Yesterday I blogged about a Baby Boomers taking to the open road with a second career in the trucking industry, I thought it might be fun to keep the spirit of the open road alive by sharing an experience I had over the weekend.  Over the weekend I flew on my favorite airline Southwest Airlines; over time you will learn that I am a Southwest Junkie!  Today I have ONE more reason to prove they are the best in the business.  I was only minutes into the flight when I took note of the age of the flight attendants, they all seemed to be of the older worker category, and I thought wow how neat. It wasn’t until the end of the flight I realized the treat that was in store for me!

During my flight I got a chance to catch up with one of the attendants: Tom. Who I would later learn was on his THIRD career. He had already retired from a career in the banking industry spent some years as a college professor teaching finance and had officially retired from the working world 8 years ago or so he thought.

At the age of 56 Tom retired and thought he was done working and it wasn’t too long before he discovered Southwest Airlines. It was then that he found his third career as a flight attendant with the airlines; His wife saw he was having so much fun as a flight attendant it wasn’t long before she joined the airline as well!  So now they both work a very flexible 3 day work week and enjoy 4 days off. They try and organize their work schedule in a fashion that enables them to have the same days off. So they can still have time to enjoy life.

He initially went back to work for the benefits and the freedom he knew that working with the airline would give him, he has found a home at Southwest Airlines and I think they have found valuable employee in Tom. Where else can you get paid to travel?

I hope that you get a chance to fly with Tom he loves his job and you can tell!  It was the best customer service I have ever had 30,000 miles in the sky. There might be 51 ways to leave your lover and 6 ways to exit a plane but I hope Tom and Southwest Airlines never part ways! 

Wouldn’t it be great if you could determine what kind of social security benefits that you were going to get when you retired? Well if you said yes, you wouldn’t be alone. So the Social Security Administration now has a Retirement Estimator.  Now the SSA does give a disclaimer that the numbers you get will just be estimates because social security benefits change often, inflation and some other variables that may change what you actually do receive.  But still, it’s nice to have an idea. 

You can use the Retirement Estimator if:  

• You are not currently receiving benefits on your own Social Security record;
• You have enough Social Security credits at this time to qualify for benefits and
• You are not eligible for a Pension Based on Work Not Covered By Social Security.

Eileen Ambrose at the Baltimore Sun wrote up a column about this estimator tool.  She gives a preview on what kind of information you have to give:

You will need to plug in your Social Security number and mother’s maiden name. The agency says the site is secure. And when you print out your information, it won’t include these identifying details.

The calculator will ask when you plan to stop working and your average future earnings. It combines these with your earnings history so far.

With the click of the mouse, you can see what your monthly benefit will likely be at 62 - the earliest year to receive benefits - and at other ages. You can, for instance, calculate the difference in benefits by working one more year, something the annual paper estimates don’t tell you. In my case, retiring at 63 instead of 62 would mean an extra $100 a month.

Read: New tool for those debating retiring, Baltimore Sun

Pretty useful tool, I think.  So definitely worth a try and helpful for financial planning. 

Photo by paul goyette