Retire by Degrees

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: The Hype Cycle

    There’s a lot of hype about retirement.  Some of the buildup is external via advertising, articles, well-intentioned friends and marketing spin about the wonderful opportunities that await us. But some of it comes from our own internal voices. We go back-and-forth between thinking about how wonderful it will be to ditch all those things about work that we don’t like…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Tapering

    This week’s post was originally published on the HumbleDollar blog yesterday:

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Uncertain Times

    Today’s times are uncertain.  Pick up the paper, or glance at the news online on your laptop or phone. Inflation, war in Ukraine, falling stock market, and Covid cases rising again.  It’s mostly scary news with unknown outcomes. But here’s the thing. The times are always uncertain for the people living through them (that’s us). Think back to the 1960s…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Halftime Show

    The more I read and learn and write about the process of retirement, the more intrigued I’ve become in discovering differing perspectives.  It’s pretty clear that there is not “one single way” to navigate retirement. One of the resources I’ve enjoyed and taken many nuggets from is a book by Bob Buford titled, Halftime: Moving from Success to Significance.  One…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: “Lousy” Goals

    Andy Grove, the legendary CEO of Intel Corporation, was known for surprising up-and-coming staff with a phone call where he would bluntly quiz them about their career goals at Intel. Most were so intimidated that they could barely speak.  Grove would famously close the conversation with, “Those are lousy answers.  Be in my office within two weeks with better ones.”…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: The First 90 Days

    For anyone starting a new role and going through a career transition, Michael Watkin’s 2003 book, The First 90 Days, is an excellent guide.  The subtitle is, “Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels.”  The book provides insights and specific steps to help job-changers navigate the unfamiliar surroundings of a new role – perhaps at a new company…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: The Retirement Pivot

    The concept of a “pivot” has steadily worked its way into our vocabulary since the 2011 introduction of the book, The Lean Startup, by Eric Ries.  A pivot has been used to describe a variety of things – even the change in agenda for a meeting that’s drifted off course. But this is no willy-nilly switching of a game plan…

  • Dan McDermott

    Phased Retirement: Defining Insanity

    A commonly heard definition of insanity is attributed to Albert Einstein.  That is, “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.” The first thing that comes to mind for me is the Minnesota Vikings trying to establish their running game. The second thing that comes to mind, since I’m a contrarian, is “Is that really…