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10 Suggestions To Rightsize Your Fashion

This week SMART Living 365 is pleased to introduce you to Haralee Weintraub as a guest blogger while I am traveling. I’ve followed Haralee’s blog Haralee.com for several years now, as well as admired her business that makes sleepwear for women. I consistently enjoy her commentary on current events, her sense of humor, and her perspective on life. It’s also obvious that she has rightsized her life, so naturally, I asked her to share her perspective with all of you. Thank you, Haralee, for filling in for me and offering a different look at rightsizing.

My name is Haralee and I am honored to fill in with a post while Kathy is vacationing. Kathy’s posts tend to be thought-provoking, well researched and inspirational. She also walks the talk of “Rightsizing,” and has several books to prove it. She has this all going on and she chose to go out on a limb and asked me for a post! Trust me I am not self-deprecating here. My posts are sometimes funny, whining or just musings, but have no books to my credit and I don’t use inspirational quotes. I am, however, a firm believer in rightsizing, so here we go!

Fashion and Rightsizing. It may sound like I am going to tell you not to shop or buy new things but I am not. What I would like to talk about are alternative shopping experiences. [Read more…]

10 Ways To Rightsize Your Christmas And Have The Best Holiday Ever

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

With Thanksgiving behind us, those living in the U.S. can expect to be swamped with messages of consumerism for the next 34 days. In fact, Black Friday, which many retailers have named as the most heavily shopped day of the year, is today. If you are anything like me, even with the best of intentions it’s easy to be mesmerized by the glamor of things being advertised everywhere—even when we know better. But rather than give in to the impulse, I instead decided to sit down and write out a few simple, but important, ways I want to stay rightsized over the coming holiday season. If you could use some help with your resolve, please check out my list and add some of your own suggestions in the comments below. [Read more…]

Do You Know Your Poop To Value Ratios?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible

This morning during my morning walk I listened to Abraham-Hicks on audio as she explained the Law Of Attraction to someone at one of her seminars. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of LOA, because even though I don’t agree with everything it proposes, the majority of the message is positive and self-empowering. This morning Hicks offered a phrase I’ve never heard before—a “poop-to-value ratio.” She also explained that a friend of hers came up with the expression, but usually uses a more descriptive word than poop. Naturally, the audience laughed in acknowledgment. But even though it sounds a bit crude, what struck me as important was how clearly this phrase reminded me of the choices, decisions, and tradeoffs we each face every single day. And the best way to know if we’ve made the right choice for us is being aware of the poop-to-value ratio involved. [Read more…]

Is My Husband In Love With Alexa Or Is She Only A Temporary Distraction?

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Meaningful

During the month of August, my husband Thom and I are renting a home in the mountains about an hour from our primary home in the desert southwest. This is our first year in this particular dwelling and it has a number of features to enjoy like good wifi (of course!), a large wraparound deck looking through the trees, and a hot tub. One of the unexpected amenities is Alexa. Have you met her? On the surface, Alexa seems like an amusing and helpful addition to any home. But watch out! Not only is she extremely attractive on many levels, she also adds to the many irresistible distractions that technology offers us in our current world. [Read more…]

10 Reasons Why Rightsizing Is The Perfect Path To A Happy Retirement

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible, Sustainable

A big topic in my age group is retirement. About half of my friends are looking forward to it while the other half are already there. As for Thom and I, we see ourselves standing with a foot on both sides. We aren’t retired, but neither are we chained to our work. What makes us different from others hoping to retire soon is that we’ve embraced what I call rightsizing. Rightsizing is a process that any of us can do to come into greater alignment with our most cherished values and goals. On a practical level, rightsizing points to actions we can make at any age that will help before, and especially after, a person retires.

