🏓This week I'm Curious About... Retirement — it’s a word that often comes with mixed emotions. For many, it’s long-awaited freedom. For others, it’s an uncertain transition. But what if we started thinking about retirement not as a finish line, but as a journey of reinvention?
In the latest episode (#118) of My Curious Colleague 🔍 #CPGCX   Podcast, I had the pleasure of speaking with Judy Freedman, a former colleague at The Campbell's Company, lifestyle blogger, and top blogger for women over 50.Â
Judy retired early at 55, and over the past 12 years, she’s embraced an evolving retirement — one filled with blogging, yoga, travel, pickleball, and even becoming a grandmother! 🎉
A few key takeaways from our conversation:
✅ Retirement is a "rhythm", not a rigid plan —it evolves over time.
✅ Ask yourself: "What brings me joy?" —big or small, make space for it.
✅ You don’t have to have a schedule right away —embrace the freedom!
✅ Finances matter, but so does purpose —some work by necessity, others by choice.
✅ Social connections are key —new hobbies and activities bring new friendships.
Judy’s perspective reminded me that retirement isn't about stopping, but about shifting.Â
Contact info: Wanna connect with Judy...? https://www.linkedin.com/in/judyfreedman1/Â
Interested in subscribing to her blog: www.aboomerslifeafter50.com
#retirementjourney #reinventingretirement #cpgcx #lifelonglearning
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Denise Venneri (00:00):
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast
with me, Denise Venneri. I am atwenty year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space,having worked for two large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst roles and
(00:21):
to give back to this greatcommunity because CPGCX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleaguesthis week, I'm curious about
thoughts in retirement. Yes.
I said retirement. And to helpme understand just that is my
(00:41):
colleague, Judy Friedman. She isa former Campbell Soup colleague
and a lifestyle blogger. Socool. And I should mention she
was awarded a top 10 blog forwomen 50.
Welcome to the podcast, Judy.
Judy Freedman (00:58):
Thank you, Denise. It's nice to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
Denise Venneri (01:02):
Of course. Of course. You know, selfishly, I
wanted to hear from you. As arecent retiree, it's been about
two months now. You know, and Iwanted to hear a little bit
more.
We always talk about, oh, yourannual objectives and your
development plan while you'reworking. And even in your
financial planning, you'rethinking about, you know,
(01:24):
retirement, but are you reallythinking about it in all the
right ways? So to get thisconversation, let's begin with
you telling us how you got here.
Judy Freedman (01:36):
So congratulations, by the way, on
your retirement.
Denise Venneri (01:39):
Thank you.
Judy Freedman (01:40):
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 (01:48):
Wow.
Judy Freedman (01:49):
And how did I get here? I mean, how has it been
twelve years? And myretirement's really changed over
the years. I retired early at 55and I was given that opportunity
to do that, and I wasfinancially able to do that. But
one of the big events thathappened in my life right before
(02:09):
I turned 50 was losing myspouse.
And I think after you have suchan extraordinary event like
that, and then on top of itbecoming an empty nester, you
realize that life is short. And,I had been in my career for a
long time and was ready to dosomething new. And I had started
(02:30):
my blog. I was enjoying doing myblogging. And not that that was
going to become a second career,but in some ways, I wanted more
time to do that and explore thatand explore other new things.
So I decided to take retirement,and I haven't looked back and
have done a lot of things in thepast twelve years, and my
(02:54):
retirement has evolved, and itcontinues to evolve.
Denise Venneri (03:01):
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 alittle unconventional. It's an
early retirement, but there'smany of us who have done that as
well. And some of us have waitedto a little bit older, perhaps
like myself.
(03:22):
When we talked before you weretalking about retirement as a
journey. You know, in my mind,it was always like this date, I
kind of forgot about it for awhile, but this, you know, like
a date. And so so tell us moreabout this idea of a journey
and, you know, you use thephrase finding your rhythm. So
(03:43):
tell us a little bit more aboutthat. Thank you.
Judy Freedman (03:46):
So I I talked to some of my friends who have
recently retired, and I say thatyou have to find your retirement
rhythm. And it will, I use thatword, evolve too, because it
will evolve over time. Andobviously, it is scary when you
first retire. I know it was forme. You have all this time that
(04:09):
you didn't have before.
You were working, you know, somany hours, and you probably
said, Oh, I don't have time todo 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 youwanna use it. And what'll happen
(04:33):
is you'll have so many things ina good way that you have wanted
to do, that you have built upover the years that you haven't
been able to do activities thatyou start to slot them in.
