Retire by Degrees

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Boomerang Boomers

    The percentage of retirees who return to the workforce varies depending on the specific study, but it can be significant. For example, according to a 2020 survey by the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, approximately 57% of American workers expect to continue working in some capacity after they retire. Another survey conducted by the Federal Reserve in 2018 found that…

  • Dan McDermott

    Retirement: Location, Location, Location

    It’s often a real estate motto for determining the best housing, but location is often a key decision point for where to spend your retirement as well. For the ultimate flexibility, remote work allows those who are ‘ratcheting back’ their workloads to explore new areas. Many cities in the United States offer a great environment for professionals who work remotely.…

  • Dan McDermott

    Retirement – Go Find your Magic

    I’ve been writing about retirement – specifically a phased approach to retirement – for quite a while. Even though I think of this as a somewhat novel approach, compared to a traditional ‘retirement day,’ I’d still been thinking of it as happening at the end of a long-ish career where you or I slowly exit full-time work. Today I read…

  • Dan McDermott

    Living in Uncertain Times

    Recently I’ve seen a lot published about the challenges we’re facing as we live “…in these uncertain times.” But here’s the thing; they’re always uncertain times. Yes, we’ve experienced a pandemic that forced us all into a ‘new normal.’  There’s a war in Ukraine, unsettling economic times…and the list goes on. But no one ever knows the future.  There may…

  • Dan McDermott

    Don’t Ruin Your Average

    I’ve seen several posts lately where the author encourages us to “Show up every day!” Similar refrains can be worded like, “No matter what your day looks like, get up, dress up and show up.” And I’m no Woody Allen fan, but he got a lot of mileage out of his quote that, “80% of success is just showing up.”…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Tap the Historians

    And everyone in your life – including you – is a historian. In terms of thinking about and preparing for your eventual retirement it’s helpful to read and do research. It’s helpful to work with professionals to plan for your financial needs, insurance, etc. All of that is certainly prudent. But you have riches all around you that you can…

  • Dan McDermott

    How Much is Enough?

    Today’s post originally appeared in the Humble Dollar blog:

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Throwback Thursday

    I started writing about phased retirement over one year ago. One of my first posts was on LinkedIn and was titled, “Retire Slowly: Land the Plane.”  I hadn’t yet surveyed people – both informally and on platforms like LinkedIn – for what the best term to describe a gradual retirement might be.  ‘Phased Retirement’ was the eventual winner. That post…