Retirement Reboot

For millions of Americans, the COVID shock has brought retirement saving to an abrupt halt—now it’s time to get back on track. Even before the pandemic, a large share of households by Americans over age 50 faced the threat that their living standards would decline sharply in retirement. In the wake of COVID-19, these numbers will surely worsen. In Retirement Reboot: Commonsense Financial Strategies for Getting Back on Track, finance writer and regular New York Times retirement contributor Mark Miller offers practical strategies for Americans to improve their retirement prospects. If you’re nearing retirement age and worry you haven’t saved enough, Retirement Reboot will walk you through the core decisions to make now to improve your retirement outcomes—even if retirement is just a few years away. You’ll learn how to make a plan, think through the timing of retirement, optimize Social Security, navigate Medicare, build savings, and tap home equity. You’ll also explore ongoing strategies, such as careful budgeting, generating income from work even after retirement, planning for long-term care, and leveraging special assistance aimed at low-income workers. If you have low savings, or none at all, Miller’s simple steps can help you make the most of your remaining working years and reboot the retirement you always imagined.

Baby Boomers are reinventing retirement just as they have so many other aspects of their lives. They will live longer and be healthier than their parents and grandparents, and they plan to remain relevant, be fulfilled, and leave legacies. Many will continue to work well into their 70s and 80s, some because they want to, others because they need to.The Retirement Boom is a practical roadmap for making your “retirement years” a time of reinvention, excitement, and fulfillment.The coauthors of this practical guide are four Boomer professionals who have walked the walk and transformed themselves from corporate executives, CEOs, consultants, and national security policy experts into a range of new careers that more closely hew to their passions. They interviewed more than 300 people and 30 organizations in the writing of this book.The Retirement Boom includes tips, stories, exercises, and techniques to help you:Design your own “retirement” and plan for it.Use your time creatively and well.Understand what's changing in the workplace and the workforce today.Make your money last.Renegotiate life at home.Improve and keep your health.Build and leave a legacy.Simplify your life.And much, much more.

About Reboot! "Reboot to work; retirement is a disease." "It's better to wear out than rust out." That is the message of Reboot! While American culture glamorizes the "Golden Years" of endless leisure and amusement, Phil Burgess rejects retirement, as he makes the case for returning to work in the post-career years, a time he calls later life. Based on solid research from the social and medical sciences, the author says, "It is better to die with your boots on, fully engaged in helping others and repairing the world." Reboot! is partly autobiographical. Indeed, the author is working well into his own post-career years, following two failed retirements. He is also convincing in his eye-opening, historically rooted, and hope-filled arguments for engaging in life-long work that is productive and satisfying. Reboot! identifies five different types of work: in-kind, volunteer, Samaritan, enrichment, and paid work. Booters who incorporate one or more of these types of work into their post-career lifestyle will, according to Burgess, live longer, live better, and die faster - avoiding boredom, aimless busy-ness, diminished self-worth and the anguish (and cost) of lingering death. With America's 78 million boomers turning 65 at the rate of 10,000 a day for the next 18 years, Reboot! provides a timely and provocative alternative to the conventional idea of retirement. With the promises of Social Security and Medicare about to be broken, Reboot! provides an upbeat and constructive way to deal with new financial realities. For men and women navigating life's transitions, striving to finish well, Reboot! provides a roadmap for living a life of meaning, challenging the reader to be a booter, not a retiree. Burgess boldly asserts that retirement is a deadly disease, and that work after a life of work is the best option for post-career years that are meaningful, productive, healthy, and satisfying. See www.BooterNation.com Excerpts: On retirement: "Not all ideas are good ideas. Some are bad ideas. Retirement is one of those bad ideas - it makes no sense...Retirement is not natural. It is not historic. It is not healthy. It is not, for most people, fulfilling. For many, retirement is a widow maker." On the value of work: "The social engagement and satisfaction that come from working in later life are keys to successful aging...There is much work to do in this world where we are but temporary inhabitants. We should find it and do it...at least for as long as we're able. In many ways, our life depends on it." On work and money: "Work is not only about money. Even if you don't need the money and your financial situation is stable and comfortable, returning to work in your post-career life is the smart thing to do - at least until sidelined by frailty or disability. It's smart because good health and satisfaction in later-life are most likely to come from working." On different types of work: "For most of us, post-career work will be tailored work, work customized to reflect our needs, our deepest desires, and the highest and best use of our gifts - especially time, talent, and treasure. Work tailored to our gifts will be productive and satisfying."...

