Retirement Planning: It’s About Income and Lifestyle

Retirement comes with its own set of challenges.  Sometimes these challenges are not solely related to money.   Misconceptions may cloud your perception of the ideal retirement.  Trying to fit into a mold designed for someone else will not help you live the retirement you were designed to enjoy.  The books below highlight either specific chapters or focus entirely on the softer side of retirement.  Conversations should involve more than determining your sources of retirement income.  Your lifestyle deserves attention too.  

If someone is approaching retirement or has already retired, you may consider giving one of these books which will help them transition from a working lifestyle to their ultimate retirement.  If you are considering retirement yourself, you may see another side of retirement. Every person’s retirement will be different.  Some may choose to work part-time while others will do volunteer work; some may choose to travel while others will stay close to home.  Some may relocate to another city while others will simply downsize to a smaller home.  Certain decisions will be easy while others will be complicated.  Finding what works now will be as important as making changes as the years pass. To create the life you dream of having, perhaps one of the following books can help.

10 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me about Retirement

In the book, 10 Things I Wish Someone had told me about Retirement, one enjoyable activity which Rein Selles recommends is to design a “retirement card”.   Business cards identify people by their name, title, and contact information.  Your retirement card, the same size, has one notable change.  It answers the usual question people ask, “What are you going to do when you retire?”  On the card, you will state your name, one thing you would like to do “retired” and where you hope to do this.  You may be interested in knowing if retirement isn’t in your plans, the chapter, You Cannot Retire from Yourself, gives you permission to keep working if you love your present job and want to work beyond 65.  Pressure from others is not a good reason to retire.

Retire to the Life You Love  

 

The design on the cover of Retire to the Life You Love shows the Six Circles of Life.  At the heart of these interlinking circles is you.  You are the inner circle.  Nell Smith takes the approach to help you be who you are. Inside this book, you will discover personalized tools to create a lifestyle which brings you joy, happiness and contentment.  Her holistic approach will help you think about certain aspects related to retirement you may have never considered.

 

 

Your Retirement Income Blueprint

In Daryl Diamond’s book, Your Retirement Income Blueprint, he emphasizes that retirement is driven by two hubs.  The most obvious one is the “Money Hub” and the other, not so obvious, is the “Time Hub”.  During retirement, knowing what you will do with your time and what you want to do, are vitally important.  Your activities may be related to following your passion or may be solely recreational such as golf, gardening, travel, volunteer work, or helping the children.  You will need to consider whether health issues might impede your retirement activities and where you wish to reside.The benefit of having enough time to plan ensures you will make the correct decision.   Having a list of questions to kick start the planning process is useful.

 

 

Don't Retire, Rewire! 

 “Flunking” retirement is a possibility.  Many people have failed because they felt they were missing something.  Their solution may be to return to work.  The premise of this book, Don’t Retire, Rewire was written with the understanding that you are not retiring from something but rather to something.  To find the turn key to that “something” you may need to rewire.  A chapter in this book helps you understand your drivers.  What motivates you to work today? The reason this is so important, as the authors share, is that these drivers will create your new future.  Their motto: use your today to build your tomorrow.   

 

Benefit of Reading

Christopher Morley once said, “When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life.”  I sincerely believe these authors are motivated to share ways to create a whole new life in the last phase of life’s journey. Taking every opportunity to learn how you can accomplish this will ensure you are not disappointed.  Whether you re-discover your talents, re-ignite a passion, or re-design your life, you want to ensure you are happy and content.  Life is too short to be lived any other way.  Take the challenge today and dream what your retirement might look like in the future.   Jeri Sedlar and Rick Miners shared, “if you know who you are today, you can build on who you want to be tomorrow.”