Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho...It's Off To Work I Go!

I love retirement but I also loved the work I did with the Foreign Service. Mandatory retirement hit July 1, 2014 for me and I've been a woman of leisure since then.  But...good news! The State Department has offered me the opportunity to come out of retirement and work for a few months later this year. Of course I said yes!  Last year I went to Singapore for 3 weeks and loved it.  I worked in the Regional Security Office at the U.S. Embassy there which was terrific since I spent all 6 years in the Foreign Service working in that section.  I felt right at home even after being away from the job for over a year.  This time I'm headed to Brunei.  Just in case you aren't familiar with where Brunei is (and most of my friends scratch their head and say "Where?") I've added a map.  It's on the northern coast of Malaysia, just east of the Philippines.

This temporary duty assignment is for around 5 months...a long time to be away from home. With that length of time, I will be calling it 'home' as soon as I arrive and love every minute.  My last post before retirement was in Pakistan from 2012-2014 and if I can serve there, I can serve anywhere.  Well, almost anywhere.  But look at all the places around Brunei...the Philippines, Indonesia and just out of the picture...Australia!  One of the many benefits of serving in the Foreign Service is regional travel.  Well, that's second only to meeting and working with terrific people, both American and those from the host country. Hopefully I'll be able to swing a weekend in Australia snorkeling the Great Barrier Reef or South Vietnam or even China.  Who knows what possibilities will come my way!  

Last year when I went to Singapore, I had to ask a very good friend to come and water my yard twice a week on my assigned watering days (we were under water rationing). He was a real trooper since it involved moving the sprinkler from front to back yard.  So, the end of last year I made a couple of improvements to my house.  I now have a fully automatic sprinkler system so Dan, you are off the hook this year!  I also installed an alarm system.  Hind sight is 20/20 but foresight is an even better vision.

Being away for an extended period of time means lots of planning you might not otherwise have to do.  My car won't be driven so I spoke with my insurance company and the coverage will be changed while I'm away to comprehensive only.  I'll change my internet/mobile phone/cable service to the lowest plan possible and my mail will be forwarded to my friend Dan and his wife Delta. Most of it is junk mail anyway.  Sorry Dan, you're not off the hook entirely. :o)

The process to get me there is moving right along. Yesterday I sent off the application for my new diplomatic passport and today I'll call and start the ball rolling on my flight itinerary.  That should be fun...NOT!  It's going to take me about 2 days to get there, with a layover in Hong Kong or Tokyo...not sure yet which one.  I've never been one who could sleep on flights but I might take a couple of Benedryl to at least make me sleepy.

So, the adventure continues...and I'm so glad it does!

A Break From Retirement

Retirement is great...every day is Saturday.  But I needed a break from my busy schedule (ha) so I'm here on Kauai, Hawaii.  My son and his family live here and they are skiing in Bend, Oregon.  They needed me to come to house sit, dog sit and chicken sit.  Two Golden Retrievers and 8 chickens need to be fed!  I did this last January when they went skiing and I guess it's going to be an annual thing.  I'm happy to do it and love the time to just relax...more so than I do at home.  One can't relax too much!

It's a shame we all have to wait until age 65 to retire (officially).  You spend your life hoping that you'll still be healthy and happy so you can enjoy the 'golden years' in whatever way you can.  I saved with a vengeance and it is paying off now.  I'm living comfortably in Texas on my social security and the small pension from my 6 years with the State Department.

I supplement my income by selling on Ebay.  It's so much fun going to estate sales, finding a real bargain and then selling it for much more.  Each month I make at least enough to make my house payment.  This week I went to a garage sale here on Kauai and found a vintage metal foil, waxed paper and paper towel holder...remember those from the 50s or 60s?  I paid $1 for it and looked it up on Ebay and found it selling for $25-29.  That's the kind of fun you have on Ebay!

So back to the chickens.  I have them to thank for breakfast.  I went out and pulled 2 fresh eggs from the hen house and had fried eggs for breakfast. The best!  That makes up for the rooster who sends out his first crow at precisely 4:00 am.  After a week, I'm able to go right back to sleep until he goes off again at 6:00 am.  You have to take the good with the bad, right?

The beaches here are so beautiful.  I don't swim much but I do love walking on the beach.

This ends when I return home on February 11.  I had originally planned on coming here for my twin grandsons' birthday March 1-11.  So, about 3 weeks after I return home, I'll be returning to Kauai for another 11 days.            

Life is good.

Glass Beach...lots of beach glass

View of Hanalei and Bali Hai

Huge surf at Hanalei

Hanalei Beach and the pier

Singapore, Here I Come

It's been almost 14 months since I retired, leaving my short 6 year life as a Foreign Service Diplomat behind me.  One of the perks of retirement is that you can sign on to be called up for short term assignments when the need arises for someone with your skills.  And that's what has happened.  I'm headed to Singapore to lend a hand to the Regional Security Office.  I'm thrilled to be able to reacquaint myself with the skills I learned working 6 years in security. 