More Americans are choosing to take time off from work to relax or re-examine their priorities, so they can return to work energized. Some companies offer formal sabbatical programs, but how can the average person take time off to evaluate their direction, explore their passions, and make time for the things that are really important? Whether you're disillusioned with your career, yearning to follow a dream, or taking time out after a layoff, now is the time to step back and reboot. This book will show you how you can give yourself the best gift ever-—the gift of time. People who take sabbaticals report feeling happier, and they return to their jobs refreshed, reinvigorated, and ready to tackle new challenges. Reboot Your Life draws upon the experiences of the four authors and their interview subjects: 200 people who have taken sabbaticals and 150 organizations offering sabbatical programs. The book includes real-life stories and exercises to help the reader figure out how to plan for and take a sabbatical, or how to use unexpected time off.

Whether retirement is right around the corner or a little far away, you deserve a retirement that's a fitting reward for a lifetime of hard work. This book will be your essential companion. This book is for people in their thirties or forties who know they have to start preparing for retirement but aren’t exactly sure how yet. It is also for People in their fifties, sixties, and beyond. Even people much past the retirement age will find value in this book. Retirement, like any major transition in life, comes with a whole array of emotions and worries. More than retirement's financial and physical health aspects, the emotional aspects require more attention. By thoughtfully planning, you can help ease the overwhelming emotions of this significant life transition, and spend more time enjoying your new life to the fullest. Using the guidance and insight provided in this book, anyone, at any stage of their life, can find the ways to a dynamic and fulfilling life ahead. The key is, bringing transformation from loss of identity, which comes with retirement, to sense of purpose. Society views us that way and makes us believe that after a certain stage of retirement, we are largely useless. And unfortunately, it sinks within many of us. We don’t have to allow that. This book will inspire us and tell us how to take retirement as a stage to grow not stop. People in the retirement stage are too young to be old. It has nothing to do with aging. "Retirement years" is an inspirational guide that encompasses all aspects of life mainly physical health, mental health, spiritual health, and financial health. The normal focus or advice on retirement is on the financial part of it. But the wisdom in this book will prove to be much more than the money you have to save. This book is not only for those who are in the retirement stage but also for everyone facing challenges in life and finding life boring and lonely. This is a must-read for anyone struggling to find happiness in daily life and wanting to avoid living out a retired life of mediocrity. We have the potential for happy retirement but for that, we have to plan and make it happen. Retirement years will prove to be the best period provided you plan on what you would do next. You only have to design it that way, no one else will do it for you. Since nothing will happen automatically, and you don’t have to wait for fate to decide for you what to do next, this book will be of help to plan and reinvent yourself. It's an easy read, yet with each page, you will be engaged and perhaps inspired. It's a purposeful guide to help you appreciate and learn what to expect when you are retired, including the challenges. Retirement may be different for each of you but the purpose of a happy retirement is to have a retirement with purpose by first Discovering the process of retirement. This book also guides you to Generate purpose in your retirement life. The simple truth is, you need to be proactive to enjoy retirement and make the most of the rest of your life through smart retirement decisions and this book will guide you in that. It will give you the no-nonsense advice a you need to prepare wisely for your retirement in today's ever-changing landscape. that“Retirement Years,” tells us that we are not done yet and that the retirement stage is a new dawn. The future even if is often filled with fear and uncertainty, but your retirement doesn’t have to be.

Retirement is a new beginning.You now have the gift of time. You are free to gaze at the stars, enjoy a movie, play with your grandkids. You are free, finally, of deadlines and the rush of everyday life. Indeed, retirement--which, given today's excellent health facilities, makes up about a third of one's life--could bring in the best years. All you need to do is plan well ahead.Keep sufficient retirement fundsDecide on your monthly expenditureFind a hobby you enjoyExercise and keep your weight under controlGo for regular medical check-upsMaintain a balanced relationship with your childrenHave a healthy sex lifeMake new friendsLearn to giveLearn to live alone

As we make our way through life, we find ourselves in times of transition where we need to reassess who we are and what we do. Living well doesn't happen automatically for followers of Christ—it happens when we have planned ahead by reviewing and recalibrating our lives on a regular basis, and when we transition from one stage of life to the next. Times of transition, especially in midlife or later life, are ideal moments for recalibrating our priorities and habits. Ken Boa and Jenny Abel give us the perspective and practical tools needed to evaluate our God-given gifts, talents, skills, wisdom, knowledge, resources, and opportunities so we can use them to the full extent God desires. It involves an intentional recalibration and envisioning of one's life based on God's universal and unique purposes for each person as we move from the demands of our careers into a deeper sense of calling. This eternal perspective allows us to live meaningfully now and into the future so that the best is yet to come.