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Review – Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose, and Passion After 50

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Portfolio Life: The New Path to Work, Purpose, and Passion After 50
by David Corbett (Jossey-Bass, 2006. Available in hardcover and Kindle editions from Amazon.com.)

Portfolio Life offers a refreshing, positive view and an action-oriented framework for creating a meaningful life in what we typically think of (or perhaps used to think of) as the “retirement years.” David Corbett is founder of New Directions Inc. in Boston, which offers “planning in career and post-career fulfillment to accomplished individuals.”

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What’s Standing Between You and What’s Next?

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The median age for an S&P 500 CEO is 55. Nearly two thirds (59.3%) of our nation’s nonprofit leaders are age 60 or older. In just three short years, a staggering three in five senior executive federal employees will be eligible for retirement (Rein, 2013). They’re part of the massive baby boom cohort that will be moving into their next act over the next two decades. What retirement barriers will these folks face? What are the barriers to moving on?

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Caffeinating Your “What’s Next?” Exploration

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When grappling with your retirement planning, some of us tackle the issue the way we would any robust challenge – with lots of caffeine. A post on Inc. magazine’s blog proposed that any time you’re in the process of making a major life decision, you should go on 50 coffees – informational meetings with friends, acquaintances, and former colleagues – to provide yourself with the opportunity to review your plans with a diverse audience (www.inc.com/peter-thomson/50-cups-of-coffee.html).

My initial reaction was, “Wow, 50 coffees? Who has that kind of time? 10 might be more realistic.” But at the essence of the article is a brilliant idea for anyone planning their exit from the top — folks grappling with the post-career “what’s next?” question. It’s a natural way to hash out retirement hopes and ideas, and make some interesting new connections, which might be especially important while exploring the possibility of a post-career bridge job or launching an encore career.

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Time.com Post on Redefining the “Ideal” Retirement

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Dan Kadlec has an interesting post on  Redefining the “Ideal” Retirement. What is the ideal retirement? It’s different for everyone, of course. But with insufficient nest eggs and failing pensions it almost certainly will include some kind of employment. Here’s how the Great Recession helped redefine retirement yet again. Here’s the link:  http://business.time.com/2013/08/29/redefining-the-ideal-retirement/

Exploring Life’s Next Chapter

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As we approach our mid-60s, messages about retirement start to pour in. As a society, our thinking about retirement has fossilized around the notion of age 65. Although that age point is creeping upward, society still tells us that the mid-60s is the age when we should be thinking about retirement, and social notions about retirement still revolve around the traditional “golden years” full-stop exit from the workforce.

But many of us in our mid-60s aren’t ready for the career exit ramp. For reasons of pleasure or necessity, some of us want to continue to work. And for those of us who are phasing out of our careers, many want to continue to remain engaged and do “work” that’s meaningful, whether that’s for a paycheck or not.

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