Kathryn Troutman, Federal Career Expert

Has the slumping economy and the hit to your Thrift Savings account balance derailed your retirement plans?

Well, it was great thinking about golf, travel, grandkids and a leisurely cup of coffee in the morning.  Oh well, your retirement plan will happen soon.   In the meantime, for 2009, here are a few tips to keep the year moving along, challenging and productive.

Strategies for Mental Retirement, Part-Time

1.  Add something to your work routine that is fun, new and different

Your current job maybe routine by now and you were really looking forward to leaving it. But now that you are staying another year, you have to do something to make it interesting. Look around and see if you can volunteer for a committee, task force or detail that is different.

2.  New administration tasks

With a new president and all new appointees and staff, try to find something where you can get on board with a new Obama Initiative. Read the articles and listen to his weekly You Tube presentations to get insight into new programs in your agency. Keep your ear to the ground about where the new programs will be started from and volunteer to get involved. This will be new and exciting.

3.  Take a course

Think about a course you would like to take that is job related (so it can get paid for by your agency), and that you would like to take, so that you can learn something new. Research courses and request reimbursement right away, so you can learn new skills.

4.  Volunteer for employee programs or conferences

Volutneer to be a coordinator, speaker, or promoter for a program or conference for your office. This could be new and different.

5.  Write a manual about your job

Pretend like you are not there and write a step-by-step guide on how to perform your job. Add examples of documents. Create an appendix with your list of contacts, partnerships, agreements. Provide a sample budget. Write a list of the most complicated parts of your job -- just for extra insight.

6.  Encourage your agency to hire students for you to mentor

Provide mentoring and teaching to young people, either STEP, SCEP, FCIP or new hires, so that you can share your wisdom, ideas and vision for public service. Provide structure for their learning and give them "homework" for learning about public service in general, as well as their specific job responsibilities and office mission.

7.  After work, add something new to your routine

Pretending like you are "almost retired", add something to your weekly routine that you would be doing if you were retired. Make dates with the grandkids. Create a special coffee time with your favorite newspaper. Get yourself a bicycle and ride it. Go for a 4 day, affordable trip -- just like you are retired. 

In summary, the year will fly by if you add new activities into your job and your home life. It's okay to be Almost Retired. This will be a very good planning year and the anticipation will add to the enjoyment. In fact, this could be so successful, you could do this for two years.

8. Inspired to go for a promotion? 

With all of the new Obama federal jobs and programs, keep your Federal Resume up-to-date in case you are inspired to apply for a promotion. Maybe you will even stay for three years to get a greater high-three salary average for your retirement annuity.    For this activity, consider The Federal Federal Resume Guidebook and CD-ROM, 4th Edition for samples of the best federal resume and KSA formats for 2009.

About the Author

Kathryn Troutman, President and Founder of The Resume Place, Inc. is "almost retired", but still works more than full-time managing Federal Resume Writing Services, Federal Career Training, Publishing and Certification Training Management. New activities in Troutman's life are:  personal trainer two times per week; swimming lessons; loner walks with her little dogs. Troutman is the nation's leading expert in federal job search and career training. the designer of the Federal Resume, and is the author of nine federal career books that have helped many thousands of federal job seekers -- at all levels --land federal jobs and advance their careers  The Resume Place also provides development editing services and professional writing services for federal applications.

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