Lessons from "The New Retirementality" by Mitch Anthony
Lessons from The New Retirementality by Mitch Anthony
On Feb 25, 2026, 15 extraordinary women gathered for the winter 2026 Women, Wealth and Wisdom Financial "Book" Club in Bloomington, Indiana. We discussed insights from "The New Retirementality" by Mitch Anthony. See those lessons and discussion questions below.
The mission that guides our quarterly gatherings is to:
- Create a safe space for women to ask financial questions.
- Educate women about money issues they commonly avoid
- Empower women to make financial decisions.
- Encourage our current attendees to begin their own book clubs to spread knowledge and support the people in their lives.
Bonus: To relax and have a little fun!
If you would like to host your own book club, use the key quotes below and download the PDF of the discussion questions at the bottom of this page and email Claire Kest for copies of the books from our lending library.
Chapter 1: A Short History of Retirement
Quotes to Contemplate:
- American Express created the first private pension in America in 1875. (p 4)
- When FDR and the New Dealers settled on the [retirement] age of 65 in 1935, the average life expectancy in America was 63 years. (p 5)
- ...today, we understand that the new retirement resembles a bell curve rather than a cliff. Rather than jumping off of vocational cliff, we will gradually slow down. (p 8)
Chapter 2: Removing Artificial Finish Lines
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Henry Ford said that when a person stops learning, he's old, whether that person is 29 or 65. (p 10)
- Retirement is an unnatural condition. Even if you can afford to retire, the worst thing you can do is to withdrawal completely from the track of relevance. (p 13)
- We say that we are saving money so that we can someday have a life, but in the process we delay having a life so that we can scrounge up enough money. Too many of us wait far too long to realize that the life we are living right now is not a dress rehearsal. (p 14)
Chapter 3: No Longer One and Done.
Quotes to Contemplate:
- If your income won't support your plans, then your plans will have to change in one of two ways: spend less or work longer. (p 25)
- Financially, there's a fine balance between spending too much and being afraid to spend it all. Many habitual savers struggle to enjoy their money after years of forcing themselves to squirrel away as much as possible. (p 28)
- A major goal of phased retirement is to help organizations with workforce planning by encouraging workers to let the company know about the retirement plans and to help transfer their knowledge before they fully retire, thus preventing brain drain. (31)
Chapter 4: The New IRA: Individual Retirement Attitude
Quotes to Contemplate:
- For decades, workers were like passengers on the retirement bus, leaving the driving and benefits planning to organizations. Today, however, we are being put behind the wheel of our own retirement savings vehicle and told to drive. What happens on the road ahead is entirely up to us. (p 34)
- It is no longer necessary to think of retirement as a cliff to jump from (which is why people wanted parachutes) but as an uncharted road where you will need to advance carefully and map out what you'd like and don't like. There will be bridges in and out of employment, volunteer engagements, and more. (p 40)
Chapter 5: Boredom Isn't On Anyone's Bucket List
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Humans simply weren't designed for lives centered exclusively on leisure. (p 46)
- Many retirees get it right and schedule plenty of time in their lives that is about others: spending time with their grandchildren, helping their children, and volunteering with local causes. Those who pursue agendas that are exclusively me-centered find themselves enjoying life less each week. (p 47)
- A life of total ease is two steps removed from a life of total disease. (p 48)
Chapter 6: A New Mind-Set: Retire on Purpose
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Having a strong sense of purpose impacts us at every level of our health: physically, mentally, and spiritually.… Living purposefully makes you 52% less likely to develop Alzheimer's, prevents strokes by as much as 44%, and reduces the chance of a cardiovascular event by 19%. (p 54)
- Experiments and experience have shown that if people are willing to try new things in their mature years, their self-reliance and effectiveness can flourish to all-time highs. (p 65)
Chapter 7: Money is Only Part of the Equation
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Millions are saving for what might be a journey of several decades – with absolutely no idea where that journey might take them. (p 70).
- Four Pillars (pp 71-72):
- Vision. Successful retirees retire to something; failed retirees retire from something.
- Balance. Successful retirees find a balance between vocation and vacation; failed retirees go from too much work to too much leisure.
- Work. Successful retirees keep themselves plugged into meaningful pursuits; failed retirees devolve into boredom and aimlessness.