Each time I would depart post, I would prepare what we call Turn Over Notes as a guide to the person coming to replace us.  Fortunately, I still have one of those that I prepared for my replacement in Tegucigalpa, Honduras.   That's the post where I had the most responsibilities so hopefully, it will cover whatever I end up doing in Singapore.

I've been to Tokyo once but no other place in Asia.  It should be a great experience for me and you know I'll be looking for every opportunity to capture the experience with my camera.

Maybe I'll get a shot of the city at night like this one...

 Or maybe I'll even get to go to Universal Studios Singapore!

Or maybe I'll ride on the giant Singapore Flyer...

My bags are packed and I'm just waiting to get the call to contact Travel to make my flight arrangements.  

I love retirement...

When The Check Stops...

When you're young or even middle age, the thought of retiring seems like a distant galaxy that you'll really never arrive at.  You think...I'll start saving. I'll start participating in the company's 401(k). I'll start an Emergency Fund. I really need to start saving.  You say, 'Honest I will.'  Next month.

I didn't start to get serious about saving until I was in my 40s.  I had a good job and my employers had a Profit Sharing Plan.  It's like a 401(k) but it's based on how well the company does, hence the name Profit Sharing.  It's a great idea...employees come to realize that the better their bosses do, the better their contribution to the Profit Sharing Plan will be.  When I left my employers to join the FS, (and they were just about the best guys in the world), I left with about $90K in my account that was 100% contributed by them. That was my seed money for today.

In 2007 when I joined the Foreign Service, I immediately began participating in their 401(k)-like program called the Thrift Saving Plan (TSP).  There was matching contributions and I could contribute what I wanted, up to the maximum allowed by law.  I was 59 at the time and knew I would only have 6 years in this, my second career.  I had taken a cut in pay to take the job so I decided to contribute much less than the maximum.  A year later, I bumped it up to the max and also started adding the "Catch Up" amount, which is for those 59 and over.  That's so you can...well, catch up.  My money began to grow.  The TSP did great and I felt good about the dreaded Age 65 Exit from the Foreign Service.

My last 2 years were in Pakistan and because it was Pakistan, those of us who volunteered to serve there were rewarded with Danger Pay and a Differential.  The Danger Pay is self explanatory.  The Differential is an add on to your salary to make up for the level of difficulty of the post and can vary from one country/city to another due to the cost of living, hardships, etc.  Because of this, I was able to save money like a mad woman. When I retired I was able to put a very large down payment on my home in Texas.

Dropping from a 6 figure salary to just Social Security and a small pension from Uncle Sam is a big adjustment.  But when you plan for it, it can be very manageable.  But I'm the kind of person who is always looking for added security.  I'm single with no one to turn to in a financial emergency.  I've found several ways to supplement my income and hopefully to not have to begin taking a monthly draw on my investments until I am forced to at age 70 1/2.  Let me tell you how.

For the year leading up to joining the FS, my friend and I would go to estate sales every week, buy stuff and then list them on Ebay.  I also had 2 part time jobs after leaving my terrific employers.  But it's Ebay that was the most fun.  As soon as I returned to Texas, I started doing it again.  Just about every month I make enough selling on Ebay to cover my house payment.  When my PayPal account reaches a certain set threshold, I transfer some to my bank. It works like a charm.  If any of you frequent Ebay and want to see my auction, just do a search on the site for yayato3boys.  My 3 grandsons call me Yaya, hence the name.  And for my DOS friends serving overseas, I do ship to APO and DPO addresses.

I love photography...always have.  And after traveling all over the world, I have some pretty good photographs.  I have found 2 online sites where I can sell my photographs.  One is fineartamerica.com and the other is on Etsy.com.  Both places do all the credit card transactions so I don't have to worry about that.  To find me on Fine Art America, just do a search for my name and to find me on Etsy, the name of my store is my name...DebiDemetrion.  On FAA, you can have my photographs printed in all different sizes, matted or not, made into cases for your smart phone or even greeting cards.  It's very cool.  On Etsy, I am currently offering my photographs in 3 different common sizes.

Why am I telling you all this?  Well, the obvious reason is that I hope you'll visit one of the sites and order a photograph or bid on one of the many terrific items I have on my Ebay auction.  But there are a couple of other reasons I'm writing this.  One, to stress the importance of planning ahead for a huge financial change in your life when you retire and to stress that you need to start early putting money away for retirement.  The other is to let you know that there are many ways of generating income once you retire.  Find something you love to do and then find an outlet for it.  I've been retired now for 8 months and am still looking for the best way to market my skills.  I may find better ways later, but for now, this seems to be working for me.  And the longer I can leave my money in investments and hope it grows, the better.

Good luck!  And happy shopping!