You're not going to have aschedule right away.
Everybody's like, do you have aschedule? Do you have a
schedule? And it's okay not tohave a schedule. You've been
(04:56):
scheduled your whole life, yourwhole, you know, career. So you
start to think, well, what am Iwho am I without this career
behind me?
And you start to come into yourown. And I say your own
authentic self. Who who are youand what do you wanna be in this
next phase of your life? And soit is a journey. And you have
(05:21):
more time to discover what youlike, what you don't like.
And over the years, you willfind that sometimes you wanna do
one activity. It becomes moreimportant to you in your day,
and then then something else. Sofor me, I was blogging a lot
(05:43):
when I first started working. Itbecame like a second career. I
also got very into yoga.
And for me, I'm a type a person,so I went back to school and
became a yoga instructor. Andthat was about, I'd say, seven
years ago, eight years ago. AndI was teaching a lot. But now
(06:05):
that I'm older and after whathappened with COVID, where we
weren't going into gyms, Istepped back from my teaching.
And now, you know, so many yearslater, I'm not teaching right
now, and that's okay.
I'm not doing as much blogging.I like doing other things. So
(06:25):
things in the dynamics of yourfamily will change too. I just
became a grandmother. So that'sa part Congratulations.
Part of my life. Thank you. Andthat's a part of my life that
wasn't in my life before. Mhmm.So Mhmm.
There will be things good andbad. I've had, health issues as
well, which changed thedynamics. That's some one of the
(06:49):
reasons why I was traveling somuch with my blog, and I had to
pull back. So I think thisjourney or this, rhythm will
change over time.
Denise Venneri (07:03):
Yeah. That's something I think I have to
write down. And, you know, on apost it note and paste it to my
forehead. Early in the process,like I said, about two months.
So really could use the tips.
And I do like to get into thedetails here, Judy, on My
Curious Colleague podcast. Sowhat are some of the, like,
(07:24):
really granular for me? I mean,you you said one that I that I
have here that is, you know, askyourself, what have you always
wanted to do when you wereyounger? So I think that's a
good one. Any other tips assomeone is thinking through this
retirement stage journey?
Judy Freedman (07:43):
Absolutely. I think one of the big ones is
what brings you joy? And youcould have a list of the big
things that bring you joy, ofcourse, that maybe you can't do
every day, the travel. Mhmm. Theyou know, you're not gonna take
a huge trip every day or evenevery month.
But what brings me joy, I knowin little ways. So I love being
(08:06):
outdoors. And even this morning,I took a walk in the outdoors.
Now I'm able to do that. I'm I'mvery lucky.
I spend, my my winters in inFlorida where it's warmer, and
that's one of the things thatwas a priority to me as I got
older. And so, you know, littlethings like that. There's
(08:29):
there's other again, exercise isvery important. And I think
exercise gets into the healthaspects once I spend a lot of my
day exercising and staying fitbecause to me in fact, I'm in my
exercise clothes, which is, youknow, I get get dressed every
morning, and that'll change too.You know?
You keep getting dressed in,business clothes. Right. I know
(08:53):
a lot of people are working fromhome 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.
I play pickleball. So I I thinksometimes too when people say,
(09:13):
oh, I'm not gonna interact withother people. I'm used to
interacting with a lot of peopleat work. And as you start to do
activities in retirement, youwill meet new people. You will
make new friendships.
I've made friendships through myblogging. I've made friendships
(09:34):
I'm a pickleball person. I'vemade friendships through
pickleball. Yeah. I've madefriendships through yoga,
whether I'm teaching or takingclasses.
And you will do things duringthe day meeting people who may
be fellow retirees. So I don'tlike that quote word retirement.
(09:58):
I feel it's very different nowthan maybe when our parents
retired because we have a lotmuch longer lifespan.
Denise Venneri (10:06):
Yeah. Well, what would you call it? You you don't
like to call it retirement. Youlike to call it is it that
retirement journey or just,like, your second act in life?
Or you just or you don't nameit.
Or you
Judy Freedman (10:20):
Yeah. I don't I don't think anyone's come up
with a name yet. And when Ifirst retired, even not first,
you know, over the years, I wasafraid to say I was retired. I
couldn't say, well, I'm ablogger. I'm a yoga instructor.
You know, I couldn't say I wasretired. And now, for lack of
(10:40):
another word, I I even on myblog, it says one of my my
categories is reinventingretirement. Because I feel like
that's what we're all reallydoing at the baby boomers,
arbing retirement.
