118 Curious about...Retirement Questions to Ask Yourself w/Judy Freedman, Lifestyle Blogger & Frmr. The Campbell Company Colleague
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast with me, Denise Venneri. I am a twenty year practitioner in the consumer engagement space, having worked for two large CPG organizations. My intent here is really to share best practices with particular focus around the specialist and analyst roles and to give back to this great community because CPGCX rocks.
Denise Venneri:Hello, my curious colleagues this week, I'm curious about thoughts in retirement. Yes.
Denise Venneri:I said retirement. And to help me understand just that is my colleague, Judy Friedman. She is a former Campbell Soup colleague and a lifestyle blogger. So cool. And I should mention she was awarded a top 10 blog for women 50.
Denise Venneri:Welcome to the podcast, Judy.
Judy Freedman:Thank you, Denise. It's nice to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Denise Venneri:Of course. Of course. You know, selfishly, I wanted to hear from you. As a recent retiree, it's been about two months now. You know, and I wanted to hear a little bit more.
Denise Venneri:We always talk about, oh, your annual objectives and your development plan while you're working. And even in your financial planning, you're thinking about, you know, retirement, but are you really thinking about it in all the right ways? So to get this conversation, let's begin with you telling us how you got here.
Judy Freedman:So congratulations, by the way, on your retirement.
Denise Venneri:Thank you.
Judy Freedman:I love my retirement, and I've been retired for for twelve years. It's hard to believe I've been retired for twelve years now.
Denise Venneri:Wow.
Judy Freedman:And how did I get here? I mean, how has it been twelve years? And my retirement's really changed over the years. I retired early at 55 and I was given that opportunity to do that, and I was financially able to do that. But one of the big events that happened in my life right before I turned 50 was losing my spouse.
Judy Freedman:And I think after you have such an extraordinary event like that, and then on top of it becoming an empty nester, you realize that life is short. And, I had been in my career for a long time and was ready to do something new. And I had started my blog. I was enjoying doing my blogging. And not that that was going to become a second career, but in some ways, I wanted more time to do that and explore that and explore other new things.
Judy Freedman:So I decided to take retirement, and I haven't looked back and have done a lot of things in the past twelve years, and my retirement has evolved, and it continues to evolve.
Denise Venneri:Yes. I I and, again, I'm sorry, of course, about your your loss. And and, and, you know, when I think about your retirement, it is a little unconventional. It's an early retirement, but there's many of us who have done that as well. And some of us have waited to a little bit older, perhaps like myself.
Denise Venneri:When we talked before you were talking about retirement as a journey. You know, in my mind, it was always like this date, I kind of forgot about it for a while, but this, you know, like a date. And so so tell us more about this idea of a journey and, you know, you use the phrase finding your rhythm. So tell us a little bit more about that. Thank you.
Judy Freedman:So I I talked to some of my friends who have recently retired, and I say that you have to find your retirement rhythm. And it will, I use that word, evolve too, because it will evolve over time. And obviously, it is scary when you first retire. I know it was for me. You have all this time that you didn't have before.
Judy Freedman:You were working, you know, so many hours, and you probably said, Oh, I don't have time to do X, Y, Z. I don't have time to do exercise, for example. Well, now you have all this time, and it's time to think about how you wanna use it. And what'll happen is you'll have so many things in a good way that you have wanted to do, that you have built up over the years that you haven't been able to do activities that you start to slot them in. You're not going to have a schedule right away.
Judy Freedman:Everybody's like, do you have a schedule? Do you have a schedule? And it's okay not to have a schedule. You've been scheduled your whole life, your whole, you know, career. So you start to think, well, what am I who am I without this career behind me?
Judy Freedman:And you start to come into your own. And I say your own authentic self. Who who are you and what do you wanna be in this next phase of your life? And so it is a journey. And you have more time to discover what you like, what you don't like.
Judy Freedman:And over the years, you will find that sometimes you wanna do one activity. It becomes more important to you in your day, and then then something else. So for me, I was blogging a lot when I first started working. It became like a second career. I also got very into yoga.
