Retirement Calculator

Mary Lloyd wants us to learn what Warren Buffet already knows--retiring might not make sense for you even if you have enough money to do it. Retirement has to be about what you believe in and what you want to do next to be fulfilling. Plus the part about "having enough money" can get pretty scary if you don't have much flexibility and things change the way they have in the last few months.

Lloyd has been focused on how to do it right for fifteen years. With her own experience, her research, and what she's learned from seminar participants, she knows you can't just give up work. You have to retire INTO something that excites you and create a life that honors that yet still includes all the rest of what you want in your version of "the good life." She wrote the book to help others figure out what "that" is and how to go about achieving it. Since 40% of us will retire unexpectedly due to illness or downsizing, she also encourages us to start thinking about it well before you think you will retire. Ask yourself "Do I know what I want to do, and how I can accomplish that?" before you go "out the door and over the cliff."

This stage of life is too long to be lived as an extended vacation. We might spend a third or more of our lifespan "retired." It will be much more rewarding if we take the time to help ourselves define our own exciting future. Lloyd found no effective resources to help her with that effort. Supercharged Retirement remedies that lack.

In her intriguing book Lloyd gives us practical tools and exercises to figure out what we want to achieve during our retirement years and how to accomplish it. This well-written manual is an enjoyable read, often funny. She uses clever chapter titles and a variety of "Think & Do" exercises to help you learn more about what really works for you. There is also an extensive annotated bibliography offering additional written material plus useful websites. Altogether you will find this a valuable read that challenges the false limits assumed to be a natural part of aging, teaches you to define your best lifestyle and direction, and helps you develop skills to achieve a satisfying, vibrant retirement.

Lloyd also addresses whether or not to retire at all. She points out that work in some form helps humans thrive. Finding the right form for this stage of your life may be a better answer that retiring entirely. She reminds us that the experience and work ethic of this segment of the population is invaluable to businesses and non-profits either as volunteers, consultants, or in an employee capacity. The best way to do this stage of life is going to be different for each of us, especially since baby boomers are used to charting new directions. It's not something where someone else is going to be able to just hand you a list of what works. You have to do some digging to know what works for you. As Lloyd says, "To get there, keep learning about yourself. Keep doing the next thing. Get ready to launch. Not even the sky is the limit."

Super-Charged Retirement is a must read for those thinking about retiring or who have already entered into this next stage of their lives. The helpful exercises and practical advice help readers to think carefully about the years ahead which for many of us, due to extended longetvity, can be decades. My husband who is newly retired found this book invaluable as he moved from his job as a store manager for 30 years into retirement. He has discovered his true passion and found ways to invest his many talents and energy into something that is very meaningful for him. No sitting on the couch for him and wondering what to do for the rest of his life. He has a plan, and Mary Lloyd's wonderful book helped him figure out what that might be.

Mary Lloyd's book, SUPERCHARGED RETIREMENT, prepares for retirement by providing common sense information, tools to put the information to work, and an assessment of yourself to know what you want to do for the rest of your life.

Mary's knowledge, enthusiasm, experience, energy, and humor all combine to make this book a "must read" for anyone retired or thinking about retiring.