Looking Forward: An Optimist's Guide to Retirement

Rating:
Summary: Mega bang for the buck....
Review: Thinking about retiring in the near future? Ellen Freudenheim has written the book for you - LOOKING FORWARD An Optimist's Guide to Retirement. Now you might have attended a retirement seminar or two, and so have I, but in my opinion this book is the best resource I've found in a while. I have been researching the subject because at age 62 I am in the `Retirement Zone' as Freudenheim refers to it. She covers all the areas I have been exploring for retirement activity such as travel, theater, gardening and athletics, and volunteer work, as well as continuing to do what you are doing, i.e. work.

If you want to continue to work, you might consider changing careers as my husband did. After retiring from AT&T (he was downsized or "rightsized" as they called it in the corporate world in the 1980s), he he took his "buyout" money and attended graduate school where he obtained a degree in Employee Relations Counseling which he did professionally for 10 years before he was forced out of the market by the competition (he filed an EEO complaint because he suspected age, race and/or sex discrimination were issues and was proved correct). After the government disbanded the office he worked in (contracted out), he then took up work as a Patent Examiner so as to complete his government retirement - not as you might expect in his field of Electrical Engineering which he learned on the job with AT&T - but the field of personal computers which he taught himself by building several of them for me and the grand kids. Today, retired with two pensions, he plays tennis four days a week and complains about being bored. However, when he heard me speak of Freudenheim's book he said, "I want to read that when you' re through with it."

According to Freudenheim, my husband and I are merely examples of what the statistics have been showing. She combines many life histories along with statistics from reputable sources to explore the truth of the retirement zone from overall and individual perspectives. The truth is, large numbers of people are in the retirement zone (and not just because of the baby boom as we so often hear, but also owing to increased immigration beginning 40 years ago as well as increased life expectancy among the older population). Many potential retirees continue to work (women more so than men, as the immediate cohorts of women stayed home with the kids back in the "old" days, and they have not yet put in enough years for retirement benefits). And, depending on your profession, the pressure to quit working is enormous after you reach a certain age, because those younger workers breathing down your neck have spent their lives in much larger cohorts of the baby boom (just wait until those kids born in 1957-1961 hit retirement ages!!). However, other types of employment may be available to you. Sometimes you just need to look around. Freudenheim suggests there are choices to be made.

Should you leave work altogether - which my 75-year old husband finally did, Freudenheim has tons of suggestions (I hope he really does read her book!!). She provides the reader with all sorts of alternatives for occupying your time fruitfully - paid and unpaid, or if you really don't want to work she has other suggestions. Her book is a comprehensive resource with hundreds of sources - books, websites, and ideas gleaned from others who have tackled the Retirement Zone.

Will I retire soon? Who knows. Right now, I am just living one day at a time. It's comforting to know, however, that I do have alternatives, and that I am not alone.

Rating:
Summary: Looking Forward - A great book to read
Review: This is a "must" read for anybody who is thinking about retirment options for their future. It is also a "must" read for anyone over twenty who has never thought about retireing.The book is a home-run, it covers all the bases. The book is fun to read and filled with helpful information. I recomend it as "required" reading for anyone over twenty.

Rating:
Summary: Teriffic Read and Value
Review: This is just what I should have been reading 5-10 years before I retired. Not only is it a great pre-retirement resource, it also provides retirees wonderful information on ways to have rewarding years in retirement. Excellent examples are given on what others have done to reinvent themselves and there are numerous references to websites and other publications. Well done Ellen.

Rating:
Summary: Painless Retirement Guide
Review: You're in your 40's and you know your retirement plans, both social and financial, should have been in place long ago. So you're definitely going to do it. Or think about doing it. And you'll start by reading a book about it. And the average how-to or what-to retirement book is so boring, you put it aside and the cycle begins again. Till now. "Looking Forward" is such a pleasure to read, you'll be eagerly anticipating your retirement. It makes the golden years sound wonderfuly attractive and chock-full of things you can't wait to do. Best of all, you'll feel as if nothing about senior living is daunting. Not taxes, not health, not filling all those hours. You handled it as an adult, why wouldn't you be able to handle it as a senior? I'm only 48, but after reading "Looking Forward," I was ready to hand in my letter of resignation!