Judy Freedman:And for me, I'm a type a person, so I went back to school and became a yoga instructor. And that was about, I'd say, seven years ago, eight years ago. And I was teaching a lot. But now that I'm older and after what happened with COVID, where we weren't going into gyms, I stepped back from my teaching. And now, you know, so many years later, I'm not teaching right now, and that's okay.
Judy Freedman:I'm not doing as much blogging. I like doing other things. So things in the dynamics of your family will change too. I just became a grandmother. So that's a part Congratulations.
Judy Freedman:Part of my life. Thank you. And that's a part of my life that wasn't in my life before. Mhmm. So Mhmm.
Judy Freedman:There will be things good and bad. I've had, health issues as well, which changed the dynamics. That's some one of the reasons why I was traveling so much with my blog, and I had to pull back. So I think this journey or this, rhythm will change over time.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. That's something I think I have to write down. And, you know, on a post it note and paste it to my forehead. Early in the process, like I said, about two months. So really could use the tips.
Denise Venneri:And I do like to get into the details here, Judy, on My Curious Colleague podcast. So what are some of the, like, really granular for me? I mean, you you said one that I that I have here that is, you know, ask yourself, what have you always wanted to do when you were younger? So I think that's a good one. Any other tips as someone is thinking through this retirement stage journey?
Judy Freedman:Absolutely. I think one of the big ones is what brings you joy? And you could have a list of the big things that bring you joy, of course, that maybe you can't do every day, the travel. Mhmm. The you know, you're not gonna take a huge trip every day or even every month.
Judy Freedman:But what brings me joy, I know in little ways. So I love being outdoors. And even this morning, I took a walk in the outdoors. Now I'm able to do that. I'm I'm very lucky.
Judy Freedman:I spend, my my winters in in Florida where it's warmer, and that's one of the things that was a priority to me as I got older. And so, you know, little things like that. There's there's other again, exercise is very important. And I think exercise gets into the health aspects once I spend a lot of my day exercising and staying fit because to me in fact, I'm in my exercise clothes, which is, you know, I get get dressed every morning, and that'll change too. You know?
Judy Freedman:You keep getting dressed in, business clothes. Right. I know a lot of people are working from home now, but, you know, I get dressed in my exercise clothes, and I know that every day I'm gonna do some type of exercise. And I've tried new things. I'm doing Pilates now.
Judy Freedman:I play pickleball. So I I think sometimes too when people say, oh, I'm not gonna interact with other people. I'm used to interacting with a lot of people at work. And as you start to do activities in retirement, you will meet new people. You will make new friendships.
Judy Freedman:I've made friendships through my blogging. I've made friendships I'm a pickleball person. I've made friendships through pickleball. Yeah. I've made friendships through yoga, whether I'm teaching or taking classes.
Judy Freedman:And you will do things during the day meeting people who may be fellow retirees. So I don't like that quote word retirement. I feel it's very different now than maybe when our parents retired because we have a lot much longer lifespan.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Well, what would you call it? You you don't like to call it retirement. You like to call it is it that retirement journey or just, like, your second act in life? Or you just or you don't name it.
Denise Venneri:Or you
Judy Freedman:Yeah. I don't I don't think anyone's come up with a name yet. And when I first retired, even not first, you know, over the years, I was afraid to say I was retired. I couldn't say, well, I'm a blogger. I'm a yoga instructor.
Judy Freedman:You know, I couldn't say I was retired. And now, for lack of another word, I I even on my blog, it says one of my my categories is reinventing retirement. Because I feel like that's what we're all really doing at the baby boomers, arbing retirement.
Denise Venneri:Love that. Love that. We were talking about, you know, one of the questions to ask yourself is, do you have to work still after retirement? Any additional thoughts there, or is that just any
Judy Freedman:point? Well, I think for some, it's not even have to. It's do I want to?
Denise Venneri:Mhmm.
Judy Freedman:And for some people, they may need to. Yes. You know, you may decide, oh, I'm gonna take my Social Security. Wait and take my Social Security at 70. You know, everybody says a lot of people say not everybody, but a lot of people say, oh, keep you wait if you can financially to wait till 70 to take your retirement, your Social Security money.
