Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Retirement anxiety

  

What in the heck, you might ask is"retirement anxiety" Anxiety is the fear that something might happen in the future, as distinguished from a real fear, which is something actually happening right now. So, for example, if you wake up in the morning and fear a tornado could strike your house, thats an anxiety; if you if you look outside and there's a twister heading for your house. then that's the time to have some real fear .

So what are some of these anxieties retired teachers or those pondering retirement might have? Following are a few examples:


Financial anxiety ; The famed actress of the 1940's , May West said " I've been rich and I've been poor and believe me, rich is better". Well a retired teacher might not be rich but we sure don't want to be poor either. Here are a few suggestions for alleviating financial anxiety.

  •  Find out how much income you will have from your Trs annuity. The best route to find you answer to that question is to head down to Austin and visit TRS. I'm sure you will find them very nice folks and can give you the options on your annuity during retirement



  • Use your summer break to try out how comfortably you can live on the annuity you will receive from TRS. That is live during your Summer break on the income you will receive from TRS when you retire  rather than your regular teacher's salary.
  • Find the amount you have in your IRA OR 401k from your Human Resources Department. When you turn 59 and one half you can begin to withdraw from you IRA or 401K without penalty At 70 and one half you have  to begin taking out the money from your IRA/401k. If you haven't already started a 401 K, quit reading this blog immediately and talk to your Human Resources Department.
Find out more about investing. You could hire a financial adviser or just educate yourself. There are many superb books on investing. I'm no financial adviser, but I do have a tip. I am a strong believer in index investing and there is a wonderful website where followers of Vanguard founder Jack Bogle give wonderful, and free, advice on investing.www.bogleheads.org
          Health anxiety. Most Texas teachers, like most Americans, receive their health insurance through their employers. Obviously retirement will end that option. However retired Texas teachers become immediately eligible for TRS Care. TRS Care is a less expensive option than COBRA and most other options available for those who retire before they are eligible for medicare.. A word of caution though, TRS Care is facing a funding crisis and all retiring teachers should keep themselves aware of the options being considered to "solve" the problem. www.trta.org. I plan on blogging about these options in the near future. Of course anyone who retires at 65 or beyond will be eligible for Medicare if they have paid in for 40 quarters. The good news is that after retirement you will have more time to develop an exercise routine to keep yourself in good health.


  • Time Anxiety . "You've got the money honey, I've got the time." Well your Honey may or may not have the money, but you'll definitely have the time when you retire. Some retirees have a really difficult time with all that spare time. So if that's one of your anxieties, here are some not so original suggestions, but I think ,sound suggestions.
  •  If you don't already have some hobbies and passions, develop some. Learn a foreign language, take a class( cooking dancing etc.,) Take up golf, tennis or some other sport
  • Strengthen your relationships. Now you actually have all that time you always said you wanted to spend with your family. Enjoy your new found time with your spouse( but not too much time) and you children and grandchildren . Also don't forget friendships. Set aside time for a weekly breakfast or lunch with your friends.
  • Volunteer. There are a plethora of organizations out there seeking someone to volunteer to help their undermanned ship. They will welcome you aboard. Call up one of your local nonprofits or visit these websites: www.volunteers.aarp.org 
  • Work part time. Working part time will not only help relieve that financial anxiety but also help build new social bonds. I myself do some substitution, but if you find that thought about as appealing as a root canal, there are many other possibilities in the world of work. For further suggestions visit: www.snagajob.com
Do absolutely nothing but get up each day and look upon it as a day to enjoy your free time. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this use of your time. You've earned all that time.

Your turn. If you have any of these anxieties or other anxieties about retiring, let us know. If you are already retired and have found a way to overcome these anxieties, we definitely want to hear from you. Your readership and comments are the key to this blog, so just scroll to the bottom of this page, click on comments and write to your heart's delight. 







Monday, June 9, 2014

D Day and My Dad's worst birthday




June 5th 1944 was my Dad's worst birthday. I know this because he spent that birthday with 160,000 other seasick, anxious and probably scared soldiers off the beach at Normandy. They were awaiting the order to land on the beaches and begin liberating Normandy from the iron grip of Adolph Hitler.

