Hi, I’m Cal.  A baby boomer, age 50 – ok, 54.. or so.  By many accounts, I’ve had a very happy life and done alright in this world up till now.  I’m fortunate not to have any real serious health issues, exercise regularly, and lead an active, healthy lifestyle.  I have an awesome partner, Joe, who represents everything I could ever hope for in another person to share life together.  We’re an inter-racial couple – he’s Filipino, I’m not.  He’s a Bohemian, laissez-faire type.  Me, not so much.  We met playing on a sports team.

Living in the Bay Area, I work in management consulting and technology, a career with which I’ve done fairly well after almost 30 years.  I have an M.B.A. education (paid for on my own) and that credential has helped a great deal.  It wasn’t from an Ivy League school, but the return on investment has probably been much better.

I’ve had the opportunity to travel to many parts of the world, and live and work abroad.  Europe, South America, Central America, and Asia (a little).  I speak a second language (Spanish) fluently, and can get along fairly well in a couple of other languages.

Over the years, I’ve pursued a lot of different recreational and academic interests including team sports, individual sports, martial arts, outdoor activities (hiking, camping, survival school included), gardening, landscape architecture, antiques, furniture making, and indigenous cultures to name a few.

I bought a home in San Francisco about 11 years ago, not an easy feat for my then-single self. There’s another twenty years on the mortgage.  I’ll be almost 75 before it’s paid.  Throughout my working life, I’ve always tried to save for retirement.  I still do, at a rate of 10-15% of gross salary per year.  But I don’t have nearly what I estimate I would need.  I don’t have a pension (lost with the bankruptcy of my prior employer)  and despite my continuing contributions, my 401K and IRAs have been at about the same balance for almost the past five years.

I always thought I would be retired by the age of 55. But that’s not happening. My individual situation, the global economy, and our state of affairs in the US have changed that goal, and the choices I have as options going forward.  I try to remain confident, yet am fearful; happy with my life, but pissed-off at the circumstances in which we find ourselves today;  hopeful, and yet unsure of what the future holds.

Like so many of my fellow boomers, I have many difficult choices to make, but still want to make the most of life in the here and now.  I worry, but wonder about the prospects of  being “not-quite-retired”, NQR, in perpetuity.

Cal