Denise Venneri (10:55):
Love that. Love that. We were talking about, you
know, one of the questions toask yourself is, do you have to
work still after retirement? Anyadditional thoughts there, or is
that just any
Judy Freedman (11:10):
point? Well, I think for some, it's not even
have to. It's do I want to?
Denise Venneri (11:18):
Mhmm.
Judy Freedman (11:18):
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 mySocial Security at 70. You know,
everybody says a lot of peoplesay not everybody, but a lot of
people say, oh, keep you wait ifyou can financially to wait till
(11:39):
70 to take your retirement, yourSocial Security money.
Denise Venneri (11:42):
Your social.
Judy Freedman (11:43):
So may not everybody can do that, and
that's okay. So you need to lookat your own finances and decide,
you know, do I need to work? Oneof the things I also do and have
done since I start becameretired or even before I was
retired, I looked at my financesevery month, and I think that's
(12:06):
important to do. You know, isthe just like you do a balance
sheet at work, is what's comingin the same as what's going out?
And if you find, even inretirement, that more is going
out than is coming in, you needto look at that.
Why is that? Where is that?Where can I make change? So
(12:29):
that's the more financialaspect. And I think that, you
know, one of the things I wasdoing a lot, was going out to
lunch and dinner all the timewhen I first retired.
Oh, I can meet this person. Ican meet that person now. And
someone said to me, well, youknow, you don't have to go out
(12:51):
to lunch all the time. You couldwalk and chat. So that was a
really good point, and I startedto do that.
And so all these lunches that Iwas, you know, buying lunch
Denise Venneri (13:03):
all the
Judy Freedman (13:04):
time or dinner all the time, it wasn't I had a
better time because we werewalking and we were chatting. So
we were getting double Yeah. Youknow, dose of exercise and
friendship.
Denise Venneri (13:15):
Yeah. Or I like the I love the idea of walking
and chatting. I also I nevercould do a walking meeting
because I'm always having Ialways wanted to take copious
notes. But in this stage of mylife, I I like walking and
chatting. But that is one of mygoals is to do more dining out.
So I better just like, you know,keep keep keep an eye on that
(13:38):
one for sure. I was gonna saysomething else, but it just
escaped me. You know, reflectingback, I know that when my son
was planning, you know, when Ithought he, when I had them all
settled in his first year incollege, I know that I said to
myself, okay, and this is ofcourse before I retired recently
(13:59):
And I was like, okay, well, whatis it? You know, what is it
that's speaking to me right now?Maybe I have a little bit more
bandwidth.
And, it was this idea of writingand speaking about what I do.
Well, I didn't go the bloggingroute. As you know, I went the
podcasting route and, was ableto dabble in that. And it's
(14:22):
still on my list of things to doin this juncture as I reinvent
myself in retirement, you know,leaning into that a little bit
more. So upon reflection, Ithink I may have intuitively
have done that.
Pickleball is also on my list. Iam a very, very good ping pong
player. Having grown up with aping pong table and I played
(14:45):
pickleball once and it feelslike, you know, I could just,
it's kinda like ping pong, butstanding up. I do love tennis as
well. So I'm going to be leaningin on pickleball, which I think
is a good one.
And I should mention most of thefolks know that this whole
depends on what you are able towork with with your Medicare and
(15:07):
things like that. You know, someof these some of these plans
have discounts to use gymsnearby, which is which is great.
And so of course, there's that.But I didn't realize the amount
of paperwork. I just wanted toput it out here now for
prosperity that the amount ofmail I've gotten since I retired
(15:30):
obviously has to do with healthinsurance and, you know, all the
different changes financiallyand things like that.
But I cannot wait for that toslow down. It's just a lot of
paperwork. Did you find that? Doyou can you remember back then?
Judy Freedman (15:43):
A lot of paperwork. And you have to look
at, you know, in terms of healthcare, I think and I say to
people, especially if you'reretiring before 65, it's going
to be not only the biggestexpense, but something that you
really need to look into. Andhealthcare will be changing,
(16:04):
continually changing. And evenit is challenging. It can be
challenging at times.
I know for me, we were justtalking about, you know, even
dental plans or
Denise Venneri (16:14):
Right.
Judy Freedman (16:15):
Or prescription plans. Everything's separate, so
you really need to look at thoseplans and make sure, you know,
your drugs are covered. And thenyou have to change it the
following year if you need to.So it is a lot. I I it's
unfortunate that as we getolder, it becomes more
complicated.
