My Time - How to make the rest of life the best of life

By JOAN BAKER & MANDY FEALY

How and what will you do in the transition to retirement? Will you continue to work, travel, learn new skills, help in the community, spend more time with family and friends or will you simply enjoy the sun and a chance to relax on your own terms? We all have dreams of our life after work, but will we actually get the retirement we want?

Joan Baker and Mandy Fealy interviewed people across New Zealand about all aspects of retirement to find out what Kiwis really think. Their conclusion is that without early planning and setting some goals, the retirement dream will be out of reach for many people in the future.

The babyboomers are the largest demographic in New Zealand society and they are mostly on the brink of some form of retirement. Many of them have not made any real plans for their future. My Time: How to make the rest of life the best of life is a lifestyle planning book that will illustrate all the issues of retirement and help readers plan to achieve their goals.

There are many challenges involved in this transition: ‘hard’ ones concerning finances, investments, wills, paid work, etc, and ‘soft’ ones around lifestyle and relationships.

This issue is incredibly topical, especially at present, as thousands of Christchurch families in particular, contemplate a future where their security and wealth has diminished considerably through events outside of their control. Likewise governments all over the world are looking at the looming costs of health care and superannuation as society’s largest demographic ages. This change could have a massive impact on the world as we know it, ‘Many Western economies may struggle to find enough skilled workers to replace the big babyboomer cohort … this may inflate wages and salaries, or lead to calls for greater immigration quotas, or it may push much work off shore to lower-cost countries.’

My Time: How to make the rest of life the best of life will debunk the myths and incorrect information that surround the issue and give people hope that times have moved on since the retirement of their parents or grandparents. Their retirement does not have to be your retirement. Gone are the days when retirement meant slowing down and losing your skills or status, instead it can be a change of direction, simply a chance to have more My Time. The focus on continuing to work is absolutely there or with the effectiveness of modern health you don’t need to slow down as early and being active mentally as well as physically is the key to keeping young for longer.

Joan and Mandy give you all the pointers on relationships, life balance and of course the financial info and planning to make sure you know how to get your fi nancial security on track well before retirement. They are firm about not decreasing your net wealth as much as possible and that means things like not paying off your child’s student loan for them!

About the Authors

Mandy Fealy, is an organisation development psychologist with over 20 years experience working in NZ, Australia, Asia and Europe. She specialises in individualised executive coaching, and workshop facilitation in career management and leadership development. She has helped thousands of adults navigate both professional and personal transitions and regenerate their lives. At the personal level, Mandy believes that we have one life, and we should invest in it well. Mandy has just lived through the Christchurch quake and will continue to be based there.

Joan Baker is an organisation consultant with over thirty years experience working in NZ, Ireland, and Australia. Joan has an M.Ed and an MBA. She works with organisations and individuals to achieve success, specialising in wealth creation and individual achievement. Joan has written/co-written eight other books covering topics like personal finance, succession and business success. She believes that it’s important to make life work for you and her focus is always on making the hard stuff easier for everyone. Joan lives in Queenstown with her partner Martin Hawes.
 

Published 6th Jul 2011

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