My Dad , Hersell T. Wilson, (who I will often refer to as Hersell: just remember Hersell is my Dad)was born in Corsicana Texas on June 5th 1915. Like many of his generation, he had to drop out of school and was working as sharecropper on a farm when he met and married my Mother, Aileen, in 1936. 

The winds of war blew into Texas in the early 1940's and Hersell was drafted into the army in October 1942, leaving alone his pregnant wife Aileen . This writer was the not yet born child.

 Hersell was assigned to the 90TH Infantry Division. The division was called the TO Division because they were primarily from Texas and Oklahoma, but later the TO was said to stand for Tough Hombre . Allegedly the tough hombre tag was given to them by General George Patton himself, as they were assigned to his Third Army. 

My Dad and others in his division spent 1942 training in Death Valley California because they were ostensibly going to fight in North Africa.  This being the Army though, after training for North Africa, they were sent to England to take part in the Normandy invasion. After training in England my Dad's unit was assigned to take part in the D Day assault and that was how he would up off the coast of Normandy on his birthday of June 5th.


Actually  General Dwight Eisenhower, the commander of Allied forces for D DAY , had planned for the attack  to take place on June 5th, my dad's birthday; however  a storm front with heavy rains and winds struck the English channel and the province of Normandy on June 5TH and the assault had to be cancelled. Most weather forecasters were predicting the storm would last for  several days  which meant the invasion would have had to be postponed indefinitely because the tides would have prevented the invasion after June 8th. 

The meteorologist  assigned to the allied forces told General Eisenhower that he believed there would be a break in the storm on June 6th. General Eisenhower trusted his weather forecaster enough to give the order to attack on June 6th. Had the German weather forecasters been right and General Eisenhower's forecaster been wrong the invasion would probably have failed, thousands of Allied soldiers including my Dad would have died, and Western Europe would have remained under Hitler's control. That Allied forecaster may have made the most important weather forecaster in history.

My Dad , like most of those who were there never talked much about the horrors of that June 6th on Omaha Beach. Those of us who saw the opening scene of the movies. Saving Private Ryan  or The Longest Day probably have some small idea of what those men went through. My Dad only mentioned that he nearly drowned climbing from the troop ship to the landing craft( lSI landing ship infantry), that was to take them to the beach. Apparently to save himself, he dumped the tripods for the machine gun in the channel. When they reached the beach and an officer asked about the tripod my Dad informed him the tripod was back in the water and he was welcome to go get it if he wished. The tripod stayed in the ocean. 

Hersell and the other survivors of that Longest Day( ten thousand died) moved inland after securing the beach. General Patton's third Army led the Allied forces in the  liberation of France and became the first Allied unit to cross into Germany. Hersell's war, however, ended in October 1944, when he was seriously wounded at St' Lo France, losing a finger and suffering other wounds from a mortar shell. After several months in a hospital in London he returned to the United States In 1945.

My Mother has told me that Hersell would often wake up at night during the middle of the night, shouting, as the memories of the carnage and cruelty he had seemed invaded his sleep. One memory that stands out to me is a conversation between Hersell and an acquaintance when I was a teenager. 

Acquaintance: How much disability payments do you draw from your World War II wounds

Hersell: About $ 50

Acquaintance: Why that's a shame :only $50!

Hersell: Fingers were going very cheaply in those days.

Hersell lived to celebrate many more birthdays after that terrible 1944 birthday. He spent most of his working life with Seven Up company in Waco Texas and even managed to survive the youth and teenage years of my brother and I which hopefully weren't quits as traumatic as that day in Normandy. I know he particularly enjoyed his retirement years with my Mother and the time he was able to spend with his two lovely granddaughters. 

My Dad has been gone for seventeen years now  and it has been 70 years since his worst birthday, but not a June 5th or 6th goes by that I don't think of him and those other wonderful World War 11  veterans I had the privilege of knowing. They were my heroes when I was seven and they are still my heroes at the age of 70. 

Your turn: I would be most pleased to have you comment on the article or tell about your own relatives or friends who may have been veterans.
Just scroll down and click on comments