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Retirement Reinvention: Make Your Next Act Your Best Act
Retirement has changed, and America’s most trusted career counselor is here to guide you through your own Retirement Reinvention.
"Robin Ryan is the most knowledgeable career expert in the nation today." —PBS
For twenty years, Robin Ryan has been helping clients get the most out of their careers and their lives. Now, in Retirement Reinvention, she shatters the myths of retirement. The old model of retirement is changing. The majority of retirees today are seeking fun and meaningful ways to spend their time.
Full of practical advice, this thought-provoking guide offers readers a path for reinventing their own retirements, including step-by-step instructions for:
• Leaving an old career behind
• Pinpointing interests and skills
• Exploring different places to live
• Defining new, satisfying opportunities
• Finding meaningful ways to give back to your community
• Striking the right balance between work and leisure
From starting a dream business to shifting to the nonprofit sector to volunteering, Robin Ryan will help you create a plan and pivot toward a future as vital as it is truly rewarding.
"Robin Ryan is the most knowledgeable career expert in the nation today." —PBS
For twenty years, Robin Ryan has been helping clients get the most out of their careers and their lives. Now, in Retirement Reinvention, she shatters the myths of retirement. The old model of retirement is changing. The majority of retirees today are seeking fun and meaningful ways to spend their time.
Full of practical advice, this thought-provoking guide offers readers a path for reinventing their own retirements, including step-by-step instructions for:
• Leaving an old career behind
• Pinpointing interests and skills
• Exploring different places to live
• Defining new, satisfying opportunities
• Finding meaningful ways to give back to your community
• Striking the right balance between work and leisure
From starting a dream business to shifting to the nonprofit sector to volunteering, Robin Ryan will help you create a plan and pivot toward a future as vital as it is truly rewarding.
304 pages, Paperback
Published March 6, 2018
3 people are currently reading
332 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 20, 2018
In Retirement Reinvention: Making the Most of the Next Stage of Your Life and Career, Robin Ryan provides 279 pages of thought-provoking ideas about retirement. While there is a short section on the financial aspects of retirement, this is not a book about financial planning for retirement. Rather, it is more focused on emotional and social planning for this life-changing event.
The book is divided into two parts. The first half wants you to think about what you want your retirement to look like and to plan for it. What will you do? Where will you live? What obstacles may you encounter? How will you transition to retirement? The second half of the book offers specific examples of things you can do to fill your retirement days and remain socially connected. There are sections on volunteering, hobbies, travel, continuing education (free or low cost college courses for seniors) and even a section on starting a business if that's your thing. Throughout the book there are worksheets to write down and prioritize things you are interested in doing.
The first part of the book examines the realities of retirement that you may not have thought about and the second part offers numerous practical suggestions. I plan on keeping this as a handy resource to reference once my own retirement is closer.
Full disclosure: I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads Firstreads giveaway.
The book is divided into two parts. The first half wants you to think about what you want your retirement to look like and to plan for it. What will you do? Where will you live? What obstacles may you encounter? How will you transition to retirement? The second half of the book offers specific examples of things you can do to fill your retirement days and remain socially connected. There are sections on volunteering, hobbies, travel, continuing education (free or low cost college courses for seniors) and even a section on starting a business if that's your thing. Throughout the book there are worksheets to write down and prioritize things you are interested in doing.
The first part of the book examines the realities of retirement that you may not have thought about and the second part offers numerous practical suggestions. I plan on keeping this as a handy resource to reference once my own retirement is closer.
Full disclosure: I won a free copy of this book in a Goodreads Firstreads giveaway.
June 6, 2018
Quite a few suggestions/ideas/examples of what people have done with their retirement. As is the current trend, the acknowledgement that retirement often includes a “retirement job” is thoroughly discussed here. The oxymoron of our times. After having read quite a few retirement books over the past few years, I find this one has a very good set of examples, and an interesting set of topics. These included housing, the transition process, hobbies, volunteering, travel, maintaining social connections, etc. This does not really cover finances in retirement, beyond the normal reminder that retirees can still work and need to plan. And the author struck me as having a distinct opinion on some topics, one which I did not always agree with. Nevertheless, I found this quite a good survey covering how retirees can spend their time, and I got some new insights into what I may want to do in the future.
March 20, 2019
Relentlessly cheery.