- Aging. Successful retirees focus on growing and well-being – what I describe as "successful aging"; failed retirees just take what comes.
Chapter 8: The Retirement That Works
Quotes to Contemplate:
- In the modern age, where the majority of us trade intellectual, relational, and experiential capital toward a paycheck, the very definition of work is going through a revival. (p 79)
- As people seek to carve out meaningful existence in the expanding middle-age years, they are seeking wisdom and direction regarding what specific role work will play in that existence. (p 80)
- All the money in the world won't make a difference for those who feel they're losing their health, their connectivity, and their
Chapter 9: Extending Your Stay by Staying on the Edge
Quotes to Contemplate:
- One method that many retirement-age workers are employing to keep their skills and minds sharp is to teach a course on their specific specialty in the marketplace or on a topic where they are experts. (p 94)
- People over 55 are twice as likely to launch a high-growth startup as those under 35. (p 96)
- You may have to stretch yourself, learn new things, try out arenas that are unfamiliar, and deal with some neophobic emotions now and then. (p 98)
Chapter 10: Super-Septs: How 70 Became the New 50
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Consistently, people in their 70s and 80s reported feeling younger than their years, yet teens and younger adults think 50 is old. (p 102)
- Those who acquired positive beliefs about old age from their surrounding culture are less likely to develop dementia - even if they carried a gene that put them at risk! (p 103)
- If your everyday cohort has grown pessimistic, negative, cynical, and generally grumpy and malcontented, it’s not going to help you maintain a positive view of your own status. (p 103)
- The fact remains that aging produces some degree of decline, but we can slow the progression and put off into the future a large degree of both physical and mental decline. (p 107)
Chapter 11: Redefining You: What’s Your Retirementality?
Quotes to Contemplate:
- The retirement era focus on renewal is driven by a need for balance, meaning, and peace of mind that many have found lacking in their vocational pursuits and schedules. (p 117)
Chapter 12: Redefining Rich: Bridging the Gap between Means and Meaning
Quotes to Contemplate:
- We live in a world that is obsessed with increasing ROI (return on investment) when we should be more concerned with ROL (return on life). (p 122)
- Money offers arrogance to the “haves” and shame and envy to the “have-nots.” (p 125)
- Security hinges on more than just the health of our assets; it is also affected by the health of our body and close relationships. (p 128)
- Truly successful individuals have goals involving who they are (character), what they do (career), and what they possess (material) - and, more than likely, in that order of importance. (p 129)
Chapter 13: Maslow Meets Retirement
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Sixty-two percent of us are more afraid we’ll run out of money in retirement than we are of facing death. (135)
- Income for Life Planning Phases (138-139)
- Survival Income is money that we have to have to make ends meet.
- Safety income is money we must have to meet life’s unexpected turns.
- Freedom income is money to do all the things that bring enjoyment and fulfillment of life.
- Gift income is money for the people and causes that we care deeply about.
- Dream income is money for the things we’ve always dreamed of being, doing, and having
Chapter 14: Advice from Retirementors
Quotes to Contemplate:
- The timing of your retirement matters as much as the amount in your retirement account. (155)
- If you’re in a position where a serious market correction causes a major disruption in your lifestyle, then you have to either recalibrate your lifestyle expenses or extend your time in the workplace. (156)
Chapter 15: From Aging to S-Aging
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Both long life and happiness are tied to the quality of your connections. (162)
- The latest Alzheimer’s research demonstrates that being intellectually challenged and having a predictable taxation on our mental acuity can have the effect of a finger in the dike, holding back the degenerative processes leading to both Alzheimer’s and dementia. (162)
- Curiosity guarantees a pulse in the brain and a reason to keep our bodies healthy. (164)
Chapter 16: Don’t Go It Alone
Quotes to Contemplate:
- Morningstar reports that individuals who use a trusted financial advisor will, on average, see almost 2% more in returns than those who go it alone. A study that was issued by Vanguard reported that clients who used a financial advisor saw returns of approximately 3% more than those who managed their funds on their own. (p 172)
If you would be interested in participating in a future financial book club, click here to sign up or email Dawnetta Cooper for more information. To download a copy of the discussion questions, click the link below.
DOWNLOAD QUESTIONS FROM THE NEW RETIREMENTALITY
