Chapter 1: Our Real Wonder Years
Toto, I’ve got a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.
—Frank L. Baum
Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
—Seneca
Retirement: Prologue or Epilogue?
We come from everywhere and anywhere—we share common visions, purposes, and aspirations; we are on the road to the same place, a place called “Retirement.” This book is dedicated to the Boomer Generation, all 76 million of us, and to the 10,000 Boomers who will be retiring every day of every year for the next 18 years and are all asking themselves the same question: “Am I really ready to retire?” It is also for the many millions of us who have already retired but are “flirting with failing retirements,” who may be asking a different question: “Is that all there is?”
You see, this book is about us, the Boomers, you and me, men and women who were raised by the “Greatest Generation,” the children of those who not only saved the world but made planet earth a better (while not perfect) place for us to grow up. And grow up we did, whether we wanted to or not. We took the world we were given, and then, for good or bad, shaped it in our image just as our children are doing today.
Then we started retiring to enjoy the fruits of our labors and the retirement trickle soon became a flood. We passed the baton of youth to the next generation with confidence that our legacy would be recognized, remembered, and reborn in the hearts and minds of our progeny for generations yet to come. We were the:
Bakers, Takers, Commanders-in-Chief;
Dreamers, Schemers, Apparatchiks;
Doers, Darers, Leaders of Fief;
Fathers, Mothers, Providers of Relief;
Builders, Breakers, Persons of Belief;
Inventers, Dissenters, Givers of Grief
Retirement: Different by Design Description:
Real People with Real Lives
While retirement can, indeed, be our “real wonder years,” the transition from work to retirement can, in the beginning, be one of the most challenging periods of our lives because of: (a) uncertainty about our futures; (b) loss of structure work provided; (c) reduced income; (d) disrupted social networks; (e) discomfort with our aging selves; and, (f) overly optimistic expectations of how easy, joyful and fulfilling our retirements will actually be.
Retirement is one of life’s most pivotal events–some will find it unsettling while others welcome it with open arms; perhaps naively unaware of the traps, dangers and missteps that await us in this sometimes complex and scary world. If there is one lesson you take away from this book it is that “Retirements Don’t Just Happen–We Have to Make Them Happen–Our Way!
