Life After Work: six retirement stories that can change your life

By Arthur F. Dauria, Walter vom Saal, Arthur F. Dauria & Walter vom Saal

Reviews the lives of six famous people (the Delany Sisters, Lee Iacocca, Katharine Hepburn, Jimmy Carter, and Arthur Ashe) and the messages they have for the rest of us. These lives dramatically illustrate the major themes surrounding retirement. This book offers ingishts for everyone who is retired or planning to retire, focusing on the mental outlook adjustments, rather than financial needs.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0979077508
• ISBN13: 9780979077500
• Release Date: July 2007
• Publisher: Montrose Publishing
• Length: 265 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Guidebook for the golden years

Very informative and enlightening read. The writers argue that retirement from paid work does not mean a retirement from meaningful contribution to the world. In fact, the people cited in the book, in some ways, contributed MORE to the world after their retirments. As a person approaching that age, I am glad to see retirement reframed as the start of an important second career.

Retirement is Personal

Having retired this year, I was curious as to what I'd missed in my plans for this momentous life transition. So, I picked up "Life After Work" anticipating another book explaining to me how, at my age, I needed to "balance my portfolio" and cut back on the risk level of my investments. What a pleasant surprise. This book addresses the more difficult challenges of retirement: Who you are and how the person you are will be positively realized during this stage of life. This book is a smooth read. The style is straight-forward and dynamic. It's like sitting down with a good friend and talking about personal decisions you have to make. The narrative style is easy to follow. There is a lot of theory in the discussion; however, it's presented in a muted fashion without the reader having to cope with the technical language of scholarly writings. Let me be clear, though; this book is based on sound scholarship both by the authors and the sources they incorporate into the analyses, conclusions, and suggestions offered throughout. Most readers will know something about the six people profiled in Life After Work. If not, the profiles are so compact and engaging that readers will not be disadvantaged if these are new lives to examine. And, readers will be enriched by these life reviews done from a sensitive, loving perspective. It is clear that the authors truly like and respect the people they profile and from whom they extract significant lessons for all of us as we plan, experience, and reflect on our own retirements. There are plenty of "buzz" words and phrases to take away from the reading. Primary examples are: Three R's of Responsibilities, Relationships, and Recreation; retirement takes many forms; life transition; guide to satisfactory retirement; and my favorite, the myth of found time. More importantly, the book has a real holistic feel to it, that is, there is an interaction that goes on throughout the book so at the end all the pieces of the puzzle fit together. And this puzzle, presented by this excellent book, is truly about the personal side of retirement. I strongly recommend this lively and engrossing book for readers of any age. They certainly will come away with a different perspective on this wonderful event - retirement - which we all hope to experience.

Excellent, engaging, timely

I was reading Life After Work while in line at the airport, and the man behind me said, "Life After Work, I've got to read that!" He's right: This book is a must-read for anyone contemplating retirement. As the authors rightfully point out, much of what fills bookshelves and magazine articles about retirement addresses the financial aspects: how much money do you need to retire, how to save for retirement, etc. What's often missing from those reports is what Arthur Dauria and Walter vom Saal, the authors of Life After Work, call "the personal side of retirement." They write, "Financial security is not the only important issue in retirement. Beyond a certain level, more money does not lead to more happiness." The rest of the book is devoted to that question: how to have a happy, fulfilling retirement. To answer that question, the authors take a unique and engaging approach. They profile six famous people, each of them with unique reasons for retiring and experience after retiring. It's a diverse group in terms of gender, race, and life experience: Sarah and Bessie Delany, African-Americans who grew up in the rural south and became bestselling authors after age 100; Lee Iacocca, the former CEO of Chrysler, multiple academy award-winning actress Katharine Hepburn; Jimmy Carter, the 39th President of the United States; and Arthur Ashe, tennis champion and civil rights advocate. As a person who doesn't read People magazine or biographies, I was actually surprised and how successfully the authors drew me into the stories of these famous individuals. After giving the background of each person's life and describing the successes (or failures) of their retirements, the authors then draw conclusions about how we can better prepare for (and better enjoy) our own retirement. The authors' suggestions and advice for successful retirement are drawn from the life stories they tell, and also are supported by research they describe. I was surprised to learn that only 1 in 20 older Americans is in a nursing home, and the book is filled with other similar tidbits that push one's thinking beyond what we hear about retirement or aging in the news. I loved their quote from the Sarah and Bessie Delany, "cut back on your possessions. The more you own the more time you waste taking care of things." I'm going to try to start doing that long before retirement. No matter who you are -- male or female, artist or business leader, rich or poor, you can find role models in this book. The authors also devote a section to what they call the "three Rs of retirement" -- responsibilities, relationships, and recreation, which is a great added bonus at the end of the book. Overall, Life After Work is a unique and informative book: combining advice with biography. I highly recommend it!