(16:36):
So it is something that you doneed to, you know, look into
every year just as you did whenyou were working if you True.
Were in a health plan. And Iknow when I was leaving
Campbell's those plans weregetting more complicated as
well. Mhmm. So it is somethingthat is a cost too.
(16:56):
I think people some people thateven when you turn 65, you
think, oh, it's going to befree. You know, Medicare is
free. It's not free. So you haveto plan for those costs, which
will happen. And I know with myMedicare plan, it goes up every
year.
My supplement goes up every yearas I get older. So that's
(17:19):
something that I I plan I haveto plan for.
Denise Venneri (17:25):
Yeah. Very important. I I worked with an
agent, just as a side note, thatthat presented some of the
Medicare choices and and walk methrough. And I also attended,
like, a free workshop. But evenso, until you kinda get into it
yourself and, like, put all thepieces together, I do I do agree
(17:46):
with you really should make sureyou understand all those pieces.
And you know what? I'm gonnastop complaining about the
paperwork. I am grateful that Ihave the opportunity to, you
know, to to some of the thingsthat that we do have here.
Judy Freedman (18:01):
And it is good to work with a planner like that. I
think I did as well, and theyhelped me. They're not you don't
have to pay for them for themost part that I understand.
Mhmm. I didn't.
And they helped me pick out mydrug plan because they knew the
drugs I took and some werecovered by some plans and some
(18:24):
weren't. So I, you know, I foundthat very helpful when I was
joining. And now I reallyhaven't changed plans over the
year because I do like thatbenefit that I have with, it's
AARP UnitedHealthcare where theygive you the gym, plans. So I
(18:45):
take advantage of that. I dotake advantage of that.
I like it.
Denise Venneri (18:50):
Love it. Alright, Judy. If folks wanted
to find out more about whatyou're up to and to subscribe to
your blog, what's the next step?
Judy Freedman (19:02):
So my blog is aboomerslifeafter50.com, and
that's, spelledab00merslife5zero.
Denise Venneri (19:20):
Is the word after in it? No. Boomers life
after. Yes. After.
Whoops. Okay. Yes. Okay.
Judy Freedman (19:29):
.Com. If they Google Judy boomer girl too
Denise Venneri (19:32):
Yeah. Okay.
Judy Freedman (19:32):
They will find me.
Denise Venneri (19:34):
That's cute name.
Judy Freedman (19:36):
Or baby boomer blogger, they will probably find
me. And I blog under Judy withan I, j u d I. That's my pen
name, but my real name is Judywith a y. So I, I, my
philosophy, I say, and it'sstill the same as from when I
started the blog is to keep mychin up. So my next day is
(20:00):
forever wrinkle free, But thewrinkles don't make a
difference.
You should trademark now. Youshould Trademark now. You should
Trademark.
Denise Venneri (20:08):
I you look perfect.
Judy Freedman (20:10):
Some people don't like to use that term positive
aging, but I I'm okay with it.
Denise Venneri (20:15):
Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. But, yeah, I mean,
you're a communicationsprofessional. You were a bigwig
at Campbell's, and so I lovethis this catchy sound bite,
Judy, boomer girl.
I I love it all. It's all great.It's
Judy Freedman (20:28):
all great. Thank you. You know, now it's fun. I
feel like I'm back to my rootsper se. I started out in the
editorial world working for amagazine, and now I feel like
and I went the corporatecommunications route and public
relations.
And, and I love my job. And nowI feel like I'm my own editor.
(20:53):
And blogging, it's it'sinteresting because when I've
been blogging for seventeenyears before it was a
profession. And it's interestingto me to see how it's evolved.
Just like for you withpodcasting, you know, there's
always I'm sure you find thiswith podcast.
There's always more you can do.And so for me, I'm not blogging
(21:17):
for the quote paycheck. I'mblogging because I enjoy sharing
my travels, sharing myinformation. To me, the the
payback that I love is whensomeone comments. I'm sure you
find this with your podcast oreven just seeing that, you know,
200 people read my post that Iwrote, you know, and people
(21:40):
comment it or someone said,well, I went you know, you wrote
about your cancer journey perse.
And I being checked now becauseof that. You know? So I find
that that's I don't only blog inone niche. It's not just travel,
and I'm glad about that. I haveso many curiosities or that it
(22:03):
it fills it fulfills me in thatway, and it's not when I get $25
for my advertising, I'm excitednow.
