The following print and clickable articles reflect the range of my expertise and professional interests. They include both popular and academic contributions.
First, here is a December 2010 article from Money magazine that mentions the one-day workshop for financial advisors from The Manheimer Group.
From Money Magazine, “Advice for new retirees”
By Walter Updegrave, senior editor, November 26, 2010
Question: What are the biggest issues new retirees tend to underestimate? — Chris Towne, Harmony, Pa.
Answer: No matter how diligently you plan for your post-career life, surprises can still trip you up. More than likely, that isn’t because you’ve overlooked a nettlesome issue altogether. Rather, it’s just hard to comprehend how challenging certain aspects of retirement life can be.
For example, new retirees often underestimate how tough it can be to make their savings last a lifetime. One reason is that because we so frequently hear that we’ll need only 70% to 80% of pre-retirement salary, we blithely assume our spending will drop sharply once we stop working.
That’s not necessarily the case. Indeed, the Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2010 Retirement Confidence Survey found that while almost 60% of workers expected to spend less in the first five years after retiring, fully half of retirees said their spending didn’t drop at all. And of that group, 26% reported that their spending actually rose.
That’s no shock to Bud Hebeler, a 77-year-old retiree who created Analyze Now, a site that offers retirement advice. “You’re going to want to travel, see your children and grandkids — all that takes money,” he says. Throw in unexpected outlays and steep health care costs, and it’s no surprise your spending may not fall much, if at all.
This is compounded by what behavioral economists call “money illusion,” a fancy way of saying we don’t think in inflation-adjusted terms. Yet even modest inflation can cut your purchasing power nearly in half in 20 years.
One of the reasons you may not be worrying that much about how inflation will affect your long-run spending needs is that you probably underestimate how long you’ll live to begin with.
A 2006 report from the Society of Actuaries found that only 29% of retirees and pre-retirees figured they’d live longer than the average life expectancy. The reality is that you have around a 50% chance of outliving the averages.
So how do you avoid exhausting your savings? Start by going to the Retirement Income Planner tool, which offers a budget worksheet that adjusts your outlays for inflation.
Then go to T. Rowe Price’s Retirement Income Calculator — which assumes you’ll live to age 95 — to get an estimate of how long your money might last. Repeat this every year or so to see if you need to reassess your lifestyle.
Retirees also underestimate how tricky the social transition away from the workaday world can be. John Nelson, author of What Color Is Your Parachute for Retirement?, suggests creating new social networks by establishing ties with people or groups that share your interests (say, gardening or sports) or values (environmentalism, community service).
After retiring last year, Ron Manheimer, 67, found himself in the same position as the people who used to take the workshops he ran as director of the North Carolina Center for Creative Retirement — wondering how to find meaning in the next stage of life.
In his case, he finished writing a book he abandoned years ago. Since then, he and his wife, Gail, have run one-day seminars for financial advisers who also want to help clients with retirement lifestyle decisions.
“The transition into retirement was harder than I thought,” says Manheimer, “but it’s a process, and I’m still working at it.”
And that’s ultimately the best attitude to take, since things rarely go as planned in retirement.
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The second article from the NY Times is based on reporter, Elizabeth Pope’s, experience of participating in one of the NC Center for Creative Retirement’s two and a half day-long workshops, Paths to Creative Retirement.
Boot Camps for the Retired or Soon to Be
By ELIZABETH POPE, September 15, 2010, New York Times
BY Saturday afternoon, Dorothy Butcher was calling herself Dorothy the Brave.
A retired nurse from Shreveport, La., Ms. Butcher had spent a spring weekend in Asheville, N.C., at a workshop at the Center for Creative Retirement.
“I’d worn myself out wondering if I should do this or do that,” said Ms. Butcher, a widow in her 60s. “I just wanted somebody to tell me how to do this retirement thing.”
Since leaving an insurance company job two years ago, Ms. Butcher had consulted how-to-retire books, devised a budget with her financial adviser and scouted possible relocation to Sedona, Ariz.; Santa Fe, N.M.; or Ashland, Ore. Overwhelmed at the prospect of planning her next act, she turned the workshop, a twice-yearly program at the University of North Carolina, Asheville, for some answers.
The weekend workshop features self-assessment questionnaires, brief lectures, exercises, case studies and small-group discussions. The program is one of a small number of short retreats, seminars and boot camps focused on nonfinancial aspects of retirement, like when to retire, loss of identity, how to balance work and leisure, and relationships with friends, family and spouses.
Run by recently retired volunteers and structured to build trust and interaction among the 30 or so participants, the workshop sessions are a quick getaway that enable busy people to push the pause button, reflect on their futures and examine difficult-to-discuss topics, said Ronald J. Manheimer, the former director of the center and creator of the eight-year-old program.
