What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement: Planning a Prosperous,
Healthy, and Happy Future, Second Edition
Plan Now for the Life You Want
Today’s economic realities have reset our expectations of what retirement is,
yet there’s still the promise for what it can be: a life stage filled with more freedom
and potential than ever before. Given the new normal, how do you plan for a future filled
with prosperity, health, and happiness?
As a companion to What Color Is Your Parachute?, the world’s
best-selling career book, What Color Is Your Parachute? for Retirement offers both a
holistic, big-picture look at these years as well as practical tools and exercises to help
you build a life full of security, vitality, and community.
This second edition contains updates throughout, including a section on Social
Security, an in-depth exercise on values and how they inform your retirement map, and the
one-of-a-kind resource for organizing the sea of information on finances and mental and
physical health: the Retirement Well-Being Profile. More than a guide on where to live,
how to stay active, or which investments to choose, What Color Is Your Parachute? for
Retirement helps you develop a detailed picture of your ideal retirement, so
that—whether you’re planning retirement or are there already—you can take a
comprehensive approach to make the most of these vital years.
Table of Contents
Preface viii
What to Expect from This New Edition xii
Chapter 1 Retirement Is Dead-Long Live Retirement! 1
The retirement we knew is disappearing. Do you want a finish line or a marker on your
journey? Ten ways to customize your transition.
Chapter 2 The Retirement You've Always Wanted but Forgot About 23
What we all want in life. Six fields of knowledge that support well-being.
What are the elements of your ideal retirement?
Chapter 3 The Life You Can Live (Right Now) 41
How we make big life decisions. Are you buying a "lifestyle" or creating a
life?
Ten steps to activate your core values.
Chapter 4 Retirement Economics Is More Than Personal Finance 73
A family approach to retirement economics. The original pyramid scheme.
Your three-legged stool is wobbly. The spending-saving seesaw.
Chapter 5 A New Approach to Retirement Security 101
Five pillars are better than three legs. How to use automatic systems for saving,
investing, and income. Where to find a fiduciary advisor.
Chapter 6 The Nature of Space and Time 127
Four layers of retirement geography. Is your dream home a nightmare? Calling it a
community doesn't make it one. Your essential region.
Chapter 7 Medicine-Who's in Charge? 155
How much medicine will you buy? Your medical philosophy, and what it costs.
Choose medical relationships before you need them.
Chapter 8 Health from the Inside Out 173
Our biology plus medicine equals health. What's your biological age? The longevity
class reunion. Three practices for biological vitality.
Chapter 9 A New Chapter in Psychology 189
Are you trying to fix your weaknesses? Three paths to happiness. Staying engaged in
work-and retirement, too! Your greatest strengths.
Chapter 10 Happiness Is Only Real When Shared 217
Work connections wither and die. Build relationships in advance. Your three levels of
social connection. Retirement with that special someone.
Chapter 11 The New Retirement-an Undivided Life 235
Connect your life circles for well-being. Do you have a calling? Don't wait for
retirement-start living your ideal life now!
Appendix: The Retirement Well-Being Profile 252
Resources 254
Acknowledgments 264
Index 266
About the Authors 274
288 pages, Paperback