Denise Venneri (22:15):
Well, we are we are simpatico on the curiosity
factor. In fact, I ask so manyquestions. I had to start my own
podcast. So I hear you there,and it's actually called, the
word curious in its title. Yourdelight.
Sadly, we're at the end, Judy,and just wanted to say thank you
for sharing with us today.
Judy Freedman (22:36):
Oh, you're welcome. And thank you again for
inviting me, and good luck withyour retirement. I'll be anxious
to hear how it all goes.
Doug Venneri (22:43):
You have been listening to the My Curious
Colleague podcast with DeniseVenneri. Thank you for your
time.
Welcome to the My Curious Colleague podcast
with me, Denise Venneri. I am atwenty year practitioner in the
consumer engagement space,having worked for two large CPG
organizations. My intent here isreally to share best practices
with particular focus around thespecialist and analyst roles and
(00:21):
to give back to this greatcommunity because CPGCX rocks.
Hello, my curious colleaguesthis week, I'm curious about
thoughts in retirement. Yes.
I said retirement. And to helpme understand just that is my
(00:41):
colleague, Judy Friedman. She isa former Campbell Soup colleague
and a lifestyle blogger. Socool. And I should mention she
was awarded a top 10 blog forwomen 50.
Welcome to the podcast, Judy.
Judy Freedman (00:58):
Thank you, Denise. It's nice to be here.
Thank you for inviting me.
Denise Venneri (01:02):
Of course. Of course. You know, selfishly, I
wanted to hear from you. As arecent retiree, it's been about
two months now. You know, and Iwanted to hear a little bit
more.
We always talk about, oh, yourannual objectives and your
development plan while you'reworking. And even in your
financial planning, you'rethinking about, you know,
(01:24):
retirement, but are you reallythinking about it in all the
right ways? So to get thisconversation, let's begin with
you telling us how you got here.
Judy Freedman (01:36):
So congratulations, by the way, on
your retirement.
Denise Venneri (01:39):
Thank you.
Judy Freedman (01:40):
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 (01:48):
Wow.
Judy Freedman (01:49):
And how did I get here? I mean, how has it been
twelve years? And myretirement's really changed over
the years. I retired early at 55and I was given that opportunity
to do that, and I wasfinancially able to do that. But
one of the big events thathappened in my life right before
(02:09):
I turned 50 was losing myspouse.
And I think after you have suchan extraordinary event like
that, and then on top of itbecoming an empty nester, you
realize that life is short. And,I had been in my career for a
long time and was ready to dosomething new. And I had started
(02:30):
my blog. I was enjoying doing myblogging. And not that that was
going to become a second career,but in some ways, I wanted more
time to do that and explore thatand explore other new things.
So I decided to take retirement,and I haven't looked back and
have done a lot of things in thepast twelve years, and my
(02:54):
retirement has evolved, and itcontinues to evolve.
Denise Venneri (03:01):
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 alittle unconventional. It's an
early retirement, but there'smany of us who have done that as
well. And some of us have waitedto a little bit older, perhaps
like myself.
(03:22):
When we talked before you weretalking about retirement as a
journey. You know, in my mind,it was always like this date, I
kind of forgot about it for awhile, but this, you know, like
a date. And so so tell us moreabout this idea of a journey
and, you know, you use thephrase finding your rhythm. So
(03:43):
tell us a little bit more aboutthat. Thank you.
Judy Freedman (03:46):
So I I talked to some of my friends who have
recently retired, and I say thatyou have to find your retirement
rhythm. And it will, I use thatword, evolve too, because it
will evolve over time. Andobviously, it is scary when you
first retire. I know it was forme. You have all this time that
(04:09):
you didn't have before.
You were working, you know, somany hours, and you probably
said, Oh, I don't have time todo 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 youwanna use it. And what'll happen
(04:33):
is you'll have so many things ina good way that you have wanted
to do, that you have built upover the years that you haven't
been able to do activities thatyou start to slot them in.
You're not going to have aschedule right away.
Everybody's like, do you have aschedule? Do you have a
schedule? And it's okay not tohave a schedule. You've been
(04:56):
scheduled your whole life, yourwhole, you know, career. So you
start to think, well, what am Iwho am I without this career
behind me?
And you start to come into yourown. And I say your own
authentic self. Who who are youand what do you wanna be in this
next phase of your life? And soit is a journey. And you have
(05:21):
more time to discover what youlike, what you don't like.
