Keys to a Successful Retirement: Staying Happy, Active, and Productive in Your Retired Years

by Fritz Gilbert

You’re finally retired! Learn how to make these the best years of your life.

Congrats on your retirement! But now what will you do with all that free time? With Keys to a Successful Retirement, you’ll discover everything you need to know to get your retired years off to a great start.

Covering topics like finances, embracing your passions, and dealing with feelings of aimlessness, grief, and depression that may crop up, this in-depth guide to retired living answers all the burning questions you want to ask—as well as those you’re afraid to. Take a complete look at your newfound freedom and explore what it really means to have a successful retirement.

This in-depth guide

Essential basics—Make sure you’re retirement ready with advice for managing your savings, dealing with healthcare, staying fit, and more.Handling tough times—Dig into the more challenging aspects of retirement, like how to best handle the effects it can have on your mental health.Be your own boss—Get guidance that teaches you how to decide what you want your retirement to be and how you can lean into the things that you love.An exciting new chapter of your life is starting—get a helping hand ensuring it’s the best it can be!

Genres: Nonfiction, Finance, Self Help, Personal Finance, Personal Development

125 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 21, 2020

Reviews

[Joe Casey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've followed and read Fritz Gilbert's blog, The Retirement Manifesto, for years now and always value his insights on retirement, as well as his talent as a writer.

Now he's written an outstanding book on retirement. It's high among the very best I've read on the subject.

What I love about this book is that he shares the keys from the research he did before he retired, and his lessons learned from his retirement life. Because of that, this book is a perfect blend of theory and practice, with a strong lean toward the practical ideas you can use to plan your own retirement or enhance your life in retirement.

He also balances the financial side of planning for retirement with thoughtful and useful advice for preparing for the non-financial aspects of it. The "soft-side of retirement" as I've heard him describe it is often an afterthought. But that's where many of the surprises and challenges lurk in retirement. This book helps you sidestep them and live the retirement you've dreamed about.

You've invested a lot in your retirement. This book will help you maximize your most precious asset of all - your time.

[Dean Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this just as I was entering an early retirement. I find the non financial topics of the book most interesting and relevant. Also appreciate the additional resources that Fritz recommends. Must read for all those preparing for retirement

[Paul Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eye-opener. I'm nearing retirement and have focused overwhelmingly on the $ side of things - how much will be needed to retire? How to preserve it while still remaining invested so inflation doesn't eat all away. This book makes a compelling case that the non-financial decisions we make about retirement will dictate how happy and fulfilled we will be. Great advice!

[Tammy Jata · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned from this book. There were a lot of good ideas for retirement presented. The big problem I had though, was that he could have said everything in 10 succinct pages, instead of drawing it all out to seemingly extend the length of the book. There was a lot of repetition!

[Lynn Schluns · Rating 4 out of 5]

Who knew that you should read a book about retirement well before you retire? I thought this was a helpful book as it was not just about retirement finances, but living a fulfilling life during retirement.

[Kristin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd intended to read this book prior to my early retirement, but didn't get around to it until now.
The author structures the entire framework around the metaphor of baking a cake. It's a pretty quick read, and I would consider it more on the philosophy side of personal finance. This is not a deep dive into the details of retirement.
Certainly an appropriate read for those approaching retirement - the book gives a good holistic overview on the importance of planning the non-financial along with the financial side of retirement.
But even those recently retired like me can benefit from reading this book, giving thought to how this new chapter of life is going, and consider any necessary course corrections.

[Nora · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book and gave me a lot of food for thought. Although I have already retired, I wish I had read this book prior to retirement. The fun activities I had planned have been highly short circuited by the 2020 pandemic. I'm hoping to continue traveling when my spouse and I get vaccinated!

I will try podcasts and blogs!

[Duane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a really great book to use as a starting point to this next chapter in your life. Take notes and don’t hesitate to read this book more than once. It’s a great starting point to knowing how to stay busy and stay happy in retirement.

[J Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not a book about finances or funding your retirement, though it does contain very general ideas about preparing for leaving work. What this book contains is some excellent advice about the planning for the other aspects of retirement. It might be considered a mindset book but there are very practical suggestions throughout. This book is well worth reading for anyone getting close to retirement.

[Michellerun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will come back to this book in years to come as we polish off our plan for an early retirement. The bucket strategy chapter was super helpful and we are building that bucket now. We appreciate all the resources at the end of the book.

[Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

People spend so much time focusing on the financial side of retirement and forget about the non-financial part. This book has lots of helpful information in that regard. I really liked the chapter on setting new routines.

[Tom Law · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author describes the book as "a roadmap for a journey that will last the rest of your life." In these pages he tries to help the reader lay out a game plan for addressing their retirement years and making them the best years of their life. This is an ambitious challenge, but he addresses it with a well-structured and productive process.