Lots of lists/suggestions but nothing much I haven’t found elsewhere. If you are entering from a place if relative privilege and security you might find ideas here. My one helpful takeaway dealt with the loneliness one encounters at the beginning. Not a bad manual but not a life changer either.
Lots of lists/suggestions but nothing much I haven’t found elsewhere. If you are entering from a place if relative privilege and security you might find ideas here. My one helpful takeaway dealt with the loneliness one encounters at the beginning. Not a bad manual but not a life changer either.
March 30, 2018
I retired last year. I found this book full of positive ideas and experiences.
March 1, 2021
This book solidly covers a lot of ground related to retirement, but sometimes it seemed too intent on listing a lot of examples of things. That's fine but it felt like it could have been executed less like a laundry list of people's experiences. Also, it is rather disconcerting that the website given as a reference for much of the book's lists and references is no longer available - trying to go to it leads to a 'this site is available' message(!). This book was only published in 2018, so I guess they didn't care about keeping that website running past the first year or two of the book!
My misgivings aside, there certainly are many good ideas in this book, so don't discount it for yourself just because I'm not rating it as a favorite of mine. Probably some of you have good ideas about specific things you wish to do in retirement, and this book could be a good source of ideas for you. I find there's a lot of stuff I _could_ be interested in doing, but choosing among those things will be a challenge and I didn't find much to help with that process beyond essentially "think about what you want to do." Yeah, thanks.
Also, the text seems very skewed toward people who, as one friend of mine describes himself, "don't idle well," the type-A people who thought they'd like lounging once they retired but find they really don't want to sit and read, or who need other people to stimulate them all the time. Since I'm happy with reading or playing guitar and seem able to manage without contact of others for long stretches with no obvious negative effects, I often felt like the guidance provided was not all that relevant. I'm just pointing out that it might be as much me as the book, so YMMV.
Of course this book was published pre-pandemic, so it's a little interesting or humorous to me to read parts of it now when it talks about going to some public gathering space (shopping mall, movie theater, music venue, etc.) to meet like-minded people, introducing yourself and casually making connections. I know some of that has continued for some or a lot of people, but for us there's been essentially none of what I'd called "unplanned socializing" for about a year now. Someday we'll be a little looser about that and parts of this will be more relevant again for me.
If the website still existed I'd suggest you go there and check out some of the ideas if you were thinking about this, but that's not possible. Oh, another odd thing - Goodreads lists one printed version of this book and it's not the version I have from the library. Scanning the ISBN led me to the same listing, but the title does not exactly match what I have ("Retirement Reinvention: Make your next act your best act") and the book I have has more than the 240 pages this listing says are in the book. I didn't bother adding a new edition to the listing.
My misgivings aside, there certainly are many good ideas in this book, so don't discount it for yourself just because I'm not rating it as a favorite of mine. Probably some of you have good ideas about specific things you wish to do in retirement, and this book could be a good source of ideas for you. I find there's a lot of stuff I _could_ be interested in doing, but choosing among those things will be a challenge and I didn't find much to help with that process beyond essentially "think about what you want to do." Yeah, thanks.
Also, the text seems very skewed toward people who, as one friend of mine describes himself, "don't idle well," the type-A people who thought they'd like lounging once they retired but find they really don't want to sit and read, or who need other people to stimulate them all the time. Since I'm happy with reading or playing guitar and seem able to manage without contact of others for long stretches with no obvious negative effects, I often felt like the guidance provided was not all that relevant. I'm just pointing out that it might be as much me as the book, so YMMV.
Of course this book was published pre-pandemic, so it's a little interesting or humorous to me to read parts of it now when it talks about going to some public gathering space (shopping mall, movie theater, music venue, etc.) to meet like-minded people, introducing yourself and casually making connections. I know some of that has continued for some or a lot of people, but for us there's been essentially none of what I'd called "unplanned socializing" for about a year now. Someday we'll be a little looser about that and parts of this will be more relevant again for me.
If the website still existed I'd suggest you go there and check out some of the ideas if you were thinking about this, but that's not possible. Oh, another odd thing - Goodreads lists one printed version of this book and it's not the version I have from the library. Scanning the ISBN led me to the same listing, but the title does not exactly match what I have ("Retirement Reinvention: Make your next act your best act") and the book I have has more than the 240 pages this listing says are in the book. I didn't bother adding a new edition to the listing.
