Literature

Here are some super retirement guides for people in the pre-retirement zone or the professionals who help them. Whether you are planning your own retirement or helping others plan theirs, these books could be very helpful.

	The Retirement Literature: An Annotated Bibliography This unique bibliography includes over 100 reviews of the best books on how to be happy, healthy and financially secure in retirement, the best retirement planning web sites, and over 70 reviews of the retirement research literature. You will find here book reviews on every subject that has anything to do with planning for retirement from how to find the best financial advisor to how couples can manage two retirement.
	Happily Retired: What works…what doesn’t. 2009. The Canadian authors, Julie Chahal and Linda Lucas, both experienced early retirements and became fascinated with the retirement process. This book identifies the key issues facing individuals as they retire, provides personal insights from both authors, and an overall approach to planning for retirement that is based on both their experience and their research into retirement.
	Buying Time: Trading Your Retirement Savings for Income and Lifestyle in your Prime Retirement Years. 2008. Daryl Diamond, a well known expert in the financial services industry, provides his formula for finding a balance between your time and your money. His focus is on how individuals can manage their money in a way to ensure that retirement dreams are realized.
	The Joy of Retirement: Finding Happiness, Freedom, and the Life You’ve Always Wanted. 2008. The authors, David Borchard and Patricia Donahue, focus on the transition to retirement. They take into account the extent to which retirement as a life stage has changed. They address many of the psychological issues facing individuals as they move into and through retirement and provide useful exercises to assist individuals on their journey into later life.
	What Colour is Your Parachute? For Retirement. 2007. Here is a book by the well known author, Richard Bolles, famous for his What Colour is Your Parachute?, a book that assists individuals with life changes, especially related to career change. This book specifically targets retirement. It is a practical, yet philosophical, guide that provokes the individual to think about what is important and what needs to be done to ensure that the later stages of life are active and meaningful.
	Redefining Retirement: New Realities for Boomer Women. 2007. This retirement planning guide by Dr. Margret Hovanec and Elizabeth Shilton focuses on the issues that women in Canada need to address as they plan for later life. They cover the financial, pyschological and social issues facing women as they plan for retirement. They address head on the following facts: that women live on less retirement income than men, are more likely than men to find themselves in later life living alone, and that boomer women will be the first generation of women to be moving into retirement, having had long careers in the workforce.
	Retirement for Two. 2004. This retirement planning guide for couples, by Maryanne Vandervelde, addresses the issues facing modern couples as they plan for retirement, including how couples can deal with the need for time together and time alone and how to reassess responsibilities in the home. Sensitive to the shifting nature of the retirement of couples, it even touches on what to do when couples are retiring at different times.
	How to Retire Happy, Wild and Free. 2004. Ernie Zelinski, author of the popular book, The Joy of Not Working, offers a refreshing and instructive formula for planning retirement. A super retirement planning guide that addresses many of the lifestyle issues of importance.
	Mental Fitness for Life: 7 Steps to Healthy Aging. 2003. Sandra Cusack and Wendy Thompson address the issues that confront us as we age and they focus on the importance of remaining mentally fit, not just physically fit, as we move into later life. They present seven key elements in successful aging, including goal setting, power thinking, creativity, positive attitude, memory/learning, speaking your mind and overall mental fitness.
	The Pension Puzzle. 2001. Bruce Cohen and Brian Fitzgerald provide the reader with an excellent overview of the important role pensions play in relation to retirement income and then provide the details on the different kinds of pension income, both private and public. Given the important role pensions play in the retirement income of the average Canadian, this book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand their pension entitlements.
	The Healthy Boomer: A No-Nonsense Midlife Health Guide for Women and Men. 1999. This is exactly what it says it is. It covers simply and directly all of the mental and physical health issues midlife individuals may encounter. A great reference guide.