Customer Reviews

How to Love Your Retirement: Advice from Hundreds of Retirees (Hundreds of Heads Survival Guides)

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4 star:		(4)
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2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

"How to LOVE Your Retirement" is the kind of self-help book I can really enjoy. Divided into topics such as timing, finances, health issues, selection of domicile, hobbies, and adjustments at home, it is a series of vignettes, from one-liners to paragraphs, submitted by those in the business of retirement -- the retirees, themselves. The book's success is a product of the personal quality of those thoughts, many funny, some cautionary, but all insightful and enjoyable to browse. It gives those of us in retirement good ideas to mull over, and for the pre-retirement folk it offers inspiration.

Has everything been said about retirement? Maybe, but a lot of it bears repeating and How to Love Your Retirement gives the subject a fresh look through the words of hundreds of retirees. It's kind of like asking friends for advice, only who has 100 or more friends to ask?
I've heard some of the advice before -- plan your finances, look after your health, and keep your mind working -- but have I always listened? Somehow it makes a difference when the words come from personal experience rather than an academic study. As far as I know, no study has come up with down home wisdom like, "The most important thing is to eat prunes," or "There is a temptation to become an alcoholic, so we have to watch that." There's a section on life coaching exercises and plenty of web site references on a variety of subjects.
I'm planning to give it to several family members who are approaching retirement age.

My son gave us this book as a gift and I was sure I didn't need it. Then I picked it up and got hooked. It's not your typical book. It is made up of hundreds of tips, stories and advice from many other "normal" people who have been through this same stage of life.

This book is special because it's readable, is not focused on "golden years," but the next vibrant stage in our lives, and it's practical. I walked away from a quick read with many good ideas, approaches to consider and tricks to try. It was a great gift and is an excellent book.

This lively book will rev up the creative energy of anyone who wants to do "something else." The best of the "How to Survive" series, it's grounded by interviews with hundreds of folks who probably could not qualify to author a "How I Failed Retirement" article like the one published in "Fortune" magazine by former Chrysler CEO, Lee Iacocca. I can attest that "How to Love Your Retirement" can kick-start creation of an exciting retirement plan. I pressed this book on my attorney husband, 72, who had expected to follow in his father's footsteps and maintain a vigorous practice until he was 93. Seriously. Nonetheless, he has been quietly musing about retiring from complex criminal defense to do "something else." Major hurdle? Could he find anything equally engaging that did not include solving other people's very big problems. He found "How to Love Your Retirement" fun to read and loaded with solid, specific information, ideas and inspired advice, including timing, new work, money, travel, domestic adjustments, moving, new activities, and staying in shape. This book energized and focused his plans for himself-- and us.

I gave this book to my Uncle who was retiring and after reading it he couldn't stop raving about it. He said he got 25 great ideas from the book that he would integrate into his retirement. What's great about the book is that it doesn't require reading the book cover to cover; you can dive in when and where you like and still take away wisdom and wit. I highly recommend this book as a gift or for the soon to be or recently retired.

I found this book a surprising delight to read the candid opinions of other retirees. It covered the numerable issues that have to be dealt with and the highlighted areas with statements of fact were very helpful. Good advice book for future senior citizens at the threshold of this next stage in life.

The book is basically a series of short paragraphs written by many ordinary people describing how they had handled retirement or giving their advice. The advice was very basic, and seemed a bit random. I was hoping for new ideas on ways to fill the time, but this approach did little to fulfill that need.

The format of this little "handbook" is quick, accessible, and an easy read. The vignettes combine humor with practicality and caution the reader not to take even retirement too seriously. Shrewd personal strategies are interwoven with absolute common sense approaches to retirement. Anyone who is already retired or is about to retire will thoroughly enjoy the breadth of experiences related by many contributors, some of which are totally contradictory - - - but every approach works for someone out there. As I compared my own retirement experiences to the dozens of accounts in the book, I found myself chuckling aloud - - - something I don't often do during a read. Enjoy it! It's fun (and wise).

This book is full of fun antidotes of those that have been there and are doing it. It is not a "How To" book but a "Tell It Like It Is" book. I loved the quote where it says, "Now I will have the time to figure out what I want to be when I grow up." Purchase one for yourself and one for a friend that is headed for retirement and they will love you for it.

I love giving this book to my "soon-to-be-retired" friends. It is a fun, informative, balanced look at the issues people face when they retire. I get tons of thanks everytime I give it to a friend.

What I love about the book is that it does not take the topic so seriously that it scares the reader, and yet, is not too casual about serious issues that the reader will be facing.

A great balance!