Your Tour Guide
I’m Polly Washburn. I’ve travelled and lived all over North America and the world. I’ve lived in 20 cities and visited 40 countries (so far!).
I’m in the final stages of becoming a Chartered Retirement Planning Counselor℠, trained by the same folks who accredit Certified Financial Planners. The coursework is based on the section of the CFP curriculum that focuses on retirement.
As someone who has spent time as a writer, non-profit fundraiser, filmmaker, and freelance software engineer, I got a late start on retirement investing. I’m a testament to the fact that it’s never too late to change the work you do, start new creative projects, and start socking away at your retirement fund!
Filling out all the paperwork to claim Medicaid for my mother and register her for a state program to spend her last year in an assisted living facility opened my eyes both to the range of options that exist, and efforts needed to find and take advantage of them.
As I got more interested in this area, I noticed that 90% of the writing about retirement concerns the Boomers. Now the focus is shifting to Millenials. And guess which generation is being overlooked, again?.
NOT ON MY WATCH!
And of the stories that are written about Gen X retiring, the main vibe is "Gen X is NOT READY for retirement."
Again, NOT ON MY WATCH!
I've found my mission, and it's to help us not just "be ready" but TRANSFORM, UPEND, BLOW UP, and REINVENT the whole idea of retirement. In fact, I hate the word "retirement!" I have no intention of pulling back from society, or using my mind and skills, or having an impact.
We are not going to "do" retirement the same way our parents or grandparents did. As Gen X, we're going to, as always, Do It Differently. The great news is, that means we'll have a lot more options because we're willing to experiment. The tools on this site, my writing and workshops are my attempt to help us do that.
Visiting Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania