PROFILES: Sherry Cooper

Success is not just about financial gain. “It’s a lot of things. It’s feelings of self-actualization — that you have done and are doing a good job. It’s about being excited about the contribution you are making. I have also felt very successful with respect to my son. He’s done very well. Now, he also has two little boys of his own and all of that has been a big part of what I consider success.”



It’s wonderful to be able to pick and choose what to do.” One of those choices is providing financial advice through her writing. Her latest book, The New Retirement: How it Will Change our Future, focuses on the profound effect retiring baby boomers are having and will have on labour and financial markets and the economy in general.

Sherry points out that, “The enormous wave of boomer retirees will crest in 2025. With the dramatic rise in longevity, healthy goal-driven boomers will seek purposeful leisure, a time for regeneration, rejuvenation, and lower stress contributions to society and their own personal wealth.” With this in mind, Sherry notes The New Retirement is not intended to be a typical retirement planning book or a personal finance book.

Rather it focuses on “the optimal transition to late life and what it takes to achieve a successful final third of your life. I examine how we can prepare to give ourselves the best chance of physical and mental well-being as well as financial security. We can actually regenerate rather than degenerate. “Financial planning is hugely important and extremely difficult,” she emphasizes.

“Even for those of us who are financially quite literate, it is tough to know how much money we need the day we stop working. In fact, most of us won’t stop working, both because of the uncertainty and because it’s important to have a sense of purpose in life. A sense of purpose and legacy is essential to happy, healthy aging. By definition, leaving a legacy requires advanced planning that evolves over every stage of life.

“Vacations,” she adds, “aren’t really vacations if they aren’t book-ended by work. It doesn’t have to be paid activity. It can also be volunteer work, but having some sort of structure is very important.” Further, she says, “People need to get financial advice. I’m not talking only about money management. You also need to have a sense of where you want to be, where you would like to live and what you would like to do once you’ve given up a full-time job.

 

If you’re married or have a partner, it’s a joint decision. A lot of people don’t spend much time thinking about life in retirement or trying things out and coming to grips with what will and what won’t work.” The fact that people are living longer further complicates matters. “We don’t know how long we will live or how much it will cost.”

But, avoiding debt in retirement makes the going smoother. “The ideal is not to have debt when you retire. It’s not always possible, but if you’re living in a place you can truly afford, you should be paying off your mortgage before retiring.” You should also continue the principle of spending less than you earn from various sources.

“Putting savings on automatic pilot was the best thing I could have done,” says Sherry. “I know the younger you are, the harder it is to do, but it’s never too late to start.”






https://www.fifty-five-plus.com/blog/community/sherry-cooper-woman-of-influence/