Gilbert uses his own planning and the process he implemented to outline what he recommends his readers use. It is obvious that he has been very successful in his own retirement. He has accomplished what he set out to do and is staying productive. But it takes a very structured mind to accomplish what he has done.

Not everyone is as structured or process oriented. For some just thinking about the things he has suggested may overwhelm them. It is not as easy as it seems, although he does make it very clear and simple to follow.

Even if you are not a financial person or an organized one either, you will gain some valuable insight form this book. It will help you meet the challenge of knowing what to do now that you have "retired" or if you are on the cusp of that event it will help you know the things you need to put into place to make these years what you want them to be.

Upon request, the publisher, with no preset conditions, sent me a copy of the book to review.

[AllBookedUp · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very well-written book that gives good advice and focuses on mental health and gives you sites should you need any. It was very enlightening to read about how to prepare for retirement, what some of your goals should include, where to go if you were forced into retirement, websites to go to should you need help transitioning, etc.

I personally had no problem retiring but then the Pandemic happened. My partner, however, had a much harder time transitioning and it got to the point where they relied on me to keep them occupied and together. It was a bit suffocating for me as I couldn't do what I wanted to do. I felt guilty so I'd be there and I started to slack off on what I really love to do, and one of them is quiet time and read.

[Fritz Gilbert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I'm the author, I may be a bit biased. Wink. 3 years before I retired, I started writing every week on my award-winning blog, The Retirement Manifesto. Now retired for 2 years, I continue to write weekly articles

This book encapsulates the keys I've learned to achieve a successful retirement, based on my 5 years of research and personal experience preparing for, and transitioning into, retirement.

It is intended to help others achieve a great retirement as they cross The Starting Line, a transition that can be surprisingly challenging for many people. Thank you for considering my book, I hope it has a positive impact on your journey.

[Rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've been reading Fritz's blog "The Retirement Manifesto" for over 3 years and wanted to see how he crystalized his learnings into a concise book. He did a great job. Having retired 3 years ago, I read the book from the framework of "what have I done right, and what can I improve?". I've done a lot right, but learned that I need to go back to passion and purpose. Some of the things I've chosen to do in retirement have filed my time but not fulfilled me. Time to give up some of those activities and take on some more meaningful things. Thanks, Fritz, for helping me identify what is missing.

[Steve Toler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Discover your purpose

As a faith based guy, I’ve always believed that there was no biblical basis for retirement … just sitting in a rocking chair or in a golf cart whiling the days away. Discovering a purpose for my post-“working for a paycheck” life is one of the key takeaways from this book. Loved the practical advice herein, and now that I am 6 months away from that day of life after working for a paycheck, I’m filled with ideas and possibilities of my new purposes that God has in store.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s a good reference book and Fritz makes a lot of good points to open people’s eyes to retirement. I think the target audience is someone 5 years away from a more traditional retirement which I’m not. Lots of the stories felt anecdotal because he is just speaking from his experience many times which got repetitive.

Maybe I will pull the book back out when I’m a couple years from retirement and it will hit different.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received a complimentary copy.

A book they may help some feel better about being free during the days. It has so many awesome tips and ideas that will keep you busy and balanced.

[Calla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good solid advice.

[Annarino K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is worth reading as one of many reference points in your retirement planning journey.

Anything you read will help you plan, and the real message is to pay some very serious attention to your plan at least a few years before the big date, even if you’re properly funding your 401k consistently, and thus avoid certain big mistakes. Interestingly he talks about money as though it’s not actually all that important while simultaneously providing numbers that will strike abject fear into many readers who realize they have already completely missed the chance to have enough to fund a decent retirement.

The problem or perhaps limitation is that it’s a bit too specific to the author’s own plan. To be fair he mentions repeatedly that it’s just an example for illustration of a possible highly successful scenario, and different plans can work too. But he retired very young and with a very successful nest egg. He is somewhere in the top 1-4% of American retirees and the baseline amounts he talks about are in that range as well for the most part.

So while the concepts are certainly accurate and the thought process described is beneficial, at least part of this approach is potentially above and exclusive of 95% of readers. There is minimal survival advice for folks who are not nearly as wealthy or smart as the author. Now to be fair it’s likely people who are more financially savvy and responsible who pick up such a book in the first place.

But if you realize at 60 that the $150,000 in your 401k is all you have to supplement the Social Security you plan to take in two years, this book has little to offer you except hard disappointments about how extremely far away you are from a senior survival plan. This book will jar you into reality but won’t provide any quick fixes for your “whoops” prior behavior.

Very realistically, many people retire with far lower resources than he recommends, which is in the neighborhood of 1.5 million dollars. Obviously that is a great amount to have but plenty of folk will never get anything close to that. He allows for that, somewhat, for example explaining that if you have only 500k, you can still retire if you accept your annual spending must drop or you may need part time or gig work for pay. But there’s not a lot of information about that.

