The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams... At Any Age You Want

Chapter 17. Maslow Meets Retirement

Self-actualization is the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming.

—Abraham Maslow

At the age of 52, Briggs Matsko was about to retire from his financial planning business. A friend heard about Briggs's plans and sent him a copy of this book. Briggs said that reading The New Retirementality not only changed his life but also gave him a new passion and mission for the work he thought he was going to leave.

I had the pleasure of meeting Briggs over breakfast while in California on a speaking engagement. He shared this story with me:

I had a real epiphany when I read The New Retirementality and realized that the most foolish thing I could do is retire early and go into a life of wondering how to make a difference. The opportunity for making a difference was right there in front of me in every client conversation. I just needed to change the conversation from being a numbers conversation to being a life conversation.

Briggs began by telling clients about his awakening and then giving them a copy of The New Retirementality to read before they came in for their appointment. He told them to come prepared to discuss the sort of life they were desirous of living before they entered a conversation on what to do with their money. When they came for their appointments, they already were primed to talk about the life they wanted to live.

Briggs has been quite generous in sharing with me some of the testimonials ...