcaster, Blogger

I host the Rock Your Retirement Show, which is about Lifestyle, not money or insurance! I started the show in 2016 before anyone knew what a podcast was, and now it's had over one million downloads. At this point, there is a lot of information in our back catalog and we try to release an episode every month.

I'm a retired Financial Advisor (after 25 years) and now I try to have fun with my husband, my dog, and my friends.

I'm also the founder of CertifiedMedicareAgents.com, a site that brings insurance agents together with people who are looking for help with Medicare.