Category: Retirement

Fiction/Humor Retirement

Wasting Away Without Margaritaville

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” is one of the most iconic songs in popular culture, often associated with a carefree, beach-focused lifestyle. The song itself has its own cultural impact that has been substantial and multi-faceted. It defines the “Island Escapism” Lifestyle, crystallizing a specific American fantasy – escaping the rat race for a laid-back tropical paradise where worries melt away with frozen drinks and ocean breezes. In keeping with yesterday’s story, it is, perhaps, the best…

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Memoir Retirement

Il Dolce Far Niente

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

It’s a rainy day here on the hilltop. It’s been raining steadily all day and without stop, which is unusual. It took a few days to get over my travel drudge, but starting yesterday I have been at full strength and ready to dig into my next projects. Yesterday was about the movies and dinner, but today was supposed to be about getting things done. But instead, I’ve chosen to be prudent and avoid the…

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Fiction/Humor Memoir Retirement

Cruise Control

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

We, like so many people, used to say that we were not cruise people. It’s funny how that has changed over time and once you get a look at the people who do cruise you understand that unless you are going on Carnival, Celebrity or Disney (all of which tend to cater to families with kids), the adult cruise lines have an older demographic. Our choice of cruise lines is the one that gets consistently…

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Business Advice Retirement

Privatizing Retirement

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

Thirty years ago I ran the retirement business of Bankers Trust Company. BTCo. was founded in 1903 by J.P. Morgan (the man) and his other banking pals who thought it would be smart to put all their trust business in one institution that he and his pals controlled. BTCo. Grew to become the second largest trust bank in the country. When I was asked to take over the Retirement Services business with it’s 4,000 employees,…

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Fiction/Humor Retirement

Spilling the Dill

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

When I lived in Toronto, Canada for two years, I heard more Canadian colloquialisms than I remember hearing anywhere else. My time in Canada was an interesting few years that was a mixture of how to survive a remote distance existence (the kids were still in the Metro NYC area) and yet I needed to be onsite and resident in Toronto and all the other big cities in Canada (Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver, primarily, but…

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Fiction/Humor Memoir Retirement

Washing Windows

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

The phrase “I don’t do windows” is well entrenched in Americana whether you consider it just a saying or an outright meme. The etymology of the phrase is cloudy, with most people wanting to attribute it to the sitcom maids of the 60’s and 70’s like Hazel or Florence (from the Jeffersons), but some recognizing that it goes back into the movies of the 30’s and 40’s as well. It’s in the same category as…

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Memoir Retirement

Wildflowers on the Loose

By Rich Marin | by Rich Marin

American Meadows is my wildflower seed purveyor of choice. They are a company that is located in Shelburne, Vermont on the banks of Lake Champlain and they have become a dominant purveyor of wildflower seeds in the country. Now let’s get serious here, among seed companies, Bayer (as in the aspirin people that bought Monsanto a few years ago) is still the 800 pound gorilla of seeds, but that is mostly general seeds for commercial…

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