Retirement...What it is and What it Isn't

It's now been 3 months and 7 days since I left the ranks of the employed. During the final months of my time with the Foreign Service, I had ups and downs when thinking about not working in a short time.  But when the time grew near, I was ready.  The last couple of weeks were stressful in Karachi, Pakistan.  About 13 days before the day I was to depart post, the bad guys attacked the airport.  Lockdown!  Each day I prayed that I would safely get to the airport, safely wait at the airport and safely get off the ground.  As it turned out, I did have a safe take off and after a couple of days in Santorini, Greece and a week of out-processing in Washington, I arrived home July 1 as a retiree.

I'm still not used to waking up and laying there realizing that I didn't have anywhere to go.  Well, that would depend on my To Do list, but I had no job to report to.  Every day is Saturday.  I guess I'll get used to it one day.

Back to that To Do list.  Good grief...I don't know how I ever did things when I had to work.  Every evening I update the list, moving the things that I didn't get done that day to the list for the next day.  I must admit a great bit of the things on my list have to do with selling on eBay (which is wonderful and great fun) and trying to start a bathroom renovation.  Finding a reliable contractor, one who will communicate with you and will do it for a reasonable price is not easy. And all that I've read about people getting fleeced has made me really cautious. I'm sure I'll find someone...I already have the piece of furniture that will be the vanity base, have ordered the granite top, have bought the sink and faucet and I have a gorgeous mirror that I bought in Honduras that will replace the awful wall-to-wall mirror there now.  Pictures to follow when it's all done.

So for any of you out there wondering just what us retirees do with ourselves once we no longer have to report to work...we still work but for ourselves!!

I love it.  I love that every day is now Saturday.  But I do depend on others to tell me which day of the week it is!

Necklace + Lanyard = Necklard

I am aware that many of my readers are in the Foreign Service and wear badges to work.  I make gemstone necklaces and lanyards.  My lanyards are a bit longer so that at the end of the day, if you go out, you can remove your badge, wrap the lanyard around your neck twice and it's a lovely necklace. When I was in Muscat, my friend Cheri came up with the name Necklards and it stuck.

I wanted to let you know that I now sell them on Etsy.  While serving overseas, I couldn't do this because it's against regulations to profit by using the DPO mail.  But now that I'm retired (yippeee!) I have started up making more and selling them on Etsy.  I'm also going to take a sample with me to every doctor's appointment and give it to the Office Manager (and make her promise to wear it!).  If someone has a color scheme for their favorite pro team, office colors or their kid's soccer team, I can take special orders.

Anyway, I am tooting my own horn, waving my own banner or whatever phrase you want to use, but hey...I'm retired now and can get away with much more!

Here's my Etsy link... https://www.etsy.com/shop/NimbleFingersBeads  
and here's a couple of samples.  Christmas is coming and I have about 50 beaded necklaces as well.  More added each day!

Green Malaysian Jade, Adventurine

Red Agate

Magnesite and Silver Plated Beads

Things I Won't Miss About Life in the Foreign Service

It's been 2 months since I retired from the Foreign Service and I've come up with a few things that I will not miss about the wonderful life I had for 6 years.

Eating food that expired more than 12 months ago. Some was not bad, others were gross.

EERs...the State Department's annual employee review. Having to brag on what you did that was part of your job was something we all dreaded every year. Then it went all the way back to Washington for some stranger to decide if we deserved a promotion. 

Bidding for your next assignment...the experience from hell and the major cause of excessive use of hair color for women (to cover the gray hairs it caused).

Looking down at your plate at a restaurant and wondering just what the mystery meat was that you were about to eat.  And making sure you have lots of Pepto and Imodium at home.

Having to drink bottled water not because you liked it better but because the stuff coming out of the tap tasted terrible, was full of bacteria or was gray instead of clear.

Frying your 110 appliances because you plugged them into a 220 socket.  Not all appliances are 110-240, even the new Keurig you bought. Beware Keurig fans!  And lugging around the 20 lb step-down transformer from room to room.

"Hey, does anyone have two 500s for a 1000 bill?"

"They attacked the airport...again??"

Middle of the night drills over the loudspeaker in your residence..."Duck and Cover! Get away from the windows!  Take cover and wait for further instructions!!"  I loved my Marines but have much better ways of being woken up in the middle of the night...

Having multiple zip lock bags with different currencies around the world...and remembering to pack them when I went to that country.

Flying Coach for 14 hours, wedged between 2 overweight passengers who couldn't help but use some of my space.  Or someone kicking my chair for hours because they like to wiggle their leg to keep from getting a blood clot.  

Being ordered out of post because of a threat "for just a week or so" and then never returning.  Strangers then pack up all your worldly possessions for you.

I'm sure my friends in the Foreign Service have lists of their own...feel free to share!  But let me make this clear...I absolutely loved the time I served overseas but now must laugh at the things I won't miss.  The list of things and people I will miss forever is much longer. But that's for another post.