Grave Expectations: There’s More to Funeral Planning Than Sourcing Free Funeral Program Templates Online. Have You Already Begun Planning Your Own Unique Memorial Service?

A recent article in the AARP Bulletin, titled “The High Cost of Dying,” discussed how easily funeral costs can spin out of control. The article noted that this happens primarily because your surviving relatives — faced with unexpectedly having to quickly put together a funeral while simultaneously grieving your demise  — just don’t have the time or energy to price shop or bargain.

Hey, you can understand: They’re grieving for you, right?

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Bucket List Game Reminds Us That 2009 Is the Year You Can Achieve Anything You Want: You Haven’t Let The Recession Keep You From Writing Up Your New Goals List, Have You?

Bucket lists are big news these days and we’ve talked about them before, of course. But here’s one that begs to be shared with you. This time, instead of you coming up with your own personal list, you get to share your experiences with  others.  Think of  this as an opportunity to get to know your friends better.

Here’s how it works: Review all 100 items on the bucket list below and bold the ones you’ve already achieved – though undoubtedly you’ll feel that some of them are more like experiences than they are true lifetime achievements. Still, it’s fun to see how many you can check off!

Below — with brief annotations — is my bucket list. Thanks, to Rhea at “The Boomer Chronicles,” for sharing and getting us started. Feel free to share your results via a comment to the blog. I promise to comment back to each and every one!

Once you get done reading the list and contemplating how you would answer each point, it’s time for the real work to begin. That’s right – it’s time to develop your plan for what you want to personally achieve this year! After all, if you’re going to leave a legacy, it’s time to start! Here’s the bucket list: Read more

Thanksgiving Note: Call it Praise, Validation or Affirmation, Have You Ever Tried Consistently Greeting Everyone You Meet With a Genuine Message of Appreciation?

“When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears” ~ Tony Robbins

It’s Almost Thanksgiving Day Here in the US, So It Seems Appropriate to Start By Thanking You For Being a Regular Reader of This Blog…

Besides being grateful for you, and offering you our thanks, we also say “Happy Thanksgiving” - which probably means more if you’re reading this post in the United States. If you live elsewhere, our thanks for your support are still genuine, of course, even if it’s not your ”official” day for giving thanks!

We’re truly appreciative that so many of you have discovered and shared our BoomerLifestyle blog in the past few months – and clearly enjoy reading it. More than that, thanks to all of you for your participation, including the many comments you post. We love hearing from you! Read more

Forget Economic Meltdown. The Far More Important Worry: “Is Your Life What You Hoped It Would Be?” Why Haven’t You Added “Recareering” to the Top of Your Dance Card?

You’ve probably received your share of those sappy email forwards people pass around to remind themselves that we still care about each other. I just got one that ended with a comment worthy of sharing with you:

‘Life may not be the party we hoped for… but while we are here we might as well dance!’

Hmmm. A Bit of Upbeat Advice to Live Life with Passion Amidst All the Teeth-gnashing Financial Angst in My Mailbox Lately.

It Immediately Reminds Me Of Another Great Dance Aphorism: “Dance with the one what brung ya,” …

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Baby Boomers Worry: Is It Possible to Keep an Attitude of Gratitude Amidst Hurricanes, Bank Failures, Foreclosures, Rising Unemployment, Lying Politicians and a Plunging Dow?

As you experience the media these days you are no doubt overwhelmed with stories of doom, gloom, horror and despair.

As one normally upbeat and independent Boomer woman recently observed, chain-smoking nervously: “I’m worried. All I have to my name is my home, my retirement fund and social security. If things keep going the way they are, I’ll have to take in a roommate, or marry my boyfriend, just to survive.”

With comments like these being expressed daily, it’s no wonder the Pew Research Center reported that America’s Baby Boomers “are in a collective funk.”

The Pew Report Went on to Note That Boomers See Trouble Ahead and Less Progress Over Time…

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Powerful Free Visualization Tool: Who Else Wants To Know How To Successfully Harness the Law of Attraction?

Remember When You Were A Kid: Everything Seemed Possible and You Believed That When You Grew Up, You Would Be Able to Achieve Anything You Wanted? Well, It’s Not Too Late…

In the last year, there’s been a lot of talk about a movie called “The Secret,” and how it trains you to use the Law of Attraction to achieve your goals. If you’ve heard much about the “LOA,” you know it involves using visualization techniques to cause a desired result to “manifest” itself.  Maybe you’ve thought about giving visualizion a try, just to see what all the hype was about?  Perhaps you’ve even tried it. If it worked, likely you’re a convert; but if it didn’t work, you probably decided it was all sort of ”airy fairy” stuff.  Well, Ryan Higgins from Australia was once in your shoes, but no more. Here’s how he tells it:

• “I was packing boxes in a factory to make my living. I had to get up at 4 a.m. every morning to drive an hour to a job I hated.”
• “I felt like a prisoner, chained to that horrible job every day for seven years. I was always there, because I couldn’t afford even a few days off.”
• “No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to earn more than just enough to scrape by.
• Every time I paid a bill or bought groceries, I was sweating it out, afraid my credit card would be declined.
• I wanted so much more, but wishing didn’t pay the bills.”

No shirker, Ryan kept working trying to get to a place where he enjoyed life and had the chance to live the life of his dreams:

Perhaps, like Ryan, you’ve found visualization too confusing or too difficult to do.  Or, in a sort of a self-fulfilling cycle, perhaps you’ve even let a challenge with implementing visualization further impede your visualization process because you quit believing the process will work — and finally ended up thinking, “why bother?” As Ryan explains it: Read more