Congratulations on being interested in pursuing your plans for a fulfilling lifestyle in retirement. By entering this site and purchasing our book, “Customize…don’t minimize…Your Retirement: 7 Paths to Explore Possibilities, Choices and Your Future Happiness.”© you will have a self-help guide that contains 8 chapters chock full of information on the latest research and trends in the world of retirement, plus over 80 unique and thought-provoking self-discovery exercises that can offer you purpose, hope and meaning to create a satisfying and fulfilling retirement. The guidebook is easy to follow and use. It promotes action by encouraging you to make choices and decisions regarding your future. By completing the exercises you determine real world solutions for yourself to transform your life toward a retirement lifestyle that best fits your means and your vision for the future.

Given that the transition into retirement is an individualized journey, it deserves your personal attention to make it “all it can be.” Life can be complicated and retirement will involve new challenges, as well as opportunities for change. Whether it is relationships with spouse and others; what to do with your time; creating a new identity; working, not working or changing careers; making health and housing choices; or managing the financial potholes; this very readable book, containing many unique and thought-provoking self-discovery exercises, is guaranteed to help you focus and create ways to build a happier future.

About the Authors:

Diane “Dee” Burman and Don Strauss together have over 70 years experience assisting individuals in career transition.  Facing retirement themselves, they studied and summarized the changing landscape of retirement.  Their research forms the basis for this website, their book and the workshops and coaching that they do.

Diane (Dee) Burman is Co-Founder and Director of the RetireRight Center in Chicago, a non-profit organization devoted to educating pre- and post-retirees in the “Art of Retirement.”  The focus is on the non-financial aspects of retirement.  Before the advent of the RetireRight Center, Ms. Burman founded and acted as principal of an independent human resources consulting firm. Previous to establishing her own company, she was engaged by 3 international corporations for over 25 years, where she worked as an internal consultant and supported projects in management development, executive coaching, team building, diversity management, quality improvement initiatives, career planning, career coaching and redeployment.  Ms. Burman was also founder and first President of the Organization Development Network of Chicago.  She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and an M.A. from Middlebury College Graduate School of French in France.

Donald Strauss is a career and change management consultant, having worked in the human resources and organization development/change management fields in Fortune 100 companies for over 40 years.  Mr. Strauss’s wide-ranging responsibilities included oversight of succession planning, management and leadership development, high potential development and training and development.  While active as a consultant with a large consulting firm, Mr. Strauss had clients that included Fortune 100 companies, non-profits and municipalities.  He is currently on the staff of the RetireRight Center. He also teaches graduate school programs in human resources and career management at Benedictine University.   Mr. Strauss has a B.A. from NYU and an M.A. in Labor/Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois.  Mr. Strauss has recently been inducted into Sigma Beta Delta, the international Business and Management Honor Society.