“If you raise the R-word at work, you’re a lame duck and no longer a serious player,” he said. “You might as well walk out the door tomorrow.” Even couples may avoid specifics in talking about money, second jobs, travel, where to live and the needs of adult children and aging parents, he said. “In our workshops, we try to encourage participants to be a little selfish in identifying their deeper needs, regardless of what their partner thinks,” he added.
The center’s program aims to build self-awareness rather than provide one-on-one counseling or a didactic transmission of information — an approach that sometimes disappoints participants.
“At first, I thought I’d just blown $850,” Ms. Butcher said of the workshop fee. “I wanted someone to give me a checklist of what to do.”
Midway through the program, she found herself staring at a blank piece of paper, struggling to come up with two or three dreams to share with others. “I felt such angst because I couldn’t think of a thing,” she said. “Then suddenly — and I can’t explain why — I saw myself as Dorothy the Brave. I realized I don’t have to plan the rest of my life, just the next year. Instantly I knew exactly what to do.”
At the closing presentations, an energized Ms. Butcher announced that she had already put down a deposit on an Asheville apartment, instructed a real estate agent to list her Shreveport house and would return to Asheville by July 1.
“I’ve always played it safe because I didn’t want to screw up,” she said. “The workshop helped me realize I have nothing to fear.”
Ms. Butcher’s decisive approach to postcareer planning is the exception. Many preretirees are likely to put off making important decisions on the complex subject of retirement planning, according to a recent study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute. Only 35 percent of 45- to 49-year-olds felt prepared to retire, compared with 64 percent of 60- to 64-year-olds and 81 percent of those 65 to 70. Only one-third who said they wanted to work had planned other careers.
And women were less likely than men to plan for retirement, the study found.
Few resources are available to help those approaching retirement, said John N. Migliaccio, director of research at MetLife. “The current state of retirement planning programs in the United States is abysmal,” he said.
Until the early ’90s, about 35 percent of large and medium companies offered multitopic, even multiday, retirement seminars, he said, but programs were slowly eliminated because of corporate downsizing, liability concerns and the sense that retirement planning was not a company responsibility.
Intensive programs still exist, but they may not be easy to identify, said Judy Goggin, vice president for Civic Ventures, a nonprofit organization based in San Francisco that focuses on baby boomers, work and social purpose.
“There’s no one-stop shopping for this, so you need to make some phone calls,” she said. Many programs emphasize second careers, discovering a life’s passion or making a life transition, and may make no reference to retirement at all.
“The word retirement is out of fashion and isn’t used so much,” Ms. Goggin said. “The model is more living a balanced portfolio of work, lifelong learning, volunteering, hobbies and travel.”
Among places to start looking for life planning or holistic retirement planning programs are libraries, community colleges, universities and adult education programs. Resorts including the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, N.Y.; Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Stockbridge, Mass.; and Point Lookout in Northport, Me., offer life-planning assistance along with yoga and health assessments.
In the latest twist, alumni associations are beginning to host third-age planning sessions as part of class reunions, Ms. Goggin said. “Harvard, Yale and the University of Pennsylvania have done it; Stanford is planning one,” she said.
At MetLife, a program called Retirewise, offering on-site retirement planning education, has nearly doubled its roster of corporate clients to 450, from 250, since 2008, Mr. Migliaccio said.
“The first boomer turns 65 next year and that’s a marker,” he said. “We could be entering the golden age of retirement planning.”
As for Ms. Butcher, she sold her house in three weeks, took her two dogs and drove a 14-foot rental truck to Asheville, attracted by the city’s artsy, friendly vibe. Settling into an apartment, Ms. Butcher spoke excitedly about day trips, farmers’ markets and the Center for Creative Retirement’s packed social calendar and lifelong learning opportunities.
“I plan to play, explore and test the waters,” she said. “If Asheville doesn’t work out, I’ll move on. I don’t want to end up in a rocking chair wondering why I didn’t do something exciting.”
WHERE TO FIND HELP The Web site for Civic Ventures has a directory of more than 80 organizations providing resources to those nearing or in retirement, including Coming of Age, the Transition Network, Discovering What’s Next, WomanSage and Project Renewment.
Life-planning coaches often conduct workshops and classes on nonfinancial aspects of retirement planning. The coach and author Richard Leider conducts walking safaris in Tanzania to help people discover their life’s purpose.
Decide. Create. Share. is a multiyear AARP campaign to help women 50 and older with decisions regarding health, legal, financial, home and community needs.
Here are some articles you can click on:
Paths to Creative Retirement Program
Article from Kiplinger’s Retirement Newsletter about the life transition workshop I designed and have directed for seven years.
Boomers May Require Bifocals: Marketing to the 50+
An article on some mistaken assumptions based on overgeneralizing the concept of Baby Boomers that appeared in LIMRA MarketFact Quarterly, Summer, 2006.
Gateway to Humanistic Gerontology
Final chapter in Valuing Older People: A Humanistic Approach to Gerontology. Eds Ricca Edmondson and Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz. Bristol, UK: Policy Press, 2009.
