How to Retire

Thoughtful advice on how to leave academia gracefully and build your best life in retirement

Retirement is one of the most challenging transitions in an academic’s career, and it’s natural to feel overwhelmed by the changes that lie ahead. This how-to guide explains how to structure your last few years of employment so that you retire well and feel good about it. Drawing on engaging personal stories from across academia, it shares concrete tips for letting go of one key phase of life and embracing the opportunity to reinvent yourself in the next. How to Retire makes the case that you have the ultimate say in charting your path through retirement, aging, and whatever comes next after academia—and provides the guidance you need to do so.

Susan Shaw describes the lessons she learned from her own retirement experience and those of her colleagues, highlighting what worked and what didn’t while paying special attention to the things that make the academic workplace unique. She outlines the four-year retirement plan she developed for herself and suggest some steps colleges and universities can take to honor the service of faculty members and help them to stay connected after retirement. Along the way, Shaw examines some of the downsides of aging in the academy and discusses relevant differences in academic experiences, covering topics such as gender, race, and sexuality.

Focusing on so much more than just financial planning, How to Retire empowers you with social, psychological, and philosophical tools to leave the academy on your own terms and thrive in retirement.