Barak Obama is now the first African American to be President elect of the United States, after being the first African American to be the Presidential candidate of a major party. In January, he will be the first African American President.

During his presidency there will undoubtably be many more firsts, but eventually the title "first African American" will be dropped as a title. Will anyone notice if he is the first African American to appoint a Supreme Court justice? The news will simply be that the president appointed a Supreme Court justice. Same with his first veto.

So in some sense, Barak Obama is the "last African-American". He is the last African-American to have the title of "first African-American"! For the last several decades the title "first African-American" has appeared in the news for a variety of achievements, but I'm at a loss to think what achievements are left. It might make an interesting "person on the street" story for TV to ask people what achievements are left.

This is not to say that in any sense our work is "done" in providing full opportunities to all of our citizens. There continue to be enormous difficulties in education, training, community stability and job availability. That being said, this is still an occasion to mark the passing of an era - the beginning of hearing the phrase "first African-American" ever less frequently.

  I’m now two weeks into my second "Retirement Sampler," having been laid off June 30th after ten years with that employer. The goodbyes were gratifying and I hope to stay in touch with the old gang. No regrets about the hour long commute each way though. I’ve filed for unemployment and received the forms back from the state. I’ve gotton some calls back on my resume and even had my first interview.

I continue to be an early riser, getting up at 4:30 or 5:00 AM and I don’t expect that to change at all. Living in New Jersey, the mornings are the only cool part of the day during the summer so I get an early walk and start some yard work before 9 AM. The rest of the family is not up until 6:30 and I get them a quick breakfast.

True to my word, I bought two items on the first day - "Way Searcher II" and a Journal. Way Searcher II this time is a beautiful lime sized cloisinne bird with a red berry in its beak by Department 56. With some prompting, the saleslady assured me the bird was "magical." I had it close by when I applied for unemployment and sent out my resume. At my interview I had him secretly in my pocket - you never know when you might need some magic. The original Way Searcher, a Unicorn, was purchased on the first day of a previous unemployment stint and proved to be very helpful.

I’ve made some limited entries in the journal, but find most of my time spent cleaning up around the house. I’m sorting through some old toys of my son’s and throwing a bunch away. Also going through his books and will give away those he doesn’t want. The quintessential "cleaning up" is checking the fire alarm batteries and vacuuming under the fridge. I’ll let you know when I get to those.

I don’t know as yet how difficult the job market will be, both due to the economy and my age. Only time will tell if this period is just unemployment, with a quick return to employment, a sabbatical, or retirement.

  Back in 1992 I was single and employed as a technical consultant. I decided that since my consulting assignments lasted from a few months to two years that I could tell the consulting company "don't find me a new gig" and "don't pay me" for three months. This was at a time when my firm would ordinarily pay me a salary even if I didn't have a consulting assignment. I also said I'd be back in three months. They agreed to my proposal.

My purpose for the sabbatical was to test how I would deal with retirement (even in my late forties I was looking ahead). Anyway, I got the three months off, and from the first day kept a journal. I would write in my journal every morning for up to an hour.

What impressed me most about this sabbatical was the different experience of time. Instead of rushing off to do a series of errands, I would slowly wander through each store in a small shopping mall. When a magazine arrived in the mail in the morning I would read the entire magazine in one day. One Fall day with no breezes I watched all the leaves fall off a tree in a single day. The leaves simply rained down the entire day while I was reading nearby. It was a beautiful sight and very calming.

I did get in some travel, a week long cruise in the Carribean. I came back refreshed from my "retirement sampler," knowing that I wouldn't run out of enjoyable things to do during retirement. The next year I was married and today I have a nine year old son.

I find myself in a similar situation today. I have just two days of work left before being laid off. While we have sufficient finances for retirement, I want to work for several more years. Work is both for the money and the physical and mental stimulation it would give me. So I start off July 1st for another "retirement sampler" - perhaps a few months with my son over the summer and some time to work in the yard, clean up the house, etc. The first thing I will do on Tuesday is buy another composition book for a daily journal. The second thing is to buy a stuffed animal, which I'll name "Way Searcher II." I got "Way Searcher" (a unicorn) as a magical mascot when I was out of work once before. But that is another story...

  I thought I'd like to reveal some "techie" stuff that to me is play. I'm creating a spreadsheet to project our retirement income, wealth and expenses. Right now it's hobbling along, but has provided some insights already.

Of course there are a lot of financial calculators on the web and most of them are free. For example, check out any of the mutual fund or financial news websites. I've also run across http://www.analyzenow.com/ which has a simple calculator for free and a charge for a more expensive one. I've tried only the free one.

About a year ago I got a "retirement plan" from a well known brokerage firm which included a pack of numbers and also a lot of boilerplate. As I looked through it, I was rather struck by it's conclusion that we had some x% chance of running out of money. Oh? What kind of firm would design such a report without realizing that retirement is not a game. That if we're going to plan at all, the first thing we'd want to plan for is to adjust our budget so that we would not run out of money. As I expressed it to the "advisor," her plan was like being shot out of a cannon - wherever the cannon was pointed at the beginning, that's where you were going to go.

My first criteria for a retirement plan is that you do not go bankrupt. I've been saving for over 40 years, is staying above water too much to ask? Closely related to not going bankrupt is being able to describe anticipated income and expenses. For example, at some point I expect we will sell our house. Since the mortgage is paid off, there's an increase in investable assets as well as increased expense from renting. Also I expect to buy an annuity when we reach our eighties, so we'll have an added cost and an increase in income. There are some substantial expenses we have that will end in about a decade, and several other predictable events.

One thing I've learned from the spreadsheet already is that the Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) from my IRA is a bit more than I really need to spend. Because we have to withdraw it, it would then get put into a taxable account (stocks and bonds), which affects taxes. So the spreadsheet has a rudimentary tax calculation for federal and state. That makes sense, since the money is an expense, but I don't feel my life style has improved when my taxes go up.