I’m happy to announce that the tribe is moving to higher ground at BoomingEncore.com. The site was launched in 2013 and is owned and operated by my good friend Susan Williams. Her mission mirrors ours here at Victory Lap – to educate and inspire baby boomers to create and live their best lives, and she has been successful at it. Booming Encore is currently one of the top websites for baby boomers worldwide. Now you know why I asked her to help work on our new book “Retirement Heaven or Hell” — — it’s because she knows her stuff and cares about boomers just like we do. Rob and I are excited abo ..read more

Now that the New Year’s celebrations are over, it’s a good time to check on your retirement plan to see how you’re doing. Tax season will be here before you know it and having your year-end statements at the ready will make the process much easier. An article from MarketWatch.com by Kerry Hannon from Next Avenue provided five tips for your retirement planning checkup. 1 – Rebalance Your Retirement Accounts. As the value of your investments change, it can change the percentage of your portfolio that is allocated to stocks, bonds and cash. Regular maintenance is needed to tweak the allocations s ..read more

Chuck Yeager was a hero of mine, and sadly he is no longer with us having passed away on December 7, 2020, at the age of 97. He came out of the hills of West Virginia with only a high school education and became a fighter pilot, which is interesting considering he wasn’t a naturally gifted flier. In fact, he was sick to his stomach the first time he flew in an airplane but he overcame this fear through his hard work, dedication, and passion for flying. During the Second World War, he flew a P-51 Mustang and shot down five enemy planes on a single mission. He was also shot down by enemy forces ..read more

Our past retirement seminars served to introduce the concept of a “Victory Lap Retirement” and what we learned from doing all those seminars is that most people didn’t want to retire. They wanted help figuring out what to do with the rest of their lives. At the end of our seminars, people would come up to me and say they loved the concept but needed more assistance in the form of a step-by-step guide to help make their retirement transition easier. Personally, I didn’t want to spend time writing another book. I’m a slow writer who likes to ponder on things and it takes a lot of time – time tha ..read more

Endurance runners are some of the most physically fit athletes on the planet. Growing in both popularity and intensity, endurance races can last up to a few days and exhibit runners propelling their bodies 26.2, 50, 100, even up to 240 miles in a single race. How is this possible? Other than these runners’ extraordinary mental resolve, the answer lies at the molecular level. Whether they’re jogging, swimming, biking, or even walking, their bodies are using one of two metabolic “engines” to produce the energy required their muscles to function. The aerobic engine burns a constantly regener ..read more

I get it, people have been working so hard for so long at keeping their families safe during the pandemic, and they are tired and stressed out. Unfortunately, some of us are letting our guard down at the worse possible time as COVID-19 cases are starting to rise again. The Canadian government is eyeing January 2021 as the start date for when people will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccines, but I believe their overly optimistic projection is realistic. Because my age is north of 65 I expect to be near the head of the line after the health care workers but I don’t believe that line will start movi ..read more

We’ve all heard the saying “cash is king.” Readily available cash provides a sense of empowerment to move freely and act quickly when opportunities arise. However, in today’s low-interest-rate environment, many investors are disappointed with the lack of relative return on bank deposits. But make no mistake: cash is still a benefit. Despite little to no return, cash continues to provide real value. As You Approach Retirement The benefits of cash as you retire or move closer to retirement can be impactful. To cover part of their living expenses, many retirees need to rely on investment savings ..read more

My chosen work is retirement lifestyle design, and I’ve written two books on the subject. I felt the need to write a third book a collection of stories about how other people are approaching retirement so people could learn from what others went through – both their mistakes and successes. Thankfully I don’t need to do that anymore because Richard Haiduck did it for me in his new book “Shifting Gears.” I like his book so much that I’m going to make it required reading for my clients prior to having them start the retirement lifestyle design process. It will shorten their learning curve and hel ..read more

One of the benefits of a longer lifespan is having more discretionary time after you leave a traditional career. In fact, your retirement may last as long as your professional career. Breaking up the time into phases can help you plan your retirement more effectively and accommodate for possible expenses that may come up in later phases. There are at least four major phases of retirement with very different patterns of behavior and financial need. Phase 1: Healthy and Adventurous – Because you can supplement your income by working, you may have expensive hobbies and plan exotic vacations. Phas ..read more

Truth be told, I don’t enjoy reading retirement planning/finance books as I find most of them dry, complicated, and I usually end up with a headache while reading them. But having said that I’m forced to read them because I’m not overly confident with the quality of advice that I get from the bank these days. Sometimes I feel like I know more about retirement planning than the people advising me do, and knowing that bothers me because it shouldn’t be that way. The skillset for decumulation (drawing down your retirement assets) is quite different than wealth accumulation. You may discover to yo ..read more