April 25, 2018
Caveat - I received this book as a give-away to rate it.
This book is different than any other retirement book that I have read, or even seen. Rather than dwelling on the financial aspects of retirement, it focuses on what is the retiree going to DO. It is a good mix of worksheets, questions to ponder, suggestions, and resources. It doesn't ignore the financial aspects, it advocates realism and planning, but it prompts you to do something that you need to do in addition to financial planning
It gets us to look at retirement as the next stage/career in our life. Perpetual vacation, or sitting and watching TV for the next 10, 20, or 30 years is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Determine some things that we want to do and make us happy and explore them. For example, if there isn't a group or organization to do what you want, start your own. Remember that this is like a career/job. You can always quit and move on.
This book is different than any other retirement book that I have read, or even seen. Rather than dwelling on the financial aspects of retirement, it focuses on what is the retiree going to DO. It is a good mix of worksheets, questions to ponder, suggestions, and resources. It doesn't ignore the financial aspects, it advocates realism and planning, but it prompts you to do something that you need to do in addition to financial planning
It gets us to look at retirement as the next stage/career in our life. Perpetual vacation, or sitting and watching TV for the next 10, 20, or 30 years is NOT ACCEPTABLE. Determine some things that we want to do and make us happy and explore them. For example, if there isn't a group or organization to do what you want, start your own. Remember that this is like a career/job. You can always quit and move on.
June 7, 2021
This book was ok. Like most reviewers I enjoyed the part at the beginning that dealt with preparing yourself mentally and emotionally for the shift to "retirement". As someone who is on the cusp of that in the next decade, the ideas here to prepare for retirement and have a plan not to "fail" were well taken.
The majority of the rest of the book was anecdote after anecdote of all the things you can do. I did glean a couple of ideas from it that I had not considered, but overall the book probably could have been a little bit shorter.
I actually listened to the audio book read by the author and she must be a slow speaker because I turned the speed up to 1.45 and it still seemed like a regular conversation speed.
The majority of the rest of the book was anecdote after anecdote of all the things you can do. I did glean a couple of ideas from it that I had not considered, but overall the book probably could have been a little bit shorter.
I actually listened to the audio book read by the author and she must be a slow speaker because I turned the speed up to 1.45 and it still seemed like a regular conversation speed.
September 10, 2019
Robin Ryan’s Retirement Reinvention makes me look forward to the time when I can retire. It is filled with solid advice for how to fill your time after you have retired from your career. Everything from how to make a plan for your retirement to dealing with money to keeping up with your social life, this book has it all. There is a great chapter on travel which is something I think many retirees should plan for. I think after reading this book the thing I look most forward to doing when I retire is gaining more education and new skills. Must read for those who are planning on retiring or who are already retired.
March 15, 2018
I've recommended Robin Ryan's career books to people in the past - now I'll be recommending this book to everyone approaching retirement. The book is full of countless examples of clever, practical and rewarding ways people have found to spend their "golden years. No rocking chair for me! Want a full and fulfilling retirement? Start by reading this book!
December 2, 2018
Ryan focuses on planning and looking at the consequences of change from retirement. The chapter on transitioning from work to retirement was especially helpful with its tips on loss of professional identity, workplace friendships, and psychologist adjustments. Several checklists, tables, and fill in the blank sections are included.
March 24, 2018
A lot of good ideas, however, I don't know how realistic they are for the majority. Most of us have to be dependent on others because if your lucky enough to get part-time, it doesn't cut it. With all of boomers getting older, there really should be something done on a major scale.
March 3, 2019
Robin KNOWS what she is talking about and I enjoyed this book. I think I will get it again,from the library, when I get closer to retirement. it gave me great hope retirement doesn't have to be boring, scary or a world of nothing but TV .
January 22, 2026
I found the information in this book helpful. It gives you ideas and worksheets to help you find the path that will work for you. The book is balanced on all the aspects that you should consider when you are getting ready to retire.
February 11, 2018
An interesting way of looking at what you want to do with the rest of your life. Full review at http://racingtowardretirement.blogspo...
May 1, 2025
Some helpful frameworks!
November 29, 2025
It appears that on’s retirement goal should be to start a new career. It’s about turning a hobby or pastime into a business. Pure capitalism. WTF.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews