Books Archive

The Portfolio Life

Retirement Wisdom · Jan 31, 2024 ·

By Christina Wallace

This is yet another excellent book that’s not explicitly all about retirement, yet very applicable to retirement.

Christina Wallace describes herself as a “human Venn Diagram.” Her portfolio life includes being a Senior Lecturer at the Harvard Business School, startup mentor, angel investor, writer, podcaster and theater producer – and that’s just on the professional side of her life.

The core idea of this book is taking business frameworks and exploring how they can be used in life planning and design. A foundational concept behind The Portfolio Life is a familiar principle in investing: diversification. Wallace makes a compelling case against putting all of your eggs in any one basket, when it comes to designing your life. It’s a concept that fits quite well with planning your life in retirement. Rather than looking for a singular interest to replace what full-time work provided you, craft a combination of multiple pursuits instead.

Another useful idea that Wallace advocates is to create your own personal Board of Directors who can advise and assist you in your future endeavors. And like an organization’s board, she notes that you’ll want to think through the optimal roles and skills you’ll want the collective board to possess. She advises build a diverse group to play different roles like Coach, Negotiator, Connector, Cheerleader and Truth Teller.

Another practice Wallace recommends importing from the business word is measurement. What gets measured is indeed what gets done. She recommends building your Personal Balanced Scorecard to gauge how you’re doing with your new portfolio. Creating it can be a thought provoking exercise in defining and clarifying what success and and/or satisfaction will look like for you in your new life.

If you’re unclear about your vision for your future The Portfolio Life includes practical exercises that can help you started. One especially powerful one is 100 Wishes, which she described in my podcast conversation with her. You can listen in here and get started on building your own portfolio life.

Buy The Portfolio Life here

Listen to my podcast conversation with Christina Wallace

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Related Book Summaries You May Like:

Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans

Tapas Life by Andrew Robin

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Retire Smarter: Listen to conversations on The Retirement Wisdom Podcast

Retirement Wisdom · Dec 29, 2023 ·

How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen | by David Brooks

While I don’t especially love the title of this new book by David Brooks, I do appreciate his insightful books, especially The Road to Character and The Second Mountain. I find that they offer a different perspective and practical ideas on mid-to-later life.

In How to Know a Person, Brooks continues sharing the research and experiences underpinning his journey of reflection and personal growth. This book focuses on honing the ability to truly see and understand others as a key building block for healthy relationships, meaningful connection and community, all of which are key elements in a satissfying life in retirement. Brooks sees this ability as an important skill that can be developed and cultivated over time. Brooks starts with power of observing others carefully, and explores the value of empathy, deep listening, vulnerability and the art of meaningful conversation. He also has a take on wisdom. In his view it’s not about knowledge – it’s “about knowing about people.”

The core idea I’m taking away from How to Know a Person is a choice that Brooks poses: Are you an Illuminator or a Diminisher?

He explains that Illuminators are genuinely curious about others and know how to ask the right questions at the right time. They know how to read people. They bring out the best in people up amplify their strengths, including ones that they may not fully see in themselves. In contrast, Diminishers are self-absorbed and make other people feel small. I think this is an important choice to consider and can have a big impact on your relationships, interactions and satisfaction in life. This book offers useful ” how-to” ideas on understanding others better and enhancing your skills in building deeper relationships.

In 2024, let’s strive to be Illuminators – and minimize the time we spend with Diminishers (the in-person ones and the virtual ones).

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Buy How to Know a Person by David Brooks

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Retirement Wisdom · Dec 9, 2023 ·

Quitting: A Life Strategy: The Myth of Perseverance―and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free by Julia Keller

They say that breaking up is hard to do. Is something telling you it’s time to move on? Could a single word be standing between you and the next phase of life you’ve been planning for and dreaming about?

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Julia Keller thinks that we need to step back an reconsider our beliefs about the emotionally charged word quitting. In our culture we highly value grit and staying the course. We’re taught from a very young age the importance of perseverance. In sports and in the work world, it’s rewarded. And these traits and indeed valuable. But Keller notes, perhaps we overvalue them. She points out that in a many situations sticking it out is not the smartest play. Moving on is. But our aversion to quitting often holds us back from making the bold decision to change course and pursue a different path. Keller makes a compelling case for why strategic quitting can be transformational in certain situations and lays out why it can be a courageous act of love to make a course correction versus sticking it out. She explores the neuroscience behind quitting and recounts examples from her own life, and the experiences of people from various walks of life for whom quitting was exactly the right move.

While this is not specifically a book about retirement, if you’re contemplating retirement or a pivot to a second act, you’ll find this book to be timely, insightful and thought-provoking.

Listen to my podcast conversation with Julia Keller here

Buy Quitting: A Life Strategy: The Myth of Perseverance―and How the New Science of Giving Up Can Set You Free

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Retirement Wisdom · Dec 1, 2023 ·

Next!: The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work by Joanne Lipman

Change is hard. But it’s often well worth it. As people approach retirement, many people sense that they’re not done yet. They have more to contribute, more to learn and more to do. And so thoughts often turn to an encore career. What’s next? How can I redirect and redeploy my skills and experience? What if I took on something entirely new?

