Considering Retirement?

There is no one right time or way to retire. Retirement is a major life transition; but if you spend the time designing a future filled with promise and possibilities, the prospect can be utterly exciting and revitalizing. Whether you’re considering a new place to settle down, working through financial planning, strategizing how to unwind a business, or deciding on which organizations you want to stay engaged with, making critical decisions takes a lot of organization, thought, and planning.

  • Empathy: Get inside the shoes of your future self. What will be important to that version of you?

  • Define: Hone in on what is and will be most critical for you to focus on (whether it’s volunteering, family, activities, or skills).

  • Ideate: Draw, scribble, brainstorm, and throw around as many different retirement scenarios as you can come up with.

  • Prototype: If retiring across the country in Arizona sounds perfect—try it out first. Come up with opportunities to test out your scenarios with short trips and trial time off.

  • Test: This is the fun part—get back to the drawing board and try more retirement scenarios (and future versions of yourself) before sitting down to make those life-changing decisions.

Pricing Options

Retirement by Design is available for individuals and firms/organizations of various sizes.

  • Individual Plan (1 Registration Code) - $600
    1 registration code, access to the Retirement by Design course videos, exercises, and e-book.
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  • Small Plan (11 Registration Codes) - $6,050
    11 registration codes + free admission for 1 registrant to a group coaching program (6 monthly zoom-based sessions).
    Buy Now →

  • Medium Plan (22 Registration Codes) - $11,000
    22 registration codes + free admissions for 2 registrants to a group coaching program (6 monthly zoom-based sessions) + 1 hour of consultation with your Leadership, Professional Development, or HR teams.
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  • Large Plan (50 Registration Codes) - $22,500
    50 registration coupons + free admissions for 6 registrants to a group coaching program (6 monthly zoom-based sessions)+ 4 hours of consultation with your Leadership, Professional Development, or HR teams.

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Meet Ida Abbott

Ida Abbott

Author | Consultant

Retirement is a major life transition and without preparation it can be highly unsettling. To many people it suggests a time of loss: of status, relevance, vitality and income. But retirement can also be seen as a gift: a chance to shift gears, explore interests, start encore careers, or pursue adventures that have long been deferred. When you view the future as filled with promise and possibilities, and you design it on your own terms, the prospect of retirement can be exciting and revitalizing. I provide guidance, tools and resources as clients consider, explore and negotiate post-retirement options, contend with the emotional aspects of retirement, and embark on a future doing what they want and living in ways that will engage them, keep them stimulated and give their lives purpose. Read Ida's Full Biography →

FAQ

  • Who should take this course?

    This course is for you if you are:

    • thinking about retiring in the future,
    • expecting to retire soon,
    • transitioning into retirement now, or
    • retired and want a better life in retirement.

    The course is designed for people in any field or profession, including law, finance, accounting, medicine, and business. Whether you are self-employed, a partner in a firm, or work for a company, agency, or other entity, you will find valuable guidance for creating the life you want in retirement.

  • How does the course differ from the book?

    This e-course highlights and elaborates some key concepts from the book, provides sample exercises for you to do, and refers you to the relevant chapters of the book, where you can go more deeply into particular subjects and engage more fully in the retirement design process. The workbook provides more in-depth information and explanation, as well as space for you to do exercises and answer questions, draft your thoughts and ideas, and more tangibly experience the design thinking process.

  • How long does the course take?

    You can watch all the videos in about an hour. But I recommend that you concentrate on one video at a time. Try out the exercises recommended at the end of each video and review the book chapters referenced there. Focus on the areas that you find most helpful – or most challenging. Planning, designing, and transitioning into retirement deserves care and thoughtfulness.

    Depending on how much time you have and how much effort you want to put in, the entire process can take days, months or even longer. If you expect to retire soon, you can complete the course quickly and come up with a plan in a few hours. A longer lead time will allow for more in-depth consideration and thought. And the design thinking approach you’ll learn will make it easy for you to revisit and revise your plan as you live it.

  • Can I earn continuing education credit?

    Because jurisdictions and professions vary widely in setting qualifications for continuing education credit, please check with your own certifying board to determine whether this course will qualify.

  • Where can I buy your book?

    When you register for this course, you will receive a .PDF copy of the book that you can download. If you would like to buy a print version of the book, you can order it online at Amazon, Bookshop, or other online vendors. When you enroll in the course, you can also order the book directly from the publisher, Ulysses Press, and receive a substantial discount.

  • What is the right age to retire?

    There is no “right” age to retire. Many factors can impact how and when you will choose to retire, but no matter your age, the time to start planning for retirement is right now! Retirement transitions take much longer than you expect; retirement involves significant life changes and emotional adjustments. It’s wise to start planning early so that whenever you decide the time is right, you can maximize your options, enter retirement on your own terms, and live the life in retirement that’s ideal for you.

Course Reviews

5 star rating

A Most Welcome Resource

Judith Keyes

For me, the idea of retiring is daunting. Having practiced law for 45+ years, I have a hard time imagining what life would be like without this anchor. I wonder whether it’s different for women than for men, and I have no idea where to begin find...

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For me, the idea of retiring is daunting. Having practiced law for 45+ years, I have a hard time imagining what life would be like without this anchor. I wonder whether it’s different for women than for men, and I have no idea where to begin finding answers to my many questions. I am grateful to Ida Abbott for understanding exactly what I need, and providing not only her keen insight but also an approachable way to access information and ideas. Her video presentations are comforting and provocative at the same time. After watching them, I am eager to open the workbook and begin the exercises.

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5 star rating

Excellent self paced program for planning one's retirement

Natalie Loeb

Ida Abbott is a star. Her deep expertise and understanding nature make her the perfect person to coach someone through the next phase for many...planning for retirement. This course and book are a gem!

