Retiring right requires a smart strategy. And if you didn’t get started early in your retirement planning, the second best time to start is now. Rick Atkinson, Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors in Toronto, shares his insights and advice.

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It’s Back to School time.

Here’s your reading list to peruse:

Best Books on Retirement

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Bio

Rick Atkinson is Founder & President of RA Retirement Advisors specializing in retirement planning. For over 15 years, Rick has been helping people live their ideal retirement.

As a human resources management specialist with over 30 years’ experience in industry and government service, Rick honed his understanding of what is required to lead a satisfying life after work. He then transferred this to writing and speaking about retirement planning and facilitating workshops and coaching.

He is the author of five books including Don’t Just Retire – Live It, Love It! and Strategies for Retiring Right!

Rick has written lead stories for well-known journals, as well as stories for various daily Canadian newspapers, and has appeared on Canadian radio and TV.

Rick is an acclaimed speaker on holistic retirement planning appearing at groups from 10 to 300. He has spoken at conferences and service groups across Canada, and facilitates workshops and webinars for companies, cities, government agencies and religious organizations and service clubs.

Rick has an MBA from York University and a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of British Columbia. He is also a CHRP (Certified Human Resources Professional); CMC (Certified Management Consultant); Advanced Level, Ontario Society of Training & Development. Recently made a Fellow of Distinguished Financial Services (FDFS) for his service as an influential thought leader.

As a point of pride and growth, for 10 years, Rick travelled extensively to Canada’s Arctic as a CESO (Canadian Executive Service Organization) volunteer advisor to mentor Inuit supervisors and managers, and to impart his human resources knowledge and insights. Rick’s volunteering was part of the Government of Nunavut’s Initiative Program.

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For More on Rick Atkinson

Books

Website

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Podcast Episodes You May Like

Design Your Life and Get Unstuck – Dave Evans

Retire Happy – Dr. Catherine Sanderson

Why Retirement is About Much More Than Money – Ted Kaufman & Bruce Hiland

Ready to ROAR? – Michael Clinton

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Wise Quotes

On Deciding When to Retire

“So I think this whole piece of work stress for some, but for some others, what I found is that they have a feeling of unfulfillness –  that work is holding them back, that they’ve got things that they want to pursue, a passion project. They want to start a business,. They want to do extensive traveling. But there are others that, and I’ve had this myself, people saying, Why aren’t you retired? You’re X years old. Why are you still working? I met a couple and the wife had said to the husband, I didn’t sign up for this. He just told me he’s not going to retire. I thought we would have time together. There’s another situation that says, is this the right time? I’ve met many people who have sat down with their financial advisor and the financial advisor had said, You know what, you got enough money to keep you going well into your 90s. And they walk out of the office and say, Hey, maybe that’s it.”

On Mistakes to Avoid in Planning for Retirement

“Oh, there’s a whole myriad of things that you need time to think about these and plan for them rather than just the day you retire. Another mistake that I find that people make is that they concentrate so much on the money. The recession in 2008 devastated a whole bunch of folks and their retirement monies. And to my mind, it’s not the money that you amass, but the monetary trick is how to determine how much money is going to make you feel secure. The [other] mistake that I find that people make is they think that retirement is like an extended holiday. Here’s, here’s all of the stuff I did in my golf holiday. I did the projects around the house, etc. I’m just going to do that when I retire. Well, you and I know there is a honeymoon period that happens when you retire in the first few weeks and months. This is wonderful. There’s no cares, no pressure. But that wears off and that becomes a feeling of disenchantment kind of comes in. If you’re golfing five days a week, then starts to become like a job. The projects at home don’t have any appeal anymore, and so what I find is that when people think it’s just an extended holiday, they start to feel frustrated. They feel a bit disappointed and they seem to get caught up in this vortex they can’t get out of.”

On Attitude in Retirement

“And that is the number of people that go into retirement with a negative attitude. They see themselves as non-productive, non-contributory, life is over, and as you know, it takes courage to have a good retirement. It takes commitment. It takes desire. And we’ve got to remind ourselves all of the things that we have been successful at. We were successful at getting an education, raising a family, holding a job. And those things all seem to be hard to us, but we did it. So why not the same positive attitude into retirement?”

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About Retirement Wisdom

I help people who are retiring, but aren’t quite done yet, discover what’s next and build their custom version of their next life. A meaningful retirement doesn’t just happen by accident. Schedule a call to discuss how The Designing Your Life process created by Bill Burnett & Dave Evans can help you make your life in retirement a great one – on your own terms.

About Your Podcast Host 

Joe Casey is an executive coach who also helps people design their next life after their primary career and create their version of The Multipurpose Retirement.™ He created his own next chapter after a twenty-six-year career at Merrill Lynch, where he was Senior Vice President and Head of HR for Global Markets & Investment Banking. Today, in addition to his work with clients, Joe hosts The Retirement Wisdom Podcast, which thanks to his guests and loyal listeners, ranks in the top 1 % globally in popularity by Listen Notes, with over 1.2 million downloads. Business Insider has recognized Joe as one of 23 innovative coaches who are making a difference. He’s the author of Win the Retirement Game: How to Outsmart the 9 Forces Trying to Steal Your Joy.