And over the years, you willfind that sometimes you wanna do
one activity. It becomes moreimportant to you in your day,
and then then something else. Sofor me, I was blogging a lot
(05:43):
when I first started working. Itbecame like a second career. I
also got very into yoga.
And for me, I'm a type a person,so I went back to school and
became a yoga instructor. Andthat was about, I'd say, seven
years ago, eight years ago. AndI was teaching a lot. But now
(06:05):
that I'm older and after whathappened with COVID, where we
weren't going into gyms, Istepped back from my teaching.
And now, you know, so many yearslater, I'm not teaching right
now, and that's okay.
I'm not doing as much blogging.I like doing other things. So
(06:25):
things in the dynamics of yourfamily will change too. I just
became a grandmother. So that'sa part Congratulations.
Part of my life. Thank you. Andthat's a part of my life that
wasn't in my life before. Mhmm.So Mhmm.
There will be things good andbad. I've had, health issues as
well, which changed thedynamics. That's some one of the
(06:49):
reasons why I was traveling somuch with my blog, and I had to
pull back. So I think thisjourney or this, rhythm will
change over time.
Denise Venneri (07:03):
Yeah. That's something I think I have to
write down. And, you know, on apost it note and paste it to my
forehead. Early in the process,like I said, about two months.
So really could use the tips.
And I do like to get into thedetails here, Judy, on My
Curious Colleague podcast. Sowhat are some of the, like,
(07:24):
really granular for me? I mean,you you said one that I that I
have here that is, you know, askyourself, what have you always
wanted to do when you wereyounger? So I think that's a
good one. Any other tips assomeone is thinking through this
retirement stage journey?
Judy Freedman (07:43):
Absolutely. I think one of the big ones is
what brings you joy? And youcould have a list of the big
things that bring you joy, ofcourse, that maybe you can't do
every day, the travel. Mhmm. Theyou know, you're not gonna take
a huge trip every day or evenevery month.
But what brings me joy, I knowin little ways. So I love being
(08:06):
outdoors. And even this morning,I took a walk in the outdoors.
Now I'm able to do that. I'm I'mvery lucky.
I spend, my my winters in inFlorida where it's warmer, and
that's one of the things thatwas a priority to me as I got
older. And so, you know, littlethings like that. There's
(08:29):
there's other again, exercise isvery important. And I think
exercise gets into the healthaspects once I spend a lot of my
day exercising and staying fitbecause to me in fact, I'm in my
exercise clothes, which is, youknow, I get get dressed every
morning, and that'll change too.You know?
You keep getting dressed in,business clothes. Right. I know
(08:53):
a lot of people are working fromhome 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.
I play pickleball. So I I thinksometimes too when people say,
(09:13):
oh, I'm not gonna interact withother people. I'm used to
interacting with a lot of peopleat work. And as you start to do
activities in retirement, youwill meet new people. You will
make new friendships.
I've made friendships through myblogging. I've made friendships
(09:34):
I'm a pickleball person. I'vemade friendships through
pickleball. Yeah. I've madefriendships through yoga,
whether I'm teaching or takingclasses.
And you will do things duringthe day meeting people who may
be fellow retirees. So I don'tlike that quote word retirement.
(09:58):
I feel it's very different nowthan maybe when our parents
retired because we have a lotmuch longer lifespan.
Denise Venneri (10:06):
Yeah. Well, what would you call it? You you don't
like to call it retirement. Youlike to call it is it that
retirement journey or just,like, your second act in life?
Or you just or you don't nameit.
Or you
Judy Freedman (10:20):
Yeah. I don't I don't think anyone's come up
with a name yet. And when Ifirst retired, even not first,
you know, over the years, I wasafraid to say I was retired. I
couldn't say, well, I'm ablogger. I'm a yoga instructor.
You know, I couldn't say I wasretired. And now, for lack of
(10:40):
another word, I I even on myblog, it says one of my my
categories is reinventingretirement. Because I feel like
that's what we're all reallydoing at the baby boomers,
arbing retirement.
Denise Venneri (10:55):
Love that. Love that. We were talking about, you
know, one of the questions toask yourself is, do you have to
work still after retirement? Anyadditional thoughts there, or is
that just any
Judy Freedman (11:10):
point? Well, I think for some, it's not even
have to. It's do I want to?
Denise Venneri (11:18):
Mhmm.
Judy Freedman (11:18):
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 mySocial Security at 70. You know,
everybody says a lot of peoplesay not everybody, but a lot of
people say, oh, keep you wait ifyou can financially to wait till
(11:39):
70 to take your retirement, yourSocial Security money.
