My Next Phase
The Personality-Based Guide to Your Best Retirement

by Eric Sundstrom, Randy Burnham and Michael Burnham

Most books on retirement focus solely on the financial aspect of this life-changing experience, but My Next Phase (The Personality-Based Guide to Your Best Retirement) by Eric Sundstrom, Randy Burnham and Michael Burnham deals with the most important aspect of one's life during that period - the actual, day-to-day living experiences.

The authors contend that personality is the key to having a successful retirement, and they provide questionnaires, charts and other information to let the prospective retiree see where he or she stands on many issues having to do with personality and retirement.

The authors warn about going against your personality. They give an example of a very gregarious person who decided to retire to an isolated cabin in the mountains. Things were fine until his personality rebelled and he became bored and dissatisfied.

The authors stress complete honesty - don't kid yourself into saying you are really structured when you are not - while they help you avoid this sort of mistake with their personality-measuring instruments.

Every person contemplating retirement should spend some time with this book, do the exercises, and make plans based on the information garnered from these activities.

I wish I had had access to this book before I retired - it would have helped me to reach the satisfied position I have in retirement sooner.