This probably won't come as a surprise, but HarvilleQuarters is my first foray into blogging. It began on January 1, 2009 and initially I told just a few relatives and friends about it. (And, I must say, they've been remarkably restrained about reading it regularly, much less posting actual comments.)
I subscribe to a Web service that tracks "hits" on the site and gives me a weekly report. Whole days went by with no hits, or with only one - me. And the hits other than my own almost always came from a city where I have a friend or relative who's aware of my blog.
That was OK - I was getting my bearings about this whole blogging thing as well as taking my time before adding a new post.
This changed about a week ago when I posted a comment on National Public Radio's Website in a section soliciting questions about retirement for a series they are planning. I made the point, as I have in this blog, that considering how we will spend our retirement years should be as important as accumulating the financial wherewithal to support our plans. I included the link to HarvilleQuarters.
Apparently, a few people read my comment and were motivated to take a look. I've been getting up to 15 visitors a day, still a small number by blogging standards (I'm sure the Huffington Post is not nervously checking its rearview mirror), but an exponential increase from the prior week. It's been fun to check my stats each day to see where the hits are coming from.
Although I'm far from having a visitor from every state, I have added quite a few new ones - Oregon, New York, Michigan, Missouri, Colorado, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, DC. It was even more exciting to see two foreign countries represented - South Korea and Abu Dhabi.
So --- welcome to all of you, and especially those of you reading from half way around the globe. Please don't hesitate to add a comment to this post telling me how you got here, along with any ideas you'd like to offer for great retirement activities. Your idea may show up in my next list of Another Dozen Examples, and if you include your name and city, I'll give you credit for it.
Warm regards,
Bruce Harville
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Add Steamboat Springs, Colorado to your list. I discovered your blog from a comment you made on one of the financial web sites (maybe it was Kiplinger, not sure).
ReplyDeleteI really think you are onto something with your approach to retirement planning. It seems like 98% of what you read is about financially planning for retirement. Very few people appear to give much thought to how they will use their time. I guess people figure if they save enough money, the decisions about what to do will be easy. I don’t agree. Making good use of the time you earn does not happen automatically.
Not only are you on the right track thinking ahead about how you will spend your time, I think your project approach has a lot of merit. I have a lot of interests that I want to pursue, but many will not be possible past a certain age. Your approach invites exploring new interests that are age-appropriate without the pressure of finding “the” activity that will keep me engaged for the rest of my life.
I am starting my quarter-list, and I must say that many of yours have made the list. Some that I have added include “Riding my bike over every paved pass in Colorado”, “Participating on a science research project in Antarctica”, “Volunteering on a coral reef preservation project”, “Riding the classic passes of the Tour de France and Giro d’Italia in the Pyrenees and Alps”, “Visit friends from throughout my life in their homes, wherever they now live”, “Photographic safari – either domestic or international” and the traditional, but still appealing “Visit national parks in western US and Canada by RV”.
I still have at least 10 years before I can start to execute this plan, but I feel like your approach will be part of my plan. Last summer I took a sabbatical and had a “trial quarter”. I spent 3 months riding my bike around Italy and Switzerland, then SCUBA diving in Curacao. If you are interested, I kept a blog here - http://randyhowie.blogspot.com/
I hope that your lack of articles over the past year does not indicate that you have stopped planning. I would be interested in hearing about your new ideas.