Denise Venneri (11:42):
Your social.
Judy Freedman (11:43):
So may not everybody can do that, and
that's okay. So you need to lookat your own finances and decide,
you know, do I need to work? Oneof the things I also do and have
done since I start becameretired or even before I was
retired, I looked at my financesevery month, and I think that's
(12:06):
important to do. You know, isthe just like you do a balance
sheet at work, is what's comingin the same as what's going out?
And if you find, even inretirement, that more is going
out than is coming in, you needto look at that.
Why is that? Where is that?Where can I make change? So
(12:29):
that's the more financialaspect. And I think that, you
know, one of the things I wasdoing a lot, was going out to
lunch and dinner all the timewhen I first retired.
Oh, I can meet this person. Ican meet that person now. And
someone said to me, well, youknow, you don't have to go out
(12:51):
to lunch all the time. You couldwalk and chat. So that was a
really good point, and I startedto do that.
And so all these lunches that Iwas, you know, buying lunch
Denise Venneri (13:03):
all the
Judy Freedman (13:04):
time or dinner all the time, it wasn't I had a
better time because we werewalking and we were chatting. So
we were getting double Yeah. Youknow, dose of exercise and
friendship.
Denise Venneri (13:15):
Yeah. Or I like the I love the idea of walking
and chatting. I also I nevercould do a walking meeting
because I'm always having Ialways wanted to take copious
notes. But in this stage of mylife, I I like walking and
chatting. But that is one of mygoals is to do more dining out.
So I better just like, you know,keep keep keep an eye on that
(13:38):
one for sure. I was gonna saysomething else, but it just
escaped me. You know, reflectingback, I know that when my son
was planning, you know, when Ithought he, when I had them all
settled in his first year incollege, I know that I said to
myself, okay, and this is ofcourse before I retired recently
(13:59):
And I was like, okay, well, whatis it? You know, what is it
that's speaking to me right now?Maybe I have a little bit more
bandwidth.
And, it was this idea of writingand speaking about what I do.
Well, I didn't go the bloggingroute. As you know, I went the
podcasting route and, was ableto dabble in that. And it's
(14:22):
still on my list of things to doin this juncture as I reinvent
myself in retirement, you know,leaning into that a little bit
more. So upon reflection, Ithink I may have intuitively
have done that.
Pickleball is also on my list. Iam a very, very good ping pong
player. Having grown up with aping pong table and I played
(14:45):
pickleball once and it feelslike, you know, I could just,
it's kinda like ping pong, butstanding up. I do love tennis as
well. So I'm going to be leaningin on pickleball, which I think
is a good one.
And I should mention most of thefolks know that this whole
depends on what you are able towork with with your Medicare and
(15:07):
things like that. You know, someof these some of these plans
have discounts to use gymsnearby, which is which is great.
And so of course, there's that.But I didn't realize the amount
of paperwork. I just wanted toput it out here now for
prosperity that the amount ofmail I've gotten since I retired
(15:30):
obviously has to do with healthinsurance and, you know, all the
different changes financiallyand things like that.
But I cannot wait for that toslow down. It's just a lot of
paperwork. Did you find that? Doyou can you remember back then?
Judy Freedman (15:43):
A lot of paperwork. And you have to look
at, you know, in terms of healthcare, I think and I say to
people, especially if you'reretiring before 65, it's going
to be not only the biggestexpense, but something that you
really need to look into. Andhealthcare will be changing,
(16:04):
continually changing. And evenit is challenging. It can be
challenging at times.
I know for me, we were justtalking about, you know, even
dental plans or
Denise Venneri (16:14):
Right.
Judy Freedman (16:15):
Or prescription plans. Everything's separate, so
you really need to look at thoseplans and make sure, you know,
your drugs are covered. And thenyou have to change it the
following year if you need to.So it is a lot. I I it's
unfortunate that as we getolder, it becomes more
complicated.
(16:36):
So it is something that you doneed to, you know, look into
every year just as you did whenyou were working if you True.
Were in a health plan. And Iknow when I was leaving
Campbell's those plans weregetting more complicated as
well. Mhmm. So it is somethingthat is a cost too.
(16:56):
I think people some people thateven when you turn 65, you
think, oh, it's going to befree. You know, Medicare is
free. It's not free. So you haveto plan for those costs, which
will happen. And I know with myMedicare plan, it goes up every
year.
My supplement goes up every yearas I get older. So that's
(17:19):
something that I I plan I haveto plan for.
