I first heard about Roger Whitney in the Afford Anything Podcast. In this episode, he said:

I don’t believe in retirement

Roger Whitney and I are the same age, 51, except that he’s better looking than me, and he has more letters after his name.

He started his career as a financial advisor in 1991, right at the beginning of the tech boom.

He acquired all his superpowers by making lots of mistakes.

Roger Whitney’s clientele of preference is those people who are transitioning into retirement or who are already in retirement.

Roger didn’t want to be a general practitioner; he found it to be more rewarding to specialize in retirement.

At one time in history, people used to work for a company for 40 years and at the end of the 40 years, the person would retire, receive the gold pen or a watch and receive pension checks for the rest of his/her life. There was not such a thing as a financial advisor for retirement. Some people still have that kind of retirement plan, but that’s becoming the exception rather than the rule.

Today retirement is different.

1. People don’t have a pension,
2. They are going to live longer than any generation in history, people can easily make it past 90
3. People are not looking at retirement as the time to rest; they are looking at retirement as the time to be active,  to live on their own terms, have the freedom, and do things, which means they are going to need more money.

Let’s take a fictional character, a 25-year is contemplating to start planning for retirement.

Roger’s advice would not be to start saving for retirement. Instead, he should invest in himself. Book knowledge, experiences, crafts, skills in general.

Now, the person is in his 40s. According to Roger, retirement is NOT a binary decision, of working or not working. There are many studies that say that work is an essential element of a happy life.

Many people who retire and stop working completely, feel dissatisfied with their lives.  People don’t want to stop working, what they want is a bit more freedom in their lives. They are tired of the rat race, the corporate meetings, the traveling.

The ideal retirement plan

Instead of working hard for 40 years, to finally retire at 65, try to build a life that has:

1. Work that you love,
2. Income that supports your lifestyle,
3. And time-freedom to pursue other things as well. Basically, you want to create a life you don’t want to retire from.

Where is that balance, the balance between finding something that you love, which supports your lifestyle?

That’s the real question everyone needs to answer on their own. One thing a person can do is to find others on the same journey and support each other. What not to do, is to let the corporate life make all the decisions for you.

Roger recommends the book Linchpin by Seth Godin, where Seth’s main advice is to become an artist, to do the things that no one can replicate. Be the best you can at doing the things you do.

Roger argues that retirement is not black or white; work or not work. But rather, it is multidimensional, with many layers and many subtilities. And that’s his job, to help the client find the best version of retirement for them.

Rock Retirement by Roger Whitney

As for his book, Rock Retirement, Roger never had dreams of writing a book but has a dream of helping people not to miss the only life they have.

The book talks about:

1. What’s wrong with the current retirement system,
2. What premises you need to rethink about,
3. How are you managing the financial structure in your life, 4. and the process you should use to create a life that doesn’t revolve around just saving and investing.

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