As someone who’s done that, I can attest that creating a second career isn’t easy, but it is quite doable – and highly rewarding in many different ways. But how do you get there? What’s the playbook?

Joanne Lipman is an award-winning journalist, who has served as Editor-in-Chief of USA Today, USA Today Network, Conde Nast Portfolio, and The Wall Street Journal’s Weekend Journal, In Next!: The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work, she’s created a valuable guide based on her research, experience and hundreds of conversations with experts in various fields and people who’ve successfully made a career pivot, including the inside story of James Patterson’s transition from advertising to becoming prolific author. It’s insightful and practical.

What I love about this book is that it dispels a number of common, pervasive myths about career pivots. The first is that second careers are sudden. Lipman points out that they’re more often the product of many “tiny moves” along the way that lay the foundation for a new career. The second is that the pathway is linear. She notes that baby boomers are increasingly creating new careers later in life by leveraging secondary nascent talents and side projects that lead to a new direction.

The heart of the book is what she calls a “Reinvention Roadmap” consisting of four stages that emerged as common denominators in her interviews: Search, Struggle, Stop, and Solution. The first step,The Search, is when you are collecting information and experiences to accumulate knowledge. She notes that counterintuitively, it’s often unintentional and can lead you to unexpected places. The second stage is The Struggle, the uncomfortable stage where you start to disconnect from your previous identity, but before you’ve figured out your next move and your new identity. Lipman highlights that this stage can last for some time, until you reach the third stage, The Stop, which is the transition point where you move on to your future.

A key point in this book is that The Struggle is a pivotal stage. Lipman explains this phase can be deceptive. People that they’re spinning their wheels, but it turns out that this is where real progress is made and encore careers are ultimately created. And it’s where some people give up too soon. This is perhaps the most valuable section in Next! You’ll come away prepared to anticipate, appreciate and even embrace this satge.

Echoing the Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans, Lipman spotlights the power of exploring multiple “possible selves” and the value of working with an “Expert Companion” who can offer guidance and support to your journey. If an encore career is of interest to you, Next! is a must read.

Listen to my podcast conversation with Joanne Lipman here.

Buy Next!: The Power of Reinvention in Life and Work

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Retirement Wisdom · Nov 13, 2023 ·

by Vanessa Patrick, PhD

Do you ever find it hard to say no? Or notice that kicking yourself because you regret saying yes to something that’s not the best use of your time? Then this book is for you.

The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No that Puts You in Charge of Your Life is a great example of a book that isn’t about retirement, yet can upgrade your retirement. Retirement offers a bounty of freedom and flexibility. But early on that freedom can feel uncomfortable if you were accustomed to a packed schedule in your full-time working years. And that can make you overeager to say yes too quickly to requests from others. Fast forward and they find yourself busy again, but with things that don’t provide satisfaction or fulfillment. You discover a chunk of their time is dedicated to priorities – but other people’s priorities. And you’ve given away much of the freedom and flexibility you worked so hard to earn.

Don’t be that person. Vanessa Patrick’s research arms you with elegant and practical ways to say no, gracefully but firmly. It equips you with the mindset and tools that will help you protect your time and reserve it for what truly matters to you.

In your work-life it may be easy (and even fun) to say no to that annoying co-worker. But Patrick’s research shows that saying no can be challenging because we care about our relationships. And in your retirement, it won’t be that annoying co-worker you’ll want to say no to. A larger portion of people making the asks of you will be friends, family, neighbors and community members – people you really care about.

Dr. Patrick is a Professor of Marketing and the Associate Dean for Research at the Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston. Her research focuses on strategies to achieve personal mastery and inspire everyday excellence, as well as everyday consumer aesthetics, where she is considered a pioneering scientist. As we say in my hometown of Boston, she’s wicked smart.

Two examples of Patrick’s research-based approaches:

Make an Empowered Refusal – It’s easier to say no when it’s based on who you are – your identity – and what your values are. And word choice matters. Saying no with “I’ Don’t” rather than “I’ Can’t” has been found to be more effective.
Set Personal Policies – Clarify your purpose and your priorities and then set Personal Policies around them. The decisions you make in advance sets you up to say no seamlessly and effectively.

“In my research, I actually focus on what are the words that we can use to communicate our refusal, that implicate the identity. And the way you implicate your identity is you ground your refusal in your identity is by choosing your words carefully. When you say, I can’t, you come across as disempowered, not in control, and suggest to the asker that, well, under some other situation, I would be able to say yes – but right now I can’t. And that very often invites pushback, negotiation or discussion. Whereas when you say, I don’t, you implicate yourself, you say: This is my way of operating. This is who I am. This is how I do things. So, I don’t is a much more empowered way to communicate your refusal.”

– Vanessa Patrick

You’ll need to invest time for reflection before and during retirement to build clarity around your new identity, your new purposes and what matters most now. But doing so and learning to say no will help you focus your time on the things you always dreamed of doing.

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Listen to my podcast conversation with Vanessa Patrick here.

Buy The Power of Saying No: The New Science of How to Say No that Puts You in Charge of Your Life

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