Let’s face it. We often equate our personal self-worth with what we do for a living and how much money we make.

For many of us, work defines who we are.

Work
structures our lives so that come Monday morning we know where we are
expected to be. Work provides an opportunity for us to meet new people
and make new friends. Our jobs also provide us with an identity and a
particular social status.

And let’s be honest; if you were
too really reflect on the situation you would come to the conclusion
that for the past 35 years you have been relieved that work ...<< MORE >>

So you are planning to retire from your job after 30 some odd years of service. At long last, you get to be free of demanding bosses, impending deadlines and obnoxious co-workers. Not so fast! I want to let you in on a little secret that most of your retired friends won’t tell you.<< MORE >>

If you are like many people who are planning for retirement you probably think that you need to SAVE a whole bunch of money so that you can maintain your current standard of living once you retire.<< MORE >>

I want to let you in on a little secret. When my father first retired he was very excited to spend more time with my mom. He looked forward to lounging around the house, tending to his garden, and helping her with the grocery shopping and household errands. Your probably wondering, what’s wrong that?<< MORE >>

I know that contemplating your earthly departure can be a rather uncomfortable subject to consider. But let’s face it. We are all going to die sometime. And deciding who gets your “stuff” is a rather important task to tackle before you go.<< MORE >>

Maybe when you were working the arrangement you had with your spouse was that one of you was responsible for grocery shopping and meal preparation while the other’s responsibilities included taking out the garbage, fixing things around the house and tending to the lawn. Well guess what- old roles no longer apply!<< MORE >>

Welcome to my blog The Enlightened Retiree.

My mission is to help YOU prepare for YOUR emotional well-being in retirement so that
the transition from work to retirement is as smooth and as easy as possible.

My name is Gillian Leithman and I have a spent the last 6 years researching retirement and what makes people happy at this stage of their lives. In fact, I even wrote my master's thesis on the subject (which is soon to be a book).

I won an award for my research on the differences between how men and women handle the retirement transition, their regrets about their past decisions and how PLANNING for this next stage of life can make all the difference in how happy you are once retired.

Since then, I have devoted all of my time and energy to my company, Directions Third Age Consultants Inc. We help people, just like you, plan for what's next. Take a look at www.theenlightenedretiree.com and our parent company Directions Third Age Consultants Inc.

For those of you who are not yet retired, you will find tons of information on what steps you need to take in order to plan for a successful, happy and enlightened retirement.

And for those of you who are retired and are having difficulty with this transition, you to will find tips on how to navigate this next chapter of your life.

I want to congratulate you for coming on board and joining the thousands of, ZOOMERS (that is the word that Media Mogul Moses Znaimer has termed to define the baby boomer generation and it means boomers with Zip)  just like you who are part of an ever growing community of people that are changing the face of aging and retirement.

Enjoy the read!

To your retirement success,

Gillian Leithman