I have lived in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for about 30 years now and have four university degrees (BA, BEd, MA, MEd) in psychology, teaching, gerontology, and counseling psychology respectively. I also have a diploma in creative writing, an outdoor living skills certificate, and First Aid/CPR for humans and animals.

I have published over 70 articles, including poetry and short stories, and wrote a 120-page masters thesis entitled, "Relationships Between Health, Occupation, and Cognition."

I own two cats and a snail. Pets I've had include cats, dogs, birds, fish, salamanders, snakes, geckos, rats, mice, rabbits, and guinea pigs.

Jobs I've had include teaching, counseling, catering, freelance writer, research assistant, rehabilitation assistant, and wildlife care technician.

My interests include reading, writing, learning, movies, video games, history, psychology, philosophy, outdoors, wildlife, science, music, dancing, and acting.

My passion is ...

Writing, acting, animals

I know too much about ...

World problems

My childhood ambition ...

Acting

My favorite memory ...

Being on my grandparents' farm as a child

Why I write ...

To educate and make the world a better place

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

"Total Forgiveness"/American Idol and Survivor/variety of music

My first job ...

Babysitting and cook at Mother's Pizza

My best moment ...

Graduating with my BA

My inspiration ...

My two best friends, my pets, Oprah, Madonna, Ghandi, my grandparents/sister/mom, Ellen Degenerous, Al Gore, anyone with the courage to change, etc.

Personal Finance > Retirement Take responsibility and assure a comfortable retirement with a good money plan

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Retirement: Before and After

Retirement is something many of us long for and yet rarely give a moments thought in planning for. The average person works for 30 years and retires around 65 years of age. Given that the average life expectancy is around 83 years, the majority of people will be retired for about 20 years! That's a long time to go without earning a wage or having something to do for eight hours five days a week. How does one survive financially and what does one do to alleviate boredom? The best advice is to save as much money as is possib...

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