Denise Venneri:Your social.
Judy Freedman:So may not everybody can do that, and that's okay. So you need to look at your own finances and decide, you know, do I need to work? One of the things I also do and have done since I start became retired or even before I was retired, I looked at my finances every month, and I think that's important to do. You know, is the just like you do a balance sheet at work, is what's coming in the same as what's going out? And if you find, even in retirement, that more is going out than is coming in, you need to look at that.
Judy Freedman:Why is that? Where is that? Where can I make change? So that's the more financial aspect. And I think that, you know, one of the things I was doing a lot, was going out to lunch and dinner all the time when I first retired.
Judy Freedman:Oh, I can meet this person. I can meet that person now. And someone said to me, well, you know, you don't have to go out to lunch all the time. You could walk and chat. So that was a really good point, and I started to do that.
Judy Freedman:And so all these lunches that I was, you know, buying lunch
Denise Venneri:all the
Judy Freedman:time or dinner all the time, it wasn't I had a better time because we were walking and we were chatting. So we were getting double Yeah. You know, dose of exercise and friendship.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Or I like the I love the idea of walking and chatting. I also I never could do a walking meeting because I'm always having I always wanted to take copious notes. But in this stage of my life, I I like walking and chatting. But that is one of my goals is to do more dining out.
Denise Venneri:So I better just like, you know, keep keep keep an eye on that one for sure. I was gonna say something else, but it just escaped me. You know, reflecting back, I know that when my son was planning, you know, when I thought he, when I had them all settled in his first year in college, I know that I said to myself, okay, and this is of course before I retired recently And I was like, okay, well, what is it? You know, what is it that's speaking to me right now? Maybe I have a little bit more bandwidth.
Denise Venneri:And, it was this idea of writing and speaking about what I do. Well, I didn't go the blogging route. As you know, I went the podcasting route and, was able to dabble in that. And it's still on my list of things to do in this juncture as I reinvent myself in retirement, you know, leaning into that a little bit more. So upon reflection, I think I may have intuitively have done that.
Denise Venneri:Pickleball is also on my list. I am a very, very good ping pong player. Having grown up with a ping pong table and I played pickleball once and it feels like, you know, I could just, it's kinda like ping pong, but standing up. I do love tennis as well. So I'm going to be leaning in on pickleball, which I think is a good one.
Denise Venneri:And I should mention most of the folks know that this whole depends on what you are able to work with with your Medicare and things like that. You know, some of these some of these plans have discounts to use gyms nearby, which is which is great. And so of course, there's that. But I didn't realize the amount of paperwork. I just wanted to put it out here now for prosperity that the amount of mail I've gotten since I retired obviously has to do with health insurance and, you know, all the different changes financially and things like that.
Denise Venneri:But I cannot wait for that to slow down. It's just a lot of paperwork. Did you find that? Do you can you remember back then?
Judy Freedman:A lot of paperwork. And you have to look at, you know, in terms of health care, I think and I say to people, especially if you're retiring before 65, it's going to be not only the biggest expense, but something that you really need to look into. And healthcare will be changing, continually changing. And even it is challenging. It can be challenging at times.
Judy Freedman:I know for me, we were just talking about, you know, even dental plans or
Denise Venneri:Right.
Judy Freedman:Or prescription plans. Everything's separate, so you really need to look at those plans and make sure, you know, your drugs are covered. And then you have to change it the following year if you need to. So it is a lot. I I it's unfortunate that as we get older, it becomes more complicated.
Judy Freedman:So it is something that you do need to, you know, look into every year just as you did when you were working if you True. Were in a health plan. And I know when I was leaving Campbell's those plans were getting more complicated as well. Mhmm. So it is something that is a cost too.
Judy Freedman:I think people some people that even when you turn 65, you think, oh, it's going to be free. You know, Medicare is free. It's not free. So you have to plan for those costs, which will happen. And I know with my Medicare plan, it goes up every year.
