The New Retirementality, Fifth Edition

CHAPTER 3No Longer One and Done

When I first started working many years ago, I would hear of retirees who had decided to pull the string on their “golden parachute” and head to the sidelines. To me, this was an interesting metaphor that implied not only a safe landing but a necessary leap in order to achieve that safe landing.

I'm guessing the analogy had something to do with Richard Bolles's bestselling book, What Color Is Your Parachute? first published in 1970 and updated every year beginning in 1975. Originally self-published by Bolles, it has become the job hunters' and career changers' bible through the years. The specific parachute reference I'm alluding to was code for a lucrative financial retirement package that led someone to pull the cord and make the leap into a new lifestyle.

When I first heard comments about gold or platinum parachutes, our corporate cultures were just beginning the shift from paternalistic pensions to self-directed retirement accounts––the latter the result of actuaries determining that pension plans were unsustainable. This chapter is not about the financial shift in the concept of retirement but the characterization of the shift, from the former leap to a less dramatic, more thoughtful segue I describe as the L.E.A.N. into retirement. This four-stage approach lets us “lean into” retirement instead of leaping headfirst and hoping we get it right:

• Looking Ahead
• Embarking
• After the Honeymoon
• Negotiating Balances

We've already known that diving ...