This is really a book for people who are going to downsize from their suburban upper middle class (nearly paid for and nicely appreciated) home somewhere above the Mason Dixon line, and move to a lovely little cabin or park model or retirement condo on a lake or in a forest or in the hills or on a golf course, perhaps where winters are mild and HOA fees cover all the yard work.

So it gets 5 stars for being excellent advice for those folk and just one for everyone else.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most books written by people, who have a blog or a podcast, are as poorly researched as most blogs and podcasts are. They read a few articles and turn what could have been a few poorly researched magazine articles into a book. This one as least is turning years of his own articles into a short easy read book which hits on quite a few important topics for not failing at retiring. some topics are repeated almost word for word in later sections that I actually thought I dropped the book and and had opening it to a place I had already read. I'll blame a bad editor for the repeats.

Overall some good points. Most books focus only on the money aspects of retirement and ignore the day to day. Moving to a new city and not knowing anyone. Loosing all your work "friends" - both coworkers and other people you interact with on a regular basis. Not having a sense of purpose to get going every morning. And much more are topics you need to think about before you just retire and say every day is a Saturday.

Another good book is How to Retire Happy, Wild, and Free: Retirement Wisdom That You Won't Get from Your Financial Advisor

[Dominic Mozel]

-The number one piece of advice is to plan out what daily life would look like in retirement. Depression, lack of motivation, lack of purpose/identity, etc. are real troubles that people deal with when they retire.
-Daily routine and finding something you are interested in that can keep you engaged is very important.
-A group workout class a few days a week is a good idea in order to have not only a good fitness schedule but also to get a little social interaction that may be missing once you leave work.
-About 60% of people retire earlier than expected so its never too early to start thinking about what you would want life to look like when your whole schedule is open every single day.
-"Have faith, both in spiritual matters and in humanity, and in yourself. That faith will see you through the dark times we all navigate." T. Boone Pickens
-Although it is a fairly simple book, I think it is definitely worth revisiting when thinking/planning what retirement will be for us

[Susan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite able to finish before returning to library. My impression from what I've read is it is geared towards married people with higher income than me, who've owned a home for many years. This seems to be common in many of the retirement books I've looked at and is discouraging.
I'm hoping to retire in a few months from a gov't job where I will at least have a modest pension, and I have other savings. But not the amount this author and others recommend. I may need or even want to work part time in retirement.
The later chapters of the book look interesting so I may check this out from the library again but in the meantime am looking for a book for single women retiring on modest incomes!

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read the entire book sitting by the Colorado River one summer Sunday watching rafters float by. What a perfect time to be introspective on your retirement life. Having been retired for 2 years now, many of the ideas presented in this book, I have already mastered. Yet, the small items I picked up were thought provoking:
1. How to manage mandatory 401K withdrawals prior to 72, to avoid pushing you into a higher federal income tax bracket.
2. The important of purpose and relationships on the success of your retirement years.
3 How curiosity can lead you to your retirement purpose.

Thanks for a easy to read, enlightening book on retirement.

[Frederick Bingham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book has a bunch of practical tips for making the most of your retirement. The most useful ones were financial. It also has a section in the back with useful resources, websites, podcasts, companies and organizations. It’s a very helpful start on figuring out how to make the most of my later years. This was *way* better than Jimmy Carter’s similar book, which I reviewed a few months ago.

I have to say I got a little tired of the author’s self-promoting and breezy writing style. He could come off as smug after a while.

[Cathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book as an entry-level retirement planning read. I know nothing about retirement planning other than the financial side and it was refreshing to read a book about the topic that wasn't about financial planning. The author's tone and the book layout is an easy read and gets you thinking about your own retirement options. I highly recommend this book as a stepping stone to more specific topics.

[Yong Huang · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been better. The book has too much small talk, like the non-essential words uttered by friends that meet in a casual setting. If this is cut, the book can be shortened to about 20% of its current size, which is only 113 pages excluding appendixes. (The book feels thicker due to thick paper.) It would be better if the author elaborated more on finance, tax, retirement in a foreign country and other issues.

[MARIA DO RIO · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good advice

The book was filled with good tips for an enjoyable retirement. Please note that when you get to chapter one or any other chapter you have to swipe your kindle instead of tapping it to get to the next page, otherwise it will keep bringing you to the table of contents. I almost returned the book but luckily figured out.

[Ryan Edgecomb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m retired two months now. I’ve read about 10 retirement books in the last 6 months. This is the best. Not a difficult read at just over 100 pages. It’s worth your time to read this one. At the end, Fritz has pages of resources he recommends for blogs, books, websites, etc… he wants you to be successful in retirement and he’s laid out how best to do that in this book.

[Joe Koletar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short book, but refreshing in that it focused more on the soft side of retirement than the financial aspect. A light examination of finding your post-work purpose and how to adapt to your newly retired life. Not too deep or involved, but a worthwhile read.