Ida Abbott is a star. Her deep expertise and understanding nature make her the perfect person to coach someone through the next phase for many...planning for retirement. This course and book are a gem!

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5 star rating

Practical, Useful, Reassuring

Andy Hales

This program is excellent. Ida's framework is so practical, so common sense, but I hadn't viewed retirement planning in this way until taking the training. It's taking many of the same principles I applied to my career, to retirement planning. ...

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This program is excellent. Ida's framework is so practical, so common sense, but I hadn't viewed retirement planning in this way until taking the training. It's taking many of the same principles I applied to my career, to retirement planning. The course is also very well done. It's paced well. The lessons are easy to digest. The handouts are excellent. Great program.

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5 star rating

Very thought-provoking

Nancy Barrett

This course offers a great framework to think about and plan for retirement. There are very interesting and approachable exercises to help identify your priorities, values and aspirations for the chapters of life after work. I recommend it for a...

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This course offers a great framework to think about and plan for retirement. There are very interesting and approachable exercises to help identify your priorities, values and aspirations for the chapters of life after work. I recommend it for anyone thinking about or entering retirement.

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“Retirement by Design presents a revolutionary and entirely professional take on planning for retirement–one that approaches the task like the exciting opportunity it is; and where endless options and tough decisions can be solved through creativity, experimentation and innovation.”

- Marshall Goldsmith, Thinkers 50 #1 ranked executive coach for ten years and two-time winner for #1 Leadership Thinker in the World, and New York Times #1 bestselling author of What Got You Here Won’t Get You There and Triggers

“Retirement by Design turns the daunting task of getting ready for retirement into the remarkably exciting, creative experience it always should be. Abbott proves this isn’t just the end of working life, but a whole new beginning. By calling on her decades of experience and affection for design thinking principles, she’s built a revolutionary and healthy way to look at and plan for life’s next great adventure.”

- Chip Conley, New York Times bestselling author and Founder of the Modern Elder Academy

“If the best way to predict the future is to create it, Ida Abbott’s Retirement by Design offers essential tools to help you figure out how to do just that. The practical, step-by-step exercises will help you slow down, think about what you really want, and provide the roadmap for a more fulfilling future. Buy this book before you buy a rocking chair!”

- Brigid Schulte, award-winning journalist, author of the New York Times bestselling Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One Has the Time, and director of The Better Life Lab at New America

Parting Thoughts

A Note for Lawyers and Law Firms

A client recently told me she was reworking her 2023 budget to include my Retirement by Design e-course to support her lawyers’ succession and retirement planning. Her firm had never given much thought to resources for senior partners before and wasn’t even aware they existed. As we discussed how this course will benefit her firm and its lawyers, I thought you might want to know how it can benefit your firm as well. 

1. Your firm needs to know senior partners’ future plans. 

In 2020, roughly 161,000 lawyers, or 14% of all U.S. lawyers, were over 65. Today about 23% of partners in the largest 200 U.S. law firms are 60 years or older; in those firms, about 13% are over 65. Those partners also control a great deal of the firm’s business and revenues (25-35% in some firms), and many hold leadership roles. If your firm wants to keep that business, and maintain financial stability and institutional continuity when partners leave, you’ll need to prepare well in advance for their departures. 

Retirement by Design breaks the ice for you. It can jump-start firm conversations about succession and retirement planning. You can offer the course to anyone in particular or everyone who’s interested, as a stand-alone resource or as part of a broader initiative. 

2. Many of your lawyers may be retiring soon but reluctant to say it.

Talking about retirement is hard for many successful lawyers. The reasons range from societal (“retired” means old and washed up), to psychological (who will I be and what will I do if I’m not a practicing lawyer?), to financial (partners will take my clients and the firm will cut my pay), to institutional (if I say I’m retiring, I’ll lose my status and importance in the firm). 

My course helps people address these various concerns. It gives them strategies, practical steps and exercises to overcome them. And because they view the videos and do the work privately, on demand, at a self-directed pace, it makes partners more comfortable planning for succession and retirement, and discussing their plans with the firm. 

3. Lawyers sometimes need encouragement to do the planning you expect from them.

Even when your firm has a mandatory retirement age, or a clear succession and/or retirement planning process, many partners ignore it or wait till the last minute. Often, they procrastinate because they don’t know what they will do when they leave and are afraid they will become useless or bored. 

This course shows them how much control and how many choices they will have when they retire. It helps them focus on designing a future life that will make them happy, keep them active and engaged, and give them purpose, so that they can look forward to retiring rather than fear it.  

4. The course is not just for lawyers.

Your senior executives and staff may also be thinking about retiring. Of the eight modules in the course, one deals specifically with succession planning and client transitions, but the other seven will help any professional contemplating retirement. 

Including Retirement by Design among your educational and informational offerings is a way to show your firm’s support for the development and well-being of all its personnel.

5. Retirement by Design is a cost-effective resource.

Our discounted pricing structure makes it possible and affordable for firms of any size to provide the personalized guidance and support that people want when facing this complex and for some, difficult, life transition. In addition to the course videos, participants receive exercise handouts and pdf versions of my book, which is filled with many more exercises, suggestions, and references. Different course packages offer additional options, such as group coaching sessions and consultation with firm management. Firms also receive bulk discounts on my book if they prefer buying it in soft cover. 

My course and book are designed to be used individually or in groups that are self-directed or facilitated by a coach. I offer group coaching, but as an alternative, can show you or others in your firm how to serve as a group facilitator. These are some of the reasons you’ll want to buy or budget for Retirement by Design.

More Thought Leadership From Ida Abbott