Creating a Happy Retirement

Overview

Our life can be viewed as three stages. In the first, we are told what to do and when to do it by our parents and teachers. In the second, our employers give us directions, usually with set working hours. In the third stage, when we retire, what we do with our time and lives is something we must decide. The transition into retirement, with seemingly endless options, can be challenging. Most books on retirement concentrate on the financial aspects of retirement. This is book does not. This is a workbook crafted to help you plan your own life after work: both long-term and day-to-day. It does not tell you what to do; it provides you with the tools to create your own action plan. The book leads you and your partner through a series of exercises designed to help you understand and focus on what is important to you, and make the decisions which will help give your retirement years a structure. The book includes access to a kit of forms and exercises; a workbook for planning your retirement.This book explains how to think about your retirement and provides a practical way of planning how you will live your retirement years. There is little written about this topic; the majority of books out there are aimed at financial planning, while the next largest cohort of books speaks to eldercare and housing for those who need assistance in their later years.

Author Biography

Dr. Ronald W. Richardson, BA, MDiv, DMin, has been a marriagecounselor and family therapist since 1976. He was formerly theExecutive Director and Director of Training at the North ShoreCounselling Centre in British Columbia. He was also on thefaculty of the Pacific Coast Family Therapy Training Association.He is active as a Clinical Member and Approved Supervisorof the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapyand is a Diplomate of the American Association of PastoralCounselors.Lois Richardson, MA Journalism, has worked as a newspaperreporter, magazine writer, and non-fiction book editor forpublishers and government in the U.S. and Canada. She andRon retired at ages 53 and 58 and have lived happily ever after.Like many busy retirees, she doesn’t know where she found thetime to work for pay. Her life is full of hiking, bicycling, skiing,kayaking, reading, going to concerts and plays, and volunteeringat a park and a library.