The Essential Guide To Retirement Readiness

Are you ready to get real about your retirement? Today, retirement is a new beginning. Many Baby Boomers are healthier, wealthier and living longer than their parents. Yet while many plan financially for retirement, far fewer consider the social and psychological changes retirement will bring. As a result, some find themselves bored after a year or two of leisure or depressed because they feel lost without a new identity. The Essential Guide to Retirement Readiness is your complete reference for thinking through this next phase of your life. You can use the thought-provoking questions and insights to help you consider the key areas for achieving an active and satisfying retirement, from health and family to life purpose and finances. In this comprehensive guide, you get: • Expert instruction on saving for retirement and the steps to take to ensure your wealth outlives you. • Advice on creating specific goals through the three stages of retirement based on how active you can and want to be. • Tips for finding fun and fulfilling activities and even using the skills you’ve spent a lifetime developing. • Ready-to-use financial planning worksheets, a resource guide, and more. Daniel Roy, founder and CEO of Praxis Wealth Management, is a certified retirement coach and a certified financial planner with 28 years of experience. He is also a speaker and trainer on wealth management strategies and retirement planning.

Long gone are the days of simply calling it quits from work and spending your remaining days on the front porch. Today’s cohort is retiring earlier and living longer. Some of these retirees have the financial resources to do what they want. They are healthy, happy and enjoying the fruits of many years of hard work and diligent saving. These folks planned for their retirement, and, as a result, are able to live out their retirement dream to the fullest of their capacities. But they tell only one part of the retirement story. For all the images of smiling seniors depicted in the media, there are still an important number of retirees who do not do the work needed to prepare for the transition into retirement. Far too many who are near retirement age spend their time counting down the days until their retirement date arrives. Instead of thinking about what life after work will look like, they focus only on their exit date. Still others are too busy at work and at home to pay much attention to their planning needs. Whatever their reason for failing to prepare for this important new period in their lives, the end result is a retirement spent in idle business as they try to make the time go by. With all of their previous reference points for happiness, fulfillment and contentment gone, these people struggle to create a new life for themselves that doesn’t include boredom, anxiety and depression. The truth is, of all the transitions we face in life, few can elicit the same level of anxiety and stress as retirement does. From whether you’ve saved enough money to what will happen if you become ill, the numerous unknowns that await us once we leave the safety of our work are at the root of this discomfort. These feelings can lead many people to simply give up on life and hope for the best once they leave work. That’s where a well-thought-out retirement plan can make a difference. If you’re approaching retirement and starting to worry about what you should do, this book is written for you. And even if you have already begun planning for your retirement, you will still find this book helpful. That’s because conventional retirement planning with its focus on the financial aspect is no longer enough to assure you of financial independence and a fulfilling life. While important, a financial plan fails to take into account three other key ingredients to a meaningful retirement that I share with you in this book.

Daniel Roy is a certified retirement coach and a certified financial planner who works with about-to-retire, retiring and already retired men and women who want more fulfillment and control in the second act of their lives. He brings a unique blend of experience in financial planning, investment management, and life coaching, as well as in-depth knowledge of the social and psychological changes retirement will bring. Using proven discovery methods, as well as scientifically designed assessment tools, he helps clients think consciously about what will give them meaning in retirement—and develop an effective financial plan so that they can enjoy a fulfilling post-work life without worrying about outliving their nest egg. Passionate about learning and self-development, he brings a distinctive philosophy to working with his clients: It’s your life, live it to the max! Daniel is also fiercely committed to sharing what he has learned over a 28-year career spent helping others create, grow and protect their wealth. His mission is to empower others to take control of their financial lives. As a sought-after speaker and educator, Daniel reveals the secrets to mastering wealth and enjoying a financially secure retirement. Audiences appreciate his gift for explaining complex financial concepts in simple, clear, and easy-to-understand language. Daniel places a high value on helping clients achieve greater self-direction, because he’s done it for himself. Before starting his career as a financial planner, Daniel served in the Canadian military, rising to the rank of Lieutenant. After 15 years of experience in leadership, planning, and operations, he found a way to create his own career path as his interests and external circumstances changed. He started as a certified financial planner in 1987, but soon found that investment products, methods of investing, and tax minimization strategies were becoming more complex for his clients. He wanted a deeper, more specialized level of financial knowledge to be better able to offer the sound advice and wealth management strategies they needed. So he became a chartered investment manager and then a certified international wealth manager. Daniel loves this role and, in 2010, founded Praxis Wealth Management, where he has actively managed the investment portfolios of hundreds of clients, including executives, business owners, professionals, and retirees, to ensure their wealth outlives them. As a strong advocate of financial education, he also launched the Praxis Wealth Institute that same year so that he could teach people how to achieve their life goals through better financial decisions. He was recognized for his expertise and professional integrity when the Canadian Securities Institute made him a Fellow in 2012, a rare honour earned by just 3,500 financial services professionals across Canada. His career changed again when, more than six years ago, Daniel responded to the concerns he was hearing from clients. They were confused about their non-financial retirement options and felt ill-prepared for life after work. He saw retirement coaching as the best vehicle for helping his clients get more from retirement than a pension and leisure time. As part of his development, he became a certified retirement coach and an elder planning consultant, which gave him more tools he could use to help clients re-invent themselves and achieve an active and satisfying retirement. Daniel loves what he does and is thrilled when he sees clients gain the confidence and financial freedom to live their retirement their way. For more on Daniel and his work, visit www.YourRetirementCoach.ca.