Denise Venneri (17:25):
Yeah. Very important. I I worked with an
agent, just as a side note, thatthat presented some of the
Medicare choices and and walk methrough. And I also attended,
like, a free workshop. But evenso, until you kinda get into it
yourself and, like, put all thepieces together, I do I do agree
(17:46):
with you really should make sureyou understand all those pieces.
And you know what? I'm gonnastop complaining about the
paperwork. I am grateful that Ihave the opportunity to, you
know, to to some of the thingsthat that we do have here.
Judy Freedman (18:01):
And it is good to work with a planner like that. I
think I did as well, and theyhelped me. They're not you don't
have to pay for them for themost part that I understand.
Mhmm. I didn't.
And they helped me pick out mydrug plan because they knew the
drugs I took and some werecovered by some plans and some
(18:24):
weren't. So I, you know, I foundthat very helpful when I was
joining. And now I reallyhaven't changed plans over the
year because I do like thatbenefit that I have with, it's
AARP UnitedHealthcare where theygive you the gym, plans. So I
(18:45):
take advantage of that. I dotake advantage of that.
I like it.
Denise Venneri (18:50):
Love it. Alright, Judy. If folks wanted
to find out more about whatyou're up to and to subscribe to
your blog, what's the next step?
Judy Freedman (19:02):
So my blog is aboomerslifeafter50.com, and
that's, spelledab00merslife5zero.
Denise Venneri (19:20):
Is the word after in it? No. Boomers life
after. Yes. After.
Whoops. Okay. Yes. Okay.
Judy Freedman (19:29):
.Com. If they Google Judy boomer girl too
Denise Venneri (19:32):
Yeah. Okay.
Judy Freedman (19:32):
They will find me.
Denise Venneri (19:34):
That's cute name.
Judy Freedman (19:36):
Or baby boomer blogger, they will probably find
me. And I blog under Judy withan I, j u d I. That's my pen
name, but my real name is Judywith a y. So I, I, my
philosophy, I say, and it'sstill the same as from when I
started the blog is to keep mychin up. So my next day is
(20:00):
forever wrinkle free, But thewrinkles don't make a
difference.
You should trademark now. Youshould Trademark now. You should
Trademark.
Denise Venneri (20:08):
I you look perfect.
Judy Freedman (20:10):
Some people don't like to use that term positive
aging, but I I'm okay with it.
Denise Venneri (20:15):
Yeah. Gotcha. Gotcha. But, yeah, I mean,
you're a communicationsprofessional. You were a bigwig
at Campbell's, and so I lovethis this catchy sound bite,
Judy, boomer girl.
I I love it all. It's all great.It's
Judy Freedman (20:28):
all great. Thank you. You know, now it's fun. I
feel like I'm back to my rootsper se. I started out in the
editorial world working for amagazine, and now I feel like
and I went the corporatecommunications route and public
relations.
And, and I love my job. And nowI feel like I'm my own editor.
(20:53):
And blogging, it's it'sinteresting because when I've
been blogging for seventeenyears before it was a
profession. And it's interestingto me to see how it's evolved.
Just like for you withpodcasting, you know, there's
always I'm sure you find thiswith podcast.
There's always more you can do.And so for me, I'm not blogging
(21:17):
for the quote paycheck. I'mblogging because I enjoy sharing
my travels, sharing myinformation. To me, the the
payback that I love is whensomeone comments. I'm sure you
find this with your podcast oreven just seeing that, you know,
200 people read my post that Iwrote, you know, and people
(21:40):
comment it or someone said,well, I went you know, you wrote
about your cancer journey perse.
And I being checked now becauseof that. You know? So I find
that that's I don't only blog inone niche. It's not just travel,
and I'm glad about that. I haveso many curiosities or that it
(22:03):
it fills it fulfills me in thatway, and it's not when I get $25
for my advertising, I'm excitednow.
Denise Venneri (22:15):
Well, we are we are simpatico on the curiosity
factor. In fact, I ask so manyquestions. I had to start my own
podcast. So I hear you there,and it's actually called, the
word curious in its title. Yourdelight.
Sadly, we're at the end, Judy,and just wanted to say thank you
for sharing with us today.
Judy Freedman (22:36):
Oh, you're welcome. And thank you again for
inviting me, and good luck withyour retirement. I'll be anxious
to hear how it all goes.
Doug Venneri (22:43):
You have been listening to the My Curious
Colleague podcast with DeniseVenneri. Thank you for your
time.
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