Judy Freedman:My supplement goes up every year as I get older. So that's something that I I plan I have to plan for.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Very important. I I worked with an agent, just as a side note, that that presented some of the Medicare choices and and walk me through. And I also attended, like, a free workshop. But even so, until you kinda get into it yourself and, like, put all the pieces together, I do I do agree with you really should make sure you understand all those pieces.
Denise Venneri:And you know what? I'm gonna stop complaining about the paperwork. I am grateful that I have the opportunity to, you know, to to some of the things that that we do have here.
Judy Freedman:And it is good to work with a planner like that. I think I did as well, and they helped me. They're not you don't have to pay for them for the most part that I understand. Mhmm. I didn't.
Judy Freedman:And they helped me pick out my drug plan because they knew the drugs I took and some were covered by some plans and some weren't. So I, you know, I found that very helpful when I was joining. And now I really haven't changed plans over the year because I do like that benefit that I have with, it's AARP UnitedHealthcare where they give you the gym, plans. So I take advantage of that. I do take advantage of that.
Judy Freedman:I like it.
Denise Venneri:Love it. Alright, Judy. If folks wanted to find out more about what you're up to and to subscribe to your blog, what's the next step?
Judy Freedman:So my blog is aboomerslifeafter50.com, and that's, spelled ab00merslife5zero.
Denise Venneri:Is the word after in it? No. Boomers life after. Yes. After.
Denise Venneri:Whoops. Okay. Yes. Okay.
Judy Freedman:.Com. If they Google Judy boomer girl too
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Okay.
Judy Freedman:They will find me.
Denise Venneri:That's cute name.
Judy Freedman:Or baby boomer blogger, they will probably find me. And I blog under Judy with an I, j u d I. That's my pen name, but my real name is Judy with a y. So I, I, my philosophy, I say, and it's still the same as from when I started the blog is to keep my chin up. So my next day is forever wrinkle free, But the wrinkles don't make a difference.
Judy Freedman:You should trademark now. You should Trademark now. You should Trademark.
Denise Venneri:I you look perfect.
Judy Freedman:Some people don't like to use that term positive aging, but I I'm okay with it.
Denise Venneri:Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. But, yeah, I mean, you're a communications professional. You were a bigwig at Campbell's, and so I love this this catchy sound bite, Judy, boomer girl.
Denise Venneri:I I love it all. It's all great. It's
Judy Freedman:all great. Thank you. You know, now it's fun. I feel like I'm back to my roots per se. I started out in the editorial world working for a magazine, and now I feel like and I went the corporate communications route and public relations.
Judy Freedman:And, and I love my job. And now I feel like I'm my own editor. And blogging, it's it's interesting because when I've been blogging for seventeen years before it was a profession. And it's interesting to me to see how it's evolved. Just like for you with podcasting, you know, there's always I'm sure you find this with podcast.
Judy Freedman:There's always more you can do. And so for me, I'm not blogging for the quote paycheck. I'm blogging because I enjoy sharing my travels, sharing my information. To me, the the payback that I love is when someone comments. I'm sure you find this with your podcast or even just seeing that, you know, 200 people read my post that I wrote, you know, and people comment it or someone said, well, I went you know, you wrote about your cancer journey per se.
Judy Freedman:And I being checked now because of that. You know? So I find that that's I don't only blog in one niche. It's not just travel, and I'm glad about that. I have so many curiosities or that it it fills it fulfills me in that way, and it's not when I get $25 for my advertising, I'm excited now.
Denise Venneri:Well, we are we are simpatico on the curiosity factor. In fact, I ask so many questions. I had to start my own podcast. So I hear you there, and it's actually called, the word curious in its title. Your delight.
Denise Venneri:Sadly, we're at the end, Judy, and just wanted to say thank you for sharing with us today.
Judy Freedman:Oh, you're welcome. And thank you again for inviting me, and good luck with your retirement. I'll be anxious to hear how it all goes.
Doug Venneri:You have been listening to the My Curious Colleague podcast with Denise Venneri. Thank you for your time.