In case you are wondering, I am not a financial advisor. Most retirement “planning” comes from people who would like to manage your finances. That approach tends to put the focus on how much money you make, how much money saved, and how much you need in the future to maintain your current lifestyle. Rightsizing, on the other end, downplays money and instead puts the focus on what is most rewarding in your life.
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A SMART And Rightsized View Of Real Estate Ownership

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible

My husband Thom and I have been real estate brokers and investors for over 35 years. And while I’ve been mainly writing about the subject for most of those years, Thom has actively been a specialized commercial broker. Even better, we’ve used our knowledge and background to manage our own purchases and investments. Then about seven years ago we began switching our thoughts about real estate ownership; what it means and what it can do. That’s when we started gradually rightsizing our lives. Lately, it occurred to me that while I often take what we’ve learned through the years for granted, it might benefit others to see it through our eyes. In fact, in many ways real estate is a perfect mirror for a rightsized life. [Read more…]

Rightsizing Your Brain Clutter

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible

Thom and I are still away enjoying some “rightsized” travel. This week I invited another blogger friend named Nora Hall to share some of her SMART ideas on rightsizing and retirement. Nora lives on the east coast and regularly writes about relationships and retirement with warm-hearted humor and encouragement. Please enjoy Nora’s thoughts on rightsizing our brain clutter.

I first “met” Kathy Gottberg in 2015 when I read her blog, “Letting Go of the Clutter in Your Mind.” I found it here and continued reading about Rightsizing on her blog. I was hooked! Her comments made tremendous sense to me and for my audience. I found her wisdom to be especially true when it comes to Rightsizing Your Brain Clutter.

Although Kathy’s thoughts on Rightsizing apply to people of all ages, I focus on individuals who are, or will soon be, retired. That said, letting go of the clutter in our minds apply for all of us regardless of our age. [Read more…]

In Praise of the Frugal

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible

A good friend named Mark recently bought a new truck. To call it a pickup is grossly inadequate. Mark arrived one day in this shiny enormous vehicle with four doors, cushy soft leather seats, a fully digital dashboard with onboard space-like technology, a moonroof that spanned the entire length of both the front and back seats, and automatic retractable step-bars that lower and raise as you open the doors. I’ll admit I was a bit envious as I looked at my aging twelve-year-old Nissan Murano sitting next to it. But after hearing the “great deal” Mark got by paying only $50,000 for a $65,000 priced truck, all envy evaporated. My Murano is free and clear, still looks decent, and reliably gets me everywhere I want to go. Meanwhile, our family savings sits safely secure in investments that generate automatic cash flow. Instead of envy, I now have pride—pride in the benefits of a frugal and rightsized life. [Read more…]

How To Make The Right Choice Or The Power of the Bigger Yes

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible

This last weekend I faced a big choice. Just over five miles from my home in La Quinta, CA a mega-concert aimed at Baby-Boomers called “Desert Trip” was scheduled. Legendary rockers like The Rolling Stones, Paul McCarthy, The Who and Bob Dylan were slated to perform. Sure, the concert was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear some amazingly talented icons in the business. However, the prices to attend for a good seat were equally astonishing—at least for me! I did make an effort to buy tickets online within my budget, but when those tickets sold out, I decided to make the best of the situation and try something else I’ve always wanted to do—rent out my house on Airbnb. Did I make the right decision? For me, yes. But how I arrived at that decision is something that I need to remember over-and-over as time goes by. [Read more…]

4 Ways To Build Wealth, Be Financially Secure and Live With Less Stress

By Kathy Gottberg
Filed under: Aware, Responsible, Sustainable

A recent article in Money Magazine listed four simple strategies that many millionaires use to get rich. While I have nothing against being wealthy, I believe that finding meaning and purpose, achieving happiness, and discovering our unique rightsized lifestyle is far more important. But interestingly enough, the four tips offered by Money Magazine actually translate into four keys for living SMART 365. So, even though my examples won’t be the same as those shared in the magazine, the similarities are remarkably close. Ultimately, these four lifestyle hacks can help to make each of us more financially secure regardless of our age. Even better, they can lead to a more stress-free and right-sized life at the same time. [Read more…]